Anitzionists and Antisemites

"Antizionist" protester with sign calling to keep the world clean of people represented by the Star of David

It’s strange how being identified as an antisemite makes most antisemites lose their minds.

Witness the Toronto District School Board’s recent adoption of a report on antisemitism in Toronto schools. Antisemites organized a fierce opposition. But after a marathon 14-hour meeting, stretched over two days to give all those antisemites a chance to voice their objections, the School Board finally voted to accept the report. All that opposition over simply accepting a report the School Board itself had commissioned!

The authors of the report on antisemitism spoke to 125 students, canvassed every mainstream Jewish organization in the city, including our national organizations, and confirmed what parents have been screaming for 18 months now: Ever since the October 7, 2023, terrorist invasion of Israel, antisemitism has shot up everywhere, including (especially!) in our schools.

Thirteen Trustees voted to accept the report. But five others apparently believe the school board should ignore what Jews have to say about antisemitism. 

Tweet from Neethan Shan,
Chair of the Toronto School Board

Neethan Shan (Chair of the Toronto School Board), Malika Ghous, Yaline Rajkulasingham, Zakir Patel, and Matias de Dovitiis (federal NDP candidate for Humber River–Black Creek) all voted against the board accepting the report. 

Here’s testimony from a Toronto kid who those five Trustees don’t want to hear:

During my five years at CH Best (Middle School at Finch and Dufferin), I have been targeted and marginalized by antisemitism. On multiple occasions, people have thrown money at me and said, ‘Go get it, Jew.’ I have had other students give me the Hitler salute, I have been sent Holocaust denial memes on Snapchat, I was told, ‘You should have been gassed with your ancestors, Jew”, and “Free Palestine, kill Israel.”

Apparently, the antisemites who organized the opposition to the report, and their allies on the school board who voted against the report, don’t think this sort of antisemitism is worth worrying about. For them, the real issue – the issue that gets them all worked up – is that the report notices that antizionism “has recently re-emerged as a contemporary form of antisemitism.”

For example, it’s the kind of thing children are hearing from other kids at middle school: “Free Palestine, kill Israel.”

This isn’t antisemitic, say the antisemites. Jews aren’t even mentioned! At least, not in that little bit, but they do have to block their ears to miss that these “antizionists” are also saying, “you should have been gassed with your ancestors.”

Antizionists want to deny it, but everywhere we see antizionism, we also see old-fashioned antisemitism.

For example, a number of years ago, I objected to the Toronto School Board and other school boards across the province encouraging kids to read a novel: The Shepherd’s Granddaughter.

The author clearly meant this book as anti-Israel propaganda; that is, as antizionist. But it depicts Israelis – and Jews more generally – as child killers, which is one of the most familiar and most vile of antisemitic tropes. (More here.)

Parents protesting antisemitism at Toronto Schools

Another example: The University of Toronto’s medical school commissioned Dr. Ayelet Kuper to investigate the faculty’s rampant antisemitism. As always in “progressive” environments, the antisemites at the U of T medical school present themselves as antizionist. But Dr. Kuper also found old-fashioned antisemitism everywhere.

She especially found students and faculty invoking the “the longstanding myth of ‘Jewish power.’” Among other things, Dr. Kuper heard that Jews “control CaRMS (the Canadian Residency Matching Service, which manages the residency selection process), Jews control faculty hiring, and Jews control … promotion decisions” (here).

Antisemites pretend that “antizionism” is merely criticism of Israel. The fact that traditional antisemitism always shows up alongside antizionism makes nonsense of this claim. Besides, the biggest critics of Israel are actually Israelis – if “criticism” means criticism of particular Israeli governments or policies.

But that’s not what antizionists are about. Even without the obvious presence of traditional anti-Jewish myths, antizionism goes off the cliff into antisemitism when it shows itself as hatred.

Antizionists claim to “only” hate Zionists. But 90% of Jews are Zionists – that is, they support Israel’s continuing existence – and for Jews who care about being Jews, that percentage is much higher. So, while they claim to not hate Jews, antizionists admit to hating almost every Jew.

Protest in Toronto

Indeed, most people in most places support Israel continuing to exist. In Canada, for example, an Oct 2024 poll found that “most Canadians agreed that the Israelis have the right of self-determination: 56 per cent, yes; 9 per cent, no” (here).

