Opinion | Anthony Dayton
The news in North America accompanied by an unhappy picture shows that 100,000 of you are on the march again, protesting the government and especially Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has become reviled in the land for which he gave so much of his life.
TORONTO. APRIL 19, 2024. – But no matter, you have decided that Netanyahu is unkosher and so he must go. The Justice system reforms still rankle you, as well as the right-wing coalition attaining power over you, but now your rallying cry is the remaining 100 to 130 hostages: you want them home. Of course you do. Fair enough. But it’s not fair to suggest that Netanyahu or anyone else doesn’t desperately want them home as well.
The question with hostage and ransom is always, “At what price?” If they were my loved ones, I’d likely answer, “At any price.” But that doesn’t mean it would be the wisest decision. Yet Bibi is to blame for not delivering these poor souls.
Hamas’s latest terms, as you know all too well, is to end the war, remove all IDF troops and begin reconstructing Gaza. You might get your relatives back, (you might not) but you will have lost the war. Hamas will quickly reconstitute and one day there will be another October 7. Perhaps worse. Perhaps thousands would be taken hostage.
Ironically, your protest might have contributed to this latest farce of a Hamas offer, just as your weekly protests and threats last summer not to show up for duty, told Hamas, albeit not correctly, that Israel lacked a fighting will, possibly encouraging the attack.
That’s on you.
The one-time friendly American giant is now controlled by an extreme leftist government and is veering away from Israel. You might think that axing Netanyahu in favor of your type of government will resolve the split. It probably will, as long as Israel serves as a proxy for America and does its bidding. By now, surely it is evident that what is good for Israel is not necessarily of concern for the factions controlling America.
As simply one person in the diaspora, I was never of the opinion that we here in the west should have strong influence over you, there in the Middle East – believing that only you can determine your own path and best know what to do.
But let me tell you something. Maybe that equation has changed since October 7.
Here in the west, Jews are suffering. The pro-Hamas numbers are staggering. They are violent, vindictive and out for Jewish blood, literally taking the command to them to seek us and kill them wherever they find us. Government and police have been slow and unwilling to respond to their hate marches, leaving an older generation of Jews under attack. To have our synagogues vandalized, our restaurants targeted, our children in daycare centers in need of guards paid for by the community to keep them from harm’s way, to watch these vile, weekly protests, to hear the chant, “From the river to the sea…” to see the hatred flooding towards us, is agonizing and demoralizing, to say the least. And the more Israel pushes into Gaza and fights to destroy Hamas, the harder it gets for us.
But that’s okay.
We are prepared to live with it. With the exception of fringe groups such as Jewish Voices for Peace, we are with you. We grit our teeth and carry on, finding solace in your courage and your willingness to suffer in order to survive as a country and a culture and a religion all tied together in one wonderful knot. And we donate money knowing that much of the world has an unlimited purse for those who will use their gold coins to purchase the means of your destruction, while it is we in the diaspora who must continue to provide the finances you need for rearming, for medicine, for food, for living.
So here’s the thing: why would we continue to sacrifice and to put ourselves in harm’s way, if you are so blinded by your hatred of Netanyahu and anyone who thinks conservatively, that you would destroy Israel from within? For that is exactly what you are doing. Passover approaches: you are modern Dathans if you persist.
Even if you succeeded in bringing about the fall of Netanyahu leading to a new, left-leaning government ready to succumb to Hamas, the U.N., and, unfortunately now, our western, Hamas-loving countries, you would have destroyed Israeli democracy and all its heritage. So what would be the point?
For many of us, if I correctly hear similar voices in our diaspora’s choir, I think we would feel that we not only have lost the war, we will have lost our country. ♦
Anthony Dayton is a Canadian life-long educator, freelance writer, and photographer.
His articles are regularly published on https://anthonydayton.substack.com/
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