Please don't jump to conclusions - the whole thing was just a huge misunderstanding and the teachers are the real victims here. Also, let this serve as your sarcasm trigger warning...
Great point, Ned. I agree with most of that. The one issue I take is your assessment of the nature of the conflict, because what's also true here is that the goal of Hamas has always been to completely obliterate Israel. Is that acceptable? And does it become less acceptable when those being threatened happen to me much more powerful than those doing the threatening? I'm not saying Israel is completely innocent on every count (who is?) but simply that they ought to have the right to defend themselves. Also remember that it's not other countries that are coming to aid Hamas, but other known terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
Then you obviously didn't read my article. My problem is not with the protests. Protests are necessary and acceptable as long as they're non-violent. What's not acceptable is teachers involving middle-school students to a political protest after specifically saying they wouldn't be taking part.
ahh yes, the children! We must think of the children!
Imagine if little Jimmy came home from school one day and told his parents that wars are bad.
Protests are fun. I can't imagine a scenario in which you could take a group of kids to 'view' a protest and then force them to not 'take part'. Maybe have one of those huge cages on the back of a truck, put all the kids in that and drive it past the protest or something?
Just out of curiosity, would you take your class of 13 year-olds to a political protest, Ned? And would you be at all concerned about the opinions of these kids' parents if you did?
Well ‘political protest’ comes in all shapes and sizes, but if we’re talking about a public anti-war demonstration, then yes. It’s a fantastic opportunity for a field trip and even kids much younger would find it enriching in all kinds of ways.
If parents wanted to keep their kid at home that day, then I’d feel sorry for that kid but I’d respect the parents’ wishes. Some people are just shitty parents, but I would NOT let a small contingent of bad parents impact the growth and education of all the other kids in the class.
Exactly my point, Ned. It's impossible to attend a protest and not take part. And the school knew that. And yet they still concocted a story that they would attend and not take part. Sadly, many of the parents were naive and trusted the school.
I’ve never heard a single one of those chants except the one about “from the river to the sea”, and the writer’s argument as to how that one constitutes antisemitism was “trust me bro”. Honestly, IF calling for Palestinians to be free is ‘antisemitism’, then what are you actually saying?? ANYTHING other than the persecution and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land must be antisemitism?? Right? And on top of that you’re saying that all ‘the Jews’ believe this to be true, which is ironically an extremely antisemitic thing to say. All Jews are not zionists, and it’s extremely offensive to say so, and we usually hear those kinds of things from extremists like Hamas and yourself, apparently.
When I googled Vietnam war slogans, the first one that came up was “Freedom Now in Vietnam”. It’s literally the same chant, minus the geographical features of the river and the sea. How is one chant ‘anti-war’ and the other ‘pro -war’ ? Explain it
I never said "all Jews" are saying anything. But, Jews are having a problem in my country: synagogues are being vandalized, students are afraid to go back to school. I haven't heard of any mosques being vandalized and the one major killing at a mosque in 2017 was perpetrated not by Jews, but by some crazy Frenchman.
By contrast, were don't have to guess who's vandalizing and shooting up synagogues here.
Just this week, some "pro-Palestine supporters" were charged with hate crimes for flying a Hezbollah flag at a protest. It's not just "give peace a chance," it's "we support dictatorial terrorist regimes and we want them to wipe out our country's allies". This is what I'm talking about. Does that seem acceptable to you?
Yep, they’re public. So where’s the evidence that ‘pretty much every anti-war demonstration’ in Canada features antisemitic chants? If you’re making a claim like that, then it must be something you believe, and must be based on something you’ve seen or heard? It can’t just be something you made up, right?
As I said, these days "anti-war protest" is synonymous with the Israel-Gaza conflict, which is almost always "pro-Palestinian", which usually amounts to chants which are decidedly NOT anti-war but precisely the opposite. If you're looking anti-war protests, you're about 60 years to late. Children don't belong at any of these, unless you're attempting to feed the same anti-semitic (or anti-Palestine) rhetoric to them.
You’ve linked something written by a ‘risk management professional’ with 152 followers on Medium. Is this supposed to lend authority to your ideas?
If you’re referring to antiwar demonstrations of the Vietnam era, surely you would call those pro-Communist demonstrations? Communist forces in Vietnam committed far worse atrocities against civilians than Hamas ever has, so why are the antiwar demonstrations of 60 years ago more legitimate than those of today? How do you draw that distinction?
I was talking about the "make love, not war" hippies of the sixties. Find me one chant or protest song of that era that calls for violence.
