Iran

המלחמות של נתניהו וטראמפ

ראש ממשלת ישראל בנימין נתניהו ונשיא ארצות הברית דונלד טראמפ פתחו במלחמה נגד איראן, הנחשבת למסוכנת ביותר. לשני המנהיגים הללו לא הייתה תוכנית מסודרת לגבי המלחמה באיראן, והם כנראה לא חשבו מספיק על התוצאות ההרסניות שלה. הן מבחינת כמות הנפגעים הגדולה, הנזק לרכוש והנזק לכלכלה העולמית. ולא פחות הגרימה ללחץ נפשי גדול מאוד לאזרחי ישראל שצריכים כל העת לחפש מקלטים ומקומות להגן על עצמם, מפני הטילים מאיראן ושל החיזבאללה מלבנון – שהגיעו בכמויות עצומות. הקלישאה אומרת כי ידוע איך מלחמה מתחילה אך לא ידוע כיצד היא תסתיים. זה נכון מאוד לגבי המלחמה הנוכחית

המלחמה עם איראן משרתת בין היתר את הקברניטים שפתחו בה נתניהו טראמפ. נתניהו מחפש לבסס את עצמו כמנהיג ביטחוני ממעלה ראשונה שהרחיק את הסיכון האיראני, תוך שהוא מנצל את העליה בפופולריות שלו בישראל, לקראת הבחירות שאמורות להיערך בתוך מספר חודשים. יש שחושבים שהוא מסוגל להמשיך במלחמה עד הבחירות, או ליצור מלחמה אחרת, כדי לדחות אותן. ואילו טראמפ מבקש להשכיח מהציבור האמריקני את פרשת תיקי אפשטיין שכוללת מידע חדש גם עליו. במקביל הוא מבקש להציג את עצמו בתור הנשיא האמריקאי היחידי שביטל את הסכנה האיראנית. ובכך בעצם הוא בוגד בבוחריו הרבים שקיוו שהוא יעסוק בפתרון בעייות הפנים של ארה”ב והכלכלה בראשה, ולא בפתיחת מלחמות חדשות שעולות מיליארדי דולרים

בתקופת הנשיא ברק אובמה נחתם הסכם הגרעין בין מדינות המערב לאיראן שמנע ממנה להתקדם בפרויקט. הסכם זה כלל פיקוח הדוק על מה שאיראן עשתה בנושא הגרעין, אך טראמפ בקדנציה הראשונה שלו, שמע בעצת נתניהו וביטל את ההסכם. מרבית גורמי הביטחון בישראל טענו שזו הייתה טעות קשה לבטל את הסכם הגרעין עם איראן, אך זה לא הטריד ממש את שני מנהיגים אלה, שלאור כך, מנהלים עכשיו מלחמה קשה מול איראן. הפופולריות של נתניהו וטראמפ בעולם ממשיכה לרדת פלאים. נתניהו עדיין נחשב פופולרי יחסית בישראל, בקרב למעלה משלושים אחוז מהאוכלוסיה, אך מצבו של טראמפ בסקרים בארה”ב הולך ומחמיר. טראמפ שחושש שהמפלגה הרפובליקנית תאבד את הרוב שלה בסנאט ובקונגרס, ינסה בכל דרך לפגוע בתקינות בחירות האמצע של ארה”ב, שגם הן אמורות להיערך עד סוף השנה

כך או כך לאזרחים בארץ פשוט נמאס מהמלחמה הנוכחית כאשר כל העת עפים על המדינה עשרות טילים מאיראן ומלבנון. לא זכורה תקופה כזו בישראל מעולם. כבר כשנתיים וחצי שמתנהלת מלחמה בישראל, שהחלה לאחר הטבח של השבעה באוקטובר. מתי יהיה כבר הסוף לכך ונוכל לחזור למסגרת חיים נורמלית שואלים רבים בארץ. התקופה הקשה והבלתי נתפסת הזו גרמה לישראלים לא מעטים לעזוב את המדינה. גם האנטישמיות הגואה בעולם לא מרתיעה אותם

לפי נתוני מדינת ישראל לפני כשנתיים למעלה משמונים אלף ישראלים עזבו לחו”ל, ואילו אשתקד כשבעים אלף ישראלים עזבו לחו”ל. במקביל יש פיחות משמעותי במספר הישראלים החוזרים לגור במדינה. כצפוי הסיבות העיקריות לגידול המשמעותי בירידה הן המצב הבטחוני ולאחר מכן חוסר היציבות הפוליטית ובעיקר המהפכה המשפטית. גם לחוסר יציבות בכלכלה הישראלית יש משקל בהחלטה של הישראלים לעזוב. יצויין שחלק מהעוזבים הם עולים חדשים שהגיעו לישראל בשנים האחרונות ועזבו לאחר זמן קצר. במונחים כספיים מדובר בנזק של כמיליארד שקל בשנה לישראל

לא ברור מתי ישראל תחזור לתקופה שלפני המלחמה האחרונה והשקט יחזור על כנו. יתכן ומנהיגים חדשים בישראל ובארה”ב יעזרו בקידום היציבות באזור

On war and antisemitism

Sharren Haskel, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, spoke with Canadian media on March 9. (photo from Consulate General of Israel in Toronto and Western Canada)

A terror attack against Canadian Jews on par with the Bondi Beach attack in Australia last December is inevitable if leaders in this country do not address the growing antisemitism crisis, according to Israel’s deputy foreign minister.

In an interview with the Independent Monday, Sharren Haskel reacted to recent shootings at Toronto synagogues and a larger trend of antisemitic acts.

“This will end in blood if the government is not taking serious actions. This is going to end exactly like the Bondi massacre,” she said.

Haskel is attuned to the Canadian situation because she was born in this country – one of only three Canadian-born individuals in Israeli history to sit in the Knesset. Her father lives in Canada and she has other family members here, who she visits frequently.

