The man who made the shot heard around the Canadian tundra is red, white, and Jew.
The October 7, 2023, mass murder of Israelis in southern Israel and the following Gaza War have led to many unexpected outcomes. From Hezbollah being defanged and now in the control of the IRGC to the Turkish-driven fall of the House of Assad in Syria, from the war between Israel and Iran to the complete destruction of the Gaza Strip, there are many changes that nobody would have predicted a day before the Hamas attack. Additional outcomes have been the ostracizing and unrelenting attacks against Jewish communities in Western countries. People who have expressed no opinion on the war in Gaza and belong to communities that date back hundreds of years—or longer—find themselves being threatened and attacked. The murder of Jews celebrating Chanukah at Bondi Beach is one of numerous attacks on Jews for just being Jews. The Chabad-led party had no pro-IDF theme or in any way expressed threats against Muslims. No matter. Jews in one place; open fire to kill.
The hatred expressed toward American and other Western Jews is the outcome of many factors. The biggest is the Qatari and other funding of Muslim Brotherhood branches in Western countries. Qatari billions doled out to U.S. universities have turned both students and faculty against Jews and Israel. The importation of Jew-hating Muslims by literally the boatload has led to a critical mass of people demanding Israel's destruction; their hatred has metastasized into a fundamental plank of the Left, who in the past did not like Jews but did not put on keffiyehs and demand an "intifada revolution" against Jewish citizens. As many have noted, the murder of Jews in Manchester and Sydney is the physical manifestation of demands by lefties and their new Muslim pals to "globalize the intifada."
Another negative outcome of the events started in southern Israel is the accusation by the hateful Right that Jews in America have dual loyalties. We get stupid claims of "MIGA," Make Israel Great Again," or that people who wish Israel safety and success are somehow "Israel First." If an Irish American expresses his concern for the well-being and economic growth of the Emerald Isle, nobody would accuse him of being "Ireland First." Not so for the Jews. Nope. If they so much as wish Israel safety from its many enemies, including but not limited to the Palestinians, Houthis, Iranians, Lebanese, and Syrians, then obviously they don't care about America and only about Israel. This is a lie, but one pushed by Tucker Carlson and his ilk.
Do you know how many Jews made "aliyah" (meaning moving to Israel to live) in 2024? According to the statistics I have, 3,706. That means that of the 7.5 million Jews living in the U.S., 0.05 percent of the local population actually made an effort to move to Israel to live there. At that rate, it would take 2,000 years for the current Jewish American population to get itself over to the Promised Land. The primary reason why relatively few Jews actually picked up and moved to Israel is that they love living in the U.S. Jews, since before the Revolution, have lived in America and felt welcomed more in the USA than in any other country. One can go down the list of European countries and find the year in which their Jews were banished and for how many hundreds of years they were not permitted to return. There is no such list in the U.S. Yes, there has been antisemitism in the past. Jews were passed over for jobs or denied membership in country clubs. The late Rev. Jessie Jackson had to inform us that Jew-loaded New York was "Hymie Town." Before the convulsion of antisemitic hatred of the past two years, many of the physical attacks against Jews were at the hands of blacks. So, there has always been some low-level antisemitism, but nothing like what we have seen where people are harassed, Jewish establishments are attacked, and Jewish institutions require armed guards.
Enter Jack Hughes, the man who lost several teeth and scored the winning goal to cap the Olympics and end a 46-year drought of hockey gold for Team USA. Immediately after his victorious shot, it was stated that his mother is Jewish, which, by Jewish law, means that he too is Jewish. It was duly noted that he had a bar mitzvah and celebrated Passover. When he was actually interviewed, he made no mention of Israel. He did not say any words in Hebrew. Rather, he expressed his pride in America:
"This is all about our country right now. I love the USA... I'm so proud to be American today."
And Jack Hughes represents the enormous majority of American Jews. Jews have fought and died in every war that America has fought. Jews were big fans of FDR, even though he made no effort to bomb the railroad tracks leading to the then-known extermination camps. My cousin in Washington Heights had a picture of John F. Kennedy hanging prominently in her dining room. Many on this website have expressed their dismay over Jews voting so heavily for Democrats, especially in light of the fact that all of those demanding the destruction of Jews and Israel—other than Tucker and his followers—are Democrats. I have explained previously that traditional, Torah-observant Judaism was changed to a concept of making the world better—and such progressive thinking has led many American Jews to support Democrats. I have noted that orthodox Jews—the smallest but fastest growing part of the American Jewish community—have supported Donald Trump at around a 90 percent clip. If the Tuckers and Candace Owenses continue as they have, I believe that some orthodox Jews may sit out the upcoming elections. They hate us, and they hate us. Thanks.
The reality is that even American Jews who have visited Israel, have family there, or own a place of their own, still love their home country, the USA, with all of their hearts. The dual-loyalty canard is as dumb as claiming that a parent having two children ultimately cannot love his first child as much as he should because he now has to share his love with the second child. People who love Israel are proud, taxpaying, voting Americans. One can always find some moron who will say something anti-American/pro-Israel, and then the dual-loyalty claim will be thrown at the entire community. Just as a black person committing a murder does not impugn all black Americans, so too the opinion of some loud-mouthed Jew who makes a disparaging comment on the U.S. does not represent the views of Jews throughout the country. I don't know the details of what Jonathan Pollard actually did, and I wish that I could see the unredacted letter that Cap Weinberger gave the judge the day before sentencing. If he violated his commitment to the U.S. and in any way endangered American interests or people working with the U.S., then he deserved the life sentence that he was given. I have seen him several times in Jerusalem, but I have never approached him or in any way tried to speak with him. Being an American with access to sensitive information comes with enormous responsibility.
American Jews, like the newly minted hockey star, love the country in which we have been blessed to live. One can support Israel and be a full-fledged, proud, and loving American citizen. People on the Left want to wipe out the Jews; those on the nutty Right want to delegitimize their fellow citizens, whom they loathe. During this, America's 250th year, may God bless the U.S. and all of those of goodwill who wish to see her best days ahead of her.