“Nothing to see, move along”
“Nothing to see here, move along.“
Nothing to see – sounds like a traffic cop directing rubber-neckers in cars around an accident scene.
But it’s not a traffic cop.
It’s the “Official” Jews and the pro-Israel lobby in Canada who are telling us
Move on
Don’t look over there.
No wonder. The night before last into todasy, Israel’s blatant murders of 436 Gazans – including 183 children)– or “terror targets” in their sleep was the worst act of state terrorism probably seen this decade. It is state terrorism because it was the IDF, directed by Israel’s minister of defence, that dropped missiles throughout Gaza, including Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah. Just before, Netanyahu contacted Trump in the White House – just to clear it with the boss—the person who pulls the purse strings.
There are also more than 675 Gazans seriously wounded. As emergency physician Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a volunteer with Medical Aid for Palestine at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said,
“It’s nuts here, we woke up to an airstrike frenzy…. The windows were shaking, the doors flew open, it was non-stop and then within about ten minutes we started hearing the sirens.”
According to NBC News,
“Haj-Hassan said patients had been “flowing in” to the hospital ever since, with dozens of bodies, at least 76, taken to the hospital’s mortuary. ‘They didn’t even make it into the ER door. But the ER was just chaos, patients everywhere on the floor,’ she said, describing the scenes as ‘a level of horror and evil that is really hard to articulate.’ ”
Back in Canada –days away from a general election call – not one politician wanted to comment on this massacre. If anyone lauded it, they would join the white, rich and powerful in this country, in valued institutions such as universities, colleges, museums and the media who support Israel no matter how murderous, thuggish or, frankly, psychopathic. If any politician disagreed with Israel’s bombings, however mildly, an interview or even a sound clip against Israel could end their political career as it did in the case of former Ontario MPP Sarah Jama.
What does it mean to say “I am a Zionist”?
Just 10 days ago, now former PM Justin Trudeau proclaimed “No one in Canada should ever be afraid to call themselves Zionists. I am a Zionist.” Of course he is! It’s the Zionists who grabbed the land from the Palestinians and drove 750,000 out of their homes in 1948. It’s the Zionists who have launched more than five wars against the Palestinians over the last decade. It’s the Zionists who have arrested 20,000 Palestinians, and have incarcerated 500-700 children each year, some as young as age 12 for throwing stones – or less — in Israeli jails. It is the Zionists who cheered on Israel’s genocide in Gaza over the last fifteen months. It is the Zionists and their lobby that have provided both financial and other support (including sending their own children to join the IDF , for the last 17 years of Israel’s terrorizing and killing mainly women and children in Gaza. Here’s a partial list:
–Operation Cast Lead (Dec. 2008-Jan 2009): 1400 Gazans killed, including 300 children
–Operation Pillar of Defense (2012): 167 Gazans killed, including 32 children
–Operation Protective Edge (2014): 2300 Gazans killed. 11,000 wounded including 3300 kids (1000 of whom permanently disabled). 30% of Palestinians in Gaza were displaced; 485,000 needed emergency food and 273,000 had to seek shelter in UN Schools
–Operation Guardian of the Walls (2021): 254 Gazans including 66 children, 1948 injured
– Operation Iron Swords (from 7 Oct 2023 to today) 60,000 Palestinians killed and more than 112,000 seriously injured
Horse race on the horizon
But we in Canada have an election on the horizon. For the Liberals, Trudeau is out, and prime minister hopeful Mark Carney will be looking for a safe seat in which to run—when will he speak about the massacre by his friends the Israelis? The Tories’ front bench includes MP Melissa Lantsman, a Jewish woman who calls herself a strong Zionist and insists that Canada not fund UNRWA. She stated,
“I was part of the Harper administration when we ended funding [to UNRWA] so that Canadian tax dollars wouldn’t fund the murder of Jewish children in Israel. You saw that Liberals, shamefully, restarted that practice. There was no oversight in how this money was being used to incite violence and terror. In fact, during that last round of fighting between Hamas and Israel, tunnels were found underneath UNRWA schools – paid for in part by Canadian tax dollars.”
The NDP? Well where to begin – at less than 10% in the polls — NDP candidates will not campaign on international affairs, let alone give open support to the Palestinians. The exceptions are three federal NDP candidates in Quebec — Niall Clapham Ricardo, Alexandre Boulerice and Craig Sauve — who have declared their support for Palestinians. The “Official” Jewish community is getting ready for an election – and they make little secret of their support for the Tories.
CIJA’s National Chair, Elan Pratzer in his recent column states
“Coming back to Canada, it’s clear that Israel has set an example for how we must wage our own fight. One that’s very different, but no less existential for our community.
As a Canadian Jew, the stakes of a federal election have never been higher…
If you’re disgusted by the pro-Hamas mobs in our streets and the antisemitic bullies targeting Jews on campus and in the workplace…
If you’re tired of hearing Canadian politicians lecturing Israelis without understanding what they’re going through…
Then we need you to engage in the next election as never before – as voters, volunteers, mobilizers, and advocates.
As an election draws near, we will be calling on you to join us in taking concrete actions that – taken together – will ensure our community punches well above our weight in the next election. Because an exceptional situation calls for an exceptional response from every single voter in our community.
Israelis have survived in the Middle East not because of their strength in numbers, but because of their strength in resiliency and ingenuity to beat overwhelming odds. So too, our Jewish community – less than 1% of Canada’s population – will only have a bright future here if we strengthen our engagement in Canadian democracy. …
Am Yisrael chai [the people of Israel live]”
Only 51% of Canada’s Jews identify as ‘Zionists’; 59% of Canada’s Jews say Israel is moving in the wrong direction
There are more than 335,000 Jews in Canada. There is a lot of evidence to say that Canada’s Jews are not monolithic. In fact the New Israel Fund’s survey of Canadian Jews in December 2024 revealed that
Only 51% would self-identify as “Zionist”
34% believe continued building of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank hurts Israel’s security
This flies in the face of the establishment Jews who claim that virtually all of Canada’s Jews are Zionists.
A 2023 EKOS survey of Canadian Jews showed that :
59% said Israeli government was moving in the “wrong direction”; 13% say “right direction”
54% oppose expanding Israeli settlement in West Bank
31% want establishment Jewish organizations (e.g. CIJA, B’nai Brith, CFSW) to be more critical of Israel
Yet Canada’s politicians seem to be in lockstep with the dictates of the pro-Israel lobby. The politicians want to shield themselves from running the very real risk of being labelled antisemitic for criticizing Israel.
Photo at the top: The Israeli military ordered people to evacuate to 'known shelters in western Gaza City and in Khan Younis'. 18 March 2025 [credit: Hatem Khaled/Reuters]
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