“I was always so proud of Canada being such a safe haven for Jews,” she said, calling Canada a place where acceptance of minorities, tolerance and coexistence have been strong, defining values.

“And to know where Canada was and where it is today is absolutely devastating,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking for me, and I think that not enough people truly understand the danger the Jewish community is [facing].”

Shootings at Jewish institutions and other acts of vandalism and violence have made Canada, according to an Israeli government report last year, the “champion on antisemitism.”

“It’s insane,” said Haskel.

When a racialized or other minority community in Canada expresses discomfort with a situation, she said, significant steps are taken to alleviate the problem.

Jews do not enjoy a parallel level of empathy, she said. “[Jews] say I am violently being attacked. I’m not allowed to enter my classes. I’ve been beaten. My business was shot at,” she said. “And nothing. Nothing.”

Elected officials have allowed the situation to go too far, said Haskel.

“The government is not setting a very clear red line,” she said. “We are far beyond words. Words don’t matter anymore. This is about actions now.”

The deputy foreign minister added that Canadians, too often, demonstrate inappropriate responses to international events. Critics of Israeli military approaches to Hamas and to the Iranian regime are coming from a place of privilege.

“In Canada, you are very lucky,” she said. “This is one of the most peaceful countries, you enjoy its freedom, and many people in the younger generation have received that freedom on a silver platter. This is not the case in the Middle East. Israel has faced a six-fronted war for the last two years against six different armies – all of them sponsored, trained, armed by this vile, fanatical regime in Iran.”

The Iranian regime has also undermined Israel’s neighbours, she noted, destroying Lebanon’s politics, social fabric and culture. In Syria, Iran backed the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which was overthrown in 2024 after a civil war in which the government explicitly targeted and murdered its own citizens, particularly minorities, killing at least 300,000 people and possibly as many as 650,000.

“It’s very easy to speak from a very comfortable, liberated place,” said Haskel. “But our reality in the Middle East is a very difficult and harsh one, where we are still fighting for our survival, for our freedom, for our rights as minorities here in this region against very extreme, radical, fanatical terrorist organizations and terrorist regimes.”

Haskel hedged on whether Israel’s war aim in the current conflict with Iran is regime change.

“The goal is to take out the long-term existential threat over Israel,” she said. “This is how we define it, and this is the goal of the war.”

That involves taking out Iran’s nuclear program, she said, as well as its ballistic missile program, and neutralizing the experts who are developing, manufacturing and advancing tools for mass destruction. This war is aimed at conclusively ending that threat, she said.

Past Israeli military and covert actions against the Iranian nuclear program resulted in continued Iranian determination to rebuild, according to Haskel.

“They didn’t get the message of our capability, of how determined we are that they will not be able to reach that master plan of annihilation of the state of Israel,” she said. “They’ve been working tirelessly on renovating, on re-creating, on reconstructing, all of that over again. And we are at the point where we say, look, you know, we cannot go every year into an operation like that to eliminate an immediate threat like a nuclear weapon, mass destruction, disruptive weapons.”

Haskel stops short of declaring whether that requires regime change, echoing US President Donald Trump, who has urged Iranians themselves to overthrow their government.

She is hopeful that the US-Israel actions will open a path “for the Iranian people to liberate themselves and to change these fanatical tyrants who have been abusing and torturing them for so many years.”

Should the regime be replaced by a Western-oriented government, the impacts would be broader than the Middle East. For example, Hezbollah, which is supported by Iran, is engaged in drug trafficking and money laundering in Latin America to help fund their operations, she noted.

Haskel believes that the world should be grateful to the United States and Israel.

“President Trump and Prime Minister [Binyamin] Netanyahu are leading right now an effort to protect humanity,” she said. “Every leader and every sensible person around the world needs to ask themselves who they want as their friends and who would come to their help when they really needed it the most.

“During our time in history, when freedom, real freedom, is in danger,” she said, “we are very fortunate to have two leaders like Trump and Netanyahu that stood up and took actions to defend humanity, to defend Western democracies.”

Haskel said that representing Israel carries a profound responsibility not only to the country itself but also to Jewish communities around the world. For her, that responsibility is deeply personal, particularly when it comes to Canada, where she has such close ties. Hearing directly from relatives and friends about rising fear and insecurity has reinforced her sense of duty.

Haskel, who has served as deputy foreign minister since 2024, was first elected to the Knesset in 2015. She was born in Toronto to an Israeli father and a Moroccan mother who met in Paris. The family lived in Canada before moving to Israel when Sharren was a year old. She was raised in Kfar Saba and studied in the United States and Australia. First elected on the Likud slate, she joined Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party in 2021.

Moment of opportunity

From the first of Vancouver’s weekly vigils for Israeli hostages, after the 10/7 attacks, members of the local Iranian community were a welcome presence. Asked by the Independent why he was moved to join the mostly Jewish crowd at one of the first vigils, an Iranian-Canadian man explained that no one knows better than Iranians the enemy Israel is up against.

Now, it is the Iranians in Vancouver who are gathering regularly to show solidarity with their families halfway around the world. And it is uplifting not only to see Israeli flags and Jewish community members amid the throngs, but additionally inspiring that the Jewish presence is as profoundly welcomed at these gatherings as the Iranian-Canadian support was at our own community’s vigils.

The escalating confrontation between the United States, Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran is fraught with danger. War in the Middle East rarely unfolds in neat or predictable ways. Yet, for all the risks, the present moment might represent a genuine opportunity.

For more than four decades, the regime in Tehran has destabilized the Middle East. Since the Iranian Revolution in 1979, the Islamic Republic has invested enormous resources in regional proxy networks, backing armed groups across the Middle East while suppressing dissent and freedoms at home. Iran is one of the world’s foremost state sponsors of terror and the primary backer of both Hamas and Hezbollah – Israel’s most dangerous terrorist enemies.

Many Iranians living outside Iran, probably most, support efforts to weaken or eliminate the Islamist regime in Tehran. Diaspora communities across North America and Europe include people who fled political persecution, censorship and the stifling of basic freedoms.

