Israel/Palestine post 10/7 - follow-on events/thoughts as relate to other countries

Don't know much about this organization but this seems like one way to counteract those who try to stir hate:

The pro-Palestine protesters made it clear that the masked neo-Nazis were not welcome, chanting “Nazis Go Home,” and “show your faces, you fucking cowards,” the Daily Montanan reported.

That is just one of the tactics that organizers of pro-Palestine solidarity protests can use to make clear to neo-Nazis that they are not welcome in that movement, according to Ben Lorber, an extremism expert who is working on a book about antisemitism. “It is vital for Palestine liberation organizers and progressive activists to recognize and counter far-right actors who stand diametrically opposed to the movement’s principles and goals,” Lorber wrote in a recent guide for organizers.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/k7zx5a/neo-nazis-hijack-pro-palestine-protest-mike-enoch

Personally, I find it much better to see an effort to recognize and counteract this kind of thing, rather than dismissing or denying that it exists

that's encouraging

Black-Jewish Alliance ✊🏿✡
@BlackJewishA
Police are attempting to arrest Jews in prayer.

We shout “let us pray” for Palestine.

The police have confiscated copies of our speeches.

GET YOUR COP HANDS OFF OUR JEWISH COMRADES

Video of harassment within that tweet.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/11/02/frick-museum-in-pittsburgh-postpones-islamic-art-exhibition-over-fears-it-would-appear-insensitive-or-traumatic-amid-gaza-war

“When war broke out in the Middle East, we were as heartbroken as everyone, and we realised that we were about to open an exhibition that a forgiving person would call insensitive, but for many people, especially in our community, would be traumatic.”

it's so insensitive and traumatic that muslims exist

this whole thing is so devastating.

This is where stuff like "It would be insensitive to publish this book about Soviet dissidents at this time" leads to.

yeah that is obviously ridiculous

An Israeli air strike on the Bureij refugee camp today

https://x.com/ramabdu/status/1720067423238308122

If you use this thread on anything going on in Gaza or Israel.

Israel, Palestine & the Levant rolling events: Oct 23 on

The dissonance in reading about individuals expressing concerns about anti-Semitic violence rising in North America while 400 Arab children are dying every day in Gaza is, frankly, enraging

I have seen videos of anti-Semitic violence over the past week. These videos are exclusively Jewish peace protesters getting harassed by cops in North America, Orthodox Jewish peace protesters getting beaten by Israeli Police in Israel

My heart is ripped in two for my Jewish friends who are saying “not in my name” and being disowned, being called “self-hating Jews”, or— as the Times Of Jerusalem said in an op-ed two days ago: “anti-Zionists who claim to be Jewish are as Jewish as the Westboro Baptist Church that claimed to be Christian”

Jfc just because you’re saying “stop bombing Gaza” doesn’t make you “anti-Zionist”, to begin with

I was bothered by a now ex-friend who told me “how can you call it Gazan genocide when they (the Gazans) procreate so quickly”; fine, first I will block you and never speak to you again, second I will call it something else. What, tho? Israel already doesn’t acknowledge a nakba exists. Anti-war Jews are liberally calling it a holocaust, a shoah; those terms are not allowed to me as a non-Jew.

I feel like one can’t even call it “war” or “a conflict”; Gideon Levy argued that it is neither of these things, that it is a violent occupation, nothing more

Haaretz today reports Netanyahu’s latest speech: “nothing can stop us”.

Anyway, 9000 Gazans dead today, 3 hostages returned, congrats everyone

“anti-Zionists who claim to be Jewish are as Jewish as the Westboro Baptist Church that claimed to be Christian”

I mean ... fwiw, I do think a very not insignificant number of Christians are let's just say in Westboro's ballpark, if not on the same base

"I was bothered by a now ex-friend who told me “how can you call it Gazan genocide when they (the Gazans) procreate so quickly”"

So much hate.

