Your Questions
As promised a while ago I would address your questions and I may actually, if my confidence levels go up, do it in a video. Anyway, Lynn recently asked: a traitor is someone who harms a group that they belong to by helping its enemies. My question is: as a citizen of a country, where does free speech end and treachery begins? My answer here:
My guess is that the origin of the question comes from what we have seen on our streets over the past few months. In particular one example I can think of is protesting on the streets of London and expressing your support for the Houthis in Yemen who have just bombed cargo ships which in turn has resulted in a joint US-UK missile strike on Yemen. So cheering on the Houthis: free speech or treason? In all likelihood this would fall into the bucket of freedom of expression. Yes, it is very unhelpful, quite offensive, and potentially dangerous, but not a clearly identifiable act that would directly benefit the Houthis. If you happen to find some classified information on British naval positions in the Red Sea and send it over to those same Houthis, yes, that would constitute treason.
The issue is hardly a new one, as long as humans have had conflicts there would be individuals or parties with an incentive to help the enemy. Or sometimes they did not even need a prompt, sometimes people are just seriously misguided. For instance, we’ve had communist sympathizers and political parties in most Western democracies during the Cold War era, groups that even went as far as communicating with Moscow. Same in the pre-war years with Nazi sympathizers outside Germany, even as far as the US. Some of them committed clearly identifiable acts of treason and were arrested and convicted, others were mere nuisances and eventually faded away much like the flawed ideologies they adhered to.
What we are seeing now, and that is what is causing us real headaches, is a steady undermining of the historic support for a democracy like Israel in many European and North American cities. The protestors and often well organized groups are not traitors by definition, yet they are acting as a sort of arm’s length proxy for certain entities like for instance Hamas or the Houthis. These are groups that have strategic objectives that run counter to the interests of free Western democracies. Groups like this are sometimes referred to by a term that originated during the Spanish Civil War as a ‘fifth column’ which is a group within a certain country who are sympathetic to or working for its enemies or adversaries.
As much as it arouses our anger and fear to see Hamas supporters on our streets, they aren’t traitors just yet, but they are a sort of fifth column who have become effective at advancing certain agendas and ideas into the mainstream of our public discourse. They are starting to undermine institutions like universities and trade unions and over time could be truly dangerous if their actions remain unchecked. That is the point where free speech can morph into treasonous behaviour. The question then becomes, are we as free societies strong enough to monitor those groups, call them out and take action once they do start to cross these legal boundaries? Based on current trends, I am not overly confident we are that strong.
168 Days in Captivity
The other issue to touch on today are the hostages. Yesterday there was an event of unity and prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem which was broadcasted globally with many people joining via YouTube. It started with some hostage family member interviews and it was once more moving to see and hear Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg. Their son Hersh, you may recall, is one of the hostages taken on October 7th after a grenade blew off one of his underarms after which he was thrown onto a Hamas-driven truck and taken into Gaza. A video of this has been making the rounds where you can see the dazed twenty-three year old man and the bone sticking out of his arm. If it is gruesome and shocking to us, imagine you being his parent. Both of them have been campaigning relentlessly and Rachel in particular talks to media on an almost daily basis, she has to many become another post-October 7th household name.
These hostage campaigns have gone global. Direct appeals to the Pope, Putin, Biden, even Xi Jinping (hostage Noa Argamani has a Chinese mother) have been brought into this. This in addition to the ongoing negotiations where Israel is talking to Hamas through the various channels opened up by Egypt and notably Qatar. And of course much of the families’ frustration and anger has been directed at Israel’s government who are perceived to not do the utmost to secure the release of the hostages. This is what I wrote four months ago about Nethanyahu after the first batch of hostages was released:
So the dilemma he now has is to keep going on the hostage release and ceasefire trajectory, or, to make the hard call and risk the lives of the remaining hostages by going full force ahead with destroying Hamas.
Well he has done both and it has made the process of getting any hostages released a lot harder. The core question is how Israel, a country which is truly unique in the way it values the lives of its citizens, has balanced this incredible trade-off. The answer I heard yesterday during the ceremony is that it hasn’t and that a victory with no hostages ever returning will be an empty one that will eat away at the nation’s soul. Yes and yes.
Hamas remains in control and has no incentive to trade away the hostages unless it can force such conditions that will freeze the fighting and declare some sort of victory. With western pressure that may yet happen as we discussed earlier this week. Still, I can’t pull myself away from the thought that, given the extreme international pressure from all sides, the endless convoys of food and aid going into Gaza, how has there been zero progress here? Why are there not even some signs of hostage life? Photos, video?
In all likelihood the answer is grim. A number of the 134 hostages are no longer alive, not a few of the women are likely pregnant, and some have been so abused or neglected that Hamas deems it safer to not let them go and let the world be a witness ever. It may also be the case that some very influential voices are pushing Hamas to hold the line. This morning Russia and China vetoed a US-sponsored UN resolution for a ceasefire linked to humanitarian help and ‘the release of all remaining hostages’. Whatever the answer, at day 168 things look incredibly grim and with each passing day the chances of a safe return for the hostages seem further away than ever. The heart aches for them and their tormented families.
I do not oppose people expressing support for Hamas, however misguided and generally uninformed I think they are. What I do object to is the attempts to shut out other voices as we saw at the PuSH festival in Vancouver or more recently with Guernica magazine. This is dangerous to our democracy. There is a good article in the April 2024 issue of The Atlantic on the resurgence of Anti-Semitism in the US (and the same thing is happening in Canada). We have to actively oppose this anti-Semitiism and not give people a pass because they pretend to be somehow progressive.
Thank you for replying. And yes I was referring to the regular weekly chants, up and down the UK, of ‘from the River to the Sea’ and pro Hamas supporters. However much I wish to classify this ‘fifth column’ as traitors, I have to agree with you, although extremely unpleasant, they are using our democracies and ‘exercising free speech’ and for as long as they don’t cross legal boundaries. I also agree also that the West is not strong enough to monitor these groups. I believe these groups will use free speech granted under our democracies until they get to power; should that happen, and I am worried this is likely in my lifetime, it will be the end of free society as we have known it. I am honestly extremely concerned about the trajectory of the so called Western democracies. But still, they are not traitors, it seems.