By Shlomo Kapustin
Tribune Correspondent
Caroline Glick, deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post, visited Toronto last week on a two-pronged mission: to address the Jewish community: to let them know what is going on and to help raise funds for a legal battle.
CAROLINE GLICK
Her spirited talk, Dangerous Times for Israel and the Jewish People, took place at Shaarei Tefillah Synagogue a week ago Monday, and was sponsored by both the synagogue and the Toronto Zionist Council.
Part of the evening’s goal was to raise funds for a legal battle in Israel relating to the recent events in the West Bank settlement of Amona, where the government, pursuant to a Supreme Court decision, dispatched the police to demolish nine homes. At the time, more than 200 protesters were injured. According to a Toronto Zionist Council flyer, “the type of inquiry that the Amona Forum for Justice demands will ensure that those responsible are exposed and forced from office.”
To raise money for this legal battle, Glick also addressed about 40 people at a dinner before her comments to the general public.
The evening also featured a short film that preceded Glick’s speech. The film, which was co-produced by Arutz Sheva, part of the Israel National News organization in Israel, documents the violent clashes that transpired between the Israeli military and police, on the one hand, and the settlers and their protesting supporters, on the other.
Israel Kaplan, vice president of the Toronto Zionist Council and a key figure in the making of the film, said, “It was important to make it so that people won’t say it didn’t happen.”
Glick then took the stage, and presented her narrative to the crowd of about 700, the vast majority of whom, as evidenced by their kippot, were Orthodox.
Glick said, “Amona did not come out of thin air,” saying that its roots lie in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s decision “to go back on his election promise” and disengage from Gaza. Faced with opposition, particularly from many in the settler and wider religious Zionist community, Sharon painted his opposition as “inciters” and “messianic.”
Glick said, “The government wanted a civil war; it didn’t happen because the Israelis who were thrown out of their homes didn’t allow it to happen,” because the leaders told the settlers “not to raise their hands.”
The decision itself, she alleged, was taken after consultation with Sharon’s son, Omri, and Sharon’s political consultants, but not with military or government professionals. In fact, she said, many professionals warned of the harmful effects of the Gaza pullout. Their warnings have proved true, she added. “They happened immediately.”
The effects include the erosion of the south’s security, especially Ashkelon, which is now in range of Kassam missiles.
Glick claimed Gaza is well on its way to becoming a “global terror base.” Hezbollah has already established a base there, and Al-Qaeda’s fundamentalist brand of Islam has already penetrated the Strip.
In addition to the strategic losses of the pullout, Glick maintained that there is a severe societal threat at play in Israel today. Many religious Israelis felt that the law was “prejudicially applied.” While hundreds, if not thousands, of illegal Arab-built structures have not received demolition orders from the government, the Amona settlement was targeted.
The religious Zionist community feels persecuted, she said, and this has lead to some troubling developments. The religious have long constituted a sizable portion of the officer corps – at least 50 per cent. Now, some rabbis have begun suggesting to their students that they should simply fulfill their basic military obligation, but no more. This would represent a further strategic threat, albeit with societal undertones.
Glick closed by challenging the audience to “do something” about the situation in Israel.
“If you don’t want to hear it, you’re no different from the majority of Jews in Israel and throughout the world,” she said.
What does she have in mind?
First, communicate your opinions to the Israeli Consulate.
As well, she said, “Say to the UJA, we’re not going to continue to say you can do whatever you want…. [If things don’t change], we’ll give money to an organization that doesn’t persecute Jews.”
Glick received a 20-second standing ovation from those who managed to stay for the entire two-hour presentation. Although the talk was lengthy, and repetitive at times, there was passion at play, and for many it seemed to be an emotional release of sorts.
For his part, Kaplan hopes that the effects of the speech don’t dissipate overnight. “That’s the question,” he said. “Will it be a sea-change, or just a release?”
Asked whether we in the Diaspora have a right to attempt to effect happenings in Israel, Kaplan immediately responded: “Yes. The right, and the obligation…. It’s part of our nachala (inheritance).”
Caroline B. Glick grew up in Chicago. She moved to Israel two weeks after receiving her BA in political science from Columbia University. She served as an officer in the Israel Defense Forces, and then worked as a policy advisor to Benjamin Netanyahu. She also received her MA in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government.
She has been published in the Wall Street Journal, the National Review and the Boston Globe, among other publications. She is also the Senior Middle East Fellow at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, DC, and an adjunct lecturer at the IDF’s Command and Staff College.
She lives in Jerusalem.
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