But although all of Canada supports Israeli self-determination by a margin of six to one, antizionists get worked up about the Jews in particular. Try walking by an anti-Israel demonstration wearing a kippah, as I have. You will be accosted. (Though probably not assaulted, as there’s always a heavy police presence.)

Or try being a Jewish kid in a Toronto school. It’s the Jewish kids who get told, “Free Palestine, kill Israel.”

And that after all is the goal of the antizionists. They want Israel wiped off the map. Killed. At best they’re indifferent to the lives of the seven million Jews who live there. And since October 7, we’ve seen much worse than indifference. All over the world and in Canada, too, we’ve seen outright jubilation over the murder of 1,200 Jews in that October 7 terrorist attack.

The antizionism we’re seeing is antisemitism. It simply transfers the traditional hatred of the Jewish people to a hatred of the Jewish nation. But it’s the same hatred. 

It reproduces the same anti-Jewish myths.

Antizionists feed off their hatred in the same way antisemites do – they feel exactly the same joy in their hatred, the same sense of self-importance because of their hatred, plus all the other emotional rewards that feed antisemitism (see here).

And Jews (or almost all Jews) remain their target.

This raises the question: Where did this ploy of disguising antisemitism as antizionism even come from? And why?

We have to go back to the 1950s. After WW2, “Zionologists” in the Soviet Union took Czarist-era antisemitic propaganda and simply substituted the word “Zionist” for “Jew,” and voila! antizionism was born (here).

May Day parade in Moscow 1972: "Zionism is the weapon of imperialism"

Once it became clear that Israel wouldn’t fall into the Soviet orbit and especially after the Six Day War of 1967, the KGB and other apparatus of the Soviet state took over. They further developed this new form of antisemitism and used it to forge bonds with third world nations, especially Arab countries.

Beyond that, far left groups around the world adopted this new antisemitism. Eventually it made its way from the far-left fringe to dominate many university campuses here in Canada and elsewhere throughout the West.

Why the new face for a very old hatred?

Because antisemitism was associated with the Nazis. Until WW2, many respectable people were proudly antisemitic. But the Nazis forced much of the world to notice that hating Jews was a bad thing. (At least in the West; the Islamic world didn’t go through a post-Nazi rejection of antisemitism.)

Also, the world had changed. After two thousand years of utter powerlessness, Jews now had our own state.

Particularly on the left, antisemites needed to evolve a new variety of Jew-hatred adapted to their progressive sensibilities and reflecting the new world and a “progressive” idea of ultimate evil. Traditional notions of Jews as Christ killers or puppet masters or race polluters needed updating. The Soviets answered this need.

Progressives identify the great evils as racism, fascism, Nazism, genocide, imperialism, colonialism, militarism and apartheid, so the Soviets assigned all these to Zionism and Zionists. (More on the Soviet origins of antizionism here.)

None of this resembles actual Zionism in any way.

Actual Zionists came in many different varieties across the political and the religious/non-religious/anti-religious spectrums, and contemporary Israeli political parties are the descendants of some of these many strains.

All Zionists shared and still share the goal of having a Jewish state – in part because we need one! Centuries of persecution, both in the Christian and Islamic worlds, have made this painfully clear. And the place for a Jewish state is in the land where Jews originally come from, the land where our people have lived for 4,000 years – in Israel.

Rebranding antisemitism as antizionism allows haters to virtue-signal while attacking Jews

And yes, of course, it gets complicated, as Israel aims to be a Jewish state while respecting the equal rights of its non-Jewish citizens. But arguably it’s less complicated than Canada, where we aim to have one united country with shared values, but composed of French, English and Indigenous nations, plus a mosaic of countless cultures.

Antizionists ignore all this. They have zero interest in the reality of Israel and Zionism. For them, Israel and “Zionists” are simply Satan. That is, “Zionists” are the great evil, and this hallucination allows antizionists to feel self-righteous and heroic while indulging their anger or hatred.

This is how progressive antisemites maintain their certainty of their own moral purity while bathing in antisemitism. They agree antisemitism is bad. But antisemitism for them is something on the right. Since they’re on the left and they’re morally pure; they cannot be antisemites.

Thus, for example, Neethan Shan, Chair of the Toronto School Board, will signal his virtue by posting a Tweet for Holocaust Remembrance Day (here).

But Shan will also Tweet the claim that Israel is a criminal state occupying “Palestine” (a country which we might want to exist but as of yet never has).

