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New Statesman
2 days ago
- Politics
- New Statesman
Living by the sword
'T his will go down in history,' said Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in his wartime press conference on 16 June. 'What we're saying today, I must say – as a son of a historian,' he continued, 'will go down not only in the annals of our nation, but also in the history of humanity.' Netanyahu's mention of his historian father was not a meaningless aside, but the reflection of the deep influence that his father's ideology, conceptions of Jewishness and world history, and ideas about power and powerlessness, continue to exert over his decision-making. Indeed, Israel's current war against Iran owes it shape, at least in part, to Netanyahu the elder's world-view, to which the son has always seen himself as faithful. Netanyahu is not a religious man. He does not observe the Sabbath or follow a strict kosher diet. Perhaps he does not believe in God. But he does believe in history – that the history of Jews has its own course and logic (perpetual, existential danger), and that Jews are meant to serve as an example to the Judaeo-Christian West (as a healthy nation willing to fight and die for its sovereignty). He did not merely come to these ideas on his own. He inherited them. Benzion Netanyahu, who died in 2012 aged 102, was a scholar of the Spanish Inquisition and, no less significant, an uncompromising right-wing ideologue. As a young man he served as secretary to Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky, the charismatic leader of the militant but secular Revisionist Zionists, whose adherents hoped to claim both sides of the Jordan River for a Jewish state. Some within the Revisionist ranks drew inspiration from the authoritarian Sanacja movement of Piłsudski's interwar Poland and the Blackshirts of Mussolini's fascist Italy. In his best-known historical work, The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain, Benzion Netanyahu controversially claimed that the Inquisition was not only, or even primarily, aimed at rooting out vestigial Jewish observance among the Marranos (Jews whose ancestors had been forced to convert to Christianity), but constituted the invention of the racial anti-Semitism that would reach its exterminationist terminus under Nazism. Born under tsarist rule in today's Poland, Benzion possessed a dark and pessimistic view of the world and the place of the Jews within it. 'Jewish history,' he once told the New Yorker editor David Remnick, 'is in large measure a history of holocausts.' Benjamin Netanyahu, the family's middle child, has made this catastrophic world-view his own. He has also largely adhered to his father's ideological legacy. In the early 1990s, he rose to national political prominence as the fresh face of the right-wing Likud Party and opponent of the Oslo Accords and the dovish Yitzhak Rabin's Labor-led government. For nearly his entire political career, Netanyahu has aimed to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. Indeed, it has been one of the central animating goals of his life. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe But while Netanyahu is a territorial-maximalist, he is not a messianist. The radical, religious West Bank settlers, with whom Netanyahu has found common cause, believe that the Palestinian dilemma can be solved (or eliminated) through an apocalyptic conflagration that would lead to the expulsion of the Palestinians from all the territory under Israel's control and end, they hope, with the dawning of the Messianic Age. Lately, Netanyahu has embraced some of the religious right's rhetoric: the idea of 'transferring' Palestinians out of Gaza; referring to Hamas as 'Amalek', after the biblical Israelites' enemy, whom they are told by God to wipe out. But this reflects domestic realpolitik more than genuine conviction. Instead, Netanyahu has tended towards a kind of brutal realism. Rather than the settlers' preference for a 'decisive' eschatological rupture, his preferred approach is an indefinite and, if necessary, eternal war of attrition. 'I am asked if we will live forever by the sword,' Netanyahu once said in 2015. His answer is 'yes'. He does not consider the Palestinians a real people deserving of national self-determination. He remains convinced that, after enough oppression, devastation, punishment and humiliation, they will surrender their dreams of freedom, and if not, that they can be subjugated in perpetuity. It is this logic that, in part, accounts for the way Israel's criminal destruction of Gaza has been executed – and why Netanyahu has refused any postwar arrangement that would allow for independent Palestinian self-governance. In his 1993 book, A Place Among the Nations, Benjamin Netanyahu sketched out his theory of machtpolitik, which has guided his successive administrations for more than 15 years. And while in the realm of domestic politics Netanyahu is known for his flagrant mendacity, when it comes to geopolitics, he has been rather more consistent. According to his strategic vision, military might is the only guarantee of security. 