Shortly after returning home from Israel‚ I attended a pro-Hamas demonstration in Toronto‚ Canada‚ as a counterdemonstrator. But this was no ordinary pro-Hamas rally. Its participants billed themselves as “Jews Against Genocide.” It was held outside of Indigo‚ a big-box bookstore in Toronto that is owned by Heather Reisman‚ a wealthy Jewish businesswoman and philanthropist. Ironically‚ her store is known for promoting progressive books. But in the eyes of the demonstrators‚ this fact was irrelevant because she had committed an unforgivable sin: She was known for supporting charities in Israel. During an earlier demonstration in front of this bookstore‚ one of the attendees‚ a professor at York University‚ had vandalized the exterior of the building. Afterward‚ she had been arrested and charged with vandalism‚ and added to this was the charge that the crime was motivated by hate. In Canadian criminal law‚ any crime that is deemed to have been motivated by hate can lead to a stiffer sentence. This demonstration was clearly organized at least in part to protect her. READ MORE from Max Dublin: In Their Words: The Families of Hamas’ Victims “Jews Against Genocide” appears to be an umbrella group of ultra-leftist Jewish organizations. They are the ideological heirs to the rump of the numerous Jewish leftist organizations that arose mainly during the Great Depression‚ when it was considered humanistic by many‚ not only Jews‚ to be a communist. However‚ in February 1956‚ Nikita Khrushchev‚ then premier of the USSR‚ delivered a speech to the 20th Congress of the Soviet Union condemning his predecessor Stalin for his cult of personality‚ his violent repression of the population through purges and the gulag‚ and anti-Semitism. As he delivered this speech‚ some members of the audience burst into tears‚ and others had heart attacks‚ thus discovering that they did have hearts after all. This speech‚ which was soon partially leaked‚ created a huge rift in communist organizations both within the USSR and in the West‚ including in Jewish leftist organizations. After the revelations of Khrushchev’s speech‚ many Jews left these organizations entirely‚ and others split away into more mildly progressive organizations‚ while a rump clung to the extremist dogma. The “Jews Against Genocide” are alt-left Jews who are the spiritual and ideological descendants of this rump. It was a fairly large crowd of demonstrators‚ most of whom were wearing masks and many of whom were wearing T-shirts bearing the slogan “Jews Against Genocide‚” along with the obligatory Arab keffiyeh — but it was impossible to tell how many were actually Jewish. There were also a PA system and a table with microphones for speakers. The demonstration was apparently well organized and well-funded. (READ MORE from Max Dublin: A Goldfish in Time of War) When the first speaker began addressing the crowd‚ she said not a word about the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israelis on Oct. 7. Instead‚ characteristically‚ she began her speech by proclaiming the bone fides of her Jewish organization. They were Jews who cared deeply about Judaism and were there to uphold its highest ideals. They were deeply troubled because they remembered the Holocaust and were‚ therefore‚ horrified by the genocide that Israel was now perpetrating against the Palestinians. G.K. Chesterton once wrote: The Devil can quote Scripture for his purpose; and the text of Scripture which he now most commonly quotes is: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” That text has been the stay and support of more … self-righteous spiritual bullies than all the dogmas of creation. This was the Jewish version of that sentiment. The second speaker was full of self-righteous indignation. How could the police have arrested the professor for what was obviously no more than civil disobedience? And to add on the charge of hate crime — obviously the work of an ignorant policeman! This speech was the part of the demonstration organized to exonerate the professor and save her from serving any jail time. And on that account‚ it may very well succeed. Canada’s criminal justice system is not corrupt as is America’s‚ but it nevertheless leans heavily toward excusing offenders. The rally was supposed to be an affirmation of righteousness but‚ despite all its pretenses‚ was clearly a mask of hatred‚ a hatred of Israel and of Jews. It has often been said that this is the ilk of the self-hating Jew. That epithet is a misnomer. Such Jews do not hate themselves. On the contrary‚ they are vain and full of themselves. But they do hate. They hate other Jews and anyone who is situated on the wrong side of the tracks vis-à-vis their touted intersectional ideology. For me the worst part of this experience was to find among this crowd one of my very oldest friends. He greeted me and‚ knowing what I must have been thinking and feeling‚ said this shouldn’t come between us. I said that we needed to talk. He said he did not want to talk‚ but I insisted we had to. We met for lunch the next day. First off‚ I asked him how he thought Israel should have responded to the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7. He refused to answer and tried to change the subject. He claimed that he too had once been a Zionist but was no more since 1967‚ the year of the Six-Day War. He branded Israel as a settler-colonialist enterprise‚ parroting the propaganda that the Soviet Union had left as a parting shot when it was kicked out of the Middle East back then. All of the rest of his arguments consisted of whataboutisms‚ false-equivalencies‚ half-truths‚ diversions‚ accusations of thought crimes‚ and rhetorical fallacies. For example‚ he claimed that 150 of the Hamas prisoners who Israel released in exchange for the hostages were mere children. How old? Well‚ under 18. And why had they been arrested? No one knows. The obvious implication was that a 15-‚ 16-‚ or 17-year-old was a mere child who could not possibly do any harm or‚ at least‚ could not possibly have known what he or she was doing. (READ MORE from Max Dublin: We (Non-Islamists) Are All Jews Now) These are the mental gymnastics of the moral idiot savant. In her essays on lying in politics‚ Hannah Arendt observed that in order to be able to deceive‚ the deceiver must first deceive him or herself. This is inevitable; if the deceiver is no mere useful idiot and has even a smattering of conscience‚ then he or she must deceive him or herself in order to deal with the cognitive dissonance. Having recently returned from Israel and having witnessed in real time how the left and right sides of the country have now largely united in the face of this threat to their nation’s existence‚ it was particularly repugnant for me to witness this display of Jewish Jew-hatred in the crowd. As to the old friend I found among them‚ I have other friends to the left of me in the political spectrum‚ and we get along well enough by joking and bantering about our differences. I have always felt that people should not let their political differences come between them. But in the case of this particular old leftist friend‚ I felt compelled to make an exception to that rule. The post Throw That York Professor in Jail‚ Canada. Her Vandalism Was Anti-Semitic. appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.