{"id":82146,"date":"2026-06-10T11:18:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/82146\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T11:18:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:18:12","slug":"extremists-rage-while-israels-next-generation-keeps-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/82146\/","title":{"rendered":"Extremists rage, while Israel\u2019s next generation keeps building"},"content":{"rendered":"

To say this was a tough week is like calling the Hezbollah<\/a> war a border skirmish. The latest ballistic missile barrage against Israel exposed Iran\u2019s regime\u2019s evil to an increasingly somnolent world.<\/p>\n

The renewed attacks produced one minor miracle: Israelis Left and Right united, still appreciating America\u2019s cooperation while dumbstruck by President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> new fear of confronting this enemy with the firepower the regime\u2019s pathological behavior invites.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in my old haunt, Montreal, anti-Zionists expressed their built-in Jew-hatred \u2013 again \u2013 by firebombing Temple Emanuel-El-Beth Sholom on Sherbrooke Street \u2013 Montreal\u2019s Fifth Avenue.<\/p>\n

Anti-Zionist bigots also reflected their disdain for Canadian values, liberal democracy, and basic civility \u2013 again \u2013 by disrupting McGill\u2019s convocation, what Canadians call commencement.<\/p>\n

Curious how this university I long cherished repudiated these hooligans, I clicked onto McGill\u2019s Website. Predictably, the university ignored the disturbance, guaranteeing future repeats.<\/p>\n

\"THETHE MASSES attend \u2018The cry of the Torah\u2019 demonstration in Jerusalem last Thursday. This time, it seems that the main reason for holding the demonstration was actually intra-haredi, the writer maintains. (credit: Marc Israel Sellem\/Jerusalem Post)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no need to worry, however. The homepage, spewing modern academic psychobabble, calls McGill: \u201cA community that puts well-being front and centre.\u201d They should add: \u201cunless you\u2019re Jewish or believe in the sanctity of ceremonies honoring our graduates and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Prime Minister Mark Carney rushed to the rescue. True, his speech denouncing antisemitism had \u201cno mention of Israel and no acknowledgment that, for Jews, Israel is part of the Jewish people\u2019s covenantal reality,\u201d former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler noted. But no matter, Carney created a paper-tiger commission to playact at fighting antisemitism<\/a>, featuring at least one Jihadi apologist.<\/p>\n

New York \u2013 the Big Apple \u2013 is equally rotten. There, T\u2019ruah, an organization of 2,300 rabbis claiming to be for \u201chuman rights\u201d and \u201cpro-Israel,\u201d warmly welcomed the obsessively anti-Zionist Mayor Zohran Mamadni while granting its Raphael Lemkin Human Rights Award to an activist who accuses Israel of \u201capartheid\u201d and \u201cgenocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having defined the term, Lemkin knew that countries must demonstrate a comprehensive, lethal intent to be guilty of \u201cgenocide.\u201d That makes the award as preposterous as granting an Elie Wiesel anti-Nazi award or a Betty Friedan feminist award to Maine\u2019s senatorial hopeful Graham Platner, sporting an SS Totenkopf tattoo and a history of abusing girlfriends.<\/p>\n

Supreme Court justice’s house vandalized in Israel<\/p>\n

Alas, in Israel, goons also roamed. Over 60 haredi (ultra-Orthodox)<\/a> thugs somehow bypassed Alon Shvut\u2019s security gate to vandalize the house and car of Justice Noam Solberg. They singled out Solberg, but his opinion, demanding that jail evaders be arrested, even if they\u2019re haredi, was unanimous.<\/p>\n

Why didn\u2019t neighbors in this tight-knit community mobilize to protect Solberg\u2019s wife and grandchildren? And why does Israel keep failing to punish rioters, Left, Right, and haredi, effectively \u2013 meaning equally and harshly?<\/p>\n