'The only peace that will endure in the region,' he writes, 'is the peace of deterrence.' There is, in other words, no such thing as real peace; there is only preparation for the next round of fighting. Or as he put it, 'ending the state of war is a must, but that will not end the possibility of a future war'. For Netanyahu, Israel's only way to guarantee its survival is to maintain overwhelming military supremacy such that it can threaten any potential rival with outright defeat. Weakness, it follows, is an existential threat. 'If you lack the power to protect yourself,' Netanyahu writes, 'it is unlikely that in the absence of a compelling interest anyone else will be willing to do it for you.' It is here that echoes of his father's world-view can also be heard: the experience of the Jewish people in the 20th century – specifically, the destruction of European Jewry during the Holocaust – is taken as proof that defencelessness is a death sentence while sympathy is much less an insurance policy than the force of arms. The world stood by idly when the Nazis sent Europe's Jews to the gas chambers; there is no reason to expect that, were the Jewish state to find its survival jeopardised, the world would act differently this time. Such a view is widely shared in Israel and has been almost since its establishment. It was a pillar of Israeli defence strategy many years before Netanyahu came to power. It is the reason why Israel sought nuclear weapons of its own, and why it has acted unilaterally on many occasions to destroy the military capabilities of other states it sees as threats to its survival. In 1981, for instance, Israeli fighter jets destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor located deep in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. The success of the operation gave rise to 'the Begin Doctrine' – after the prime minister Menachem Begin, Jabotinsky's successor as leader of the Revisionist movement, who authorised the strike (and who came to power in 1977 in Israel's first transition of power from left to right). Begin vowed that in the future Israel would carry out pre-emptive attacks to stop any enemy state from gaining nuclear capabilities. In 2007, under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Israeli warplanes bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in Bashar al-Assad's Syria. Israeli leaders have warned for years that Iran was next on the list. In 2012, Netanyahu appeared before the United Nations General Assembly and brandished a cartoon to illustrate his claim that Iran's enrichment levels were approaching those necessary for a nuclear weapon. Over the subsequent decade, Netanyahu warned many times that a nuclear-armed Iran would constitute an unacceptable threat to Israel, and that he would take action to eliminate it. Iran, for its part, has long claimed that it does not seek to possess nuclear weapons, notwithstanding its leadership's repeated, lurid promises to destroy the Jewish state. That an Israeli strike did not occur in years past owed much to dissent within Israel's military establishment, about whether Israel itself possessed the capabilities to take down Iran's nuclear programme on its own and whether it could withstand a potential Iranian counter-attack. Netanyahu has gambled his legacy on Israel's current war against Iran. He has said more than once that he hopes to be remembered as the 'protector of Israel'. And while the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023 cast doubt on his claim to be Mr Security, it is clearly his hope that by destroying Iran's nuclear programme and, as he has not so subtly hinted, toppling the Islamic Republic's regime, he will restore his flagging domestic reputation and rewrite his place in history, masking with a stunning military operation the deadly, colossal intelligence and operational failure that preceded it almost two years earlier. Still, for Netanyahu, and indeed for many Israelis, what is at stake is much more than that – nothing less than the shape of the post-Cold War order. It has long been both Netanyahu's conviction and policy goal that Israel's integration and normalisation into the Middle East can be achieved without granting the Palestinians a state. Successive Netanyahu administrations have pursued the de-Arabisation and isolation of the Palestinian national cause, perhaps most spectacularly in the form of the Abraham Accords, brokered by the US in 2020, which Netanyahu believes even Saudi Arabia could one day join. Iran, through support for its proxies – in particular, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah – has constituted the most significant obstacle to this vision of