Summertime Blues: Thoughts on Gaza, Canada, and an Unfathomable Hunger 

The world, or the Western world, rather, has mostly woken up to the horrors of what is happening in Gaza. 

Let us make no mistake and let us not forget — Canada has watched all of this unfold. Our government has straddled both sides of the fence so deftly that they’re now viewed as a friend to neither Israel nor Palestine. Canada’s inaction has helped to bring about the conditions in which a genocide has been committed, a genocide ostensibly carried out in the name of the future security of the Jewish people. 

Who in their right mind thinks that any action performed by Israel post-October 7 has actually made Jews safer? I know it’s not safer for the Jews of Montreal; I can’t imagine how much less safe one must feel in Israel. 

Gaza, the land that was first bombed and now starved back to the Stone Age, is a whole world away from my home in Montreal. Montreal is a place where I know my 9-month-old niece will never face famine. Where my 6-year-old nephew can play in the streets and not fear a bomb dropping on him. Where we can all sleep at night in relative peace and comfort. 

When the conflict started, I thought often about how Montreal and Gaza are the same geographical size — Gaza is 365 square km, and Montreal, 365.13. 

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I used to imagine how it would feel to be cut off and not allowed to leave this island. I had never contemplated how it would feel to be stuck here, starving to death. 

I sit on my apartment balcony, and from my perch I can see buildings far in the distance. There’s a lush canopy of pine and maple trees, hundreds of them, colouring my view in  shades of green. I know what the view from above is of just about anywhere in Gaza right now. It’s destruction, desolation. Very few trees, probably. I don’t think it’s something I can quite wrap my head around to actually describe, having never witnessed anything remotely close. 

But we are capable of empathy, I hope. I think. Sometimes. At least when the algorithm permits.

What feelings are conjured up in you when you see pictures of people, emaciated, starving? Do you look away? 

What if the starving were here? What if they were wandering through a bombed-out Plateau, living in a tent city in Parc Jeanne-Mance? Or scrounging for food in the rubble of a factory on the Trans-Canada Highway? 

How many of Montreal’s churches would be destroyed? Would the super hospitals be spared? Or would the enemy accuse us of hiding arms or command centres underneath and blow them both to bits? 

I try to conceive a world where Trudeau Airport isn’t functional, although that’s been the case in Gaza for many years. I picture sitting on my balcony (as if my apartment building would be the one spared), watching the cargo of an airdrop scatter across the west end of the city. Most land safely, but I see one pallet land on a moving car, crushing it and the family inside. 

In Gaza, where no foreign press is allowed in to bear witness; journalists have suffered more deaths than any other occupational group. Picture a Montreal where more than 10 per cent of the journalists in the city have been killed. Many, while working. Some, deliberately. Some, at home while they slept, with their families suffering the same fate. So many would be people I know. 

***

I was in Montreal for the real, capital “I” Ice Storm. 

I was 17 years old. It was Christmas break in my final year of high school; my memories of those two weeks are of drinking by candlelight at bars on Crescent St., joyriding through quiet neighbourhoods with friends who had just gotten their driver’s licenses, and save for a tree nearby falling on me while digging out a friend’s car, generally living carefree. 

Nothing was working, and nothing was open. We went back to school two weeks late. Imagine that — it was the biggest crisis Montreal had faced in decades, and it’d be the easiest day Gaza would’ve had in forever.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice,” The late Bishop Desmond Tutu famously said, “you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

It’s blatantly obvious what side the Canadian establishment has been on, no matter how much public opinion begs, pleads, implores them to differ. There’s really no debate.  

***

I was followed by an account on Bluesky yesterday that is run by a woman in Gaza. Her name is Lubna, she and her husband Mohammed are trying to raise money to survive, and eventually to flee, when possible. 

Lubna, according to the description of the GoFundMe campaign linked to her account, had a miscarriage in the ninth month of her term due to malnutrition, starvation, and the endless bombing in Gaza. Her, Muhammad, and 11 family members share a tent with no water, no electricity, and very little hope. 

The crowdfunding campaign has raised over $47,000. I gave $18 yesterday. The number 18 is called ‘C’hai’ in Hebrew. It means ‘life’ and is supposed to be good luck. 

