There is logic to calling on the Israeli government to resign: the appalling failure to anticipate October 7 rests squarely on their shoulders, and the end to the war is not in sight. There is logic to setting aside all political considerations for now and speaking with one voice, since divisions simply encourage Hamas to not give in, to wait it out until our will weakens. As the international media focuses on the competing demonstrations on Israeli streets, everyone who visits Israel today reports an incredible sense of a country united, arguing among themselves, but absolutely united.
In the 1969 Soviet-Italian film, The red tent, the ghost of Umberto Nobile who chose to be rescued from the wreckage of his polar expedition ahead of his men, justifies his choice by saying he wanted to go and turn around the disarray of rescue efforts, which was exactly what he did, saving many. He is challenged by the ghost of Roald Amundsen (the inimitable Sean Connery) who perished while searching for the Nobile wreck, and he suddenly recalls that a fleeting thought of a hot bath passed through his mind as he was boarding the two-seat rescue plane. “And that”, paraphrasing Amundsen, “was the reason why you should not have agreed to being rescued first”.
I want to believe that if a thought of a decisive success in the Operation Swords of Iron salvaging his legacy – yes, saving the hostages, destroying Hamas, but also salvaging the legacy – passes Bibi’s mind, he will have the integrity to resign immediately. Bibi detractors will say “not in a million years”; supporters will say “of course”.
Just like I had hoped that our Canadian political leaders have the integrity to not let the fleeting thoughts of electoral advantage calculations determine the moral choices they make. There is much to question that integrity, though as always, there are bad news (first) and good news.
On April 4, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) together with Canadian families of Hamas victims filed a case against the Canadian Government over its decision to resume funding for UNRWA:
On Thursday, 30 days after the Government of Canada decided to resume funding for the controversial United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Canadian families who lost loved ones in the horrific Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023, together with CIJA, filed a Federal Court application for judicial review contending that the decision to do reinstate funding to UNRWA was patently unreasonable because it violates Canadian law. It lays out the arguments of why UNRWA cannot be the agency to fulfill this responsibility and should be disqualified from funding. […]
“UNRWA’s ties to Hamas have long been known and ignored, allowing them to operate with impunity. However, in a post-October-7 world, to deny reality or to continue to remain silent in the face of these facts is complicity. Canada should never have restored funding; to do so was tantamount to giving them permission to continue as a proxy for Hamas.” Lawrence Greenspon, Senior Partner, Greenspon Granger Hill
On April 17, a large group of professionals (lawyers most prominently) published an open letter to the Prime Minister, fashioned after the famous 1898 J’Accuse! by Émile Zola, written in response to the events of the Dreyfus affair, which led to a dramatic change in French society and the political landscape of France of the early XX century. The writers clearly hope for a similar outcome: they do not mince words. They even bring up the specter of Jews leaving Canada, expressing in stark terms the feeling of unease that is shared by many today:
[W]e accuse you and your government, through your actions and inactions, of having contributed to the antisemitism we see running rampant in Canada today. You have permitted it to fester and rage like a fire burning out of control. Your indifference and relative silence in response to antisemitism contribute to the marginalization and isolation of Jews in Canada and their erasure from the public square.
We accuse you and your government of abandoning Canadian Jews in our time of great peril. Your failure to speak out against the attacks on Jews, the threats to Jewish schools, the targeting and vandalism of businesses and the desecration of Jewish cemeteries and places of worship is incomprehensible. How do we explain your inaction to our children? How are Holocaust survivors to make sense of your silence?
[…] We accuse you and your government of contributing to the normalization of antisemitism in Canada. Instead of forcefully and repeatedly condemning Hamas, demanding the unconditional release of hostages, and assigning blame to Hamas for hoarding weapons in schools and hospitals and using civilians, including children, as human shields in Gaza you have triangulated your support so as not to offend anyone.
[… W]e accuse your government of supporting Israel’s enemies who indeed are the enemies of all the world’s democracies, and of adding to the hatred directed toward the Jewish community.
[…] The writing is on the wall for Canadian Jews who have been present in Canada for over 250 years. Canadian Jews have made immense contributions to every aspect of Canadian life–to business, industry, academia, science, the professions and to Canadian culture.
[…] Despite the Jewish community’s lasting and important contributions to Canada, our children and grandchildren are harassed, maligned and intimidated on university campuses across the country. Beginning April 22, Jews will be celebrating Passover and as they gather around the Seder table, many may be questioning whether they have a future in Canada if antisemitism continues to rage without abatement.
[…] If our 250-year story in Canada is to end and Jews decide to leave Canada, it will be because they feel that they can no longer live safely and freely as Jews and choose to endure no longer the ceaseless antisemitism pervading every aspect of our life in Canada.
[…] As Dr Martin Luther King Jr said so eloquently almost 60 years ago, “The time is always right to do what is right.” Prime Minister Trudeau: The time for action is now!
But not all news is about Jews finding themselves in opposition to the Government of Canada. On the good-news side,
[…] the 2024 Federal Budget includes significant security measures in response to the increased number of hate crimes targeted at Canada’s Jewish community, including $32M over six years to further enhance the Security Infrastructure Program; $7.3M over the next six years to support Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism; $5M for the establishment of a National Holocaust Remembrance Program; and over $180M in programs that will help combat antisemitism in Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate. The Government of Canada is also allocating more than $180M in programs that will help combat antisemitism in Canada’s Action Plan on Combatting Hate.
Brock Coalition Against Antisemitism 