McGill Prof Gil Troy discusses the fanaticism seeking to destroy Israel

Israel is a tiny country, about the size of Rhode Island. In population its size is less than ten percent of each of regional neighbours Egypt, Turkey or Iran.

It is a stable westernized liberal democracy, the only country that can be so described in the middle east, and is the subject of a compulsive focus and vilification in some quarters.

Honest Reporting Canada presented an intimate talk last night by McGill University History Professor Gil Troy about the distortions and obsession that Israel stimulates in the media and on campuses.

Gil Troy

One of the points that emerged is how university campuses are like a looking glass world, where everything is, in many ways, backwards. This is particularly the case as far as liberal arts are concerned. Karl Marx, along with his followers and ideologies that caused millions of deaths are almost universally reviled , but on western campuses, he is still idolized by many university professors and students with an aggrandized sense of entitlement and whose concept of reality shows little comprehension of the world outside the ivory tower.

Troy suggested that the best approach is being reasonable and truthful in the face of lies, lsuch as the absurd propaganda campaign to delegitimize Israel through the false label of "apartheid."

In fact Marx has a lot to do with Israel's demonization in the west. It's no coincidence that many, if not most of the academics seeking to delegitimize Israel are Marxists who see Israel as a symbol of western capitalism. That, said Troy, is one of the indications of the anti-Semitism that has creeped into and often drives the anti-Israel movement.

Israel, a beacon of democracy and hope amid a region where its neighbours have abysmal human rights records, has the truth as its defense. But in a maelstrom of lies and distortions by bigots and Islamists and their useful campus idiots, the truth sometimes must struggle to be heard.

Honest Reporting Canada has done much to make sure that lies about Israel in the media are exposed. They were most recently instrumental in bringing public attention to the vicious anti-Israel hate speech of fanatical Quebec TV host and small-town political boss Stephane Gendron, who pronounced, "Israel doesn't deserve to exist," and whose televised diatribes have combined anti-Semitism with his twisted hatred of the Jewish state.

It's lies and those who promote them that are a blight we would be better off without. The challenge of having the fortitude and courage to stand up to hateful propagandists unfortunately is one that will remain ongoing for some time.