At my Bar Mitzvah, the moment in my life when my religion was most present to me, I was given gifts with 18s in them — I got cheques for $18, $36, even $180. My grandparents, wanting to do something special that encouraged my passions, got me mini season tickets: an 18-game package of box seats to watch the Expos.

And so, I gave an amount that’s symbolically known for its good luck. GoFundMe then converted the donation into American dollars, turning my wish of life and luck into an unlucky donation of $13. 

“To life, to life, l’Chaim,” goes the song in Fiddler on the Roof. “L’Chaim, l’Chaim, to life.” The Broadway musical, which I saw as a child, ends with the Tsar ruling that the Jews are banned from Russia and must leave their villages. Today, we would call that ethnic cleansing.  

We know that Palestinians couldn’t leave if they wanted to. Canada promised in 2024 they would let in 10,000 Palestinians. So far, only 300 have reached our shores. 

***

I had been followed by random accounts on Bluesky from Gaza before, but yesterday was the first time I’ve given any money. 

In spite of assurances from our government that Canada is not arming Israel, it’s been proven that the spigot was never turned off. If my taxpayer money is going to bomb Lubna and Mohammed, the least I can do is try to offset it by a few bucks. 

In retrospect, $13 USD feels pathetic. But, I’m unsure if there’s even a number that could make me feel better. 

Another Bluesky account just followed me: he’s a 23-year-old mechanical engineer who’s trying to raise money to buy a bag of flour. 

***

On July 28, journalist Peter Beinart was the guest on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show. He was there to promote his new book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning.  

The 20-minute segment between the two of them was one of the most important pieces of television I have seen in a long time. The conversation between two liberal American Jews talked about their upbringing (so similar to mine), being taught that the Jewish people have always been the underdog, how our celebrations are often of an event where an existential crisis was faced, and through some miraculous act, subsequently avoided. 

Beinart replied that there are many examples in Jewish history where Jews have been the oppressor, and history shows “we are capable of being both the victim…and the victimizers.” 

And presently, Beinart explains that the underdog narrative is false. “The power dynamic,” he told Stewart, “is reversed. In Israel-Palestine, it’s Jews who all enjoy legal supremacy and citizenship, and Palestinians who are denied basic rights. And we have to recognize that that’s possible, and we have to fight against it for our own sake and for the sake of our honour.”

It was a fascinating conversation, one that should be happening out in the open, and not relegated to 11:50 p.m. on a Monday night, on Comedy Central. But, as Stewart points out in the conversation, he’s been “told that I have to shut up because I risk the Jewish state by speaking out.”

Beinart, who is an observant jew, told Stewart that those who tell him that and those who blindly support Israel are at fault, and are actually doing a disservice to their goal.

“I think they’re putting the likelihood of a surviving Jewish state much more at risk with this type of action,” he said. “I think they’re the ones that are being antisemitic.” 

***

It’s about a quarter past 5 p.m. on July 30 and Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced that Canada intends to recognize an independent Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September. The word “intends” feels like it’s doing a lot of very heavy lifting. There are several steps that must be completed by the time the GA starts. 

Here are some notes I jotted down while the Carney was speaking: 

“Relies upon representations made in writing to me by the Palestinian Authority.” 

“Who cannot be a part of that process? Hamas.”

“Importance of living side by side in peace and security with Israel.”

“Not just us, a series of allies and regional powers.”

“Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar.” 

Carney says he’s spoken with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, who has also given him assurances in a phone call that the conditions can be achieved. 

Summer is zooming by, September will be here before we know it. Will Hamas really just walk away, disarm, and return the hostages? Will the checklist of demands be met?

As long as the United States has a Security Council veto for any United Nations resolution, this declaration is purely symbolic. It matters, but without the guarantee of statehood, how does this change anything? Meanwhile, the killings continue.

My initial reaction was that Carney’s declaration felt half-measured and will please nobody. He used this opportunity to equate the suffering in Palestine with that on October 7. That didn’t rub me the right way — they feel so unbalanced. Look what has happened in the last month, let alone the last 23? 

Palestinian statehood will make Palestinians and Israelis safer. It will make life safer for diaspora Jews. Why can’t that be the main argument? 

