Four months after Hamas’ ghoulish celebration of its barbaric slaughter of some 1,200 Israelis and other nationals, Israel is still at war.
Israelis and Jews around the world have witnessed the battlefield expand from the rock, sand, alleyways and dense urban clusters of Gaza to include the streets and commercial centres of large and small cities around the world, college campuses and professional associations throughout the West, non-governmental international fora, and even the wood-panelled chambers of international courts of so-called justice.
Israel and Israelis were assaulted in the vilest manner possible on October 7. Since then, Jews – wherever we live – have felt under assault as well. And it has been shocking as well as enraging.
Many observers have written about the phenomenon of Israel losing the public support it has enjoyed for most of its 75 years since its birth as a fellow democratic country. Indeed, already one month after the October 7 Hamas onslaught, veteran CBC reporter Evan Dayer wrote a story under the headline: A generation gap in attitudes could be undermining support for Israel in the West.
Dyer noted that “Canadians under age 30 tend to hold views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that are dramatically different from those of Canadians aged 55 or over.” What he meant of course, is that many, if not most, young Canadians harbour downright hostile opinions of Israel. We have seen for ourselves, in every sphere of modern Canadian life, the stunning evidence of Dyer’s observation. We are shocked – and then angered – by the extent and the nature of the support we are witnessing here for Hamas.
It is shocking because support for Hamas’ cause means support for the elimination of Israel and of Jews wherever we reside. Hamas’ worldview and chief purpose hold no place for a sovereign Jewish State. Indeed, they hold no place for Jews. Period. How, we ask ourselves, can supporters of Hamas not know this? And if they do know this and yet still support Hamas, who and what are they some of them our neighbours; many of them our children’s and grandchildren’s classmates in the universities and schools they attend.
It is precisely for this reason that shock yields to anger and anger to concerted, pointed action.
Yaakov Katz,a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) and the immediate past editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post commented on this very aspect of the world’s reaction to Israel’s war with Hamas.
In an article for the Jerusalem Post, he wrote that the war has shown “that no matter where a Jew lives, their identity and feeling of safety is connected to the State of Israel.” To be sure, the war is being fought by Israel to secure its right to live, sovereign, in the land of its ancestors. But Katz also makes the point that as Israel fights, it also holds tight to the steel hard tie of peoplehood that binds all Jews around the world to it, the only Jewish country on earth.
“All Israelis have been moved to see how Jews from around the world have stood up to assist Israel during this difficult time….They [Jews around the world] have done so despite the explosion of antisemitism and the risk that it now poses to the future of American, British, and European Jewry. While Jews in Israel are obviously most at risk of physical harm, the killing of Paul Kessler at a pro-Israel rally in Los Angeles, and the death chants against Jews in Dagestan, as well as on the streets of London, indicate how antisemitism shows, to some extent, how all Jews are in a similar situation.”
“What we have to keep in mind is the objective of the protesters against Israel and the threat it poses to Jews. They want people to be afraid to speak up, to appear in public in support of Israel and to proudly identify as Jews. They want Jews to be afraid.”
Of course, in some situations, it makes sense to be afraid. But what sort of life is lived in or by fear? No. We must react and respond to champion Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign Jewish state and our own individual and collective right to live meaningfully as Jews and as a Jewish community, without fear, here in Canada.
To be such champions we must feel deeply Jewish in our souls and in our bones. That means we – our children and our grandchildren – must have access to affordable Jewish education. They must know that they are Jews. And they must know what it means to be Jews.
Katz’ article is available at:
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Shabbat shalom, Am Yisrael Chai
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education (GAJE)
February 9, 2024
Grassroots for Affordable Jewish Education 