Domestic opposition – the courageous Iranians who have taken to the streets in opposition to government tyranny – has not dislodged the regime, obviously. Many hope that the US-Israel military action could create an environment that might topple it.

The Israelis and Americans, it needs to be noted, have both explicit and less overt objectives in this war. One stated aim, of many unclear objectives, is to ensure that Iran is prevented from developing nuclear weapons. Regime change is not an explicit goal. The US president has instead called on the Iranian people to take this opportunity to continue to rise up against their oppressors. However, the US administration has not made it clear that ending the theocracy is their aim or that the US will be there for the Iranian people if the war’s other geopolitical aims are met.

For Israelis, regime change in Iran probably presents the greatest chance for stability the country has experienced, at least in the past four decades.

A post-theocratic Iran might pursue normal relations with its neighbours and with the West. It could redirect vast resources away from proxy wars and toward economic development.

None of this, of course, is guaranteed or, perhaps, even likely. History offers sobering reminders that the collapse of authoritarian regimes can produce chaos as easily as freedom.

Iran is not Iraq in 2003 or Afghanistan in 2001. It has a large, educated population, a long, cohesive national history and a strong sense of cultural identity that predates the current regime. Civil society – though heavily suppressed – has shown remarkable resilience, from women’s rights movements to waves of protests demanding political reform. These internal forces matter a great deal. Ultimately, the future of Iran will be determined not by foreign militaries but by the Iranian people.

That is why the current moment, dangerous as it is, should also be understood as holding possibility. If external pressure weakens the regime enough to create space for internal change, Iranians may have a chance to shape a different future.

The risks are undeniable. Escalation could spiral. More civilian lives will be lost – especially as a regime saturated with end-times theology sees its very survival threatened. The region could face new volatility before it finds stability. Civil war could break out.

Sometimes, though, the status quo is the deeper danger. The Islamist regime in Tehran has spent decades exporting conflict and constraining the aspirations of its people. As long as it remains in power, Israel and other countries in the region will not know dependable calm or have much chance to fulfil any dreams of peace.

For the Iranian people, for the region and for the world, this may be one of those rare instances when risk and opportunity arrive together. What follows will depend not only on military outcomes but on whether the international community – and Iranians themselves – can seize the chance to build something better.

As events unfold half a world away, something positive is happening closer to home. In this time of danger and war, it is uplifting to witness Jewish British Columbians standing alongside our Iranian neighbours as they have stood alongside us in our most challenging moments.

Supporting the Iranian people

A huge demonstration filled the blocks around the Vancouver Art Gallery last weekend, part of a weekly presence of Persian and other Vancouverites calling for regime change and democracy for Iran. (photo by Richard K. Lowy)

As the street protests in Iran grow – and the death toll caused by the regime’s police and military crackdown increases – so do solidarity rallies worldwide.

A huge demonstration consumed the blocks around the Vancouver Art Gallery last weekend, part of a weekly presence of Persian and other Vancouverites calling for regime change and democracy for Iran.

The global movement against the Islamic regime has coalesced around Reza Pahlavi, son of the late shah who was deposed in the 1979 revolution. Posters of the crown prince fluttered among hundreds of pre-revolutionary Iranian flags amid chants of “javid shah,” long live the shah.

“I am Stephen and I am Jewish,” said one of the speakers at the rally a week earlier, on Jan. 10, who preferred not to use his surname.

“I have attended almost all the Iranian rallies in recent years for one reason and one reason only: to tell the Iranian people loudly and clearly you are not alone,” he said. ”Anyone who knows what the Iranian people have suffered over the past 47 years can empathize, especially now.”

He emphasized the ancient and contemporary relationship between Jewish and Persian peoples.

“When Israel was attacked on Oct. 7, 2023, the Iranian people came out in bad weather, in the rain and the cold and the snow, to march side by side with Jews all over the world. Why? Because they understand our pain, because it is their pain,” he said. “It is the collective pain of peoples who want what everyone wants: to live in peace and unmolested by those who want to control the world, who tell you what to think, what to wear, what to do, what to believe in.

photo - Several people at the rally carried an Israeli flag — Several people at the rally carried an Israeli flag. *(photo by Richard K. Lowy)*

“Persia was the first empire in the world, under Cyrus the Great, that brought people together and did not, did not oppress them,” he continued. “This is part of the Iranian historical identity. You can have all the Islamic revolutions you want. You will never erase this historical identity, with its great, great culture.”

He commended Iranian Canadians for their contributions to Canada and their devotion to democracy in their homeland.

“You here are Iranians who know what I talk about because you have been living in freedom in Canada and look how you’ve flourished. When people speak of Canadian Iranians, they do so with respect for a people that knows how to work hard and how to contribute to society, to give back, to become productive citizens of a free and open society,” he said. “Is that so much to ask for your brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters in Iran? And it is a blessing that, when Iran is finally free, many of you will return to Iran to help rebuild.”

He called Pahlavi “a man who understands the world.”

“He knows the Iranian people inside Iran and outside Iran. Anyone who questions his commitment to his people can read about how he has worked tirelessly throughout his life to pursue a free Iran and return independence to Iranian people.”

Hundreds are dying in the name of freedom, Stephen said.

“The crackdown is brutal,” he said. “Many of us have seen the image of the older white-haired Iranian woman on the streets of Iran, bleeding from the mouth, her fist raised in defiance: ‘I am not afraid. I am not afraid. I have been dead for 47 years.’”

He commended US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for forcefully supporting the Iranian protests, and called for the leaders of Canada and other Western countries to express their support as forcefully.

David Zacks was one of several people at the rally carrying an Israeli flag. The response, he said, was “a hundred percent positive.” People were asking to take photos with him and thanking him for his presence.

“Iranians and Jews have been great friends for thousands of years,” said Zacks. “Everybody I talk to says, once the regime falls, they’ll be great friends again.”