Or, how about the fact that what’s happening isn’t working, and people are starving. 

How about that Palestine is already recognized by 147 countries. More than recognize Kosovo. Canada, France, and the United Kingdom would bring that to 150. 

This feels like par for the course for our Carney Liberal government. A statement that looks strong and ticks some boxes, but if you dig a little deeper, it’s just symbolism. And lacking teeth. May I be proven wrong in September, but this feels like there are so many caveats that allow Canada to backpedal that I fear they will. 

Carney also announced that Canada would be tabling a law that makes it a crime to prevent someone from blocking entry to a place of worship, which I fear is vague and could be intentionally applied incorrectly to interfere with events that are valid places for legitimate protest. 

For example, last year, Montreal’s Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, the oldest in the country, had a real estate bazaar, with people invited to learn more about living in Israel —- but the land being hawked was actually in the West Bank, land Canada considers stolen by Israeli settlers. Prior to the event, an injunction was obtained to prevent protests within 150 metres of the front door. 

The news, when the event was covered, was framed as if the protestors were there to protest a religious event. That’s dirty pool. 

Nobody disputes that everyone should have the right to worship freely, without anyone impeding their way. If this law is enacted, it must be applied to protect worshipers, not people renting basement halls to sell stolen land. 

This declaration of an intention to declare Palestine a state was a highly calculated act from a government that has, in three short months, left me and many others on the left jaded and uninspired by hollow sabre-rattling. The Prime Minister’s tough talk on America garnered him widespread support from the centre and left, to the tune of 43 percent of Canadians.

Since the election, the government has caved on the digital tax, not gone toe-to-toe by matching each new American tariff on Canadian goods, and perhaps most shockingly, has shown an interest in joining the “Golden Dome” missile defense pact.

Canadians were promised there would be leverage to pressure the United States on matters of national interest. Instead they told us to put our elbows up, to stop drinking bourbon, and to boycott that trip to Maine. Meanwhile, our government is strengthening our military alliance. The mind boggles.

I can say with certainty that Pierre Poilievre would not have laid any conditions toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. But that should not be newsworthy, and it cannot be the standard by which we are comfortable. Not for us, and not for Palestine. We need to keep pushing for better. 

***

Since submitting this piece to The Rover, several notable events have occurred that are worth mentioning. First, Israel announced that, world opinion and concern be damned, there will be a full invasion of the Gaza Strip. 

As long as there is American support, the world, it seems, is powerless to stop them. 

Canada, however, has released another statement strongly condemning Israel’s plan. If more death and destruction occur, we can expect the Prime Minister to release yet another strongly worded statement in the coming weeks. 

Not all in Canada support Carney, though. While a recent Angus Reid survey says that 61 per cent of Canadians support Canada’s commitment to recognizing a Palestinian state and that 52 per cent of Canadians believe that a genocide is being committed in Gaza. 

The city council in Côte St. Luc, a municipality on the island of Montreal with a predominantly Jewish population, disagrees vehemently. 

The council passed a resolution at its meeting this week, denouncing Prime Minister Carney for intending to recognize a Palestinian state, saying his actions are  “rewarding violence and legitimizing extremism in the Middle East and right here in Montreal as well as in Canada.

“Prime Minister Carney’s announcement does not just embolden terrorism abroad,” the statement said, “it empowers antisemitism here in Canada.” 

There was another statement released this week, “A protest letter to PM Netanyahu From World Jewry.”’ The letter, conceived by a think tank called The London Initiative, calls on the Israeli Prime Minister to 1) end the starvation in Gaza, 2) end the war, and 3) restore the rule of law to the West Bank. It has been signed by over 5,000 diaspora jews, including two very notable Canadians, former MP and Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, and Charles Bronfman, who founded the Birthright Program, was the former Chairman of Seagram’s, and once owned the Montreal Expos, the baseball team my grandparents got me those season tickets for back in the summer of 1994. 

Two statements, two completely different views of the same situation, and two separate ideas on how to make things better. 

Cotler, who as justice minister and a MP was as great a friend to Israel as any North American politician we’ve seen in the last 75 years, and Bronfman, whose Birthright program has brought 900,000 young diaspora Jews to Israel, and sparked a passion for Zionism in so many of them, can see the writing on the wall. If this continues, there will be no Israel. Or, rather, it will exist, but solely as a pariah state.