removing the Palestinian issue from the global agenda, as well as the last standing substantial military rival to Israel's armed forces in the region. By taking down the Islamic Republic, or at least its nuclear programme, Netanyahu hopes not only to eliminate a threat he perceives as existential, but also to realise his long-held geopolitical fantasy. Yet the ongoing attempt to do so could just as well result in catastrophe – for the region and perhaps the world. At the time of writing, it is too early to know where the balance of power will lie after the last bomb is dropped and the final missile fired. The paradox of Netanyahu's perpetual struggle for Israel's security is that, in practice, it has meant that Israelis live under near-constant threat. For Palestinians it has meant decades of military occupation and, since 7 October, utter devastation, war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Indeed, Benjamin Netanyahu's dream of a new Middle East – devoid of any military rival, absent any prospect of Palestinian self-determination – has only brought more death. [See also: Ideas for Keir] Related
Los Angeles Times
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
How important are Bob Dylan's Jewish roots? Entertaining bio doesn't really answer the question
The word 'probably' gets a major workout in 'Bob Dylan: Jewish Roots, American Soil,' Harry Freedman's new book made of equal parts passion and conjecture. The book's central premise, or one of them, sounds juicy: The man born Robert Zimmerman, and raised by a middle-class Jewish family in small-town Minnesota, worked hard to turn his back on his Jewish roots, adopting an anglicized name and spinning a string of tall tales about his background and upbringing. And yet, as Freedman implies throughout, elements of Dylan's Jewishness remained central to his art and identity, from his commitment to social justice to his imaginative formation of a new persona. It's an intriguing idea, but one that Freedman, billed by his publisher as 'Britain's leading author of popular works of Jewish culture and history,' never really pins down. He does, however, have fun trying. Even as he wanders away from his thesis for pages and pages at a time, Freedman provides a lively gloss on Dylan's rise from unknown folk beacon to counterculture superstar and, to some, plugged-in traitor to the folk cause. This period, of course, is also the subject of the recent movie 'A Complete Unknown,' which was based on Elijah Wald's superb book 'Dylan Goes Electric.' There will never be a shortage of Dylan movies — or books. So what makes this one worth reading? For one thing, it's a little strange. Freedman, whose previous books include 'Leonard Cohen: The Mystical Roots of Genius,' writes in a sort of modified hipster patter that fits in well with the Beat poets Dylan once idolized, and whom the author cites as another big influence on the young singer-songwriter. The author has a curious relationship with commas; his sentences often run on to the point where you might find yourself looking for periods without finding them. Sentence structure sometimes ends up blowin' in the wind: 'Coming on at midnight to perform just two numbers, the crowd went wild.' Yes, I suppose the crowd would go wild if it went onstage at midnight, or any other time really. Devoting generous space to the civil rights movement, the Red Scare, rock 'n' roll and other sociopolitical foment of the '50 and '60s, Freedman can adopt the tone of an earnest YA author: 'The kids were looking for fun, at this stage in their lives they weren't looking to change the world. But change the world they would. There was no colour bar to their love of music.' But he can also surprise with sudden, mischievous wit. On the protesters confronted by police at the Washington Square Park 'Beatnik riot' of 1961: 'A few sat in the fountain and sang 'We Shall Not be Moved.' They were.' And here he is on the antipathy that Mary Rotolo, mother of the young Dylan's girlfriend Suze, had for Dylan: 'She didn't have the same maternal feelings towards him as the other older women who had mothered Bob when he first arrived in New York, but that was bound to be so; he wasn't shtupping their 17-year-old daughters.' 'Jewish Roots' has what a book with a shaky premise needs to still be readable: a voice that never really gets dry. But then there's the 'probably' problem, which represents a larger issue of floating ideas that don't have the backing of fact. 'Bob Dylan was probably in the park that April day in 1961.' And this about manager Albert Grossman: 'The fact that both Dylan and Grossman were each blessed with temperamental Jewish volatility would tear their relationship apart in due course. But at this stage their cultural background probably helped to create a chemistry, a shared ambition for success.' This example underscores a separate issue that defines the book. Eager to serve his premise regarding Dylan's Jewishness, Freedman sometimes turns it into a flimsy fallback device. 