And if this management professional dude from Medium is that far out to lunch, then you should have no problem refuting his ideas and explaining to me how these chants that we've been hearing for a full year now are actually calling for peace.
If there was anti-semitism on display, then no, I wouldn’t take a class of 13 year-olds. What is your basis for claiming that there are antisemitic chants at “pretty much every anti-war demonstration at this juncture in time”? How many anti-war demonstrations have you attended recently, and why do you put “public ant-war demonstration” in quotation marks? What’s the insinuation?
I'm my country over the last year the majority of the protests have been "pro-Palestinian" but based on the protests themselves are more rightly characterized as pro-Hamas. Some of them even wave their flags.
And the Jews here seem to think they're anti-semitic, for whatever that's worth...
“..and the Jews here seem to think” hahaha wow! Ah, yes. that famous monolith. ‘the Jews’, the cabal who ALL think and act as one because, after all, they are the Jews. Where have I heard stuff like that before? Hahaha
Oh, and here's yet another reason why the Jews here seem to think there's rampant antisemitism going on - this one from Toronto, but this is now par for the course in most if our major cities:
Here a couple of quotes in case you don't feel like reading it:
* * * * * * * * * * *
From last October 7 to this past July, roughly half of the 1,556 calls to the Toronto Police Service reporting hate crimes were incidents targeting Jews, mostly unprovoked assault, the uttering of threats and mischief to property.
In the ‘hate crimes involving religion’ category, the TPS reports that 80 percent of such crimes since October 7 last year, the day of the Simchat Torah pogrom, involved an “anti-Jewish occurrence.”
Sorry Ned, I forgot that "lived experience" only extends to non-white, non-Judeo/Christian segments of the population. You may feel perfectly entitled to tell those individuals precisely how they should feel about your views...
Great point, Ned. I agree with most of that. The one issue I take is your assessment of the nature of the conflict, because what's also true here is that the goal of Hamas has always been to completely obliterate Israel. Is that acceptable? And does it become less acceptable when those being threatened happen to me much more powerful than those doing the threatening? I'm not saying Israel is completely innocent on every count (who is?) but simply that they ought to have the right to defend themselves. Also remember that it's not other countries that are coming to aid Hamas, but other known terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.
Wow, that Toronto Sun looks like a real classy publication huh Lol.
If you're more upset about about protests than you are about the actual genocide that's being protested against, it might be time for a re-evaluation.
What makes you think I'm upset about the protests?
You wrote an article about it?
Then you obviously didn't read my article. My problem is not with the protests. Protests are necessary and acceptable as long as they're non-violent. What's not acceptable is teachers involving middle-school students to a political protest after specifically saying they wouldn't be taking part.
ahh yes, the children! We must think of the children!
Imagine if little Jimmy came home from school one day and told his parents that wars are bad.
Protests are fun. I can't imagine a scenario in which you could take a group of kids to 'view' a protest and then force them to not 'take part'. Maybe have one of those huge cages on the back of a truck, put all the kids in that and drive it past the protest or something?
Just out of curiosity, would you take your class of 13 year-olds to a political protest, Ned? And would you be at all concerned about the opinions of these kids' parents if you did?
Well ‘political protest’ comes in all shapes and sizes, but if we’re talking about a public anti-war demonstration, then yes. It’s a fantastic opportunity for a field trip and even kids much younger would find it enriching in all kinds of ways.
If parents wanted to keep their kid at home that day, then I’d feel sorry for that kid but I’d respect the parents’ wishes. Some people are just shitty parents, but I would NOT let a small contingent of bad parents impact the growth and education of all the other kids in the class.
Exactly my point, Ned. It's impossible to attend a protest and not take part. And the school knew that. And yet they still concocted a story that they would attend and not take part. Sadly, many of the parents were naive and trusted the school.
I’ve never heard a single one of those chants except the one about “from the river to the sea”, and the writer’s argument as to how that one constitutes antisemitism was “trust me bro”. Honestly, IF calling for Palestinians to be free is ‘antisemitism’, then what are you actually saying?? ANYTHING other than the persecution and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land must be antisemitism?? Right? And on top of that you’re saying that all ‘the Jews’ believe this to be true, which is ironically an extremely antisemitic thing to say. All Jews are not zionists, and it’s extremely offensive to say so, and we usually hear those kinds of things from extremists like Hamas and yourself, apparently.
When I googled Vietnam war slogans, the first one that came up was “Freedom Now in Vietnam”. It’s literally the same chant, minus the geographical features of the river and the sea. How is one chant ‘anti-war’ and the other ‘pro -war’ ? Explain it
This was Monday in Vancouver. Perhaps a few more chants you've never heard before. Maybe you should start listening better:
• "We are Hezbollah and we are Hamas!"
