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Jews would rather negotiate than fight
- 08 June 2023
- 1:06 am
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- 08 June 2023
- 1:06 am
“American Jews are under assault, their institutions under siege, and their leaders are failing to protect them due to conflicting ideological loyalties and a deficit of courage.” So say the authors of Betrayal, and in the opinion of Jonathan Usher, Jews in Canada have the same problems as the USA. (Image: JNS)
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I have just finished reading Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership, composed and edited by Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser. (Editor’s note: TheJ.Ca gets mentioned on page 270.)
It is an excellent book. It clearly sets out how Jewish leadership, both of large and small Jewish organizations, in Canada and in the United States, have failed their Jewish constituents.
They have failed to act strongly enough to protect them from direct antisemitism. They have failed to counter antisemitic organizations. They have failed to counter left-wing organizations whose ideals result in antisemitism. They have failed to counter anti-Israel propaganda either with the truth or with attacks on those attacking Israel.
However the book has not dealt with the possibility that the real cause of this lack of defence both from Jewish leadership and from the whole Jewish population is the Jewish culture – specifically that Jews have sympathy for anyone in trouble, even if they are our enemies, and Jews would rather negotiate than fight. Both similar attitudes result in inaction when action is sorely needed.
Jews are brought up with the idea of “Be kind to others – remember you were slaves in Egypt.”
This is admirable but being kind to people who will not return the kindness or who consider a show of kindness to be a show of weakness is not admirable. It is taken as a weakness that can and should be exploited. Similarly at some point wanting to continue negotiating with a sworn enemy will not be helpful. To our enemies it will be taken as weakness and an inability or strong lack of desire to fight for our rights. Lastly we want our children to be doctors, lawyers and rabbis, not football or hockey players. We don’t emphasize physical abilities and physical fitness as much as other cultures.
It is interesting that our Torah does not follow this train of thought. God kills those in Sodom and Gomorrah. He takes away King Saul’s crown for not killing the Amalekites. He almost destroys the Israelites in the desert for building an altar to a local Egyptian god, and He leaves the Israelites in the desert for another 40 years because they are afraid to fight to enter the promised land.
And of course he kills all Egyptian first-borns to prove to Pharaoh that He is the stronger. This is not a God that will not speak up for Himself.
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If we want to stop the 2000 years of antisemitism, we have to speak the truth about the situation in Israel with the Palestinians, and assert our rights to our land. We are entitled to the land historically, because we bought and developed it, because Israelis rule it with justice, and because Israelis won it in defensive wars that cost it at least 10% of its population.
We must change our nice passive culture to a more realistic, fact-based one.
We must be prepared to fight our enemies both individually and nationally.
We must replace the idea of niceness being a winning solution with finding out the truth and being prepared to fight for it.
We must develop strong current role models, like Jabotinski, the Israeli Prime Ministers, and people like the Netanyahus. We must teach our children self-defence and we must begin to value sports. And of course, despite those changes, we must continue following our current value system.
Diaspora Jews need to bulk up and speak up now.
Jonathan Usher was born in Montreal. He graduated from Queen’s Law School in 1963 and moved to Toronto where he has lived since. In the past 20 years of retirement he has become a very prolific and published letter-to-the-editor writer and conservative, social iconoclast.
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Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
Happy reading!
Thank you for choosing TheJ.Ca as your source for Canadian Jewish News.
We do news differently!
Our positioning as a Zionist News Media platform sets us apart from the rest. While other Canadian Jewish media are advocating increasingly biased progressive political and social agendas, TheJ.Ca is providing more and more readers with a welcome alternative and an ideological home.
We revealed the incursion of anti-Israel progressive elements such as IfNotNow into our communities. We have exposed the distorted hateful agenda of the “progressive” left political radicals who brought Linda Sarsour to our cities, and we were first to report on many disturbing incidents of Nazi-based hate towards Jews across Canada.
But we can’t do it alone. We need your HELP!
Our ability to thrive and grow in 2020 and beyond depends on the generosity of committed readers and supporters like you.
Monthly support is a great way to help us sustain our operations. We greatly appreciate any contributions you can make to support Jewish Journalism.
We thank you for your ongoing support.
Happy reading!
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