'Blessed with temperamental Jewish volatility'? Sure. Maybe. Probably? It's pretty thin stuff, and it's indicative of an argument that never really coheres. In other places, however, Freedman can be quite sharp about the matter. Here he is describing Dylan's reaction to discovering that his friend and fellow musician Ramblin' Jack Elliott was also Jewish: 'Dylan had discovered he wasn't alone, and the suspicions of his friends had been confirmed; Bob Dylan was Jewish. And, of course, it didn't matter a bit. That's the funny thing about being Jewish. The antisemites hate you, the philosemites want to be like you, and nobody else gives a damn. It's a lesson that every Jew with a crisis of identity learns eventually. To stop being so self-conscious and accept the reality of who you are.' Of course, if nobody else gives a damn, one might wonder about the purpose of this book. As it is, 'Jewish Roots, American Soil' makes for fun reading even when it doesn't quite seem to know what dots it wants to connect. This would hardly be the first box that the famously elusive, self-mythologizing Dylan doesn't quite fit. Vognar is a freelance culture writer.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Skyrocketing antisemitism in Canada sparks concern for country's Jews ahead of election
Antisemitism in Canada has exploded in the aftermath of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, reaching record numbers last year and becoming a central issue for the country's Jewish community ahead of an April 28 federal election. Last week, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, the main challenger to Prime Minister Mark Carney accused pro-Hamas protesters of staging "hate marches" and vowing to deport antisemitic foreigners from Canada. "The rampaging chaos that we see in our streets, the targeting of synagogues and Jewish schools with hate, vandalism, violence, fire bombings ... these things were unheard of 10 years ago," Poilievre said. He also had a warning for foreign agitators. "Anyone who is here on a visitor visa who carries out lawbreaking will be deported from this country," Poilievre said. Senate Approves Peter Hoekstra As Next Us Ambassador To Canada "To Canada's Jewish community," Poilievre added, "you are not alone, you have friends. Canadians stand with you. You have the right to wear your Star of David, your kippah, and have your mezuzah on your door. You should feel proud to be Jewish and should never have to hide your Jewishness in order to stay safe." Read On The Fox News App On Friday, Poilievre shared on X the Montreal Jewish Community Council's call for Jewish voters to endorse him. In the video, the group's executive director, Rabbi Saul Emanuel, referencing Poilievre's support for the community, stated, "We remember who stood with us when it mattered most, and now we can all make a difference." Emanuel noted that Jewish voters could play a decisive role in as many as 14 districts in Canada. "Our vote matters, our voice matters. That's why I am proud to support Pierre Poilievre and I urge you to do the same," he said. Carney has also used social media to condemn antisemitism. In a tweet wishing Jewish Canadians a happy Passover, he condemned the growing incidents, stating in part, "Together, we must confront and denounce the rising tide of antisemitism, and the threat it poses to Jewish life and safety in communities across Canada." Yet despite his strong words against antisemitism, Carney recently faced criticism following a campaign rally in Calgary, where someone yelled at the Liberal Party leader, "There's a genocide happening in Palestine." "I'm aware," Carney replied. "That's why we have an arms embargo [on Israel]." The next day, Carney, who in March replaced longtime Premier Justin Trudeau, claimed he had not heard the anti-Israel demonstrator correctly. His backtracking did not stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from entering the fray. He posted on X that "Canada has always sided with civilization. So should Mr. Carney. "But instead of supporting Israel, a democracy that is fighting a just war with just means against the barbarians of Hamas, he attacks the one and only Jewish state," Netanyahu posted. According to an annual audit released this month by B'nai Brith Canada, the total number of reported cases of Jew hatred in the country hit 6,219 in 2024, a 7.4% increase over 2023 and the highest number since the survey's inception in 1982. Antisemitic incidents in Canada have skyrocketed by 124.6% since 2022. Northern Border 'Quiet Crisis' Brews As Expert Floats Unconventional Solution To Combat Human Smuggling "Over the last 18 months, a new baseline has been established for antisemitism in Canada, and it's having a detrimental effect on the lives of Jewish people," Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B'nai