He’s also Tweeted his admiration for Sarah Jama, the Ontario MPP who has called for Israel’s destruction, denied Hamas’s crimes, and took part in a demonstration that celebrated Hamas October 7, 2023, murder of 1,200 Israelis. The NDP kicked Jama out of its caucus because of her statements widely taken as blaming Israel for Hamas’s terror attack (here).

Shan presumably misses the contradiction in his Tweets, because Nazis were evil far-right antisemites, while his “antizionism” is virtuous and pure and progressive.

To progressives, it’s simply impossible they can be antisemitic. They see the notion as a monstrous (Jewish) lie – a lie that defames their (imaginary) virtue – a lie that must be defeated! Hence, we end up with a fourteen-hour hearing on whether or not the Toronto School Board should listen to Jews about antisemitism.

Jagmeet Singh, leader of the federal NDP, and Sara Jama

Similarly, at the NDP’s 2021 policy convention, the policy issue NDP activists most wanted on the agenda was how to define antisemitism. Weird, yes? Considering close to 0% of these activists are Jews.

They brought forth, not one resolution, but three of them, sponsored by 42 different riding associations, all dedicated to defining antisemitism – or more specifically, to rejecting the definition of antisemitism developed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA, an association of 34 countries, including Canada, that seeks to counter antisemitism).

Canada’s Ministry of Heritage has adopted this definition. So have the governments of almost every democracy the world over. So have innumerable subnational governments, associations, and even some schoolboards. It’s the gold standard. But this definition notices that contemporary antisemitism often shows itself as obsessive hatred of Israel, Israelis and “Zionists.”

Please note, the large majority of people who simply vote NDP don’t share this obsession about “Zionists.” But unfortunately, the IHRA definition of antisemitism does describe many NDP activists, some members of the Toronto School Board, and many others who call themselves “progressive.” (More on the NDP's "antizionism" here.)

This is where our world is at. The Soviet Union fell decades ago, but visit any anti-Israel rally today, and you’ll hear protesters using the same slurs the Soviets wrote for them 60 years ago – slurs about colonialism, genocide, and Nazism – slurs that invite progressives to project all their hatred onto “Zionists” and to feel virtuous for doing so.

Alas, antisemitism doesn’t die; it just migrates from place to place and morphs from one form to another. Alarmingly, right now, antisemitism is showing up in our schools and is being defended at our school boards.

***

This piece was originally published on the Canadian Zionist Forum.

Read more of my pieces here (and scroll down). ~Brian

A new novel by Carolyn Clarke: And Now There's Zelda

Brian, 

Thank you for having me back to shout out my second book! After having much success with And Then There’s Margaret (July 2022), And Now There’s Zelda is out – same family but different drama. It’s been an exciting journey (along with its challenges – to say the least, but nonetheless, one that I’ve enjoyed and hope to continue with.

Along with my book writing, I've been busy with my blog Henlit Central. For those who love light-hearted women’s fiction reads, pop on by. I’ve had the chance to interview some of the most popular women authors in this genre including Marian Keyes, Maddie Dawson, Laurie Gelman, and just posted, screenwriter and debut novelist, T W Bristol – she’s known in Hollywood as the one who got Jessica Tandy to say yes to her role in Fried Green Tomatoes!

Carolyn

And Now There's Zelda

For fans of the bestselling author of And Then There's Margaret comes the perfect family “dramedy.” And Now There's Zelda takes readers on another relatable slice of life ride as Allie realizes the only way to survive the angst of family is to let go….and let it be.

“Fans of Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan will adore Clarke's novel. It is filled with heart and drama.” – The Book Commentary

“A funny, uplifting story about one woman's lesson in letting go-even though this means she has to make peace with her mother-in-law AND a potential daughter-in-law who just might be her sweet son's biggest mistake. ” – Maddie Dawson, Washington Post bestselling author of Matchmaking for Beginners

Book Summary:

Carolyn

Dealing with a controlling, manipulative, and self-absorbed mother-in-law can be a challenge. But when your child brings home a fiancé who’s completely unworthy, and the shoe is suddenly on the other foot, do you take the high road, or get down and dirty? 

It’s been five years since Allison Montgomery’s beloved father-in-law, George, passed away and her cantankerous mother-in-law, Margaret, moved in. After nearly killing each other during their initial adjustment period, Allie and Margaret have finally buried the hatchet and have even launched a thriving home staging business together.