(xp Not the point of the thread, I know, sorry)

"The dissonance in reading about individuals expressing concerns about anti-Semitic violence rising in North America while 400 Arab children are dying every day in Gaza is, frankly, enraging"

posters on this board are worried about their children being bullied at school for being Jewish

Sorry if my posts were emotional or “in the wrong thread” I shouldn’t post when I’m in a news consumption crying spiral, and I shouldn’t read pro-violence NYT articles (or the NYT at all), I am going to call a friend

I agree with everything else in your post, but you can be horrified by the massacre of innocents in Gaza (and the West Bank) while also being worried about anti-semitic violence

Tbh, the biggest “holy shit what are you guys doing” anti-Semitism concern over the past week has been seeing people on social media cheering on “Yemen declares war on Israel” when it’s the Houthis declaring war, not the Yemeni gvmt, and if anybody is cheering for Houthis then we have a big fucking problem

I have been seeing the odd report of AS attacks across Europe now, like this one.

A Moldovan couple arrested for allegedly spray-painting Stars of David on a Paris school last week reportedly told investigators they were acting on orders from an “individual in Russia.”https://t.co/VvJOmmoCAh

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) November 2, 2023

in the larger world, the anti-semitism is probably largely being driven by people who care less about the plight of the Palestinian people and care more about being anti-semitic, and seeing an opportunity for an opening to be a bit more free with their bigotry.

"zionist jews" now trending on twitter, that's that shit i don't like

Caitlyn Jenner's dead name is also trending there today, which says it all

sorry meant to post on the "is this anti-semitism?" thread

I thought this was pretty good:

You are criticizing Israel wrong. Here’s how to do it correctly. pic.twitter.com/DiwBTJOuiG

— Matt Lieb?? (@mattlieb) October 28, 2023

nice to finally see a video of Van Horn Street

in the larger world, the anti-semitism is probably largely being driven by people who care less about the plight of the Palestinian people and care more about being anti-semitic, and seeing an opportunity for an opening to be a bit more free with their bigotry.

― omar little, Thursday, November 2, 2023 12:29 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is upsetting me a lot right now. I know it sounds naïve but I was genuinely surprised at how fast people seized the opportunity to be flat out anti-Semitic. I grew up spending 1/2 the year in a mostly Jewish community in NY where I as a gentile was often the odd one out. 3 of my 5 lifelong close friends are Jewish. I said to one of them yesterday that I think I grew up in this little bubble were I didn't realize how much anti-semitism there still was out there and he was like yeah no shit you're from NY. Anyway - there are a million upsetting things (upsetting isn't anywhere near strong enough) happening right now but I have been thinking a lot about exactly this, OL. :/

it's not good. i have a friend who was indulging in some "deep thoughts" about judaism around the time kanye was on one about jewish people, and i had an instagram convo w/him re: a couple of his posts. i don't know that i reached him, but i tried. another friend (no longer a friend) started to get very alt-right and was an associate of ow3n b3njamin for awhile, a podcast comedian type guy who started to get into some anti-semitic and racist stuff a few years ago. that particular friend is long gone. he was at my wedding. he probably helped hold me up high in my chair during the hora. he just wound up being a particularly "bad actor" in life. and a pernicious influence on others.

i live in a bubble in Los Angeles obv, but shit does happen here. threats against synagogues, anti-semitic graffiti on a famous local deli last night, etc...

the Poetry Foundation shelved a 3500-word review of a poetry book that discusses the book's criticisms of Israel...the poet author of the book is, of course, Jewish, and so is the reviewer.

The donor pocketbook is where artistic freedom hits a wall

This is where stuff like "It would be insensitive to publish this book about Soviet dissidents at this time" leads to.

― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes)

yeah that is obviously ridiculous

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive)

Reflexive censorship of art always seems to crop up when wars begin and wartime propaganda cranks up the red hot rhetoric. Even as recently as the invasion of Ukraine there were ridiculous people calling for cancellation of symphonies by Russian composers as a sign of solidarity with Ukrainians.