Brith Canada, told Fox News Digital. "We are seeing an increase in certain forms of antisemitism, specifically anti-Zionism." Irwin Cotler, a former justice minister and attorney general of Canada for the Liberal Party, told Fox News Digital "antisemitism has become mainstream, normalized and legitimized in the political, popular, academic, media, entertainment and sport cultures. All this happened in the absence of outrage," he said. "I hope that whichever party gets elected, we will see deliverables in combating specific hate crime, hate speech, harassment, assault, vandalism and all the things you find reported in the [B'nai Brith] annual report. From my experience, even those statistics are not telling the true story. They are underreported." "The community of democracies must act because the security of our collective freedom is at stake," Cotler warned. Israeli Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed told Fox News Digital many local Jews "feel vulnerable, unsafe and unprotected by law enforcement bodies, governments and education systems that have stood by as antisemitism reached crisis levels." He noted that Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people, is obligated to act when Jews in the Diaspora are in distress. "Equipping teachers with the resources to teach about antisemitism and the Holocaust is essential to ensure future generations understand the dangers of hatred and continue to embrace peace, tolerance and equality," he added. Trump Takes Center Stage In Canada's Prime Minister Election Debate The antisemitism survey highlighted numerous incidents, ranging from Quebec daily La Presse publishing a cartoon depicting Netanyahu as Nosferatu, a vampire associated with Jews in Nazi-era propaganda and a pro-Hamas protester at the University of Toronto shouting at a Jewish student that Hitler should have "murdered all of you." In May, an arsonist ignited a fire at the entrance to the Schara Tzedeck Synagogue in Vancouver as prayers concluded. The same month, shots were fired at the Bais Chaya Mushka girls' school in Toronto, and the school has since been targeted twice more by gunfire. In August, a bomb threat affected Jewish institutions across the country. In December, a firebomb struck Congregation Beth Tikvah in Montreal, the second such attack since Oct. 7, 2023. Thereafter, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called on the Canadian government to take action to "stamp out" antisemitism. "The world must wake up. Words are not enough. Synagogues burned. Jews attacked. Never again is now," he said, employing the adage stressing a commitment to preventing another Holocaust. Anthony Housefather is the MP in the House of Commons for Mount Royal, an area with a large Jewish population held by the Liberals since 1940 being viewed as a bellwether for where the community stands. "The alarming numbers [of antisemitic incidents] make it clear as to why every level of government in the country needs to work together to implement all the recommendations set out in the justice committee report of last December and the commitments made at the national summit on antisemitism in March," Housefather told Fox News Digital. Trudeau, who was widely panned for failing to adequately address the groundswell of antisemitism, had announced the summit within hours of Herzog's condemnation. Neil Oberman, the Conservative Party candidate running against Housefather, told Fox News Digital that in Mount Royal "personal safety and security have become serious issues. "It's a stark reminder of the urgent need for a federal government consisting of adults implementing actions instead of putting together summits and position papers and blaming everybody else to combat hate and protect vulnerable communities," Oberman article source: Skyrocketing antisemitism in Canada sparks concern for country's Jews ahead of election
Fox News
20-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Skyrocketing antisemitism in Canada sparks concern for country's Jews ahead of election
Antisemitism in Canada has exploded in the aftermath of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, reaching record numbers last year and becoming a central issue for the country's Jewish community ahead of an April 28 federal election. Last week, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, the main challenger to Prime Minister Mark Carney accused pro-Hamas protesters of staging "hate marches" and vowing to deport antisemitic foreigners from Canada. "The rampaging chaos that we see in our streets, the targeting of synagogues and Jewish schools with hate, vandalism, violence, fire bombings ... these things were unheard of 10 years ago," Poilievre said. He also had a warning for foreign agitators. "Anyone who is here on a visitor visa who carries out lawbreaking will be deported from this country," Poilievre said. "To Canada's Jewish