Today, Allie is enjoying life. That is until her twenty-two-year-old son, Cameron, unexpectedly brings home Zelda, his new fiancé. The problem is, no one has ever met or even heard of her. And when Zelda’s first impression raises more than a few red flags, Allie finds herself in unfamiliar territory.

Facing the prospect of becoming a mother-in-law far sooner than expected, and to someone unworthy of her darling baby boy, Allie’s protective instinct kicks in. And who better to turn to for guidance and support than Margaret, her former nemesis and master of the mothers-in-law’s dark arts.

Allie and Margaret launch Project Zelda, an intervention of sorts designed to show Cameron who Zelda really is and to prevent him from making a catastrophic mistake. However, with Zelda’s ingratiating behavior, Margaret’s occasional disappearances, and Allie’s doubts about turning into her own mother-in-law, will Allie find a way to reconcile her protective instincts or will history repeat itself?

Read First Chapter excerpt here!

Available on Amazon here.

Carolyn Clarke is the founder and curator of HenLit Central, a blog focused on 'life and lit' for women over 40. AND NOW THERE'S ZELDA is her second novel after AND THEN THERE'S MARGARET (2022). She has been an ESL teacher for over sixteen years and has co-authored several articles and resources with Cambridge University Press, MacMillan Education and her award-winning blog ESL Made Easy. She lives in Toronto, Canada with her partner, Tony, her two daughters and bulldog, Sophie.

See all my upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here. ~Brian

See more books from your fellow authors here (and scroll down).

See where your fellow writers are getting short pieces published here (and scroll down).

If you’ve had a story (or a book!) published, if you’ve won or placed in a writing contest, if you’ve gotten yourself an agent, or if you have any other news, send me an email so I can share your success. As writers, we’re all in this together, and your good news gives us all a boost. Email me at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

“There is No Poop-Picker-Upper Fairy” by Barbara Wackerle Baker

I grew up in a tiny place east of the Banff Park gates in Alberta. It was not large enough to be given hamlet status – hence they called us “a community.” But it was the best place for a kid to grow up. There were no fences, no streetlights and playing in the woods started at the end of our driveway. Occasionally we’d see a car drive by that no one recognized, and we’d wonder who had company coming to visit.

Back then, our family had a dog. Most families in the community had one.

When I played outside, I knew which dogs to avoid, which ones not to run from, and which ones were sure to follow me home.

Dog poop bags were not a thing in those days. Having said that, I do not recall stepping in dog poop. Ever. But I am positive dogs still pooped.

But these days, dog poop is often a conversation starter with walkers when the snow melts and the evidence (poop bags) hang off fences, branches or decorate the sides of trails.

I live in Calgary now where gorgeous parks, green spaces and pathways twist throughout the city in all directions. It also has many off-leash parks for dogs. And there is lots of signage explaining a dog owner’s responsibilities in regard to their pet’s poop. Plus, there are poop bag dispensers and garbage cans at pathway entrances and scattered along the way for all types of deposits. How convenient.

So why is it that so many of the bags never make it into the garbage cans?

Do the signs which state “pick up after your dog” really need another line added “and put it in the garbage can”? Because if that is all it will take, I can do something about that.

To find these deposits alongside walkways and open spaces is annoying enough but when I find them hanging off spruce boughs or perched on a rock beside a hiking trail, I start fuming. Do dog owners think there is a poop-picker-upper fairy?

Yes, I realize that when the offender initially sets the bag aside, they have good intentions of picking it up on their return trip. But it seems many dog walkers’ good intentions fall short. Did they get distracted? Did they turn their head at the appropriate time, so they didn’t see their pretty bag sitting upright beside the trail?

Maybe they got a phone call telling them they won the lottery, or possibly their brother’s wife’s cousin had a baby, and that was enough of a distraction that they forgot the little bag. I guess all of the scenarios could happen but I’m hopeful dog owners, who make a habit of leaving the poop behind, quit making responsible dog owners look bad.

A search on Google reveals that under perfect conditions a compostable bag will deteriorate in up to 90 days. The ordinary plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to decompose.

Not that this is an option, but seriously, if the offender has no intention of retrieving their dog’s feces, why go through all the hassle of bagging it? Why not put a rock over it? Or fling it into the bush? In ideal conditions, dog poop decomposes in nine weeks. So, it would be out of sight a lot sooner than the fancy baggy.

