It has been a week since Israel was subjected to a heinous attack that has now killed over 1,300 mainly civilians in southern Israel. We have borne witness to the worst pogrom since the Holocaust and while it is good to see messages of solidarity with Israel, solidarity is a verb and not a noun. But what action can you take? It turns out, a lot, and lot which can help create positive change. I also hope these tips can help you find out who is who, because people will reveal themselves in the coming days and weeks.
Educate yourself on both the history and current reality With regards to Israel and its enemies that it is now fighting. Understand that there will be vast amounts of disinformation circulating on social media vis-a-vis the current conflict and also pertaining to its history. This disinformation is designed to shape public opinion in a way that negates the unprecedented sympathy for Israel that we have seen over the last week. You will see images of children gassed by Assad in Eastern Ghouta that were circulated as being from Israeli airstrikes from Gaza. A certain member of Congress even retweeted this disinformation. You will see images from Russia’s indiscriminate firebombing of Bakhmut last winter as “evidence” of Israeli war crimes supposedly being committed in Gaza. You will also see badly burned children from Syria magically become Gazan. There was also an image of supposed Israeli airstrike in Gazans trying to flee south after Israel’s evacuation order that OSINT accounts showed to be an explosion originating from a source on the ground rather than the air.
Also, expect to see history bastardized and distorted like never before with the goal of negating the 3,000 year old Jewish connection to their ancestral homeland. They want to make you believe that the civilization that developed the Bible, that fought off the Seleucids, that was massacred by the Romans and still never lost their connection to the land are squatters. The enemy also wants you to believe that the Arab states never did gang up on the one-day old Jewish state to destroy it and commit another Holocaust, three years after the previous, and that they did not spend the previous decades before butchering their Jewish neighbors in ways reminiscent of what we saw last week. The enemy wants you ignorant of Hajj Amin Al-Husseini’s overt alliance with Hitler, of the Coastal Road massacre, of the fedayeen attacks on Israel in the 1950’s and so much more.
The only way to fight this two-pronged disinformation offensive is education. You cannot fight back unless you know. And if you are educated on the subject matter, you have a duty of care to educate others and disprove the lies.
Name and shame those who provide any sort of cover for the terrorists, whether through excuses, denial, whataboutism etc. Freedom of speech does not imply freedom from consequences. If you support terror, the world must know. Over the last week, you might have seen rallies in support of Hamas across Europe and North America. You have probably read open letters from student unions across various universities praising last week’s terror attacks as “legitimate resistance” and you may have even seen statements from groups such as Black Lives Matter Chicago with paraglider images supporting Hamas. (remember that many of the terrorists entered Israel via paraglider including those responsible for the music festival massacre) None of these statements ever express any outrage or even sympathy for the beheaded children, the pregnant women whose wombs were torn up, and so on. People like this have no place in civilized society. People who make excuses for Hamas are no better than those who would make excuses for ISIS or Al-Qaeda. If anyone in your circle is engaging in this behavior or amplifying these sorts of voices, please note that this person is not your friend and that when push comes to shove, if Hamas ever came for you, they would cheer them on there as well. Take note of who can’t bring themselves to condemn Hamas and the hateful ideology that drives them and shun them. Make sure also that their employers or schools cannot feign ignorance. Naming and shaming works. Case in point, an Air Canada pilot cheering on Hamas was sacked this week, rendering the skies safer for all of us. (Important note: There are people expressing genuine concern for innocents in both Israel and Gaza and this a completely different position from those who only care about Hamas getting away with what they’ve done so please do not confuse the two.)
Support other countries on the frontline between freedom and tyranny. This means supporting Taiwan against Chinese aggression, Ukraine against Russian imperialism, South Korea against the Kim’s Communist regime to the North and so on. More generally, this means understanding the idea that democracy breeds peace and stability and that tyranny breeds misery and war. The war of extermination waged against Israel by the Iranian regime and its proxies is not an isolated event. It is yet another consequence of a collective lack of resolve from the free world that is reflected in Freedom House’s annual reports. Liberal democracy is ebbing and aggressive tyranny is flowing. The same appeasement that emboldened Hitler and Stalin and that emboldens Putin and Xi today emboldens Hamas and the Iranian regime that sponsors it. In today’s deeply interconnected world, an explosion of hostilities in one part of the world means bad actors elsewhere can ignite another flashpoint in a moment’s notice. Already, Russo-Assadist forces in Syria have stepped up their indiscriminate bombing of Syrian civilians. Turkey’s neo-fascist dictator Erdogan has taken advantage to again attack Kurds in Syria and Iraq. The Russians also launched a large-scale offensive action in Eastern Ukraine this week which thankfully seems to be failing. Chinese planes continue to buzz around Taiwan’s ADIZ.
Where I intend to go with this is that we either support everyone that’s standing up to the world’s bad actors or we support none. Either Israel or Ukraine, to give an example, is an unacceptable stance. If we want to turn the tide against the tyrants, the free world must present a united front. We must demand this sort of stance from our elected representatives and no less. Total defeat of Russian forces in Ukraine will weaken North Korea, Iran and other bad actors sponsored by Russia. The destruction of the Iranian regime’s proxies robs it of its ability to project power. The path to a free Iran, the path to justice for Iran’s women, runs through the destruction of Hamas, Hezbollah and the regime’s other goons that they also use to oppress their own people. A western world united in its resolve to defend freedom everywhere keeps Xi away from Taiwan, and ushers closer the day where we’ll see a free Hong Kong and an India and Philippines that no longer have to worry about an aggressive, expansionist neighbor. I could go on but I have other points to move onto. In summary, understand that this is a wider fight between the values of liberal democracy, and the murderous tyrannical order that we spent centuries climbing out of.
Stick up for Jewish communities in your country. Any time there is a flare-up of tension between Israel and those bent on its destruction, expect a rise in hate crimes against Jews in the diaspora, who are seen as easier targets. Therefore, as responsible citizens of Canada, the United States and so on, we have a duty of care to demand that our police forces and elected officials do more to ensure that proper security measures are taken in response. These incidents of Jewish homes and businesses being marked in Berlin, or Jewish schools being closed due to threats in Toronto are a stain on all of us. The 1930’s are over, and we cannot allow places like Times Square, the Eiffel Tower, and the Brandenburg Gate to become no-go zones for anyone simply because they are Jewish. It also goes without saying that if anybody wants to use world events to harass Muslim businesses or schools that this too is inexcusable and should be prosecuted also.
Support causes enacting positive change on the ground. B'nai Brith put out a good list of Israeli groups that are providing relief to the victims including burial services and mental health support. As we head into the holiday season, now is as good a time as any to spread some good will.
There is probably more we can do, but for now this is what I’ve got. Solidarity is a verb, now and always. We can never bring back the dead and we cannot erase the trauma of the survivors, but we can help ensure that Hamas and similar groups can never terrorize innocents again. We can ensure that the dangerous disinformation that fuels antisemitism and hatred towards the world’s only Jewish majority state is countered effectively and honestly. We can learn from this tragedy to unite the free world in iron-clad resolve to end tyranny once and for all. We can support and uplift local Jewish communities and we can expose those who have allowed themselves to become apologists for evil, making the world around us safer and better for all. Let this nightmare end quickly, and let it end with Hamas in the same historical dustbin as Hitler and Haman. Most importantly, let it end with a future expansion of the Abraham Accords to include everyone, including the Palestinians, and with a world where Israelis, or anybody else, will never again have to fight a war of national survival.
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