The Knesset needs a civility caucus, drafting tougher legislation while compelling police and prosecutors to implement the law aggressively but evenhandedly.<\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re a bullying Bibist, a crazed Kapalanist or a depraved draft-dodger. Criminal behavior \u2013 not speech \u2013 must be prosecuted relentlessly. Then, everyone involved in these conspiracies against democracy \u2013 including the bus drivers \u2013 should receive bankruptcy-inducing civil penalties too.<\/p>\n

The Hooligans\u2019 Veto is hijacking Israeli politics. Unless the state cracks down, the next elections\u2019 sore losers will block traffic, menace police, and harass political rivals and their families at home.<\/p>\n

All this barbarism encourages despair. But that\u2019s only if you live Israel and Jewish life through headlines and hostility \u2013 a central structural problem afflicting both Diaspora Zionists and increasingly disaffiliated Diaspora Jews.<\/p>\n

My non-Israeli friends marvel at the Jerusalem Troys\u2019 calendar overflowing with weddings and life-cycle events. And the blessing of ongoing contact with IGG \u2013 Israel\u2019s Greatest Generation \u2013 our reservists and soldiers \u2013 is our own personalized defibrillator, jolting me with hope, again and again.<\/p>\n

Last Friday, our kids who are working in Montreal with Jewish students visited and hosted a party for their friends. They picked the perfect spot for a Friday brunch, Piccolino, a Jerusalem landmark. It\u2019s famous for delicious Italian food and its owners\u2019 legendary generosity, offering free Friday buffets to dozens of lone soldiers for thirteen years now.<\/p>\n

Twelve couples under 30 attended. At least one spouse of each couple has defended Israel for hundreds of days since October 7.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve served as army doctors, infantry warriors, paramedics, homefront commanders, tank commanders, logistics officers, sailors, and commandos. But they generated a stroller traffic jam.<\/p>\n

Nine of the women have given birth to some of the world\u2019s cutest babies since October 7 \u2013 contributing to Israel\u2019s wartime baby boom.<\/p>\n

The kids\u2019 names created a symphony of values \u2013 generating wellsprings of optimism. Amichai, the Jewish people live. Ariel \u2013 the lion of God \u2013 symbolizing Jerusalem, where both parents were born, as well as the eternal hope for redemption. Chaya \u2013 life! \u2013 celebrated a beloved grandmother.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eliyah \u2013 our Lord is God \u2013 with the parents explaining that \u201cEspecially in this world of uncertainty, following October 7, with the \u00a0antisemitism worldwide and all the death and destruction we have experienced \u2013 we put our faith and our lives in God\u2019s hands.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hannah \u2013 \u201chonoring a great-grandmother whose kindness, generosity, and love left a lasting impact on her family.\u201d Lavi \u2013 young lion \u2013 saluted last June\u2019s war against Iran. Nili\u2013 a Hebrew acronym for The Jewish People Will Forever Endure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

T\u2019chelet \u2013 evoking the azure blue of a tallit reflecting the purity of holiness. Yedidia, God\u2019s beloved friend. The kids were named after Holocaust survivors, Israelis, Americans, and, inevitably, some of the fallen since October 7.<\/p>\n

Barack Obama once warned: \u201cYou get the politicians you deserve.\u201d In Israel, we don\u2019t deserve the politicians we\u2019ve got. But they don\u2019t define us. These happy warriors \u2013 their actions, values, aspirations \u2013 saved Israel from destruction, and will save it from self-destruction, while continuing to inspire the rest of us.<\/p>\n

The writer is an American presidential historian and a senior fellow in Zionist thought at the Jewish People Policy Institute in Jerusalem. Last year he published To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream and The Essential Guide to Zionism, Anti-Zionism, Antisemitism and Jew-hatred, available on the JPPI website. Next month, he will publish The Essential Guide to the U.S-Israel Partnership, the 250th Edition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To say this was a tough week is like calling the Hezbollah war a border skirmish. The latest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[3124,17,162,32300,1654,821,29661,111,4828,3138,23029],"class_list":["post-82146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-antisemitism","tag-canada","tag-donald-trump","tag-haredi","tag-hezbollah","tag-israel","tag-jews","tag-mark-carney","tag-new-york","tag-protests","tag-zionism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}