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Sunday, November 18, 2012

In Toronto, it's not just about Israel, it's mostly about hating Jews

As dusk darkened the skies and the streetlights began to replace the sunshine, an unsavory group of about eighty hysterics gathered beside the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's headquarters on Front Street in Toronto to screech at and harass the benefactors of a Jewish charity.

As fashionable women in evening gowns and their dapper escorts filed into the Toronto Convention Centre for the Jewish National Fund's Negev Dinner, the contrast with the slatternly assemblage across the street could not be more stark.

This poor, exploited person is a regular sight
at protests featuring the Socialist Action group
"Two, four, six eight, Israel is a racist state!" along with screams of "you are a racist!" greeted the confused patrons of an organization that funds environmental projects in Israel.

Angry Muslims in checkered keffeyehs made up most of the spiteful horde of demonstrators,  along with  a few stocky lesbians, and some wrinkled crones from the group of bizarre, Jewish anti-Israel 9-11 conspiracy theorists that calls itself Independent Jewish Voices (IJV). For just a bit of extra weirdness, they had support from a handful of the wretched psychiatric hospital outpatients who make up the anti-capitalist group Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).

Just a few days earlier, the same motley collection of anti-Israel extremists had gathered outside the Israeli Consul General's office, but tonight's demonstration made their motives abundantly clear. In Toronto, the anti-Israel crowd isn't just interested in hating Israel, they are equally motivated by hate for Jews.

How else to explain why they would try to demonize as "apartheid" the least racist state in the Middle East, the only one in that region where all citizens regardless of race and religion are able to vote, participate in government, and live side-by-side?  How else to explain that they advocate for Palestinian national self-determination, and have no problem with that of any other group except the Jews, the only group whose national aspirations they characterize as "racist?"

That would happen when Hamas stops bombing Israeli civilians
FROM Gaza
Most revealing of all about their hatred and bigotry is that they no longer chose politically relevant locations, like Israeli government offices, but have now moved on to target ordinary Canadian Jews who support planting trees in the Holy Land.

While the Muslim hatred of Israel and Jews is obvious, some interesting aspects of the rationale for the non-Muslim cranks came to light. In the case of the lesbians, these types of demonstrations' apparent primary purpose is to provide a social channel for them. There are many attractive, charming, engaging lesbians. The ones in the anti-Israel groups are not they. These are tremendously ugly, unpleasant women, and given that lesbians comprise a small minority of the population, there are few venues for these bottom-rung lesbians to socialize with others like them. Radical organizations that condemn "lookism" and engage in anti-western, anti-Israel activities are among the few such opportunities they have.

Hate Thesis author with OCAP types
Among the lesbians at tonight's demonstration was the notorious Jenny Peto, whose anti-Semitic Master's thesis was so inept, shrill and hateful, it embarrassed the University of Toronto to the point of calling their academic standards into question. Her presence and that of the psychologically damaged IJV members showed the familiar and saddening tactic of how some pathetic, desperate Jews are exploited as a front for anti-Semitism. Another was a very odd woman; a Canadian Union of Public Employees activist who is a stalwart of these events, and previously had stalked Sun TV host Michael Coren as he asked questions at a pro-Omar Khadr demonstration.

Other participants who are fixtures at these events were the fanatic, frumpy Wilfred Laurier Sociology Assistant Professor, Mary Jo Nadeau and clownish OCAP spokesman Marque Brill.

One atypical happening that occurred during the evening was that a lone, short young man came into the crowd to angrily confront them. He did not seem to have anything to do with the Jewish National Fund event being harassed,  but was clearly enraged and came over to speak his piece. He was immediately surrounded by the radicals who got into his face and exchanged shoves with him before he was ejected from the area by police.

This single supporter of Israel was so infuriated he made some heated remarks, but still one has to admire  the courage of this solitary soul who took on the hostile group like a young Jewish Joe Peschi.

As fury rages across the street, these cops sensibly
flirt with a pair of attractive women who found the
protesters laughable
What is gratifying about the events that unfolded tonight was to observe how counterproductive it was for the message the fanatics were trying to convey. This is a completely typical byproduct of such hateful gatherings.  Standing on the street, passersby who had nothing to do with the gathering first voiced confusion as to what it was all about. Arabic-accented chants of "From Turtle Island to Palestine, occupation is a crime!" did nothing to help clarify the cause of their fury.

Hate-filled screams from the neurotic, angry old women of Independent Jewish Voices, the ferocious,  butch lesbians who are denizens of politicized Ontario Institute for Studies in Education programs and swarthy, veiled and keffiyeh covered Muslims who looked like they had been brought in by Central Casting to try out for a movie as terrorist extras didn't endear them to the general public. "F**king idiots" was a fairly typical response and this was from people who cared nothing about either side in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The cretinous look of the protesters and their vicious invective was enough to self-inflict damage to their cause.

