The Wake Up Call: Global Jihad and the Rise of Antisemitism in a World Gone MAD
By Israel Ellis
Powerful, personal, perceptive, poignant, describe this must read book, The Wake Up Call by Israel Ellis. Israel Ellis, by any other name, would, and does, stand for Israel, his name and birthright. Awakening from the nightmare of October 7; 2023, dubbed 10/7, Ellis digs deep into his own, and the collective psyche of the Jewish people, to bring us some understanding of the pain and confusion this horror brought on an entire people.
Writing from both Canada and Israel, Ellis shines a light on the horror, the history, the blindness of many, the stupidity of youth embracing a leftist lying paradigm where Jews are responsible for what befell them that day, and worse, where Israel is blamed for many evils, most popular being that of colonizer, of ethnic cleansing, occupier, apartheid state. Whatever is the current leftist view of a travesty, Israelis are blamed. Jews, in this distorted paradigm of justice, the DEI woke culture, are blamed for every abomination, past and present. But that’s not why the massacre of 1200 innocent Israelis and foreign nationals took place on Oct 7, 2023. The ideology behind the barbarism of Hamas is radical Islam, a supremacist ideology that demands Israel be eradicated, Arabs claim the land, no two state solution, no co-existence, no peace.
Shockingly, western intellectuals, media, academia and woefully ignorant ideologues, immediately blamed Israel for its own peoples’ suffering. Blaming the victim is an archaic, verboten way of understanding life, except when applied to the Jews. While social Justice warriors stand loud and proud against misogyny, racism, climate change, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, and other seemingly just issues of our current era, they stand apart from the pain experienced by Jews, deny its existence, explain it away, rename it, ignore it or bury it. (Generally what they accuse the Jews of, is what they themselves are guilty of.)
Ellis visits israel frequently. His son has served in the IDF and made his home there. Ellis feared for his son’s life when he joined and again served after 10/7, but he easily explains how he came to be proud of Eitan Ellis, grateful for his sacrifice of service, hopeful for his future. He speaks for all Jewish parents whose kids are heroes of the IDF, border guards, police and other forms of the defenders of Israel. His pride reverberates, giving us all something to be proud of, grateful for their heroism. It’s understood to be less of a selfless choice and more of a personal commitment to the land, people and faith, to the future that is in the heart, mind and soul of every young Israeli and lone soldier. One has to wonder how we can create such a vision and passion, and love of country for our young Canadians, no matter what antecedent nationality they carry.
Israel Ellis, in short clearly worded chapters, takes us on a journey, threading through time, revealing ideological problems that have overtaken liberal western societies, exposing the vagaries of unchecked immigration that brought us incompatible systems of values and challenges to integration. People that reject Judeo Christian values, refuse integration and acceptance of societal norms, put extraordinary stress on existing communities and established leaders. To make newcomers feel welcome and comfortable, it seems it’s the established who are ready to change with few expectations of the recently arrived. The adoption of critical race theory to explain all of history, and the fact of varying outcomes for different groups of people, has led to accepting intolerance of view points, unjust programs devoid of merit or evidence based decisions, and an unwillingness to call out hypocrisy. Fear of being called racist or Islamophobic, has literally eroded logical, real critical thinking.
Terror comes in many guises. Support for terror is terror. Pushing it aside, doesn’t make it less terrifying, and in Canada we have a well spring of terror supporting individuals and organizations. Some are even registered charities, some have professionals of different disciplines running them. Some are religious in nature. To point out their Islamist foundation, is to invite a charge of mischief or worse- racism, Anti Palestinian Racism, Islamophobia. To the Arab Lawyers Association , support of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, is an act of APR. Ellis describes how hate arises and festers, fuelling antisemitism, absorbing lie upon lie, using anti Israel tropes to hide pervasive antisemitism.
Facts don’t matter in a world in which people are devoid of curiosity, absent truth seeking students, and filled with lazy, device dependent, even addicted people, whose quick fix is to grab quick answers from social media and parlay them as reliable. Debunking the lies is tiresome messy business. But truth must be told. Israel Ellis gives us thoughtful steps to address the thoughtless, to heal the suffering, to nurture, repair and rebuild. He shows us fortitude. He shows us compassion, and a way forward. His book is indeed, a wake up call. Not a panacea, an important beginning. Reading it will bring comfort, as well I suspect, and hope, the motivation to move forward.
Comments