community," Poilievre added, "you are not alone, you have friends. Canadians stand with you. You have the right to wear your Star of David, your kippah, and have your mezuzah on your door. You should feel proud to be Jewish and should never have to hide your Jewishness in order to stay safe." On Friday, Poilievre shared on X the Montreal Jewish Community Council's call for Jewish voters to endorse him. In the video, the group's executive director, Rabbi Saul Emanuel, referencing Poilievre's support for the community, stated, "We remember who stood with us when it mattered most, and now we can all make a difference." Emanuel noted that Jewish voters could play a decisive role in as many as 14 districts in Canada. "Our vote matters, our voice matters. That's why I am proud to support Pierre Poilievre and I urge you to do the same," he said. Carney has also used social media to condemn antisemitism. In a tweet wishing Jewish Canadians a happy Passover, he condemned the growing incidents, stating in part, "Together, we must confront and denounce the rising tide of antisemitism, and the threat it poses to Jewish life and safety in communities across Canada." Yet despite his strong words against antisemitism, Carney recently faced criticism following a campaign rally in Calgary, where someone yelled at the Liberal Party leader, "There's a genocide happening in Palestine." "I'm aware," Carney replied. "That's why we have an arms embargo [on Israel]." The next day, Carney, who in March replaced longtime Premier Justin Trudeau, claimed he had not heard the anti-Israel demonstrator correctly. His backtracking did not stop Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from entering the fray. He posted on X that "Canada has always sided with civilization. So should Mr. Carney. "But instead of supporting Israel, a democracy that is fighting a just war with just means against the barbarians of Hamas, he attacks the one and only Jewish state," Netanyahu posted. According to an annual audit released this month by B'nai Brith Canada, the total number of reported cases of Jew hatred in the country hit 6,219 in 2024, a 7.4% increase over 2023 and the highest number since the survey's inception in 1982. Antisemitic incidents in Canada have skyrocketed by 124.6% since 2022. "Over the last 18 months, a new baseline has been established for antisemitism in Canada, and it's having a detrimental effect on the lives of Jewish people," Richard Robertson, director of research and advocacy at B'nai Brith Canada, told Fox News Digital. "We are seeing an increase in certain forms of antisemitism, specifically anti-Zionism." Irwin Cotler, a former justice minister and attorney general of Canada for the Liberal Party, told Fox News Digital "antisemitism has become mainstream, normalized and legitimized in the political, popular, academic, media, entertainment and sport cultures. All this happened in the absence of outrage," he said. "I hope that whichever party gets elected, we will see deliverables in combating specific hate crime, hate speech, harassment, assault, vandalism and all the things you find reported in the [B'nai Brith] annual report. From my experience, even those statistics are not telling the true story. They are underreported." "The community of democracies must act because the security of our collective freedom is at stake," Cotler warned. Israeli Ambassador to Canada Iddo Moed told Fox News Digital many local Jews "feel vulnerable, unsafe and unprotected by law enforcement bodies, governments and education systems that have stood by as antisemitism reached crisis levels." He noted that Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people, is obligated to act when Jews in the Diaspora are in distress. "Equipping teachers with the resources to teach about antisemitism and the Holocaust is essential to ensure future generations understand the dangers of hatred and continue to embrace peace, tolerance and equality," he added. The antisemitism survey highlighted numerous incidents, ranging from Quebec daily La Presse publishing a cartoon depicting Netanyahu as Nosferatu, a vampire associated with Jews in Nazi-era propaganda and a pro-Hamas protester at the University of Toronto shouting at a Jewish student that Hitler should have "murdered all of you." In May, an arsonist ignited a fire at the entrance to the Schara Tzedeck Synagogue in Vancouver as prayers concluded. The same month, shots were fired at the Bais Chaya Mushka girls' school in Toronto, and the school has since been targeted twice more by gunfire. In August, a bomb threat affected Jewish institutions across the country. In December, a firebomb struck Congregation Beth Tikvah in Montreal, the second such attack since Oct. 7, 2023. Thereafter, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called on the Canadian government to take action to "stamp out" antisemitism. "The world must wake up. Words are not