Canadian philanthropists are helping out lone soldiers in Israel. What is a lone soldier? I have never heard of the term either, but apparently it is an issue in the Israeli Defence Force.
I have never heard of "lone soldiers":
[The] Israel Defence Force (IDF) at any one time has close to 6,000 soldiers in service who have mostly volunteered from abroad, and who enlist without having the kind of domestic supports that homegrown IDF soldiers rely upon to ease their army duty.
Where sabra soldiers usually head home for weekend leave, lone soldiers often just hang out at their base. Sometimes lone soldiers enlist without the support of their families – even in the face of their vocal opposition – making them feel even more isolated, Schwartz said.
They come to Israel out of a deep Zionist commitment. “These kids are the volunteers of the volunteers” and they serve in all sorts of IDF units, including combat units.
Two notable Canadians have set up a foundation to help lone soldiers:
One of Canada’s foremost power couples, Gerry Schwartz, president and CEO of Onex Corporation, and Heather Reisman, chair and CEO of Indigo Books and Music, have launched an organization called Heseg that will disburse scholarship funds to soldiers living alone in Israel who have completed their army service and who intend to remain in the country.
Heseg, “achievement” in Hebrew, will provide 100 full scholarships in each of the next three years so that when the program is running at full capacity, 300 former soldiers will be attending Israeli universities or trade schools. They will also have their living expenses underwritten. At its peak, Heseg will distribute $3 million per year, Schwartz said.
Schwartz, who has also donated $12 million to the Jewish Toronto Tomorrow campaign towards the community’s new Vaughan campus, said Heseg “is the one [project] that has my heart and it certainly has my full attention now.”
Now this foundation is dispersing funds for scholarships for lone soldiers have after they leave service. These are not funds in support of Israeli government programs.
Still, offering support to a Jew, even just humanitarian support, is something that must be stopped:
On Saturday 23 December a picket was organized by activists in Toronto and Montreal to officially launch a boycott campaign against Chapters and Indigo Bookstores. The campaign demands an end to the financial support offered by the majority owners of Chapters and Indigo to Heseg – the Foundation for Lone Soldiers. This is a program of financial support for former “lone soldiers” in the Israeli military.
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA), came out to the downtown core of Toronto, and held a mass leafleting and information picket to launch this campaign. More than 80 activists held Palestinian flags and placards calling for a boycott of Chapters and Indigo and 3,500 leaflets were distributed. Organizers also engaged passersby, many of whom changed their minds about shopping at Chapters and Indigo. The picket was endorsed by Not In Our Name: Jews Against Israel’s Wars (NION). Members of NION participated in the picket with their banner and leaflets.
Now what booksellers Chapters/Indigo has to do with Heseg is unclear. I understand that the millions being pumped into the foundation by Schwartz and Reisman are coming from their personal fortunes. But then there is that whole "evil Jew-controlled corporation" thing. That makes Chapters/Indigo a legitimate target, right?
Here is a copy of the CAIA boycott leaflet. Very festive. The back half of the leaflet lists the "criminals" who run Heseg. Foremost is Doron Almog:
Maj. General Doron Almog: avoided arrest in London in 2005 on suspicion of war crimes. “The former head of Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip said Monday he was warned by diplomats not to leave an aircraft that had landed in London after a tip-off that British police were waiting to arrest him on war crimes charges”. Almog was in charge of the Israeli military southern command when a one-ton bomb was dropped on a house in Gaza killing 14 civilians nine of them children.
What were these war crimes? Ordering the demolition of Palestinian homes suspected of housing terrorists and of being used as launching points for attacks. Of course, the occupants were allowed to leave. The charges were not brought against Almog by the British government or by a United Nations body such as the International Court of Justice, but by a private ciitizen, Daniel Machover, acting as attorney for the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Later Foreign Secretary Jack Straw apologized to the Israeli government for the whole incident, and the British government began looking into how to prevent private individuals from using the courts to pursue war crimes charges.
Funny how Almog destroys homes used by terrorists, and is condemned by people who say those homes weren't legitimate targets despite that. Meanwhile, those same people will target a bookstore owned by philanthropists even though those philanthropists are not using the bookstore as part of their charitable work. Seems like a weird double-standard.
But back to Almog. Why was Almog in London in the first place? His son is severely retarded and suffers from autism. He founded an organization, Aleh Negev, which helps families in Israel with medical and other social costs asociated with severe mental handicaps. He was in London to do fundraising.
Sounds like a monster, doesn't he? Now, with the support of Canadian philanthropists, he's helping former soldiers who have no families in Israel, but who are trying to make a go of it in Israel.
Time to cut that off at the knees, eh? Thankfully, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid has cast a wide net. Any humanitarian act in favour of the Jew is fair game. Because to help the Jew is to support apartheid. How exactly, I'm not sure, because the CAIA states its goal is to help the Palestinians in their struggle for self-determination. What punishing lone soldiers has to do with that is something I haven't quite worked out.
But for some people, humanitarianism is a zero-sum game. You can't be doing good for both sides, can you?
Nevertheless, I expect the Heseg Foundation is doing just fine despite the banners and leaflets and noise from the CAIA. And Doron Almog is continuing to help lone soldiers as well as the families dealing with the difficulties of loving and raising mentally challenged children.
Meanwhile, I'm off to Chapters.