Webinar on Syria and Iran

On Aug. 5, B’nai Brith Canada hosted an online discussion on the crises affecting Druze communities in Syria and the Iranian people, with a focus on the impact on these diasporas in Canada and potential actions by the Canadian government.

The speakers were Kiumars Rezvanifar, president of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association and founder of the Iranian Canadian Cultural Fellowship, and Jamal Sehnawi, an advisor to the Supreme Druze Council and a member of the Canadian Druze Society.

Rezvanifar said the recent violence in Syria’s Suwayda (Sweida) governorate could have resulted in “hundreds of thousands” of Druze deaths if the Israel Defence Forces had not intervened. He said the attacks included the killing of civilians and kidnappings, highlighting the case of a 5-year-old girl who was kidnapped, assaulted, and her family killed, allegedly by members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). He lamented that major Arab media outlets like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya have downplayed the crisis, a silence he called “a moral issue.”

Independent casualty figures vary. The Washington Institute reported more than 800 dead and 900 injured. Reuters-verified footage and the Syrian Network for Human Rights cited more than 1,000 deaths, mostly Druze, including women and children. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented 182 executions by government-affiliated forces as of July 19. Le Monde reported 1,311 deaths, while Anadolu Agency cited at least 321 killed, including six children and nine women.

These attacks have deeply shaken Canada’s Druze community, said Rezvanifar, who estimated the Druze population in Canada at about 50,000, mainly in Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton.

Sehnawi described the violence in Suwayda as “ethnic cleansing,” attributing it to the Syrian Ministry of Defence and Interior and to foreign fighters. He said the Druze community’s requests were for peace and recognition similar to that afforded to other communities worldwide.

Throughout the discussion, Sehnawi spoke about historical and cultural ties between Jewish and Druze communities, referring to Druze as “direct descendants to the sons of Jacob (Israel)” and noting traditions of service and community support.

The online conversation also addressed the situation in Iran. Rezvanifar spoke about decades of repression by the Iranian government, citing executions, censorship and the suppression of protests. He criticized European countries for “prioritizing economic interests over human rights,” noting that international attention often came “too late to effectively help the Iranian people facing brutal repression.”

In the face of internet blackouts and censorship, Rezvanifar praised citizen journalists, saying, “The Iranian population is tech-savvy and educated, constantly finding ways to circumvent restrictions.”

Rezvanifar alleged that Iranian regime operatives live openly in Canadian cities such as Vancouver and Richmond Hill (part of the Greater Toronto Area), claiming “thousands of visas may have been issued to regime members” and “fewer than 10 deportations have occurred in the past five to eight years.” These figures have not been independently confirmed.

He commented on the fact that it took repeated calls before Canada designated the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization in 2024. The measure had been sought by various groups since the January 2020 downing of Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752, which killed 176 people, most of them Canadian citizens or residents. Both speakers called for Canada and the international community to take action in support of affected communities.

“In real estate, it’s all about location, location, location,” Sehnawi concluded. “In this situation, it’s all about information, information, information.”

Uriel Presman Chikiar is a student at Queen’s University and serves as executive vice-president of external relations at Hillel Queen’s.

לאן נתניהו לוקח את ישראל

:איש צבא בכיר לשעבר שמשתייך למחנה השמאל בישראל אומר על בנימין נתניהו

זה כמעט שנתיים לא השיגה ישראל הכרעה במלחמתה נגד ארגון טרור המצויד ב”טנדרים וכפכפים”, כדברי ראש הממשלה, למרות שכבר הרגה כשני אחוז מתושבי הרצועה. אבל אל דאגה, האיש הזה החליט לפצות אותנו על הכישלון בחזית הקטנה בפתיחת חזית נוספת, ראויה ללביאים שכמותנו, בפותחו במלחמה נגד מדינה ששטחה גדול משטחנו פי 66 ואוכלוסייתה מונה פי עשר מאוכלוסיית ישראל, כולל ערבים וחרדים שלא נושאים בנטל הבטחוני, וממעטים לשאת (שלא באשמתם) בנטל הכלכלי והטכנולוגי

ישראל שיכולה הייתה לסיים את המלחמה בעזה כבר לפני שנה, לשחרר את כל חטופיה ולהיכנס, תחת חסות אמריקאית, להסכמי נורמליזציה, בריתות צבאיות וכינון יחסים דיפלומטיים עם המדינות הסוניות המתונות, לו רק הסכימה לקדם את פתרון שתי המדינות, החליטה להעדיף את החזון המשיחי, את העליונות היהודית, את הגזענות, את האפרטהייד ואת מלאכת השמד והגירוש של תושבי הרצועה

ישראל שהפכה עבור הפלסטינים את רפיח וג’יבאליה למה שסטלינגרד מסמלת לרוסים, ומרד גטו ורשה ליהודים, מעניקה עכשיו לאיראנים על מגש של כסף את מה שהעניקו היפנים לאמריקאים בפרל הארבור: מוטיבציה מטורפת להשיב מלחמה שערה המוזנת על ידי עלבון צורב. התלכדות פנימית, ונחישות סבלנית וארוכת טווח לפגוע בנו אנושות

התבונה המדינית המינימלית מחייבת לנטרל איומים אפשריים ולחזק בריתות אזוריות בבואך להבעיר חזית חדשה גדולה ומאיימת. אבל אנחנו, סרבנים אולטימטיביים שכמותנו לכל פשרה, לכל הסדר, העדפנו להעצים את ההתלקחות האזורית, כי זו הייתה הדרך היחידה לשמר את לכידותה של הממשלה, להשכיח את מחדל העוטף ואת החטופים, וללכד שוב את עדר הכבשים הפבלובי על ידי השמעת רעם תופי המלחמה. עובדה, כולם מריירים

