Lists and Jews.

Lists of Jews never bode well.

As does the world, Israelis wait to see what may come next in the Iranian theater.

In the last week or so as rhetoric has heated up, municipalities throughout Israel have set about cleaning and re-opening public bomb shelters. The country’s main airport – Ben Gurion – is now jammed with American fighter jets and refuelers, cramping operational capabilities for civilian flights. Should the U.S. military buildup continue the Israeli government has forewarned the public that it may have to limit air traffic, as happened last April.

As a practical matter that means that summer holidays may be cancelled at the last minute. And so, I moved my departure up a week for my annual escape from the August heat. I fly on Thursday. As luck would have it I will be in the midst of an unprecedented heat wave in central Europe before continuing on to North America. But, I will be out.

Israel is on heightened alert. Notices to reservists advising that an imminent call-up is likely have gone out. We wait.

Meanwhile, the final Knesset session for this coalition government concluded last week. Among the highlights? The passing of the Torah Foundation law – as the ultra-orthodox extremists call it. (Most Israelis refer to it as the “shirker’s law” – the equivalent of draft dodger.) This legislation states (in very general terms) that Torah (religious) study is a foundational value of the State of Israel. The ultra-orthodox haredim choose to interpret the law as establishing the basis for their forever exemption from serving in the IDF. Whether the Israeli Supreme Court agrees remains to be seen.

Today, there are 100,000 haredi young men who are needed urgently to step up and serve in the IDF, which is experiencing a severe troop shortage. To exempt these men from serving is madness.

I wrote about this in my National Post column that was published on Saturday.

Vivian Bercovici: No more plausible deniability for Netanyahu

It's been made clear to him in a letter that an immediate infusion of troops are needed, otherwise the IDF will "collapse into itself"

Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu strode into the Knesset plenum and took his seat. Befitting the leader, his spot is front row centre in a horseshoe seating arrangement. To his right sat his Minister of Justice and the architect of the proposed “judicial reform” that ignited civil unrest and fury throughout Israel in the nine months preceding October 7.

The division stoked by the coalition government’s extreme plans — which many believed would kneecap liberal democracy — escalated throughout 2023. After October 7, though, the nation was in crisis and the judicial reform plans were shelved indefinitely, as was the intention to legally exempt the ultra-orthodox from serving in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

On one occasion in late July 2023, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was desperate for a meeting with the prime minister. He had been rebuffed repeatedly. So he sat outside the Prime Minister’s Jerusalem office waiting for an audience. Netanyahu refused to meet with him. He likely surmised that Halevi was determined to warn him, yet again, that the increasingly violent civil unrest caused by the judicial reform legislative push was being perceived by Israel’s enemies as a sign of weakness, and may tempt them to attack.

By refusing to meet with the IDF chief, Netanyahu not only created a very dangerous precedent in Israel, but he likely did so in order to reinforce his shield of plausible deniability.

Since October 7, should anyone suggest that he bears responsibility for the utter failure of the state on that day, Netanyahu dismisses such allegations. Yet, according to a report published by Ynet news, Netanyahu had been given intelligence about Hamas’s “Jericho’s Walls” plans “several times over those years, despite his repeated public denials that he had ever seen or heard of such a plan before the October 7 attack.”

By refusing to meet with the IDF chief, Netanyahu not only created a very dangerous precedent in Israel, but he likely did so in order to reinforce his shield of plausible deniability.

Lists and Jews

In modern Jewish history, lists have gravitas.

Today, I write about a random sampling of lists that merit attention. We cannot afford to look away or reassure ourselves that “it’s different” now. Of course it is different. “It” is also very much the same. Wealth, standing, influence, fame, nothing will matter when the hunt for Jews is on. Nothing does matter. Except that you are a Jew. Eventually, you will be on a list.

We have been so privileged, particularly those of us born post WWII in liberal democratic nations. We felt almost untouchable. But we never were and are not now.