I read on the Cochrane Off-Leash Dog Spaces Facebook page about a woman who took it upon herself to clean up the poop in her local park. During the first three months of winter, she walked her dog while carrying a five-gallon pail. She picked up 60 gallons of dog crap - some bagged, some not bagged, some with worms. And it wasn’t her dog’s poop. Kudos for doing the nasty task and keeping tally of her daily progress but shame on the dog owners who won the lottery and didn’t have time to pick up their dog’s mess.

Never in my life did I think I’d write about dog poop. Yet here I am, doing just that. And the issue is not the dog’s fault. The owners are the ones who need to attend obedience class.

I miss the carefree old days when dog poop was not an issue. But for now, I will step off my soap box and go outside to search for the poop-picker-upper fairy.

*** 

Barbara (Wackerle) Baker grew up in Banff in the 60s and 70s when it was a quiet, nowhere place – not the iconic vacation destination it is today. These days, Barbara writes realistic, fast-paced wilderness adventure novels set in Banff National Park. Her books bring readers into the heart of her homeland, the mountains of Banff, where her characters must navigate their way through new surroundings as well as manage the turmoil life has in store for them.

Many of her short stories are published in newspapers, magazines and anthologies. Carousel Pictures made a mini-film of her essay, “Life Support,” which played in the Toronto International Film Festival (fall 2019).

Visit her author page at BWL Publishing https://www.bookswelove.com/baker-barba/

“There is No Poop-Picker-Upper Fairy” was previously published in the Globe and Mail on their First Person page. For information on submitting a First Person essay to the Globe and Mail {and a few other great places to submit}, see here.

See Brian Henry's upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here.

Read more short stories, essays, and reviews by your fellow writers here (and scroll down).

The Liberals have betrayed Israel and the Canadian Jewish community by Brian Henry

For Canadians who care about Israel, our only hope is a Conservative government. The Conservatives have strongly and consistently stood by Israel, and by the Jewish community here in Canada. The Liberals not so much, and under Mark Carney this won’t change.

A couple of incidents stand out. In a talk in Calgary, a heckler shouted out that there’s a genocide going on in Gaza.

Carney responded: “I know … I’m aware. That is why we have an arms embargo against Israel.”

He later claimed he wasn’t agreeing with the heckler, that he didn’t hear the word “genocide.” You can believe his explanation if you like. But I have not heard him point out that the accusation is a rank lie. Nor have I heard him remind people that the KGB started accusing Israel of genocide 60 years ago and that antisemites have simply been repeating the accusation ever since. (More here).

For his part, Jagmeet Singh has given up on being taken seriously. In both the French and English leaders’ debate, he called on Carney to repeat the slander that Israel’s committing genocide, knowing that Carney wouldn’t take the bait and thereby hoping to make the NDP stand out as the party of choice for people who froth at the mouth when Israel is mentioned.

However, even the NDP is out-fringed by the Green Party. Elizabeth May has declared: “I take my marching orders from the permanent representative of Palestine to Canada” (here).

For his part, the Greens’ co-leader Jonathan Pedneault has Tweeted that we need to “contextualize” Hamas’s mass murder, mass rape, mass torture, and mass kidnappings. To “contextualize” it is the polite way of saying Israelis deserved it.

While Carney retracted his accusation of genocide, he’s all in on continuing Canada’s arms embargo against Israel. Carney has spent a lot of time out of the country, but surely, even he ought to know that Canada always claimed to be Israel’s ally – right up until the minute Israel suffered a massive terror attack. Then the Liberals counted votes and calculated that Canadians who’d like to see Israel wiped off the map greatly outnumber Canadian Jews.

Six months ago, the Liberal Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly put this into words. An interviewer asked about the Liberals’ “incomprehensible” position of claiming to support Israel’s right to self-defence while also banning arms sales to Israel. Joly replied: “Have you seen the demographics of my riding?” (See here.)

Upon becoming PM, Carney promptly reappointed Joly as Foreign Affairs Minister.

NDP MPs in parliament dressed up in keffiyehs and giving power salute

A second incident. Carney Tweeted:

Canada must work with our allies to stand up for international law to promote sustainable peace and security in the Middle East and to support full access to humanitarian aid for Palestinian families. As this work continues, both parties must work towards the return of all hostages.