It’ll be South Africa, with more nukes.  

The Côte St. Luc city council, conversely, thinks, well, I don’t really know. That Israel can bomb their way out of this?  

If they haven’t — and I’m sure they haven’t — I would encourage the city council to read the letter that Cotler and Bronfman have signed. 

Here’s an excerpt: “we also cannot escape  the fact that the policies and rhetoric of the government you lead are doing lasting damage to Israel, its standing in the world and the prospects of secure peace for all Israelis and Palestinians. This has severe consequences for Israel but also for the wellbeing, security and unity of Jewish communities around the world.”

I reached out to Côte St. Luc mayor Mitchell Brownstein and he told me that the resolution was passed unanimously in council, and that “there’s no logic to joining this group of countries to declare a Palestinian state in September… We’re dealing with terrorists, first of all. Hamas is in power…if you’re going to continue to embolden the terrorists then you’re going to get more antisemitism here, and that’s the fear.”

I also asked the mayor about the letter from The London Initiative, he told me he hadn’t read it and was not aware of the contents. I told him that it was called ‘A Protest Letter to PM Netanyahu,’ and that it had been signed by Irwin Cotler and Charles Bronfman. I asked Brownstein “how the city of Côte St. Luc can promote a statement like this (one passed unanimously by council) at the same time as Charles Bronfman, who has helped sponsor 900,000 diaspora Jews to go to Israel for free, to learn more about Zionist roots and being in touch… how can we square the circle that Charles Bronfman feels differently than the City of Côte St. Luc?”

“I can’t talk for Charles Bronfman,” the mayor told me, “but I can talk for all the members of council.” He added that he “never takes a position on what Netenyahu is doing, right or wrong. I don’t control that… As a municipal leader I don’t feel that is my job. My job is to ensure the safety and security of my residents not to seek the increase in antisemitism. So if I see that there are things that are happening that can increase antisemitism, I need to act. I’m not going to start making comments on things way above my pay grade of what’s happening at the federal level that I have absolutely no power over, and is not my place as a municipal leader.”

No comments, except for the city council statement, apparently. 

There’s a municipal election in November. I can already see that this will be the wedge issue. I asked Brownstein if he’s running for reelection. “I haven’t announced,” he told me. “We’ll see. It’s early.” 

***

And, of course this week has been relentless, with even more horrific carnage. 

The IDF targeted the entire Al-Jazeera news bureau in Gaza City, killing four Al-Jazeera journalists and two freelance journalists. Israel claims that journalist Anas al-Sharif was a Hamas terrorist. Canada’s National Post newspaper, which is American-owned and has a blindly pro-Israel bent, parroted the claims of the IDF. 

“Anas al-Sharif,” says the paper, “was actively working as the head of a Hamas cell.” 

My friend Stephane Giroux has been a reporter at CTV Montreal since 1994, and like al-Sharif was to television viewers in the Middle East, is a familiar face on the local Montreal newscast. Stephane posted about al-Sharif’s death on his social media account, and was met with hostility; some on his page repeated the IDF talking point that al-Sharif was a Hamas operative. 

I can’t imagine someone dropping a bomb and wiping out the entire news bureau of a local organization, let alone then saying that those people deserved it. Would the National Post do any reporting, or just repeat the occupying forces verbatim and say that CTV News Montreal were a bunch of terrorists? 

If it suited your narrative better, would you believe the journalist was a terrorist? Is everyone who doesn’t agree with you a terrorist? Do these words have meaning anymore?

The Committee to Protect Journalists points out that while the IDF claimed that al-Sharif was a terrorist, they made no such claim about the other journalists who were blown up along with him. 

Collateral damage, I guess.  

Finally, this week, Donald Trump announced a federal takeover of the police force of Washington, D.C., and said that other liberal cities (i.e., ones with African-American mayors) are next. Democracy in America is slipping away, day by day. 

Summer is here. It’s hot, and things are grim. 

Stay hydrated. We are on a very long road.  

And keep speaking up. More and more people are waking up to this horror every single day.

If Charles Bronfman can wake up, maybe you can, too. 

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