One other episode worth noting happened when a spiteful-looking woman, about 60, wrinkled face and wearing jeans and an anorak - a regular I recognized from these protests  - one of The Independent Jewish Voices type, came over to the side of the street where the Convention Centre stands.  Through the floor-to-ceiling windows, one could see the people headed to the Negev dinner filing on to an escalator. There were some very beautiful women among them and everyone attending the JNF dinner was dressed rather elegantly.

This bitter woman from the protest group walked back and forth a bit, silently watching the people going to a pleasant evening with delicious food.  Her loathing and envy were palpable as she saw the hated Zionists having a fine time while she was left on the outside. What probably hurt her the most as she rejoined her cronies across the street was the realization that standing out there in the cold, all she and her cohorts were doing was reaffirming their own hate to each other while persuading no one else.


Near the onset of the protest, Greg of GenuineWitty encountered, for the first time ever he said, Jenny Peto, the author of an anti-Semitic thesis condemned in Ontario`s Legislature by Minister of Citizenship Eric Hoskins, among other politicians and notable academics, like Irving Abella and Werner Cohn.

In their encounter, she employs the same rigid logic she used in her fatuous essay






UPDATE: Greg of GenuiteWitty shot this video of the pro-Israel protester who confronted the pro-Hamas throng



16 comments:

  1. Hey, are you going to the JDL presentation of Dr. Bill Warner on Monday, November 26, 7:30 pm?

    Of course I can't be there, but I'm sure all the other usual suspects will be there to observe and report...none of them as writ humorous and exact as you of course.

    Catch you on the flip side when I'm back in town.

    The Gentile

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  2. Why, thank you for the very kind words.

    But no, I won't be there. Have a good trip!

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  3. Very eloquent description of some fundamentally evil people. Basically a cross section of the warts on the ass of Canada.

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  4. So you say the demo was antisemitic but don't actually give any evidence in your article - unless your argument is that being anti-Israel is ipso facto antisemitic, a questionable assertion. What actual antisemtic statements were uttered or displayed?

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  5. I guess these paragraphs from the post went over your head, anonymous:

    `How else to explain why they would try to demonize as "apartheid" the least racist state in the Middle East, the only one in that region where all citizens regardless of race and religion are able to vote, participate in government, and live side-by-side? How else to explain that they advocate for Palestinian national self-determination, and have no problem with that of any other group except the Jews, the only group whose national aspirations they characterize as "racist?"

    Most revealing of all about their hatred and bigotry is that they no longer chose politically relevant locations, like Israeli government offices, but have now moved on to target ordinary Canadian Jews who support planting trees in the Holy Land.`

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  6. Thanks for your citizen journalism! This is way over the top over-reaction. Israel does not occupy Gaza.

    But logic is not a strong point with this crowd.

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  7. The tree planting isn't all that benign, Richard it's really more propaganda than anything else (particularly as many of the trees being planted aren't actually native to the holy land's ecosystem, hence that forest fire a few years ago). As you probably know "Canada Park", built via donations of the JNF is actually on the site of a razed Palestinian village. But who can argue with trees? As for equality, while Israeli Arabs and Israeli Jews may have formal legal equality they don't have political or economic equality. Here's a question for you - which country has had more Arab cabinet ministers in its existence - Canada or Israel?

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  8. `Economic equality`is a silly red herring. Walloons don`t have economic equality with Flemish in Belguim, nor for that matter do either French Canadians nor natives with English Canadians, and if you want to do ethnic breakdowns in any country, you`d find economic disparity.

    None of that points to so-called apartheid and these types of digressions are usually used to obfuscate from the reality that the criticism leveled at Israel which no other country in a similar situation is subjected to implies anti-Semitism. And FYI, the JNF purchased most of its land.

    You want to compare Canada to Israel - when rockets are fired at Canadian civilian centers and when it is surrounded by enemies seeking its annihilation, then you can make an accurate comparison. ..incidentally, when were you planning on returning your home to the First Nation group to whom it originally belonged?

    As to Arab Ministers - Israel has had on, a number of Deputy Ministers (which there is a senior elected position, as opposed to here where it a senior civil service job), and they`ve had about half a dozen Deputy Speakers of the Knesset, which is like Deputy Speaker of the House here.

    I can`t tell you how many Arab Ministers Canada has had, but if I had to guess, the answer would be zero.