“Both parties” – what does that even mean?! One party is holding hostages. The other party is trying to free them. This is like calling on Robert Pickton and the RCMP to sit down and work towards stopping the killing of women and feeding them to pigs – as if it’s a problem they need to compromise on, maybe offer Pickton some compensation or allow him to murder only half as many women.

But with these differences: Hamas has committed worse crimes than Pickton ever imagined, and while Pickton is now safely dead, Hamas has declared it will go on committing atrocities, if the world will just give it a chance.

Also, while Carney has criticized Israel – notably for stopping Gaza’s supply of free electricity (while praising Doug Ford for threatening to cut off electricity to the U.S.) – I’ve noticed he has yet to say a word about Egypt.

Like much of the world, Carney seems to be geographically challenged. He’s forgotten Gaza borders two countries – one of which (the one called Egypt) has refused to let a single truckload of aid cross its border into Gaza for the past year.

The other country bordering Gaza – Israel, the country Gaza invaded – has allowed tens of thousands of truckloads of aid to cross its border, even though much of that aid is stolen by Hamas, with Hamas then selling what it doesn’t want to the civilians.

But while Carney intends to continue the Liberal policy of demanding behaviour from Israel not expected of any other country in the world, many Liberal candidates are much worse.

Adam van Koeverden, the Liberal member for Burlington North–Milton West slandered Israel with the genocide charge just days after Carney back-peddled on his gaffe (here).

Moreover, van Koeverden is one of 20 Liberal candidates who has signed on to the “Vote Palestine” platform, which was put together by numerous groups that celebrate Hamas’s October 7 terrorist invasion of Israel. (Full list of Liberals who have signed on to this platform below.)

As of March 31, 124 NDP candidates had also endorsed the Vote Palestine platform, including party leader Jagmeet Singh, and also 44 candidates for the Green Party, including its two leaders.

No Conservative candidate has endorsed it.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre at pro-Israel rally in Ottawa

The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) is one of groups that put together the platform. The PYM is very closely associated with the PFLP and Samidoun terrorist groups. (Some details of these links here.)

The PFLP took part in the terrorist atrocities against Israelis on October 7, and has a history of murdering innocents, going back to the 1960s and ‘70s when it favoured spectacular terror attacks such as the 1972 murder of two dozen passengers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport. (More on the PFLP here.)

Samidoun is a sub-group of the PFLP, with branches in at least 14 countries but headquartered here in Canada. Samidoun spreads pro-terrorism propaganda, fund-raises, and recruits people to the terrorist movement. Canada and other democracies list both the PFLP and Samidoun as terrorist groups.

Despite its many links to the PFLP and Samidoun, the Palestinian Youth Movement continues to operate freely in Canada, primarily in universities and high schools. Along with Samidoun, it’s been responsible for many of the anti-Israel demonstrations across Canada and of course for anti-Israel propaganda, including this Vote Palestine platform.

The Vote Palestine platform promotes several central propaganda aims of the Palestinian terrorist groups:

Recognizing a Palestinian state.

Recognizing a Palestinian state, particularly now, is to give up on peace. It says to the Palestinians: no need to negotiate. Commit mass murder, mass rapes, and mass kidnappings; commit the most horrifying atrocities against Jews since the Holocaust, film it and upload it all to social media for the world to see – do that, and we will reward you with a state.

What are the borders of this Palestinian state? One of the criteria for recognizing a state is that it should have recognized borders. There's never been a Palestinian state, so its borders have never been determined. There have been attempts – Israel has made several territorial offers, but the Palestinian Authority has rejected them all and has never made a counter-offer. As for the PFLP and Hamas, the only borders they'll ever recognize include all of Israel.

The NDP has long campaigned to skip peace and go straight to recognizing a Palestinian state (more here). Indeed, the NDP supports every part of the Vote Palestine platform.

Palestinian Youth Movement poster celebrating Oct 7 massacres

Endorsing the notion of anti-Palestinian racism. 

Palestinians already enjoy legal protection against discrimination, as does every national group in Canada. But anti-Palestinian racism, as defined by groups backing this campaign, includes any disagreement with the Palestinian “narrative.” If you disagree with the anti-Israel mob, they want you branded as a racist.

Banning cultural or academic exchanges with Israeli students, artists, or any other Jew living in the West Bank.