enough. Synagogues burned. Jews attacked. Never again is now," he said, employing the adage stressing a commitment to preventing another Holocaust. Anthony Housefather is the MP in the House of Commons for Mount Royal, an area with a large Jewish population held by the Liberals since 1940 being viewed as a bellwether for where the community stands. "The alarming numbers [of antisemitic incidents] make it clear as to why every level of government in the country needs to work together to implement all the recommendations set out in the justice committee report of last December and the commitments made at the national summit on antisemitism in March," Housefather told Fox News Digital. Trudeau, who was widely panned for failing to adequately address the groundswell of antisemitism, had announced the summit within hours of Herzog's condemnation. Neil Oberman, the Conservative Party candidate running against Housefather, told Fox News Digital that in Mount Royal "personal safety and security have become serious issues. "It's a stark reminder of the urgent need for a federal government consisting of adults implementing actions instead of putting together summits and position papers and blaming everybody else to combat hate and protect vulnerable communities," Oberman said.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘October 8' Review: Somber Doc Tracks Recent Rise of Antisemitism on College Campuses
'Wars today,' we hear early in 'October 8,' are fought 'not only in battlefields but also on different media outlets. It's very challenging: the war of the narrative, and sometimes even the war over truth.' It has become increasingly arduous to determine objective truth in the modern era, particularly on subjects as fraught and ideologically riven as the Middle East. But documentarian Wendy Sachs ('Surge') narrows her focus, and sets her sights closer to home. She aims, in this passionate and timely documentary, to explore how a culture war has unfolded across U.S. universities since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Under ordinary circumstances, it might feel uncontroversial to make a film about the recent rise of antisemitism on college campuses. There was, we learn, a 140% increase in antisemitic incidents in 2023, the highest on record. Surely this is a trajectory worthy of concern and exploration. But as the movie makes clear, it's not just Zionism but Jewishness itself that has become a third-rail issue. Some viewers may object strenuously to the fact that Sachs barely addresses the Palestinian cause, or the Israeli government's reaction to the October 7 attacks. It's quickly clear, though, that her attention is purely on the way the war has been used as an excuse by some to push simmering antisemitism to a boiling point. In the movie's press notes, she asserts that 'We are not litigating the war in Israel and in Gaza or advocating that anyone be denied their land or statehood.' Instead she zooms in, interviewing professors and students who share their experiences as individuals caught in both anti-Zionist and anti-Jewish furor. More impactful still is to see this firsthand via plentiful footage, in which Jewish students are threatened by peers, and dismissed by leaders. She also offers evidence that many of these demonstrations are seeded by groups and even countries dedicated to Israel's destruction. Sheryl Sandberg, Debra Messing, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and Congressman Ritchie Torres are among a range of talking heads who discuss the rise in antisemitism over the last year. Most memorable, however, may be Mosab Hassan Yousef, whose father is Hassan Yousef, the co-founder of Hamas. Yousef is openly stunned that so many American students are vocally aligning with the concept of Intifada. 'It will be a threat against all civilized people who want to live in harmony, who believe in tolerance, who believe in peaceful dialogue with their neighbors, who believe in diversity,' he warns. Of course, like other movies designed with advocacy in mind, this one is most likely to preach to an already-sympathetic choir. For that reason, 'October 8' is often at its strongest when Sachs touches on broader perspectives within her thesis. For example, political advisor Dan Senor freely acknowledges that 'criticism of the state of Israel is normal, and is important.' But, he adds, 'Somehow, when there is a debate about Israel, it often gets into a reductionist approach where quickly the question is 'Well, does Israel have the right to exist?' We don't have that discussion about any other country.' Or, as M.I.T. student Talia Kahn — who shares that her mother is Jewish and her father Muslim — notes about the rights of everyone to live in peace, 'It's not an either/or.' 'October 8' is now playing in select theaters. The post 'October 8' Review: Somber Doc Tracks Recent Rise of Antisemitism on College Campuses appeared first on TheWrap.