O rly

If a HAMAS sympathizer or a HAMAS-adjacent amateur lone wolf carries out a gun attack in the USA killing more than 10 people in the name is Palestine … this poll will flip like a flapjack. https://t.co/NkWdyaliV7

— Malcolm Nance (@MalcolmNance) November 2, 2023

and if my granny had wheels, she'd be a bicycle. I like the specificity of ten or more people, it shows a vigorous imagination.

Reflexive censorship of art always seems to crop up when wars begin and wartime propaganda cranks up the red hot rhetoric. Even as recently as the invasion of Ukraine there were ridiculous people calling for cancellation of symphonies by Russian composers as a sign of solidarity with Ukrainians.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Thursday, November 2, 2023 1:41 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
My kid’s teacher canceled their Russia unit. Like I really don’t think it matters to Ukrainian lives whether our kids are learning about faberge eggs and Baryshnikov

re: that poll.. I'm not really sure that Israel needs much military support anyway... they're a major arms manufacturer/exporter, inventors of the Uzi submachine gun. And they seemed to have no issues selling arms to South Africa's white minority government

and yet the House just approved 14.5 billion in aide to Israel for some reason

$4 billion for the Iron Dome, which kind of seems like locking the gate after the dog gets out.

Wake Forest professor resigns after backlash due to tweet

https://journalnow.com/news/local/wake-professor-resigns-following-backlash-of-social-media-post-on-israeli-hamas-war/article_4e1022a4-78ea-11ee-a828-ffa8e334019a.html

(She’s a really good poet, fwiw!)

14.5 billion in aide to Israel for some reason

er, mm, by long tradition all those billions can only be spent on armaments produced by US-based death merchants military-industrial complex manufacturers.

And lots of defence contracting

Protests are being planned for Armistice Day. Looks like the match will be lit on the tiniest pretence

"They died for your freedom, but don't you dare think about exercising it." https://t.co/xyCICKV35j

— James B (@piercepenniless) November 3, 2023

Clare Hymer
@ClareHymer
HAPPENING NOW: Another peaceful sit-in calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, this time at Kings Cross Station.

the only additional freedoms that came because of GB participation in the world wars was the bankrupting and partial destruction of an evil global empire and the resultant decline arguably sped up the process of decolonisation that followed. "Protect our freedoms" my fucking arsehole, it was a warfare state that forced conscripts onto the battlefield, which is the absolute opposite of freedom.

David Adler
@davidrkadler
New bill in the French 🇫🇷 Senate : 'An insult committed against the State of Israel is punishable by two years of imprisonment and a fine of 75,000 euros.'

I don't even want to paste in what Germany are doing, just utterly disgusting

Belgian transport workers saved the lives of thousands of Jews in the 1940s by unlocking the doors of trains headed for the extermination camps. Now, they're refusing to load weapons onto ships headed to Israel. This is a meaningful & timeless solidarity with humanity. pic.twitter.com/kvcUMcnJd7

— Amro Ali (@_amroali) November 3, 2023

Wokeness run amok

Scoop: Blinken told Israeli war cabinet humanitarian pause will buy Israel time for Gaza operation. My story on @axioshttps://t.co/PkpZ8vrk5H

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) November 4, 2023

Sorry, I blocked the Nazi social media website but it seems as if somebody is accusing Biden in being “complicit” in Palestinian massacre? What a concept

Schmuck.

What a disgrace.

https://www.declassifieduk.org/palestine-action-activists-will-be-sentenced-as-terrorists/

The real two tier justice system

“special advocate” Judge Johnson (who has represented Mi6 before) seems ever so slightly a biased security state hanging judge for hire. Just fucking bullshit is this, the justice system now is as much of sham as UK democracy is.

ex-Israeli, former footballer Alon Mizrahi:

Israel is a schism in humanity; it lives to divide and conquer; by murdering and forcing us into servitude and complicity is is tearing our very hearts out of our chest.