המלחמה שפתחנו נגד איראן בשורת חיסולים המזכירה מלחמת כנופיות יותר מאשר מלחמה בין אומות לא תשיג הכרעה. היא אולי הצליחה להנחית מכה ראשונית מכאיבה, אבל מהר מאוד היא תהפוך למלחמת התשה והקזת דם שעלולה להימשך שבועות, חודשים ואפילו שנים, וזאת בשעה שאורך הנשימה שלנו, בכל מובן אפשרי קצר יותר מזה של האיראנים

כדאי להיזכר במלחמת איראן עיראק שנמשכה 8 שנים גבתה קרוב למיליון הרוגים, חיילים ואזרחים, איראניים, מעל למיליון נכים, שני מיליון עקורים ואומה שמשננת עד היום בהתלהבות את הסיסמה ‘ג’נג, ג’נג תא פירוזי’ (מלחמה, מלחמה עד הניצחון)

המוטיבציה להשיג נשק גרעיני ולהגיע למאזן אימה מול ישראל שכבר מזוינת בנשק כזה רק תתחזק, והנזקים שאנחנו נסב לפרויקט הגרעיני יתוקנו תוך חודשים או שנים מועטות

אני רוצה להאמין בכל לבי שמישהו סביב שולחן מקבלי ההחלטות לקח בחשבון את התסריט ההגיוני הזה ואולי מישהו הרגיע אותו שמיתקפה מוצלחת תערער את המשטר ותביא להפלתו. אולי. אין לדעת. כרגע מסתמן שהסולידריות של אזרחי איראן עם המשטר דווקא גדלה תחת רושם המהלומה הראשונה

אז יצאנו למלחמה להשיג מטרה מוגבלת מבלי לקחת בחשבון שאולי היא תתרחב לעימות מתיש וארוך. לא צריך אלפי טילים ביום כדי להכניס את מדינת ישראל לטרפת, לסגור את נמלי התעופה והים שלה ולגרום לה נזקים כלכליים, נפשיים ולאומיים חמורים

מספיק כמה עשרות שיגיעו למטרות מדי שבוע כדי לסגור את המרחב האווירי, לשבש את שגרת החיים, לחבל אנושות בכלכלה המקרטעת ובמוסדות החינוך, להפוך את המציאות כאן לבלתי אפשרית, לפחות לאלו שלא מצוידים במקלטים אטומיים

אז יצאנו למלחמה להסיר סכנה עתידית שנויה במחלוקת וקיבלנו סכנה מיידית שלא ברור עד כמה אנחנו מוכנים להשלכותיה

Doing “the dirty work”

Israel’s decades-long conflict with Iran is no longer a proxy war, but a real war. Israel has bombarded sites associated with Iran’s nuclear program – as has the United States – and assassinated top military officials and nuclear program scientists. Israel also has targeted installations of the Iranian Revolution Guard Corps, the branch of Iran’s military that reports directly to the supreme leader and protects the nation’s Islamic identity from internal and external threats. Iran has launched missiles at Israel, as well as at a US military base. As of press time, a US-brokered ceasefire appeared to be holding.

Ending Iran’s nuclear program, or, at a minimum, setting it back, is the objective of Israel’s military operation. Regime change – a situation in which the Islamist government of the ayatollahs is replaced by something presumably better – is on the lips of Israeli and American leaders. But, as tempting and positive as that might sound, the immediate mission is more specific and tangible. Some express hope that the debilitated Iranian regime may be subject to internal rebellion. We should remember, though, that the Iranian regime fought an eight-year war with Iran that cost a million lives and millions more injured. That conflict, which ended in an effective stalemate, suggests massive loss of life is not a barrier to the ayatollahs’ ideological objectives.

Western countries, Americans especially, have seen the dangers of becoming entrenched in catastrophic military affairs half a world away, with decades-long engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan in which the people of the region by some measures are now worse off than ever.

We all prefer diplomacy to war, of course, and the discourse in the lead-up to Israel’s strikes on Iranian sites was focused on whether a negotiated resolution was possible. For now, however, negotiation is off the table, although a weakened Iran with a disabled nuclear program would presumably be more amenable to talking.

The objective of preventing end-times religious fanatics like those of Iran’s government from obtaining nuclear weapons is something that most reasonable people can get behind. But “mission creep,” the potential for a limited military plan to expand into a long-term engagement, is one of many dangers stemming from the current situation.

Underestimating the seriousness of the enemy is another threat. Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister in 1939, notoriously negotiated with Hitler and his name has gone down in history as someone who, put mildly, badly misjudged the preference for negotiation over force.

There have been dramatically conflicting reports about how close Iran is – or was – to nuclear weapons. Reports that Iran was on the cusp of nuclear capability were the justification for Israel’s attacks. Other reports suggest they were further away than Israel alleged. Perhaps no one knows but the Iranian regime.

We wish for peace. We also wish for a world where those who threaten peace can be contained. These basic truths can seem contradictory in the short term. But the long-term wish for peace, indeed the very survival of the Jewish people to judge by the explicit genocidal expressions from the top leaders of Iran in recent decades, requires that the nuclear program they have been constructing must never be allowed to near completion.

Interestingly, many voices who have condemned Israel’s approach to the war in Gaza are far more amenable to their approach with Iran. Although some people certainly view the Iranian threat and the Hamas threat as two prongs in the same war, the world seems more likely to acknowledge the urgent danger posed by Iran than they do the threat by Hamas, which is, at this point, limited primarily to Israelis. A nuclear Iran is viewed, by people in the West, as a direct threat to their own well-being – and that has seemed to focus their minds and create a common cause with Israel in ways the battle with Hamas has not.

Self-interest is a powerful force. A few leaders – notably Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said Israel is doing “the dirty work” for “all of us” – have acknowledged that the fight against Hamas and Iran are parallel battles. Others seem determined to view them as largely separate, as though existential threats to Israel are neither as concerning nor as world-changing as the Iranian dangers.

