No, it is NOT complicated: speak up before it's too late

I have made limited comments about antisemitism and the situation in Israel. I have three half-written posts that i am holding because they need to be just right. My friends and marketing team want me to stay mostly silent: 'too risky' to comment. Here is the thing - I am a progressive. My views are about as balanced and thoughtful on Israel as any Jew you will find. I hate the settlements, I pray for a two-state solution, I think that Israel should have left Gaza by now for sure, I think Netanyahu is an ass, i was disgusted by Trump's remarks about taking over Gaza and expelling the inhabitants, etc. When i wake up to news like what happened on a flight in Spain, a functioning democracy, today https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-862045, and I see the scant coverage, but more importantly the deafening silence from non-Jewish leaders, it makes me extremely sad, fearful for my people and very angry. There is a lot complicated about what is going on in the Middle East, and a lot of what is going in the diaspora that is not. As my great friend Maureen Fair (a left-leaning nonprofit leader) said when she emailed me on October 7th, 2024 to commemorate the anniversary of the massacre "there is nothing complicated about terrorism". She said nothing about her broader views on the region, or the current conflict. I was glad she didn't; I was just happy that there were people left in my non-Jewish friend group who have the courage to speak. The number of people who think that they can't comment is shockingly high and profoundly disappointing. My clients and friends on Bay Street are some of the savviest, most sophisticated people around, but they can't seem to find a way to comment on atrocity without implying they are in support of the things that Israel does that they don't support? What a copout. There is nothing complicated about episodes like what happened in Spain. There is nothing complicated about marches that call for "the river to the sea". There is nothing complicated about the CUPE leader praising Hamas. There is nothing complicated about our idiot mayor not attending a Hannukah celebration because it is politically charged. There is nothing complicated about university professors being bullied out of their jobs. There is nothing complicated about the absurdity of Queers for Palestine and the degree to which the threat of violent antisemitism has hijacked pride. There is nothing complicated about synagogues being bombed. There is nothing complicated about the twisted logic of not letting Scotia (or Indigo) support the Giller prize. I can go on. Some people are speaking up, but very very few, mostly Jews. I wonder when my friends and business colleagues are going to have the courage to speak up as they should to address the incredible, non-complicated antisemitism that is going on every day. As you remain silent, progressives like me lose faith in the place of Jewish people in society and have no choice but to move right in our views. If the centre and left don't support us, who will? In the long term as you remain silent you risk the ultimate loss of our people and our culture. I don't like to promote Jewish exceptionalism, but one does have to wonder what the world would have been like today without our contribution to arts, science and business. I hope we have a place in the next 100 years of history but on days like today, I must say i wouldn't bet on it.