An ideological force that not only seeks to exterminate a part of humanity, but actively works every day to muzzle the mouths of all witnesses cannot and must not be tolerated; it is a desecration of humanity, and a violation of every part of us -

There is no part of you, no childhood memory, no relationship and no experience and no tendency that are not being contaminated and destroyed by having to bear witness to the mass murder of innocents, and keeping your mouth shut about it.

You are dying, and Israel is killing you.

https://alonmizrahi.substack.com/p/normalize-voicing-the-demand-to-end

Alon Mizrahi otm. I follow him on twitter and didn't even know he was an ex-footballer.

One of the most celebrated Israeli football players of all time, even!!

and yes, he is OTM

He's better at articulating how fascist ethnostates corrode the human spirit and destroy your soul than Eric Cantona ever was!

I think these are two different people with the same name: https://alonmizrahi.substack.com/about

oops-/ they look amazingly similar

it would have been an amazing story

Far from being opposites, intelligence and stupidity are intimately bound. The most elaborately intelligent performance can be the most structurally vacant, mobilising all the resources of thought in the service of erasure. The European intellectual who produces a meticulous, footnoted, beautifully reasoned case for Israeli complexity exhibits a stupidity that has learned to speak the language of thought so fluently that it can no longer be distinguished from it. No one sees themselves as shutting down the question; they believe they have thought deeply and arrived, responsibly, at a difficult position.

Moral stupidity in the face of Palestine is therefore both symptom and defence. As a symptom, it marks the site of recognition that has been refused – the negative footprint of what is already known, the psychological distortion signalling an unbearable truth nearby. As a defence, it is the elaborate institutional architecture by which that discomfort is managed: the demand for Palestinian composure, the sudden discovery of complexity.

All of this is designed to prevent a single, shattering realisation: that to truly hear Palestine is to hear a total indictment of Israel, but also of the global order that sustains it. This is a system built on the foundational myth of a “rules-based” liberal internationalism, which is underpinned by the flow of Western capital and weapons, and dependent on a selective and racialised definition of humanity. Moral stupidity is essential to the perpetuation of this order.

https://www.equator.org/articles/moral-stupidity-gaza-palestine-abdaljawad-omar

Two days ago I witnessed a curious case of Zionist karening at the Thames. A group of activists was walking through Southbank protesting Israeli death penalties for Palestinian prisoners. They had some people dressed as blindfolded and bound prisoners and others as Israeli guards carrying nooses.

A woman watching them started yelling and crying. I thought it might be part of the performance, but no, she stumbled over to where my son was playing on climbing rocks and started saying “They want to hang the Jews. They want to hang me.” Eventually someone called a paramedic and she was taken away in an ambulance.

Talk about missing the point.

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/july/don-t-extradite-him

Edy Cohen: "There is no occupation that lasts" pic.twitter.com/hB1U51vs9d

— Olive 🌿 (Tired & Busy) (@oliveegirl) July 31, 2026

https://inthesetimes.com/article/dockworkers-six-countries-announce-port-strikes-october-30

Dockworkers unions in France, Greece, Basque Country, Turkey, Morocco, and Italy are calling an international day of action ​“against war and militarization” on October 30. They are demanding an end to ​“the genocide of the Palestinian people” and the ​“US-Israeli wars of aggression in the Middle East and against Iran.”

“Each union will decide the most appropriate form of mobilization according to its national circumstances, starting from strike action and from a shared commitment to prevent the loading of death and destruction,” reads a joint statement from the unions, which was sent to Workday Magazine and In These Times on July 31.

Together, the unions represent workers at 40 ports in Europe and the Mediterranean, according to the statement. Their call for an escalation emerged from a meeting of the port workers unions held in Istanbul in May. The announcement also expresses ​“full solidarity with the peoples of Cuba, Venezuela and Sudan,” and declares that ​“ports must not be used for the transport of arms, ammunition, military equipment or troops destined for war zones.”

