This Fourth of July is unlike any other.

America is celebrating 250 years of freedom. It is 250 years since a bold nation declared that liberty was worth fighting for and that people were born with rights no government could take away.

For many Americans, freedom has always been there. It is woven into daily life. It feels permanent. It isn’t. I know because I grew up without it.

I grew up behind the Iron Curtain in the Soviet Union, where freedom was not a birthright but a privilege granted, or taken away, by the state. Every word mattered. Every conversation could become a report. Every stranger could become an informant. Even the air felt censored.

Despite the consequences, we were a Jewish family that openly somewhat observed Judaism. We went to synagogue on the High Holidays knowing someone could report us to the authorities. Jewish identity was not something many people displayed publicly because doing so came with a price. My parents paid that price. Professional opportunities disappeared. Doors quietly closed. Certain careers were simply unavailable. Jewish families learned early that merit alone was never enough.

Freedom was something we admired from afar. I still remember my father saying that Canada was one of the greatest countries on Earth—a nation built on freedom, democracy, meritocracy, free enterprise, and respect for individual liberty. He believed we had arrived somewhere extraordinary. For many years, he was right. Today, I struggle to recognize the country that welcomed us.

Last December, I wrote that antizionism had reached what I called “Stage 4 cancer” in Canada. Seven months later, I believe Canada is at Stage 5 cancer. The disease is no longer confined to isolated incidents. It has metastasized throughout our institutions, our campuses, our streets, and increasingly into our political culture.

Like cancer, societies rarely collapse all at once. They weaken cell by cell, institution by institution, freedom by freedom. Rights that once seemed untouchable begin disappearing piece by piece. Speech becomes more restricted. Citizens become afraid to express unpopular opinions. Merit gives way to ideology. Public institutions lose the confidence of the people they are meant to serve.

Having lived under Soviet authoritarianism, I recognize these patterns. They arrive gradually, wrapped in promises of justice, safety, or moral certainty.

Over the past decade, I have watched Canadian society decline, become increasingly polarized, free expression become more contested, ideological conformity grow stronger, and extremist rhetoric become increasingly normalized.

As someone who has spent years researching contemporary antizionism, I believe this movement has become far more than a disagreement over Middle East politics. It increasingly functions as a broader ideological framework that divides society into permanent oppressors and oppressed, justifies exclusion, and erodes the liberal democratic........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)