My dear friends:

What a difference a day can make.

On Sunday, May 30, the Jewish community of Toronto

took to the street in its thousands to participate in the
annual UJAFederation Walk for Israel. There, on a
beautiful day we were joined by our friends from many
communities to express our love for Israel. The day was
made more special by the presence of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, who spoke of Israel, its longing
for peace and its need for safety and security. There
were those protesting the Walk who questioned our
longing and denigrated our needs – and wrapped up
their false arguments in a disgusting tissue of lies,
calling Israel an Apartheid State – but they were in the
minority on that beautiful day.

Twenty four hours later, the sun had seemingly passed

behind a cloud, and Israel once again was
characterized with language designed to demonize and
delegitimize.

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Antisemitic tropes, we are pirates. We are violators of
international law. We are murderers. We are child-
killers and blood-suckers. We are the enemies of
peace. We are the practitioners of Apartheid and we
are the truncheon-wielding police of Selma, Alabama.

What can be said in the face of all this? What can be

said as our enemies – ignorant and willful – compose
this new al chait, and try to bend our arm to our breast
so that we may beat ourselves in penitence? There is
only one thing to say – “It will never happen.”

We will not, as a community, accept the fantasy that

others have of Israel as being its reality. We will not
accept the explicit notion that Israel is forbidden to
protect itself, nor will we accept the implicit notion that
the only good Jew is a subservient one – or a dead
one. We will not accept the notion that the rules which
apply to every other nation in the world are somehow
suspended in their application where Israel is
concerned. We have the right to defend ourselves from
those who would do us harm.

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On the screen behind me there are images that have
been taken from anti-Israel rallies held in the week
since the attempted breach of the Gaza Blockade.

Two things strike me immediately. The first is not so

obvious: look at the faces of the people who are
carrying the placards. They are for the most part calm,
relaxed. I would almost feel better if I saw some anger.
That would at least explain in some measure the hateful
messages they carry. But this workmanlike attitude is
more chilling. It reminds of how, many years ago, I
stood in front of the Israeli Consulate watching a
Palestinian community leader rouse his crowd with the
antisemitic chant of “Barak and Hitler both the same,
the only difference is the name”. A few hours later the
same leader, composed and fresh, was interviewed on
television, speaking calmly about the desire of Yasser
Arafat for peace.

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The second point is more obvious: the concerted effort
to link Israel and its leaders to the darkest periods of
human history: Netanyahu has the “same soul” as
Hitler; Israel is synonymous with Apartheid, with racism,
with ethnic cleansing. Israel is, simply put, a “devil
state”.

And what is to be done with a devil state? That too may

be simply put: “Israel Belongs to the Palestinians”.
This is the peace that is being offered to us: the peace
of dissolution. I’ve seen this message before, scrawled
on a synagogue door: a swastika accompanied by the
words “not wanted here. Get out.”

What can be said in the face of all this? What can be

said as our enemies call for our disappearance as the
answer to their Trials and Tribulations? There is only
one thing to say – “It will never happen.”

We are here, and here we remain. Peace can be had,

but not at any price.

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A few days ago, the Toronto Star carried a bizarre
opinion piece by Jonathan Power that captured, in three
words, all that is misunderstood about the conflict in the
Middle East, and defined perfectly the true meaning of
“proportionality”.

Speaking of the manner in which the Israeli

commandos were attacked once they landed on the
deck of the Mavi Marmara, Power pushes the savagery
aside with the precious observation that the individuals
who attacked the Israelis were a tiny minority
and….here it is … “only modestly violent”.

Modestly violent? What in the name of the Oxford

dictionary does that mean? Power helps us: “They
didn’t succeed in killing a single soldier.” It would be
unfair and uncharitable for me to say that I almost
sense a level of regret in those words. So I won’t say it.
What I will say is that when I am surrounded by a group
of thugs hitting me with iron bars and stabbing me with
knives I am unlikely to pause in my struggles to decide
whether what I am experiencing is violence of the
modest or immodest variety.

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But clearly this is the world’s expectation: Wait.

Wait for the shipments to be unpacked, unsupervised,

by Hamas, and wait to see if the containers hold grain
or grenades.

Wait to see if the fellow with the iron bar is really trying
to hurt you or just wants to rough you up a bit, and be
guided appropriately.

Wait to make sure that the world approves your

strategies before implementing them.

If history has taught us anything it is that waiting does

not work as a strategy. Nor for that matter does waiting
until the fellow holding the iron bar makes contact with
your skull. If history has taught us anything it is that you
take your opponent at his word. If he calls you a Nazi
then he means it; If he says that Israel has no right to
exist then he means that as well.

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And it means that we should not comfort ourselves with
the words of Jonathan Powers, that the language of our
opponents is only “modestly hateful.” We must stand
against the demonization and against the
delegitimization and against the double standards. We
must stand proudly for Jewish honour. Most important,
we must stand today and always for Israel.
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