The groups behind the Vote Palestine platform want to cut “Zionists” off from the rest of humanity – no contact of any kind with any Jewish Israeli or anyone supporting Israel’s continuing existence. Banning contact with Jews living in the West Back is a baby step they’ve guessed they can get a lot of people to go along with.

(More about both anti-Palestinian racism and the movement to shun “Zionists” here.)

Endorsing the slander that Israel tests out new weapons on Palestinians.

The groups behind Vote Palestine see Israel as a demonic entity – a state that kills Palestinians to try out new weapons or simply for sport. Because the Vote Palestine platform is meant for the general public, they’ve tried to hide their extremism (and outright craziness), but here it peeks out.

They want Canada to extend the ban on selling weapons to Israel to an additional ban on Canada buying weapons from Israel. To justify this, they pull out this absurd accusation about Israel testing out weapons on Palestinians.

And again, this is a policy the NDP endorses.

Funding the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). 

UNRWA is a UN agency, but in Gaza, it’s run by Hamas – which is not a surprise. Hamas has governed Gaza for 18 years. Every agency in Gaza answers to Hamas.

But UNRWA is more important than most, partly because it channeled a billion dollars to Hamas (here), but also because Gazan children all went to UNRWA schools, which taught them to hate Jews and to aspire to become martyrs in the holy war to wipe Israel off the map (here).

Altogether, Israel has identified 14 UNRWA employees who took part in the October 7 attack, and another 1,200 who are members of terrorist groups, plus numerous incidences of UNRWA facilities doubling as Hamas facilities. (More here).

The Liberals and the NDP already support funding UNRWA. The Conservative do not.

Protesters from Samidoun terrorist group burn Canadian flag

The Vote Palestine platform never mentions Hamas, although Hamas started this war and Hamas continues this war which has led to such disaster for Gaza. Thousands of Gazans hate Hamas and risk torture and death to protest its rule (here).

So why don’t the groups behind Vote Palestine platform mention Hamas? Simple: they care much more about wiping out Israel than they care about protecting Palestinians.

Of course, for all of us, there are other issues in this election, notably President Trump’s tariffs and his bid to make Canada the 51^st state. In regard to this issue, though, the question isn’t: who will stand up to Trump? All the parties would.

The question is: who will strengthen Canada’s economy so that we can stand up to this threat? For this, the smart money is on the Conservatives, not the Liberals, who have spent the past nine years hobbling our economy.

Still, despite the Liberals’ betrayal of Israel, if I lived in Anthony Housefather’s riding in Montreal or Ben Carr’s riding in Winnipeg, I’d vote Liberal myself, because it’s important to have strong pro-Israel voices in the Liberal caucus.

On the other hand, there are these Liberals who support the Vote Palestine platform. They’re only a half-step away from supporting terrorism:

Ontario:

Sima Acan, Oakville West

Shafqat Ali (incumbent), Brampton—Chinguacousy Park

Fares Abu Al Soud, Mississauga Centre

Chris Bittle (incumbent), St. Catharines

Sean Carscadden, Wellington–Halton Hills North

Shaun Chen (incumbent), Scarborough North

Nate Erskine-Smith (incumbent), Beaches-East York

Kurt Keenan, Middlesex—London

Iqra Khalid (incumbent), Mississauga—Erin Mills

Tim Louis (incumbent), Kitchener—Conestoga

Aslam Rana, Hamilton Centre

Jenna Sudds (incumbent), Kanata

Kristina Tesser Derksen, Milton East–Halton Hills South

Adam van Koeverden (incumbent), Burlington North—Milton West

Salma Zahid (incumbent), Scarborough Centre—Don Valley East

PEI:

Sean Casey (incumbent), Charlottetown

Quebec:

Alexandra Mendès (incumbent), Brossard—Saint-Lambert

Sameer Zuberi (incumbent), Pierrefonds—Dollard

Alberta:

Shahnaz Munir, Calgary Crowfoot

B.C.:

Patrick Weiler (incumbent), West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country

In Nunavut, the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador, no Liberal candidates have signed on to the Vote Palestine platform. In these provinces and territories, you need to vote NDP or Green to support terrorism.

***

Note: I’ve previously written on the Liberals’ betrayal and in particular on the betrayal of the Jewish community by my own Member of Parliament, in York Centre here.

This piece was originally published on the Canadian Zionist Forum.

To read more of my commentary, click here (and scroll down).