November 15, 2024

In the movie City Slickers, there’s a scene in which Curly (Jack Palance) is talking to Mitch (Billy Crystal).

Curly: You know what the secret of life is? One Thing. Just One Thing. You stick to that and everything else don’t mean s**t.

Mitch: That’s great, but what’s the One Thing?

Curly: That’s what you gotta figure out.

In terms of current events, especially here in Canada, I have figured out what the Just One Thing is, and I’ll tell you in a moment. First, take a look at some of what’s happening today, making my head spin and my stomach churn.

In Mississauga, a vigil has been approved to celebrate (yes, celebrate!) the memory of October 7th mastermind terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar, who is suddenly being touted as a “hero of the resistance”. The Mayor of Mississauga has not only claimed that she is unauthorized to stop it, but she has now publicly compared Sinwar to Nelson Mandella.

In Ottawa, the prime minister (lower case intentional) is close to making Anti-Palestinian Racism an official federal issue. If that happens, with no clear definition of what APR actually is, we Jews are really in trouble as Zionism can then be labeled illegal by misguided, outspoken, Canadian Hamasniks. (I have written about APR before. See my blog post of June 21st, 2024.)

In Amsterdam, there was a pogrom last week. An actual pogrom. When I was growing up, a pogrom was so far in the past that my 9th grade English teacher didn’t even know how to pronounce it. History repeats itself, the Pogrom is back, and Dutch police are allowed to ignore it on the grounds of “personal moral dilemma.” 

In Toronto, not only did JNF Canada have its charitable status revoked, but antisemitic organizations publicly cheered this “success”. They flooded social media this week with comments about continuing, and doing all they can to have charitable status revoked from many other Jewish charities with ties to Israel. 

Ubiquitous pro-Palestinian rallies with angry, offensive, antisemitic throngs have become commonplace. They rarely make the news anymore. While amplified chanting went on outside the Meridian Arts Centre at the AGPI event this week, inside the Lyric Theatre Stephen Harper pointed out that the pro-Israel rallies display Israeli and Canadian flags, but the only time you will see a Canadian flag at a pro-Palestinian rally is when the pro-Palestinians are burning it.

This revolting list goes on but I’ll spare you because I want to get to Just One Thing. Here it is: The State of Israel. That’s it. The Jewish People have a place to go, a safe haven, a home of their own. Perhaps “safe haven” is an odd choice of words, given the rockets that are shot into Israel daily from its neighbouring enemies. But we have bomb shelters and the Iron Dome. We have a military, not just any military, but one that is admired by countries around the world for its techniques, strategies, and smarts. We have a way to send planes to airlift the endangered Jews out of Amsterdam to bring them home to Israel. In Canada, clueless politicians will come and go (hopefully go, and hopefully soon), but the Jewish People will always have Eretz Yisrael. No matter how much it feels as if we’re living in 1938 Berlin, we need to remember Just One Thing. 

Am Yisrael Chai!