Having exposed the rise in antisemitism since 2009 and the haters who perpetuate it, I knew the Jew hatred would escalate once Hamas left a trail of 1,400 murdered Israeli babies, moms and dads, seniors and children following its barbaric acts of two weeks ago.
But even I — someone who has looked antisemites in the eye many times and called them out for what they are — somehow naively thought the world opinion would be tempered by the egregious atrocities replayed on TV and computer screens everywhere.
I thought even those who harbour a dislike for the Jewish state would somehow have some compassion for those raped, murdered and abducted – and for the innocent babies desecrated by barbarians who have not progressed beyond medieval times.
How very wrong I was.
I am absolutely heartbroken and angered by the deeply visceral Jew hatred that has played out on social media, on college campuses and on the streets of both Toronto and other major Canadian and U.S. cities.
We’ve seen the pro-Palestinian protesters screaming the traditional “From the River to the Sea” war cry — a blatant call to annihilate Israel — on the campuses of many Ivy League and renowned schools including NYU, Columbia and Harvard.
The protesters — while loudly spewing their Jew hatred — regularly hide their faces behind masks to protect their identities (being the cowards they are).
In Toronto, hateful Hamas apologists have taken to busy downtown intersections, as well as the streets in front of the Israeli consulate and the Jewish Community Centre, to attack Jews.
That and their angry antisemitic rants stand in stark contrast to the very peaceful and loving pro-Israel rally I attended, along with nearly 20,000 others, three days after the horrible brutalities in Israel.
Instead of screaming angry epithets about Hamas, the Jewish community quickly and quietly joined forces to support Israel any way they could, from donating cash, clothing and medical supplies to selling bracelets celebrating Israel.
I can’t imagine any of us standing in front of a mosque or closing down a major street loudly screaming “Death to Palestinians,” “Gas all of them” and so on.
Our university campuses have been a hotbed of antisemitic activity for years, starting with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and Israel Apartheid week.
Once upon a time, leftist Canadian students couched their anti-Israel hatred in claims they cared about the poor oppressed Palestinians.
Now they make no secret of their disdain for Jews.
Vitriolic statements from student associations at Queen’s, McMaster and York – all of whom claim to be concerned about social justice – shockingly blamed Israelis for bringing the Hamas brutality on themselves.
After years of turning a blind eye to the Jew hatred on campus at York, the administration has threatened to take away the student unions’ status if they don’t recant their hateful statement.
This is likely because Jewish donors are threatening to pull their funding as is now happening with Ivy League colleges in the U.S.
Nevertheless academics with tenure seem to be a protected class. Osgoode (York’s law school) professor Heidi Matthews continues to spew her anti-Israel hate.
“Canada’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza emboldens crimes against humanity. We march for a ceasefire and an end to the blockade. We refuse to look away from the threat of annihilation facing 2.3 million people in Gaza.”
There’s a professor at Cornell, who captured media attention with his claims on the streets of New York, that he was “exhilarated” by the actions of Hamas two weeks ago.
A trans assistant professor at the Chicago Art Institute called Jews “pigs, savages and excrement” on her Twitter feed.
She subsequently apologized.
But the damage had already been done.
Can you imagine the outrage that would occur if we substituted Israel for any Arab country and Jew for Muslim?
There is a slight ray of hope amidst all of this.
Some Jew haters — doctors, lawyers and dentists even— are actually paying the price for their anti-Semitic rants on social media and in the streets.
Some are being fired and donors are walking away from colleges and universities that don’t deal with Jew hatred.
Others are being forced to apologize. Take this half-hearted statement from CUPE union president Fred Hahn after two weeks of glorifying the violence perpetrated on 1,400 Israelis.
That said, his apology was still tone deaf and highly insulting to the Jewish community, reflecting the narcissism of a man who blamed “bad actors seeking to create divisiveness” (that is, Jews like me) for his troubles.
Five years ago, I feared it was an accident waiting to happen.
I did many stories about university presidents turning a blind eye to the Jew hatred on campus and by their leftist professors, invariably citing free speech.
Other than a few brave exceptions, the Jewish donors, for the most part did not stand up and pull their funding, burying their heads in the sand.
I still remember that pro-Palestinian rally in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square in May of 2021 when a few dozen Jewish counter protesters were surrounded, attacked and beaten.
No Palestinian sympathizer was charged and the complicit media ignored the violence.
I was one of only a few Jewish journalists who wrote about it at the time.
Our municipal politicians, as they do regularly, clucked that this was wrong, along with other hateful protests that shut down major intersections. But nothing is ever done. No one is ever charged.
For years I’ve been writing about the illegal and antisemitic Al Quds rally that takes to the streets of Toronto yearly. No politician has had the integrity to ban it.
In an area of Mississauga dubbed the Gaza Strip anti-Jew protests have regularly taken place over the past few years. Mayor Bonnie Crombie, who is now too busy running for Ontario Liberal leader to notice the most recent ones, has never tried to stop them.
It should come as no surprise that these haters have been emboldened and enabled to continue to spew hatred. Now their protests are threatening and violent.
Our politicians enabled hatred. Our universities turn their heads and pretend it doesn’t exist, citing free speech.
There are rarely consequences for the violence on social media and in the streets.
There is indeed a double standard when it comes to Jews and the Jewish state.