“No to the war economy, government rearmament plans, and the project of militarization of ports and strategic infrastructure from [the] EU,” the unions assert in their statement. ​“Public resources must be used to meet people’s social needs, not to finance war.” Signatories include CGT FNPD in France, ENEDEP in Greece, LAB in Basque Country, LIMAN-IS in Turkey, ODT in Morocco, and ORSA Porti and USB in Italy.

https://www.equator.org/articles/moral-stupidity-gaza-palestine-abdaljawad-omar

― out of the cradle endlessly party rocking (the table is the table), Tuesday, 21 July 2026

It’s not simply that intellectuals talk while others fight, or that fighters distrust words. The real crisis unfolds when speaking and acting finally meet. When the intellectual takes the logic of their own analysis seriously enough to act on it, they encounter the full weight of the abandonment that the words had been circling around all along.

I suppose this can go here. Absolutely devastating, rage stroke-inducing read from Citations Needed’s Adam Johnson. Obv there can’t ever be any real accountability, just another plank on the pyre of legacy media fully in their farce era.

https://www.plutobooks.com/product/how-to-sell-a-genocide/

Netanyahu rejected the Trump admin peace plan and then Kushner after meeting with Hasas officials and then with Netanyahu says:

Kushner said if Hamas doesn’t fulfill its commitments now, “everyone will see that it’s not serious about peace, and then Israel will have much greater support from the United States and other countries to move forward and finish the job properly”.

That's from al Jazeera live updates

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/8/17/iran-war-live-tehran-us-mou-set-to-expire-hamass-al-khayya-meets-kushner?update=4861741

"finish the job"?

a more direct version of that statement: https://apnews.com/article/ben-gvir-israel-gaza-hamas-netanyahu-53f98e92686746f3c9bccd7cf59f26ad

Benjamin Netanyahu’s party has compared the New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, to the leaders of Iran and Hezbollah on a campaign billboard.

The billboard in central Tel Aviv depicts Mamdani alongside the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and the chief of the militant group Hezbollah, Naim Qassem.

“They want Netanyahu to lose … Don’t let them win,” says the poster featuring the logo of Netanyahu’s rightwing Likud party.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/hamas-could-disarm-month-kushner-says

Seeing is believing

would his endorsement count for anything? Or maybe hurt? I don't know how he's perceived in Israel

President Donald Trump is reportedly holding open the possibility of endorsing a candidate in Israel's Oct. 27 election as his administration presses Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to advance a U.S.-backed plan for Gaza.

Trump said that it would be "appropriate" for him to stay out of the Israeli election but added, "I may endorse somebody," reports The Hill on Wednesday.

I think he's pretty unpopular there at the moment, since he fumbled the Iran war so badly. But who knows.

still pretty popular there among Jewish Israelis as of late June: https://www.mandatory.com/news/1800561-donald-trump-negative-review-international-poll-israel

scary to think of who he'll endorse if not Bibi, is this how we finally get the PM Ben-Gvir that we all deserve

if your primary concern wrt Israel is the fate of Palestinians then there's virtually no reason to even pay attention to the election afaict

yeah, it's kinda like the US in that respect

I'm somewhat optimistic that by the time we get a pres election in the US the Dems might have finally concluded they have more to lose than gain backing Israel, but yeah we'll see. though on that note, I am worried that Bibi losing the election will give a lot of cynics the excuse to claim we're talking about a different Israel now

but note that former IDF general and chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, whose coalition is leading the polls, served in Bibi's war cabinet after 10/7, is against Palestinian statehood, supports settlement in the West Bank, thinks the IDF was too restrained in Lebanon, and so on and so on. There would be effectively zero change in Gaza, the West Bank, or to the apartheid system within Israel

excuse to claim we're talking about a different Israel

that excuse would have some validity if, say, there was a sharp turn in Israel's policies in regard to such matters as arresting and prosecuting settlers who engage in KKK-like mob actions against Palestinians, initiating a withdrawal from Gaza while observing a genuine cease-fire, and seriously investigating the IDF for war crimes. that would be a different Israel. it's clear that's not an Israel we will see after this election.

