My remarks yesterday ...

I spoke at Vancouver's Rally for the Hostages: "Our enemies are engaging us in a battle of darkness over light."

I spoke yesterday at Vancouver’s rally for the Israeli hostages. Below are my remarks. (In my Saturday post, I told you I would devote my next post to explaining how we Zionists have screwed up by letting the other side get away with the ludicrous idea that “Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.” Stay tuned. It’s coming.)

As we do every Sunday, we stand in solidarity with the hostages, with their families, and with all the people of Israel. We stand united with every human who seeks peace and justice.

We are following the negotiations in Doha. And yet the very spectacle is an affront to humanity.

A democratic country is across the table from the most venal forces on earth.

They are bargaining over human lives – even bartering the bodies of the dead – as though they are tokens in a transaction.

We are seeking a deal with the devil. But this is a rock and a hard place that Jewish people have found themselves in throughout history.

Last week here, Rabbi Tendler shared the Prayer for the Captives, as other rabbis have done over the past 21 excruciating months.

Do other religions have a specific prayer for hostages? It is a peculiar inversion of the Jewish respect for the sanctity of every life that your enemies would capitalize on your humanity, across centuries, exploiting that sacredness by targeting the very thing you cherish most.

Life. Chaim.

Some of your enemies have put a very fine point on it.

The recently deceased Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah said, “We love death like our enemies love life.” And this idea has been expressed a million times in a million ways by the “pro-Palestinian” crowd. These are not my words. These are their words.

But here in Canada and across the Western world, we are told that all we need to do is find the right offer, make the right deal, and there will be peace.

No. Hamas needs to be erased. A complete and total reconstruction needs to occur – not only of the buildings in Gaza, but of the mindset of the people who live there.

When it comes to us and them — the anti-Israel protestors – there is no comparison. We are on the side of justice, humanity, and peace.

We are proud of who we are and what we stand for. We do not cover our faces like hooded klansmen or executioners.

And in Israel and in Gaza, the division is clear. Or it should be to people who have a reasonable grasp of humanity.

Only one side in this terrible conflict can make peace … because only one side is making war.

The Israeli people – the Jewish people – have only ever wanted to live in peace.

But the one thing they ask – for a tiny sliver of land in their ancestral, indigenous homeland – is too much to bear for the tyrants of intolerance.

They do not seek coexistence. And their chants of “Free Palestine” are empty words.

Their goal is not a Palestinian state. It is the end of the Jewish state.

The evidence is mountainous.

The Palestinian Arab people have been offered a state on a silver platter … in 1948. In 1967, in 2000 and anytime they are prepared to lay down their arms and live in peace as members of civilized society.

They will have a country when the world – and the Israelis – have reason to believe that that country will not be launchpad for genocide.

And that is the one bargaining chip the Palestinian leaders have never been willing to leave on the table.

Because – I will say it again – this is not about freeing Palestine. It is about freeing the region of Israel and Jews.

The world is blaming Israel. I don’t need to tell you. You cannot open your social media, watch the news, or live your life without seeing your people accused of complicity in crimes against humanity – by the very people who are celebrating, rewarding and encouraging crimes against humanity.

If we do not recognize the root of a problem we will never reach a resolution.

Every death – every Palestinian, every Israeli and every death of every person killed on October 7, including Thai, Nepali, Moldovan, Filipino, British, Argentinian, German and Canadian – every death must be blamed where that blame belongs.

On the Palestinian terrorists who started this war and who perpetuate it.

And some blame lies with overseas activists too.

If you are not calling for Hamas to lay down its arms and surrender …

If you are chanting “From the river to the sea” …

If you are mindlessly parroting the empty words “Free Palestine” like a broken car alarm …

You are part of the reason Palestinians are dying.

In case you haven’t figured it out … the Hamas terrorists have a plan … and the marching millions in London and Stockholm and Pretoria and Vancouver are part of it.

We know that so-called “ordinary Palestinians” poured into Israel on October 7 to loot – and worse. We have not a single report, to my knowledge, of “ordinary Palestinians” assisting or demonstrating empathy to the hostages in Gaza.

But so-called “ordinary” Britons, and Swedes and South Africans and Canadians are also part of this plan.

Hamas employs human shields – and then tally the dead civilians. And the mobs in Montreal blame Israel.