We are witnessing the resurgence of an ancient hatred. How it will mutate in this iteration remains to be seen. But it will not disappear.

I woke up on Tuesday morning to read about New York City Mayor Mamdani’s new list. The names and addresses of all New Yorkers who own property valued at more than $1-million is now public. The Mayor says that all those listed have second homes and their NYC pad will be subject to a “pied a terre” tax. The logic seems to be that if you’re wealthy enough to have two homes then you should be penalized on the tax rolls.

This is a warm-up act for more lists.

I’m going to make a prediction. Very soon, I expect that second list will appear and Mamdani will plead innocence. He will say that he has no idea as to who would generate such a thing.

The new list will identify a subset of Zionist property owners. Mamdani will lament the prevalence of such evil and pledge to scrub New York of this scourge. Exactly how will he do that? Who knows. But the mobs of Islamists and progressives will surely step up and protest, as encouraged by the Mayor. I offer this disturbing (and speculative) scenario from a place of careful study, thought and knowledge. These lists, this vitriol, the violence – all of which have become normalized in New York City and elsewhere – they are the beginning.

I have just finished reading a book by Katja Hoyer called Weimar, a brilliant study of the German city of the same name that was a Petri dish for the Nazification of Germany. Weimar was a quiet town in the province of Thuringia, where extremes converged in the 1920s, offering an ideal environment for Hitler and his early devotees to cut their teeth. Hoyer takes us on a journey through the lives of Bauhaus artists, literary figures, political leaders, ordinary townsfolk and fanatical Nazis, as they manage their way through the demise of the Weimar era into fascist hell. She chronicles how they ignore or justify their quiet complicity. Everyone is trying to survive; through the post WWI economic hardship, national humiliation imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, hyper-inflation, social tensions. We see how the wealthy Jews in town - and those who have Christian spouses and hide their religious origin - delude themselves into believing that if they just keep their heads down the storm will pass. How in the end they all met the same fate as the penniless Jews from shtetls and the bourgeoisie of Vienna and Paris. Eventually, each one became a name on a list. And if they dared to resist and assert their “rights”, a week or two in Buchenwald concentration camp invariably brought them to their senses. They would sign anything put before them.

The violent attacks on Jews in Weimar and the ostracization and humiliation of their children in schools were normalized occurrences long before Hitler came to power in 1933. What the fascists learned in the late 20’s was that no one cared about Jews. They could do as they pleased with them.

In recent weeks, a list of 75 Israeli families who have relocated to a small village in northern Italy has been publicized. They sought a quiet place to live and raise their children. No war. And if they grouped together they could create a sense of community. Alas, the Jew-hunters ferreted them out. Lists of their names and addresses have been made public with the stated intent to run them out of town, and Italy.

Around the same time, a form began to circulate online. It requested that members of the Italian public – particularly in the Milan area - report the presence of Israeli or Jewish tourists as well as any property such individuals may have purchased in Italy. The fear and concern driving the collation of such information (as stated in the form) was the Zionist “neo-colonization” of Italy.

There have been reports that this online appeal was financed and directed by the Global Sumud Flotilla movement, which has organized various flotillas to deliver symbolic aid to Gaza. The participation of former climate activist turned Hamas devotee, Greta Thunberg, in this movement attracted global attention. Sumud has since denied that it has any involvement with the Italian list project.

Italian officials managed to remove the form from the internet but the authors remain unidentified, publicly.

Among the champions of creating Jew lists is the Hind Rajab Foundation, a Brussels based not-for-profit organization that was founded after October 7. The organization’s mandate is set out in part here:

The Hind Rajab Foundation is a branch of the March 30 Movement mainly dedicated to the quest for justice in response to the crimes against humanity, war crimes and human rights violations perpetrated by the Israeli state against Palestinians. Established during the ongoing Gaza genocide, our foundation honors the memory of Hind Rajab and all those who have perished or suffered under the Israeli genocidal campaign.

