I guess The Globe and Mail’s Marsha Lederman never took note of statistics, when she wrote her column, “Two Years after the Oct 7 Attacks, the Road between us is more volatile than before, to commemorate Oct 7, 2023. 

She wrote about a handful of antisemitic attacks – mainly in the US, the recent Manchester synagogue deaths and woundings, plus the two Jews who were murdered outside a Jewish museum in Washington.

Here are the latest figures from Jeff Halper, an Israeli-American anthropologist, author, and political activist who has lived in Israel since 1973.  Halper is the Director of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) and a co-founder of The One Democratic State Campaign (ODSC). He is a Jewish-Israeli. These are figures from Gaza.  Since Oct. 2023:

Israelis killed: 815

Palestinians killed: 67,000 (could be up to 200,000)

Of Palestinians killed, the percentage of civilians: 83%

Palestinian journalists killed: 264

Health care workers killed: 1722

For every Israeli killed, Israel has murdered more than 82 Palestinians  

Though Lederman admits Israel’s war on Gaza is “catastrophic,” her chief concern is antisemitism.  She wrote,

“Targeting Jews who are not responsible in Canada, where we have a right to live free from discrimination, like every other minority? That has been shattering.”

Of course the big problem is that the “Official” Canadian Jewish leaders have insisted for decades that criticism of Israel is antisemitic.  Over the last two years Israel’s IDF has killed and maimed more than 67,000 Palestinians.  Israel has jailed more than 20,000 Palestinians, including 1600 children and 595 women. Israel has destroyed all 12 of Gaza’s universities, every school (even UN schools), launched missile strikes at all 35 of Gaza’s hospitals plus obliterated almost every home in Gaza.  The air strikes and tank shelling of homes have meant that thousands of Palestinian children have been left single or double amputees, as the buildings collapsed on top of them. 

But the three major Canadian Jewish organizations, CIJA (Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs), B’nai Brith and Simon Wiesenthal Centre have marched in lockstep to support and crow about everything murderous thing Israel has done. 

The three official Jewish organizations have not uttered a word of criticism, not a word of caution – or even a go-slow to Israel.  Whatever Netanyahu says is OK with them.  Now I’m sure that Lederman, who is a Jew and likely a liberal-zionist, has some disagreements with Netanyahu.  But she never states one of them in her column. 

In her article, the words Palestine, or Palestinians do not appear.  What about slaughter or genocide?  Again, not words she uses. It can’t be an oversight.  Palestine is not important when it comes to half of Canadian Jews and their worries about antisemitism.

New York Times columnist Ezra Klein notes,

“The consensus that held American [and likely Canadian] Jewry together for generations is breaking down. That consensus, roughly, was this: What is good for Israel is good for the Jews. Anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism. And there will, someday soon, be a two-state solution that reconciles Zionism and liberalism. Every component of that consensus has cracked.“ 

Let’s examine his three points:  

Point one –what is good for Israel is not good for the Jews, including Canadian Jews.  Daniel May, publisher of the US left-wing Jewish Currents magazine, said Israel’s egregious violence affects Jews’ security,

“ I think absolutely the weekly reports of Israeli soldiers shooting on Palestinians who are in long lines to get food is a calamity for Jews. It’s a spiritual crisis. It’s a moral and political crisis, and I do think it has tangible effects on Jewish security.”

Point two:  the deeply held view by Canada’s Official Jews that anti-Zionism is a form of antisemitism is not true.  How has criticism of a nation-state such as Israel become synonymous with anti-Jewish discrimination, asked academic Laura Jaffee in her paper “Anti-Zionism is not Antisemitism“.  For instance, we criticize China and we’re not anti-Chinese – what’s different about Israel? Well, for two years we have seen that those who dare to criticize Israel are punished.  Doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors, museum staff —  even restaurant servers have been disciplined or fired for opposing Israel’s genocide against Palestinians. 

Point three:  that a two-state solution will help reconcile liberals with Zionism.  Somehow I don’t think so.  Since Oct. 2023, Netanyahu has approved more than 59,000 new homes to be built for Jewish settlers in 22 new illegal settlements and more than 121 new illegal outposts (that can grow into settlements) in the West Bank.  A 2024 poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that “75% of Jewish Israelis think the country should ignore mounting pressure from the United States to wind down the war in Gaza”.  And another poll by Gallup showed that 65 percent oppose the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.  Netanyahu and his extreme right wing supporters have long sworn there will never be a Palestinian state. In other words, two viable states, Israel and Palestine will not be allowed to exist.  

Finally Klein finally notes, “Every component of that consensus has cracked.”  He’s right. Let’s see what can be put together from this “peace plan”  – a ceasefire is great news, but a Gaza controlled by anyone other than the Palestinians themselves, people of Gaza – won’t be an easy fix.

Image at the top: Hundreds of Palestinians wait in line for hours in the scorching heat to receive food aid at the Nuseirat Camp in Gaza on July 25. (credit: Hassan Jedi/Anadolu/Getty Images)