Left I on the News

Here we go again. Back in March we had the cancellation of the New York performance of "My Name is Rachel Corrie" (it later ran for two months in a different venue). Now the play has been preemptively canceled again, this time in Toronto:

Many [in Toronto's Jewish community] were dismayed and openly critical when confronted with the prospect of the city’s flagship not-for-profit theatre producing a play that could be construed as anti-Semitic propaganda, especially during a frightening period when Israel’s existence is threatened by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.

The idea that anything Rachel Corrie ever said or wrote was anti-Semitic is offensive in the extreme. But if anything, the rest of that proposition is even more absurd. Israel's existence threatened by Iran? Sure, if you believe against actual evidence that Iran is intent on building a nuclear bomb, and that the entire nation is suicidal. Israel's existence threatened by Hezbollah or Hamas, two organizations which do not possess an airplane or a tank between them, and have never occupied a single inch of Israeli soil? Supporters of Israel may pretend to believe this nonsense in order to fabricate a rationale for justifying Israel's behavior, but surely no person in their right mind actually believes it, do they? We might as well believe that the existence of the United States is "threatened" by al Qaeda, another group which possesses not a single tank or plane.