This may be true, in terms of scope, especially now that Hamas is widely seen to be massively weakened. However, the larger reality, as expressed by the German leader, remains: Israel is the frontline in a war that affects us all.

Human rights, democracy

Left to right: Haleema Sadia, Emily Schrader, Christine Douglass-Williams and Goldie Ghamari formed the panel of the Dec. 4 event in Toronto called The Head of the Snake, the Islamic Republic of Iran. (photo by Dave Gordon)

American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader believes it took years for Canada to designate the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps a terror group, as it did in June, because of “moral cowardice.”

She said other Western countries have “refuse[d] to stand up for moral values and their countries and civilizations” and that is “all the reason to vote for those who will protect democracies and freedoms in Canada.”

Schrader spoke in Toronto at the Lodzer Centre on Dec. 4. She was part of a panel with cofounder of TAG TV Haleema Sadia, Iranian-born Ottawa-area Member of Provincial Parliament Goldie Ghamari, and journalist Christine Douglass-Williams, in a talk called The Head of the Snake, the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Schrader is an anchor on ILTV in Israel, co-hosts a panel show on Jewish News Syndicate, and is a contributor to ynetnews.com. In her opening remarks, she spoke of growing up “nominally pro-Israel” until her time at the University of Southern California as an undergrad student. “I didn’t realize how much people passionately hate Israel and Jews until I went to university,” she said.

Her first time “really seeing this visceral, irrational obsession with the Jewish state, which really is an obsession with Jews,” was during an Israel Apartheid Week, held by Students for Justice in Palestine. She said she was “irritated” by the “lies they spread across campus.” She joined Students for Israel in response to “this obsessive hatred towards Israel.”

“I always joke that Students for Justice in Palestine – the best thing they ever did was make me the biggest Zionist in the world,” said Schrader. “I would not be Israeli today if it was not for Students for Justice in Palestine. So, I guess I have them to thank for that.”

It was only after making aliyah that Schrader became aware of the historical connection between Iranians and Jews, going back to Cyrus the Great (circa 590 – 529 BCE), who allowed the Jewish exiles to return to the Holy Land. Iranians and Israelis are “really fighting the same evil,” she said.

photo - American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader spoke in Toronto on Dec. 4 — American-Israeli journalist Emily Schrader spoke in Toronto on Dec. 4. *(photo by Dave Gordon)*

In 2024, Schrader founded the Israeli Iranian Women’s Alliance (IIWA) to promote women’s advancement and democratic values.

She said Iran’s human rights violations have gotten worse. “There are more restrictions and gender apartheid than we have ever seen before.” She added: “The world is not paying attention because of everything else that’s been going on.”

Ghamari said Canada has been “courting the Hamas votes,” meaning immigrants from countries with “fundamentally different values than Canada.”

Schrader added that “the left overestimates the values of these voters” and “they are against the West – whether it’s a right or left government – so courting them is a fundamental mistake.”

“One of the best ways to support Iranians is to support our king,” Ghamari said of exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi – son of the late, deposed shah – who visited Israel in April 2023. “He is the one true voice of the Iranian people. He has 90% support,” she said.

A way to battle the anti-Israel forces is to build connections with like-minded allies, said Douglass-Williams. “They want the outreach just as much as the Jewish community.”

Ghamari seconded that: “All your support gave me the motivation to speak out and speak up.”

Sadia’s advice to win hearts and minds was to “multiply the voices” on social media.

Douglass-Williams alerted the audience that Venezuela has now sold a million hectares of land to the Iranian regime. “The IDF says they are developing weapons there that could reach America and Israel,” she said.

The Dec. 4 talk was organized by the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation, OneGlobalVoice, Allied Voices for Israel, Tafsik, and Canadians for Israel.

In an exclusive interview with the Jewish Independent, Schrader said the new Trump administration will be “excellent” on cracking down on Iran. She believes that moral-minded countries need to “de-recognize” the Islamic regime and ramp up sanctions. “It’s going to be a tall order,” she said of countries who have economic ties.

As for the wave of anti-Israel protests, they are primarily concerned with “support for terrorist organizations and an attempt to infiltrate and undermine Western values and the West,” Schrader told the JI.

If they cared about Palestinians, she said, they would protest the estimated 4,000 Palestinians killed in Syria by the Assad regime during that country’s civil war, she said. The Islamic regime’s “vast majority of the victims” are Arab and Muslim, but again, these protesters are silent.

Law enforcement, she believes, is to blame for allowing “multiple antisemitic assaults and attacks,” because “there’s zero accountability for these crimes that are being committed with a racist, hateful, pro-terror agenda.”

“You have to deter it, or it will only grow,” said Schrader. “And we see that happening. It’s a year after Oct. 7 and, I would argue, that it’s worse.”

Dave Gordon is a Toronto-based freelance writer whose work has appeared in more than 100 publications around the world. His website is davegordonwrites.com.

Visit here inspires hope

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Vancouver for the first time to meet with members of the Jewish community and local business leaders. It was a wonderful experience that enabled me to see the Jewish community up close, and I plan to return soon to this city with its beautiful landscape, and warm and friendly people.

Through my work, I know how difficult it has been for the Jewish community given the explosion of antisemitism, especially since Oct. 7. The sharp rise in antisemitic incidents, including attacks on synagogues and the shocking experiences of students at the University of British Columbia, have created an ambiance of fear, anger and uncertainty. At the same time, this troubling climate has brought together Jews from all walks of life to defend our values, our people and the state of Israel.

One name that repeatedly arose – a nongovernmental organization I am very familiar with through my work at NGO Monitor – was Samidoun. Samidoun is a Canadian-registered not-for-profit, founded by a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Khaled Barakat. Barakat’s spouse, Vancouver resident Charlotte Kates, is its international coordinator.

Although Canada declared the PFLP a terror group in 2003 and, despite Samidoun’s antisemitic and pro-terror rhetoric, the government still has not taken action to shut down this NGO.