Eizenkot is also the creator or public advocate of the Dahiya Doctrine: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahiya_doctrine

a justification for large scale destruction of civilan infrastructure, ie war crimes

I just finished this article about the State Dept complicity: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/07/27/how-biden-emboldened-israels-aggression-toward-gaza-and-iran

There's a subtext that Netanyahu's desperation to stay in power and avoid jail time enabled some of the worst atrocities of the war:

Blinken flew to Israel a few days later. He met with Netanyahu and Gallant, and, according to people present, told them that letting in food was not only “a moral responsibility” but also “a strategic imperative and a legal imperative.” Yet Netanyahu wouldn’t budge until Blinken threatened to cancel a planned visit by Biden. Even then, Netanyahu agreed to let in only a small amount of supplies, which would have to come through Rafah, on Gaza’s border with Egypt; he also asked that this minor concession remain secret. He feared a domestic backlash for not starving Gaza’s women, children, and other civilians. Biden made his visit, and as he left Netanyahu bragged publicly that he’d defied the President. He declared that Israel “will not allow humanitarian assistance” from “our territory into the Gaza Strip.”

I think there could have been a hostage deal and ceasefire much earlier under a different PM who didn't have Bibi's lifelong commitment to being a sneaky piece of shit. But everyone with power in the govt or military supports the same broad outline of eternal occupation.

yeah and Rubio's recent attacks on the ICC seem totally about protecting Israel from accountability for overt war crimes

https://www.humanite.fr/politique/armee-israelienne/le-festival-de-photo-de-sport-de-deauville-cede-aux-pressions-pro-israeliennes-et-retire-une-photo-prise-a-gaza

well that's some garbage

this is some fucking bullshit

The Spanish government has decided to allow the Trump administration’s controversial extradition request to extradite wealthy activist James “Fergie” Chambers to continue in the country’s courts.

Chambers, a US citizen and wealthy donor to leftwing and humanitarian projects, is currently imprisoned in Madrid. It is the first known case of the US seeking to extradite a citizen over alleged support for Hamas, an accusation tied to money Chambers has donated to support Palestinians, including the Sameer Project, in Gaza.

I wasn't sure whether to post this here, the Canadian politics thread, or somewhere else, but this is deranged: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/yoni-goldstein-jewish-law-tells-us-how-to-deal-with-avi-lewis

For non-Canadians: Avi Lewis is the leader of the NDP, our most viable though currently very diminished leftist party.

Yoni Goldstein: Jewish law tells us how to deal with Avi Lewis
His Yom Kippur message was indefensible

By Yoni Goldstein, Special to National Post

The Jews were well into their desert journey when Korach, a member of the privileged Levite clan, openly questioned Moses’ leadership. Two-hundred-and-fifty people, a tiny fraction of the nation that then comprised hundreds of thousands of adults, sided with him. Korach and his leadership group refused Moses’s summons, accusing him of leading the Jews out of Egypt for his own glory. Suddenly, God caused the earth to open up, and Korach and his family were swallowed alive. The 250 admirers were consumed by fire.

The biblical story of Korach presents a stark lesson in how Jews think about internal dissent, when it escalates to become a threat to the continued viability of the community itself. It is indeed an extreme consequence for eliciting communal harm, but then Jewish law is fairly clear on the subject: when a Jew endangers the Jewish community, the community is obligated to stop them.

Such is the case with NDP Leader Avi Lewis. Critics have accused him of laying blame for the deaths in Gaza at the feet of all Jews in a pre-Yom Kippur social media message. “Tonight Yom Kippur begins,” he wrote. “It’s a time of atonement — a time to grieve those who have been lost, a time to acknowledge and take responsibility for harms we have caused, individually and collectively.”

