Then, in 2001, it was Durban, where a pretext of human rights was turned into a conga line of Israel bashing. Now it's Toronto. This cause is also good, on the surface. There's an international film festival going on even as we 
Replacement Politics? That's the endeavor to replace Israel with any population that isn't Jewish.
speak - and who can complain about something so artistic? Well, there's a problem.
Organizers decided to honor Tel Aviv and Israeli filmmakers, and as we know, no good deed goes unpunished.
Immediately after word got out about this (City to City) Tel Aviv connection to Toronto, a group of artists devoted to replacement politics went ballistic and called for a freeze on anything that honors Israel's contribution to film - or anything that honors Israel, period.
Replacement Politics? That's the endeavor to replace Israel with any population that isn't Jewish.
The protest against Israel began slowly enough, but then grew into near-Biblical proportions. E-mails tell me that more than a thousand members of the film-making community have rushed in to sign up for a petition tagged "The Toronto Declaration" - which declares, "No Celebration for Occupation."
Durban was likewise hysterical about the "occupation." This word, occupation, is used in polite society in lieu of "No Jews Allowed."
Who knew that so many in the film industry would be so quick to sign us onto the Book of Doom, on the eve when we pray for the Book of Life?
We've gone from screenwriter Ben Hecht, who wrote A Flag Is Born, to screenwriter Tony Kushner, who said, "I wish modern Israel hadn't been born." Somewhere within a single generation blessings have been turned into curses. There is no Frank Sinatra (a true friend of Israel) to shame these petitioners for their open-faced treachery.
Hecht's tribute to Israel (A Flag Is Born) was a Bergson Group initiative and starred Paul Muni, Celia Adler and Marlon Brando. Yes, Marlon Brando.
Those people are gone. Those days are gone.
Who are these Toronto petitioners and what do they want? We know what they want, and no amount of smooth talk, double-talk and rewrite can hide the message that they want Israel sliced and devoured. They say "Apartheid" where there is no Apartheid. They demand a "freeze on settlements," which picks up language even before Durban. We are now back further and into the covens of Wannsee and Nuremberg, where Jews were given restrictions and parameters.
Jane Fonda, who won two Oscars for being the daughter of Henry Fonda, well, she sure signed up for this petition, as did scores of other B-List actors and filmmakers, including Julie Christie, Harry Belafonte, someone named Viggo Mortensen, Danny Glover, of course, and somehow or other, Noam Chomsky, who can always be counted on when it's time to slur the Jewish State.
This crowd only needs a place, an event and an excuse to denounce Zion. Name the occasion that touches on Israel and they will come. (I've heard of novels and screenplays being turned down for being "too Jewish." Here's a case of an entire country being turned down for being too Jewish.)
Fonda and others in her sphere of influence declare that they love Israel, even as their aspirations differ not in the slightest from (the late) Yasser Arafat to (the latest) Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They speak in smooth tongues from crooked hearts, so they will never straightly say that they want Israel wiped off the map. Much more crafty and acceptable to insist on "the right of return" (to deluge Israel out of existence).
Any act of deterrence against terrorism, any action to protect and preserve Jewish life, is an affront to these high-minded elites.
They buy every blood libel being sold in the marketplace of jihad.
How is it that our luminaries of refinement and poetry collude with jihad tyranny, yet defame Israel's liberty - 
This word, occupation, is used in polite society in lieu of "No Jews Allowed."
freedoms that are shared by Arabs and Jews alike?
Tel Aviv is the showplace of all this!
They may speak in parables, Fonda and the lot, but I know the taunt "Dirty Jew" when I hear it, and even when it is not spoken I can smell it - miles away from Toronto.
Remember, it was Bilaam who was ordered to curse the Children of Israel. He ended up with blessings, which from 3,000 years ago serve us to this day: "How goodly thy tents, O Jacob; thy dwelling places O Israel."
[Late word has it that Jane Fonda has withdrawn her name from the Toronto Petition, but her "apology" for signing up in the first place arrives with an accusation; that "any criticism of Israel is swiftly and often unfairly branded as anti-Semitic." This is not an apology. If anything, it inflames the situation even further. In her Huffington Post blog, while offering her regrets, Fonda refreshes canards and blood libels, thus stirring a new hornet's nest. True repentance is unconditional. This apology is false and invalid.]
Jack Engelhard's latest thriller, The Bathsheba Deadline, which centers on media deceit against America and Israel, is available in paperback at Amazon.