There is no longer a debate as to whether antisemitism has become normalized. The only debate is over the extent of that normalization.
A few days ago, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, who is Jewish, was the target of an antisemitic slur as he reviewed a pizza:
“Sports media mogul and pizza review king Dave Portnoy was the target of an anti-Semitic slur during a recent visit to Toronto.
Portnoy, who is Jewish, was in the Big Smoke for a Bitcoin conference and had just ordered a pizza at Terrazza on Harbord Street when someone yelled “F**k the Jews” during one of his wildly popular “One Bite” online reviews.
“There we go,” a dismayed Portnoy responded.
Several youths who were watching the review started laughing, and Portnoy admonished them.
“What are you guys f****n laughing about?” he asked, as what started out as a playful review suddenly took on a serious tone.
“What is that Toronto hospitality there?” he asked.
“That’s terrible,” his Toronto-based sidekick Bill the Greek replied.”
This is not the first time Portnoy has faced antisemitism. In May, someone wrote the same antisemitic message on one of his pubs.
Hate turns into violence
Hateful words often turn into violence, and the surge of antisemitism has been no exception.
In Boulder, Colorado, Mohamed Sabry Soliman is the suspect in a brutal attack on peaceful Jewish protestors calling for the release of hostages. According to authorities, Soliman planned the attack for a year and yelled “Free Palestine” as he threw incendiary devices at people, some of whom suffered severe burns.
And last month, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who both worked for the Israeli Embassy in the United States, were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
Words become actions
The most horrific crimes in history, genocide, wars of annihilation, mass murder perpetrated by the state, always start with words.
A process of dehumanization and radicalization is undertaken by extremist forces, who slowly but surely normalize hatred towards a target group. When this process reaches a tipping point, a critical mass of the population becomes willing to commit acts of violence, either coordinated or on their own, but in either case as a result of hateful narratives taking root.
Of course, the overwhelming majority of people never take part directly in that process. However, extremists don’t need most people to participate. They just need most people to be silent.
And that’s what’s happening now.
As hatred against Jews becomes normalized, most leaders and most citizens are not exhibiting antisemitic behaviour themselves, but are rather becoming numb to antisemitism.
There is less pushback and more tacit acceptance of a hostile environment for Jewish People.
And that is the environment in which hate and violence flourish.
Hate on the left and right
While the initial post-October 7th, 2023, surge in antisemitism was driven largely by groups aligned with the left, antisemitism is also surging on the right.
This is something noted by Rod Dreher – a very committed American conservative – who warned in a recent column that “The Radical Right Is Coming for Your Sons.”
Dreher says he is “now witnessing the deep inroads, in such a short period, that right-wing totalitarianism, expressed most often as antisemitism, has made, especially among a growing segment of right-wing males. And unlike so many who point this out, this community is not exotic or foreign to me—this is my world.”
Dreher references the concern of a professor at a “Christian university in the South” with a “mostly conservative” student body who is shocked by the number of students in his class, “who are antisemites”:
“I stand in front of my class shocked by how many of my guy students are into this stuff,” he told me. “They’re all getting it online…”
It would be easy and satisfying if our political opponents, whomever we define that to be based on our political alignment, were solely to blame for the rise of antisemitism. But that’s not the case. Antisemitism is rising across the political spectrum, and, as noted above, is increasingly manifesting not only as hateful words, but also hateful actions.
When hatred goes unchecked
We are seeing what happens when hatred goes unchecked.
When people refuse to hold their fellow partisans accountable, when social media platforms refuse to moderate content, when public figures indulge in hate, when many lack historical knowledge, when leaders take the easy way out, and when disagreement with the foreign policy of Israel is taken by some as license to hate Jews, the lives of our Jewish family, friends, and neighbours are put at risk.
To protect the Jewish community, the rest of us need to stand up and call out this rise in antisemitism, and we need to push governments and social media companies to take action.
Sentences for those convicted of violent hate crimes must be heightened, both as a deterrent and as a way to keep violent people away from the community.
Social media companies must return to stricter content moderation (praise of German fascist leaders, Holocaust denial and antisemitism should not be allowed). If companies fail to take those steps, then government regulation should force them to do so. Even the freest of societies must step in and take action when a growing number of citizens start believing in false and hateful propaganda that glorifies the ideology of the enemy we fought in the Second World War.
And – while this may be controversial to some – Canada’s security apparatus (CSIS in particular) needs a massive funding boost to track hate and implement effective messaging to promote Canadian values and counter extremist narratives that are undermining our nation and putting people’s lives at risk.
The ‘free for all’ approach, where we all sit back and just hope for hate to dissipate, isn’t working. The antisemites must be challenged, and their false narratives must be quashed. Note, this is not referencing criticism of actions taken by the Israeli government. There is robust debate within Israel itself about what the government does. What I’m referencing here is the obvious hate being directed towards Jewish People, hate that our society once had zero tolerance for but is now allowing to flourish.
Each of us, every citizen, must confront antisemitism. When we speak out in defence of the Jewish community, when we call out antisemites, and when we push for the government to take action, we each can help turn the tide. And we must turn the tide.
Remember, what starts as hate against Jews often spreads to an ever-wider range of groups. Antisemites tend to hate large swathes of people, and those who are willing to commit hateful violence towards one group of innocent people will undoubtedly commit violence against others. This was a lesson the world learned the hard way in the Second World War, as what started with hatred against the Jews in Germany ultimately culminated in a fascist regime that was stopped at the cost of tens of millions of lives.
Further, antisemitic extremists are often linked to nations and organizations that are hostile to Canada, our allies, and the foundational values upon which our society is built. Letting their ranks grow means putting our future at risk. This is why confronting antisemitism is not only the right thing to do, but is also essential for our national security.
We cannot give an inch to the new generation of antisemitic fascists and extremists who now feel emboldened because of the passivity of those who know better. The time to stand up is now, before it’s too late.
Spencer Fernando
Image – YouTube
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