To review their full mission statement click here.

Hind Rajab has been identifying young IDF reservists who served in Gaza and applying to have them arrested in foreign countries where they are travelling. The basis for such arrests are alleged war crimes on the part of the individual. The country in which they are travelling must be a signatory to the Rome Treaty, which creates the International Criminal Court. The circle is squared. The travelling soldier may be arrested and hauled off to The Hague to be prosecuted for war crimes.

To date, Hind Rajab has initiated legal actions to detain IDF soldiers in Belgium, Brazil, Cyprus, India, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Chile. The evidence relied upon in court is taken from the social media accounts of the soldiers. The images and posts are alleged by Hind Rajab to prove that the soldiers committed war crimes. To date, more than a few IDF veterans have been detained and questioned but they have all been put on the next flight to Israel. That could well change.

In addition to Hind Rajab activism, hotel staff in Turkey, Greece and elsewhere have reportedly provided lists of Israelis with their room numbers to gangs of young men who want to beat them to a pulp. One such incident allegedly occured in Crete a few days ago.

In Canada, where I lived most of my life, there are many lists being maintained. One enterprising man who I prefer not to identify, is beavering away at collecting data for lists of Canadians who have served in the IDF. He has expanded this project to include schools and camps catering to Jewish families. If they host former soldiers for restorative holidays or provide a camp experience for younger children – many of whom were direct survivors of Hamas barbarism – they target those organizations as well.

In 2024, when Justin Trudeau was prime minister, a U.K. firm was retained by the Canadian Ministry of Heritage in order to analyze online activity by pro-Israel social media accounts. Particular attention was paid to voices that equated Trudeau’s support for the to Hamas. The government had compiled a list of 25-30 individuals of interest.

When one person who was likely among those being monitored made an official request for disclosure by the government they were told that the Department of Heritage had “no records of such a list”. What likely happened is that the contracting government department instructed the third party service provider to retain all records and supporting documents. Then the government could respond that they had “no records of a list.”

But here’s what we do know.

In early 2024, the Canadian government retained a London-based firm to monitor “right wing extremist” social media accounts that were motivated by “anti-Muslim hatred.”

The government instructed the UK firm to monitor the social media activity of a list of 25 Canadians who were considered to be “right wing extremists.”

The project terms stated that a right wing extremist was someone who expressed “discontent with pro Palestinian protests.” So, for example. if I dared to point out that the pro-Pal protesters were advocating for the annihilation of Israel and murder of Jews, that would qualify me as a right wing extremist to the federal government of Canada.

A report summarizing the U.K. firm’s monitoring efforts concluded: “Among the top performing tweets about the conflict that were shared among right-wing extremists in Canada in the month after October 7 2023 were posts claiming that Justin Trudeau had directly funded the Hamas attacks through contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.”

After October 7 and for years prior, I wrote many columns pointing out the lack of oversight by Canada of the massive sums it provided to UNRWA. It is an established fact that much of the aid money (and supplies) donated to UNRWA was siphoned off by Hamas and diverted to support its war machine.

You can read more about this social media list and “oversight” here.

In the spring of 1981, I received a letter informing me that I had been awarded a scholarship – full freight – to study for one year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

My parents were in Amsterdam when I called to share the exciting news. Silence on the other end.

After a long silence, my father spoke. “This is the worst decision you will make in your life.”

Struck dumb, I was. He was not known for his light touch way of expressing himself, nor was he given to overt expressions of warmth and happiness.

“Now you will be on a list. Forever. I came to this country to give you a fresh start. No one would know you were Jewish. You have ruined that.”

“What list,” I asked?

“The government. Universities. Everywhere. It will be known that you are Jewish and studied in Israel.”

My father was a Holocaust survivor and he was haunted by lists.

“Don’t tell me it can’t happen again, because it did happen.”

That is what he told me. All my life. Plan. Stay liquid. And beware of lists.

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