Like the PFLP, Samidoun disseminates messages and an agenda supporting violence, terror and antisemitism as a means to destroy the state of Israel. Since the Oct. 7 atrocities, Samidoun has expanded its local activities, contributing centrally to the sinister atmosphere facing Canadian Jewry. Illustrative examples include a July seminar in Toronto that called for eliminating “Israel as a military, political and economic establishment” and an event in Vancouver where the PFLP, Hamas and Hezbollah were praised. There have been dozens more such events.

In contrast to Canada, Samidoun activities have been banned in several countries, including France and Germany. Meta (formerly Facebook) shut down the social media accounts of the Vancouver and Toronto chapters of Samidoun, while Stripe, a major credit card processing company, closed Samidoun accounts on its platform, preventing online fundraising in Canada.

Let’s not be naïve. Samidoun is not the only NGO that is problematic, and it joins more than 100 other groups in Canada engaging in offensive and, at times dangerous, rhetoric. Moreover, the hatred stemming from Samidoun’s headquarters in Vancouver is not just against Israel and Jews, but against Canada and all Canadians. The NGO uses strategic attacks against the state of Israel and the Jewish people to distract from their assaults on the very values that enable Jews, Muslims, Christians and others to peacefully live side by side in Canada, Israel, and around the democratic free world.

Samidoun’s threat to Canadians, beyond the Jewish community, is blatant in their statement declaring Canada a settler colony “that require[s] the same settler logics and brutalities as ‘Israel’” and their claim that international law allows for people living in a colonialist society to “resist.” All law-abiding Canadians should be extremely concerned for Samidoun’s justification of Hamas’s Oct. 7 abduction, rape, mutilation and murder of innocent children, women, Holocaust survivors and eight Canadian citizens (including Vancouver’s Ben Mizrachi) as “resistance.” Moreover, Samidoun’s argument about Israel, that “imperialist warmongers will call it terrorism, but we know this is anti-imperialist resistance,” defends any terrorist activities they choose to initiate anywhere and is not reserved only for Israel but rather for all Western “imperialistic” countries.

While Kates is working to overturn Canada’s designation of Hamas and Hezbollah as terror groups, Samidoun is allowed to operate and flourish. After her appearance recently on Iran’s national television station to commend “the brave, heroic Oct. 7 operation” by Hamas that killed Canadian Jews, it is all the more critical to terminate Samidoun’s soapbox of hate that is based in Vancouver.

One of the impressive aspects of the BC Jewish community is the collective desire to work closely with those outside of their faith toward building a better society for all in Canada. After my visit to Vancouver, I am optimistic that Jews and non-Jews will work collaboratively against the seeds of divisiveness and hate sown by Samidoun. This will not end antisemitism in Canada, which has become, unfortunately, widespread. But it is an important first step.

Olga Deutsch is vice-president of NGO Monitor and has extensive expertise in international politics, humanitarian aid, funding to nongovernmental organizations, international development, post-Oct. 7 antisemitism, efforts to delegitimize Israel, and BDS.

From poems to songs

Loolwa Khazzoom (photo by Moriel O’Connor)

“Dear Hostages, as the world rallies to celebrate your desecration I will not forsake you,” begins the poem written by Seattle-based multimedia artist and educator Loolwa Khazzoom. Posted on her Facebook page, with a #BringThemHomeNow poster featuring photos of Israelis kidnapped on Oct. 7, it continues, “My instinct is to deprive myself of oxygen / Because you are underground / And I will not forget you // But I know that you would dance / In the sun / If given the chance / So I now rise up / And dance for you.”

Many of Khazzoom’s songs begin as poems. In this case, she told the Independent, “I felt as if I could not breathe and as if I did not even want to breathe, out of solidarity with the hostages and with all of Israel, in particular, all the victims of the Oct. 7 massacre. It’s like I wanted to physically feel their pain and suffering, as a way of physically demonstrating that I would not forsake them or forget them.”

In a traumatized mental state, Khazzoom returned to the “healing tools of poetry and music,” which was another way she could show her solidarity and do her part in keeping the issue of the hostages in front of people.

Similarly, Khazzoom and her band, Iraqis in Pajamas, recently released another poem-turned-song, “#MahsaAmini.” They did so this past Sept. 16, the first anniversary of the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini at the hands of Iranian “morality police.”

Finding out about Amini’s murder soon after it took place, from TikTok videos posted by Iranian women, Khazzoom “jumped into action.” She wrote to her political representatives, raised funds for United 4 Iran and reposted Iranian women’s videos on her feed constantly, to help boost the content’s views. “In addition,” she said, “a day after I found out about what happened, a poem with my feelings poured out of me, and I posted it on social media. Months later, I put that poem to a melody, and the band developed it into a full band song, which we released on the [anniversary of the] day of Amini’s murder.”

The death affected Khazzoom deeply for many reasons.

“First, the women in my family wore the abaya, the Iraqi equivalent of the hijab – Jewish women throughout the region were subject to Muslim dress codes, so it’s a Jewish issue, too,” she said. “Second, so many people assume that Islam is indigenous throughout the Middle East and North Africa, but it’s not. Arab Muslims rose up from the Arabian Peninsula and conquered the entire region, forcibly converting masses under the threat of death. So many indigenous ethnicities and religions predated the Muslim conquest, including Jews, Persians, Berbers and Kurds. The Iranian women protesting and burning their hijabs felt to me like challenging that Muslim conquest and awakening the ancient Persian warriors. Third, Persia is central to Jewish history and the origins of the Mizrahi community, dating back nearly three millennia ago…. And, lastly, the fire of these women, and the men who joined them, and their willingness to risk their lives for their dignity and freedom was just breathtaking and profoundly inspirational.”

Another of Iraqis in Pajamas’ releases this year was also intensely personal for Khazzoom.