Hamas plants bomb caches in hospitals – and then wail that Israel bombs clinics. And the hooligans in Helsinki blame Israel.

Hamas uses child combatants – and then pretend to care about human lives, claiming Israel kills kids. And the lynch mobs in London blame Israel.

Hamas dresses terrorists up in “Press” vests then accuse Israel of targeting journalists. And the howler monkeys in Brisbane blame Israel.

It shocks, disappoints and frightens me how many seemingly intelligent people have allowed themselves to be part of this conspiracy of death and destruction.

And these people – these neighbours and former friends – turn on us. They turn on you – Jewish Canadians … accusing you … accusing us, your allies … of supporting genocide.

Genocide! A word that had to be invented to describe the Jewish historical experience … is turned against the very people who understand its meaning.

Meanwhile, the people who invented concepts like “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings” leave no stone unthrown … they employ the most hurtful, sadistic, incendiary language imaginable – not only against Israel … but against their Jewish neighbors and those of us who stand with you.

And somehow they think they can pass themselves off as humanitarians, as peace activists.

These thugs … these apologists for terror who on October 8 and since have literally been celebrating Hamas on the streets of Vancouver … they play their role in the global campaign that originates in Gaza and spreads like toxic clouds in concentric circles across the Middle East, to Iran, throughout Africa, Asia and the Western world.

And everywhere you go in the world today, you cannot escape the slogans and the graffiti. Free Palestine. Death to Israel.

These overseas enablers are not bit players in this conflict. They are egging on the terrorists. They are rewarding their strategy of human shields, of child combatants.

They are the reason Palestinians are dying.

Everything about them is a projection.

Vasily Grossman, a Soviet‐Jewish writer and journalist, in his novel Life and Fate wrote:

“Antisemitism is always a means rather than an end… It is a mirror for the failings of individuals, social structures, and State systems. Tell me what you accuse the Jews of — I'll tell you what you're guilty of.”

They are genociders accusing us of genocide. Ethnic cleansers accusing us of ethnic cleansing. Warmongers accusing us of warmongering.

Remember this when your friendships break down and your coworkers make you feel isolated and targeted.

Whatever they are accusing us of is an unconscious projection of their own pathologies.

But enough about them.

They occupy too much of our mental space.

Let’s talk about us. Let’s talk about the Jewish people and those who stand with you.

In a world gone mad, you are a beacon of reason and sense.

I was once, somewhat inexplicably, the religion and spirituality columnist for a little paper you might remember called the Vancouver Courier. Not bad for an agnostic.

I’m not given to quoting the Bible. I might not believe it literally or even figuratively, but there’s a lot of good stuff in there.

Like Isaiah 5:20:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness…”

Sound like anyone you know?

And from the book of Amos: “You who turn justice to wormwood and cast down righteousness to the earth!”

Again, these words written thousands of years ago could have been written yesterday, with a bit of updating.

But wait, There’s more.

A lot of people are prepared to tell you what God thinks about current events. I would hesitate to be so presumptuous. But Jewish tradition says that the Jewish people have a special mission.

“I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness… I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the nations.”

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob... I will also make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

Even for those of us who do not subscribe to the theology, the words are no less true. Those whose eyes are not willfully averted can see as bright as day the light of Israel and the darkness of your enemies – our enemies.

I guess this is why my mind turns back to these ancient words. Because it seems like something metaphysical is happening in the world today. Something cosmic and transcendent.

Our enemies are engaging us in a battle of darkness over light. They accuse us of humanity’s greatest crimes.

And yet it is you – Jewish people and the people of Israel – who remain the light.

That light is not theoretical or theological. It is practical and tangible.

In a world that accuses you of destroying life, Jews and Israelis rededicate themselves to every means of preserving life.

In a world that accuses you of destruction and harm, Jews and Israelis continue to build and innovate.

In a world where Jews and Israelis are forced to bargain for the lives of your people and the bodies of your sacred dead, you continue to venerate life.

“There are none so blind as those who will not see.”

You are lighting the path through darkness. You remain a light unto the nations.

That is not an empty promise from millennia ago. That is reality Jews and Israelis live every day. By being here. By being in Israel. By being you.

Too many in the world tell you that you are not wanted.

Yet your light, your commitment to life and your model of resilience and goodness have never been more necessary.

Never let hatred extinguish your light.

Am Yisrael chai!

L’chaim!