“For Jewish people,” Lewis continued, “the personal has always been political and the political always personal. This year I’m reflecting on the fact that we failed to do our part to stop an ongoing genocide committed in our name.”

Around an hour earlier, a gunman shot up a synagogue in Belleville, Ont., grievously injuring a police officer on Judaism’s holiest day of the year. It’s not clear to me that you can draw a straight line from Lewis’ post to the Belleville shooting, but, on their own merit, Lewis’ comments endanger Jews everywhere in Canada.

Lewis later tried to backtrack, saying he meant Gaza was the fault of “humanity,” not just the Jews — but the damage was done. And in any case, his original comments were completely in line with his other public remarks about Israel’s war with Hamas, and very much agreed upon within the ranks of the NDP, where Israel is seen as the enemy of all things right and good. In Lewis and his supporters’ construction, Israel and Jews are uniquely to blame for the bloodshed — and when there is blowback, that’s their fault, too.

Fortunately, the corpus of Jewish law and thought provides ample advice on what to do when one of their own threatens the safety of the community.

In Leviticus, God orders the Jewish people, “You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart,” but rather to, “Reprove your kinsman.” The rabbis generally understood this to mean that the Jewish response to a disagreeable community member is to approach privately and attempt to convince them, through honest discussion, to change their ways. Maimonides later added that the confrontation is an essential element — not only to impress upon the subject the seriousness of the matter, but also to avoid holding the contempt in until it boiled over into something worse.

None of this applies, however, when a Jewish person presents a clear and present danger to the Jewish community. When that happens, Jewish thought is much more forceful: you must prevent the perpetrator from causing harm.

Jewish law developed two character sketches to describe such scenarios. The first is known as a “mosar” — a Jewish person who informs to oppressive authorities, potentially leading to the imprisonment, torture or death of community members. The second, called a “rodef,” refers to a Jew who is actively pursuing another with the intent to harm or kill them. In both scenarios, the law is clear that a Jew is duty-bound to step in. Protecting the community and its members is the most important thing.

Judaism has a robust history of debate, codified by the Mishnah, Talmud and centuries of textual disagreement. Perhaps most famously, Hillel and Shamai, two great sages of the first century who headed competing schools of Jewish learning, disagreed about pretty much everything. And that was great, because the foundation of their disagreement was “for the sake of heaven,” which Judaism highly encourages.

But all of that goes out the window when a Jew endangers another Jew. There is no real debate to be had — only rebuke and, in extreme situations, removal from the community. In March 1363, for example, the Jewish community of Tudela, the largest in the Navarre kingdom located in what are now parts of Spain and France, made a resolution that any Jew caught informing against the community was subject to excommunication from all the city’s synagogues for 50 years. Such a person’s presence was simply not tolerated in the city.

Avi Lewis is unlikely to be swallowed up by the earth or officially excommunicated, whatever that might entail, but the story of Korach still offers some metaphorical guidance for a modern-day response to internal threats. Jewish thought does not treat every critic as an enemy. But when the community is endangered from the inside, reasoned debate and private conversations are no longer options. We are left with no choice but to say, “this person does not represent us, they have no connection with us and we will not tolerate being made unsafe, even if it’s by one of our own.” The wellbeing of the community comes first.

It’s not clear to me that you can draw a straight line from Lewis’ post to the Belleville shooting

yeah no shit

esp. because from all available evidence the shooting had nothing to do with Israel, it was just the plain old fashioned anti-semitism that's cheered on by so many of the National Post's favourite world leaders

What's absurd about that bit about the Belleville shooting is it starts with "Around an hour earlier" so the only way to draw that line is via time travel.

there's an Israeli Satmar hasid being detained by ICE for protesting against Israel:

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/nyregion/anti-israel-protest-ice-detention.html

Fair play to the Greens passing their 'Zionism is racism' motion at their conference.

Small step, as they are not anywhere near power, but reflects well on them