|
April 11, 2008
JDL Canada gets active
Group brings Israeli MK Moshe Feiglin to Toronto.
ARASH BEN SHAUL
After a long absence, the Canadian branch of the Jewish Defence League is once again involved in "counter-protests, demonstrations, education and other events to defend the Jewish community and counter anti-Israeli activities," according to the chairman of JDL Canada, Meir Weinstein.
The JDL was formed in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City. The stated goal of the group was to protect Jews from anti-Semitism and to prevent the "recurrence of the Shoah," but the organization's aggressive stance on the Israeli-Palestinian issue has been severely criticized by many mainstream groups. The JDL rejected the Oslo Accords and proposed a Greater Israel that included all of the West Bank and Gaza.
The JDL's activities declined drastically in 2002 when internal leadership disagreements split the organization. As a result, the Canadian branch of the JDL virtually shut down, only to be reorganized in 2006.
"We began working again during the Israel-Lebanon war," said Weinstein, who led the efforts to revive the dormant organization. "More than 10,000 Hezbollah supporters marched in Toronto. They called openly for the destruction of Israel, so we had to form an organization that could effectively counter that."
Weinstein started an e-mail list of individuals interested in combating anti-Israel and anti-Jewish trends. "The e-mail list quickly grew to 11,000," said Weinstein. "We started the weekly Parscha, an Israel e-newsletter. We then organized counter-protests to fight calls to boycott Israel on campuses. We picketed anti-Israel events. I remember, one of them was a talk by the anti-Israeli Jewish speaker Norman Finkelstein.
"We need a change in Jewish leadership," continued Weinstein. "We need leaders who are no longer boxed by the two-state solution. The reality is we need a 23-state solution, one Jewish state among the 22 Arab countries."
The most recent event JDL Canada organized was a talk by Israeli MK Moshe Feiglin.
In his speech, Feiglin also iterated the need for new Jewish leadership. He lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's recent comments that living with terrorism and violence has been Israel's reality for 60 years and there is "no way of preventing these things from recurring," so Jews better "get used to it."
"Sixty-three years after the gates of Auschwitz opened, they [Jewish people] are supposed to get used to the fact that every once in a while, a Jew is going to get killed because he is a Jew," protested Feiglin, "He has an army, a president; the most modern, strong army in the Middle East, Knesset, Parliament – why did we do all that? Why did we even establish the state of Israel to begin with? Because we agreed that we would not get used to that."
Feiglin also criticized the Oslo Accords and the Israeli government's recent disengagement plan for their failure. He proposed a radical new approach to the problems of Gaza and West Bank. He noted that a survey done recently at a Palestinian university found that most of the Palestinians want to leave Gaza.
"Every year, Israel spends 10 per cent of their national income on the concept of [the Oslo Accords] – on building fences, on destroying Jewish villages, on putting guards at each coffee shop or store," he said, "We're talking about $150 billion that Israel spends every 10 years.... That money is enough to give every Arab family in Yesha [Gaza] $250,000.... They want to leave; we have the money. We're spending it anyhow.... We have the money to help them, encourage them, to have a future somewhere else."
Feiglin admitted, however, that at least with the current Israeli leadership, this solution is not likely to be considered for implementation. He, therefore, made public his intentions to run for leadership of the Likud party once again, after losing to Binyamin Netanyahu in 2007.
Feiglin has been banned from entering Britain on the grounds his views could foment violence.
Weinstein praised Feiglin as one of the few leaders who truly grasp the challenges facing Israel and the Jewish people – challenges that JDL Canada is committed to tackling as well. He expressed happiness at the warm reception JDL Canada has received from the Jewish community since it began its activities once again.
"We have people from many other cities – Calgary, Vancouver – writing to us and telling us we should start chapters there," he said. "We definitely plan on starting chapters in Western Canada. I can't say in the immediate future, but we should have a good presence there by the end of the year. I think we can do a lot of good work there to counter anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic trends."
Arash Ben Shaul is a Vancouver freelance writer.
^TOP
|
