Antisemitism

Canadian Jewish News ^ | April 29, 2004 | Brian Henry

[canadian bob]

Anti-Semitism in Canada: Why now?

By BRIAN HENRY

Canadian Jewish News, April 29, 2004

Across the country, the firebombing of a Jewish day school in Montreal appalled Canadians. Why did it happen? Why now?

I see four root causes.

First, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 radicalized anti-American and anti-Jewish sentiment in Canada and around the world. Much of the far left has always considered America and Israel as a single enemy and the primary source of evil in world affairs. While Sept. 11 demonstrated to most people that there are much nastier people around, the far left wasn’t prepared to give up its vision of America the evil.

For example, in his essay “The War in Afghanistan,” U.S. political commentator Noam Chomsky argues that America’s actions in that country were a far greater moral wrong than the terrorist attacks themselves. Much of the left followed Chomsky’s lead. But some people, many Canadians among them, defended their vision of American evil by adopting the notion that the United States and/or Israel (or simply “the Jews”) were responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Such conspiratorial thinking, which in Canada used to belong exclusively to neo-Nazi propagandists such as Ernst Zundel, suddenly became mainstream. Three Toronto Star columnists have promoted the notion of Sept. 11 as an American plot – Michelle Landsberg, Thomas Walkom and Antonia Zerbisias. Zerbisias went so far as to recommend an anti-Semitic web site to her readers (a recommendation that she only partially disowned after B’nai Brith called her on it.)

Second, opposition to the American-led war against Saddam Hussein popularized anti-Americanism throughout Canada and licensed its expression. When Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish said, “Damn Americans, I hate those bastards,” she likely generated more support for her party, not less. And when Canadians opened the door to anti-Americanism, its anti-Jewish twin also snuck in. Why did America invade Iraq? The answer, according to some conspiracy-minded Canadians, is that America is controlled by Jewish neo-Conservatives, a cabal that puts Israel’s interests ahead of America’s and, more generally, plots for America to conquer the world. For example, in his recent article titled “Why Won’t Anyone Say They’re Jewish?” Kalle Lasn, editor of the Canadian magazine Adbusters, produces a list of American neo-conservatives with a dot (or perhaps it’s a little yellow star) beside each Jew. “Half of the them are Jewish,” he writes, in case his readers can’t count. And, he says, they control “Rumsfeld’s Defence Department.”

Lasn adds, rather darkly, “One wonders what Israeli-American relations, and indeed what American relations with the rest of the world would look like if [they]… were also in charge at [the U.S.] State [Department].” This idea of Jewish puppet masters is simply a rehash of the century-old myth of the Elders of Zion, which was so fervently embraced by Adolf Hitler.

Third, the train bombings in Madrid showed that terrorism works. The bombers of the Montreal day school simply followed the Madrid example, but, fortunately, they burned only books, not people. Next time, according to a note left by the firebombers, they might do worse.

Fourth, and most importantly, anti-Semitism in Canada has been activated by the continual portrayal of Israel as murderous and monstrous, not just by the far left, but in mainstream media and by mainstream politicians.

To give just one example, CBC Radio’s Mary Lou Finlay opened a recent interview with a representative of the Palestinian Authority by asking him for his reaction to the Israeli “murder” of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. I assumed she’d made an embarrassing slip, until Russ Germain introduced a later segment of the program with a scripted line about the world crying “bloody murder.”

Have you ever heard anyone on the CBC refer to any of Hamas’ deliberate killings of Israeli civilians – men, women or children – as “murder”?

The CBC’s condemnation of Israel’s “murder” of Yassin and Canada’s foreign minister’s condemnation of the assassination were mere peeps in the worldwide outcry against Israel. That outcry that was louder, more widespread and vastly more heated than have been any objections to the hundreds of killings and thousands of injuries Yassin’s terrorist organization has inflicted on ordinary people going about their daily lives.

That outcry was surely heard by the people who firebombed the Montreal Jewish day school. When they wrote that their attack was retribution for the killing of Yassin, I imagine they expected scattered applause for their actions. Surely, they were surprised that Canadians unanimously denounced their attack, with the Toronto Star and the CBC as appalled as everyone else. Then again, perhaps the bombers are familiar with hypocrisy.

Brian Henry lives in Toronto.

[headsonpikes]

Despite all this, most Canadian Jews continue to support the Toronto (Red)Star, and the Liberal Party.

Go figure.

[Slings and Arrows]

Ping!

[Alouette]

I ask all FReepers to pray for the safety of my son in the IDF, who is on duty in the Jordan Valley. (Maybe I should also add, my loved ones in Toronto)

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.

WARNING: This is a high volume ping list

[SevenofNine]

Oh Alouette add them to FR Prayer list

Hey if the hockey team don't go all way to Stanley cups this year of course they blame on Jews

Trust me

I don't know about you but that is very weird blame problems of the world on community

WTF

[FrankR]

In a related matter...why did the liberal mainstream have a hissy-fit over Mel's "Passion" as being anti-semite, but that same fervor has not surfaced toward the Iraqis who beheaded Mr. Berg...supposedly because he was Jewish?

Is having a "double standard" why liberals say everything at least twice? Or why they bitch twice as much; or whine twice as much?