• "Death to Canada, death to the United States and death to Israel!"
• Flying flags of known terrorist organizations while burning Canadian flags.
Just regular stuff at this point. You know, because diversity is our strength...
https://vancouversun.com/news/hateful-rhetoric-bc-pro-palestinian-protest
I never said "all Jews" are saying anything. But, Jews are having a problem in my country: synagogues are being vandalized, students are afraid to go back to school. I haven't heard of any mosques being vandalized and the one major killing at a mosque in 2017 was perpetrated not by Jews, but by some crazy Frenchman.
By contrast, were don't have to guess who's vandalizing and shooting up synagogues here.
Just this week, some "pro-Palestine supporters" were charged with hate crimes for flying a Hezbollah flag at a protest. It's not just "give peace a chance," it's "we support dictatorial terrorist regimes and we want them to wipe out our country's allies". This is what I'm talking about. Does that seem acceptable to you?
No, that doesn't seem acceptable to me. What does that have to do with anything?
I just thought might be interested in your "anti-war" protests shake down in Canada, that's all.
Yep, they’re public. So where’s the evidence that ‘pretty much every anti-war demonstration’ in Canada features antisemitic chants? If you’re making a claim like that, then it must be something you believe, and must be based on something you’ve seen or heard? It can’t just be something you made up, right?
As I said, these days "anti-war protest" is synonymous with the Israel-Gaza conflict, which is almost always "pro-Palestinian", which usually amounts to chants which are decidedly NOT anti-war but precisely the opposite. If you're looking anti-war protests, you're about 60 years to late. Children don't belong at any of these, unless you're attempting to feed the same anti-semitic (or anti-Palestine) rhetoric to them.
https://medium.com/discourse/here-is-why-those-pro-palestine-chants-you-keep-hearing-are-actually-calls-to-violence-d222302cfd33
You’ve linked something written by a ‘risk management professional’ with 152 followers on Medium. Is this supposed to lend authority to your ideas?
If you’re referring to antiwar demonstrations of the Vietnam era, surely you would call those pro-Communist demonstrations? Communist forces in Vietnam committed far worse atrocities against civilians than Hamas ever has, so why are the antiwar demonstrations of 60 years ago more legitimate than those of today? How do you draw that distinction?
I was talking about the "make love, not war" hippies of the sixties. Find me one chant or protest song of that era that calls for violence.
And if this management professional dude from Medium is that far out to lunch, then you should have no problem refuting his ideas and explaining to me how these chants that we've been hearing for a full year now are actually calling for peace.
If there was anti-semitism on display, then no, I wouldn’t take a class of 13 year-olds. What is your basis for claiming that there are antisemitic chants at “pretty much every anti-war demonstration at this juncture in time”? How many anti-war demonstrations have you attended recently, and why do you put “public ant-war demonstration” in quotation marks? What’s the insinuation?
They're all public. That's the point, isn't it?
I'm my country over the last year the majority of the protests have been "pro-Palestinian" but based on the protests themselves are more rightly characterized as pro-Hamas. Some of them even wave their flags.
And the Jews here seem to think they're anti-semitic, for whatever that's worth...
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/10/03/2-men-arrested-for-inciting-hatred-publicly-waving-hezbollah-flags/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-police-chief-pro-palestine-demonstration-flag-1.7081772
“..and the Jews here seem to think” hahaha wow! Ah, yes. that famous monolith. ‘the Jews’, the cabal who ALL think and act as one because, after all, they are the Jews. Where have I heard stuff like that before? Hahaha
Oh, and here's yet another reason why the Jews here seem to think there's rampant antisemitism going on - this one from Toronto, but this is now par for the course in most if our major cities:
https://open.substack.com/pub/therealstory/p/yom-kippur-toronto-shots-fired-again?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=15ke9e
Here a couple of quotes in case you don't feel like reading it:
* * * * * * * * * * *
From last October 7 to this past July, roughly half of the 1,556 calls to the Toronto Police Service reporting hate crimes were incidents targeting Jews, mostly unprovoked assault, the uttering of threats and mischief to property.
In the ‘hate crimes involving religion’ category, the TPS reports that 80 percent of such crimes since October 7 last year, the day of the Simchat Torah pogrom, involved an “anti-Jewish occurrence.”
* * * * * * * * * * *
Sorry Ned, I forgot that "lived experience" only extends to non-white, non-Judeo/Christian segments of the population. You may feel perfectly entitled to tell those individuals precisely how they should feel about your views...