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  9. Actually, Canada has had two Arab Canadian cabinet ministers - Jacques Saada who was Minister of State and then Government House Leader and Minister of Democratic Reform under Paul Martin from 2003 to 2006 and Pierre de Bané who was variously minister of supply and services, minister of fisheries and oceans and minister of international cooperation under Trudeau (for a total of four years). Israel has also had 2 Arab cabinet ministers: Raleb Majadele was minister of science, culture and sport from 2007 until 2009 and Salah Tarif who was minister without portfolio from 2001 until 2002. So this means Israel and Canada have had the same number of Arab ministers - Canada had an Arab cabinet minister first, arguably they've had more senior positions and there are a total of 6 years in which Canada has had an Arab Canadian in Cabinet. Israel has had Arab Israelis in cabinet for a total of three years. Arab Canadians make up between 1 and 2% of the Canadian population. Arab Israelis make up about 20% of the Israel population. That Arabs have been better represented in Canadian governments than they have in Israel despite being only 2% of the population compared to 20% of the Israeli population should tell you something about exactly how "equal" Arab Israelis are to their Isreali Jewish brethren. That's without mentioning Prince Edward Island which has not only had the same number of Arab ministers as Israel - but both of them have been Premier. Yes, Arabs have been better represented in PEI's government than they have in Israel's government.

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  10. You're only counting cabinet ministers - if you looked at members of the legislature, your theory goes out the window.

    And by the way, exactly which country in the middle east has a better human rights record than Israel? That's right, none. It's preposterous to compare everything Israel does to safe countries in safe regions. You haven't made a single cogent point and it's disingenuous to compare Israel to Canada - its neighbors are Syria and Egypt, not the US and Denmark.

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  11. Yeah and if we look at cab drivers and falafel stand owners it really goes out the window, eh? No, the power is exercised by the government ie the cabinet and Arabs are effectively frozen out. No coalition that includes the Arab parties is considered acceptable - they're boycotted if you will, and the token Arab MKs in the Zionist parties are frozen out most of the time too. Arab villages and neighbourhoods get less funding per capita than Jewish communities, Arabs get less social spending per capita despite being poorer - if only they were unemployed rabbinical students! Arabs are underrepresented in government jobs - excluded from some entirely - all the Arab rail workers were fired a few years ago as a security precaution yet some claim Arabs are equal and suffer no discrimination and if anyone says they're not equal they must be antisemites who hate Jews.

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  12. With all due respect, you sound like a first year PoliSci student fixated on desperately trying to prove some facile thesis point while not comprehending the larger issue.

    And you're using a rather cheap propagandist's technique of avoiding all the germane issues, (understandable since you haven't been able to respond with any intelligence to a single question I've put to you) and dissemble, and digress.

    I never said or suggested anyone who says Arabs don't receive equal treatment in Israel are anti-Semites. To say that is a complete distortion. The Arabs are a minority in Israel and get better treatment as a minority than any other country in its region and than in most places in the world. Add to that the minority group is part of the same people in the surrounding countries who are trying to eliminate Israel.

    Name another country in the region or the world that has treated a minority better under those circumstances. Ever. That's the second time I'll ask you that since you avoided it the first time.

    Don't worry - I know why you avoided it - because trying to answer it would undermine your position further.

    And if you're claiming that the people who want Israel dismantled and destroyed like the fanatics and morons who protested the JNF dinner (who are the same people who appear at every anti-Israel protest in Toronto) are there just asking for proportionate representation in the Knesset or Cabinet, you're either a liar or completely clueless.

    The presence at that event of Ms Peto, who is the author of a document that actually IS anti-Semitic, and people more extreme than her says exactly what they are about.

    And before you come back with more nonsense, try starting by pointing out which Arab country has better human rights than Israel. If you can't (because such a place does not exist), tell me which of those governments you've protested against.

    Until you can reply intelligently to that, you should stop wasting your time and mine.

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  13. Israeli governments have always been formed by coalitions of different parties and most of the smaller parties get Cabinet positions in return for supporting the government. Since most Arab MKs and all Arab party leaders belong to parties outside the government coalitions they don't have much chance to be Cabinet Ministers.

    BTW, Israeli Christian Arabs have a higher per capita income than Israeli Jews

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  14. Mrzee two things a) Zionist parties refuse to include Arab parties in governing coalitions b) a percentage of Arabs vote for Labour, Kadima, Likud even Shas yet these parties usually don't include Arabs on their lists and have only twice given them cabinet positions. BTW Barbara Kay has an interesting column today on the treatment of Bedouins. The point is if Israel treated its Arab citizens better (a population rarely involved with terrorism BTW), with respect to housing, social services and opportunity would that not undermine support for Hamas in Gaza? If the West Bank were treated better by Israel and allowed to trade feely for instance rather than restricted by a form of economic mercantalism that restricts the goods that can be produced so as not to compete with Israeli products, and curtailed settlement expansion, would that also not undermine Hamas?

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  15. Mrzee, could you please provide the stats and a link to support your claim that Christian Israeli Arabs have a higher per capita income than Israeli Jews?

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  16. The story about Israeli Christian Arabs was in the Wall Street Journal from last spring but I don't have a link to the story. It was part of a story about Christians in the Middle East in general.

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