“I wrote ‘The Convert’s Quest’ in response to some friends on social media sharing how hurt they were, coming under attack during the process of their conversion to Judaism. I had ample experience witnessing variations on this theme throughout my life – both first-person, seeing it happen to friends, and through my research as a Jewish multicultural educator. For decades, I felt very disturbed by this seemingly growing trend.

“I am the daughter of a Jew by choice, as my mother called herself, so the matter of conversion to Judaism is very personal for me,” she said. “I remember understanding very clearly as an Orthodox Jewish child that, according to halachah (Jewish law), once you convert, you are no longer to be called ‘a convert,’ but rather, a Jew, period. So, even from a religious Jewish perspective itself, I was very distraught by the ways that Jewish leaders and communities were rejecting or harassing converts, or even all-out forbidding people from converting. It all flies in the face of Jewish history, theology and practice.”

The band released “The Convert’s Quest” on May 24, on the harvest holiday of Shavuot, which celebrates the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people and on which the Book of Ruth is read. It tells the story of Ruth, a Moabite woman who converted to Judaism, whom Jewish tradition teaches will be the ancestor of the Messiah.

“To me, Jewish converts are the lifeblood of the Jewish people,” said Khazzoom. “I have a provocative line in my song, saying that converts are ‘the most Jewish Jews of all,’ because they are intentionally and consciously practising the foundational precepts of Judaism, which so many either take for granted or do rote, as is often the case in the Orthodox Jewish world where I was raised. In addition, amidst life-threatening levels of racism and violence against Jews, converts choose Judaism…. Why would we reject, in any way, from subtle to blatant, someone with such a heroic Jewish soul?”

Even when delivered in a playful manner, Khazzoom’s song are serious to the core. The campy “Kitchen Pirate,” for example, “emerged from my choice to reject the conventional option of surgery, in the wake of a cancer diagnosis in 2010,” she said. “Instead, I chose to radically alter my diet and lifestyle. Simply by overhauling my diet, I cold-stopped the growth of the nodules, which remained stable for the next five years – neither growing nor shrinking – until I returned to my lost-love of music, following which they began shrinking.”

Khazzoom said her songs “are always questioning, always challenging, always defiant. Sometimes, it’s more explicit, other times it’s embedded in silliness, which, parenthetically, I also see as defiant. I am and forever will be a curious, playful and awe-inspired child. I think that, if and when we ‘outgrow’ that, we die inside. And I refuse to capitulate to that norm of expected behaviour once we enter adulthood. By way of example, to this day, at age 54, when I am flying in a plane, if there is nobody sitting next to me, I will stretch out my arms and pretend I’m a bird, during takeoff.”

Not everyone has appreciated this aspect of her personality. “I have constantly gotten into trouble for it and have been at odds with my family, my community and society at large,” said Khazzoom. “I have endured terrible loneliness and often even self-doubt as a result. But I always come back to my core. And all of my songs emerge from that place – that raw, gut-wrenching place of being fiercely alive and allowing the clash with everything around me, and then writing about it.”

It is this enthusiasm that Victoria-based band member Mike Deeth enjoys about being in Iraqis in Pajamas, whose third member is Chris Belin.

“Loolwa and Chris are both easy-going, creative people. The energy is very positive, which makes collaborating with them fun and organic,” Deeth told the Independent. “Further, I appreciate the passion Loolwa has for the subject matter she writes about. One thing I always struggled with as a musician is ‘What do I have to say?’ At the end of the day, I’m a privileged guy who has never had to face oppression, hate, war or genocide. I have a lot of respect for artists who have experienced darker parts of humanity and have the courage to bring that perspective into their art.”

Born in Toronto, Deeth, who is not Jewish, spent most of his adolescence in Calgary, and moved to Vancouver Island when he was 18. He first picked up a guitar a few years earlier and has been playing ever since. “I was in my first band at 18 and played in bands throughout my 20s. For the past several years, I have been mainly focused on recording,” he said.

photo - Mike Deeth — Mike Deeth *(photo from Mike Deeth)*

Deeth got hooked on music production in his teens, getting his first digital recorder at age 16. “I still remember pulling all-nighters with friends trying to write songs and get ideas down on tape. Production was always fascinating to me, as I could layer parts together into something bigger than I could ever play on my own.”

Deeth and Khazzoom met a couple of years ago through a Craigslist posting. “She was looking for a guitarist to contribute to an early version of her track ‘The Convert’s Quest,’” he explained, complimenting Khazzoom on the fact that she “puts her full heart into her songs.”

“I recorded some initial guitar demos and, about a year later, we reconnected and worked up the current releases,” he said.

Deeth adds guitar to the songs and completes the mix and master of the songs when they are ready for those steps. Khazzoom sings, writes and plays bass, while Belin – who lives in Pennsylvania – composes the drum parts and performs them.

Among his other music ventures, Deeth has “played the guitar with Bryce Allan, a country musician here on the island, and recorded a few tracks with him. I also work closely with Jennie Tuttle, another musician from Victoria. We have been recording together for seven or eight years now.”

For Deeth, “recording is such an interesting combination of art and science. I get to be musically creative, but I also get to play with cool machines, solve problems and think about gain staging, compression ratios and other technical aspects. I thoroughly enjoy both the artistic and scientific parts of the process – they work my mind in different ways.

“I also love how each project starts as a blank canvas and ends with a new piece of music out in the world. There are an almost infinite number of possibilities when recording a track (all the possible settings on the equipment, the subtleties of different instruments) and it always fascinates me how each song takes shape during the process.”

“Mike has an exquisite sensitivity in his musical composition, performance and recording,” said Khazzoom. “He’s not only super-talented and -skilled, but he’s warm, upbeat, enthusiastic and professional. It’s a joy to create music with him. As is the case with our drummer Chris Belin, Mike has an uncanny ability to capture the essence of the songs I write, to the point that I feel he is playing back to me the sound of my soul. I have literally sat and cried after hearing the mixes.”

For more on Khazzoom, visit khazzoom.com. For more on Deeth’s production and sound services, visit glowingwires.com.