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Canadas Israel Lobby and the ElectionsPublished on November 11th, 2015 | by Guest

by Paul Weinberg

Growing up Jewish in Toronto, I often heard how important it was not to wash your dirty linen in public. Suchcomments were directed specifically to Jews like me who, back in 1982, paraded in front of the Israeli consulate andcarried placards denouncing that countrys military invasion of Lebanon. In Canada, however, Jews are activelydiscouraged from washing their linen inside the living rooms, synagogues, and meeting halls of the Jewishcommunity as well.

As Bernie Farber, commentator and former president of the Canadian Jewish Congress explains, Jews in Canada arelargely the first- or second-generation offspring of Holocaust survivorsin contrast to the more multi-generationalAmerican Jewsand thus more fearful of anything they perceive to be an existential threat to the Jewish state. As aresult, discussions in the generally pro-Likud Jewish gatherings in Canada, Farber points out, dont touch on Israelsviolation of Palestinian rights or lately the weird historical revisionism statements that Israeli Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu has uttered about Hitler and the Holocaust.

The rationale for not breaking ranks in the face of real or imagined anti-Semitism reaches back into Canadas history.At one time in the 1930s and 1940s, the government of then-Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie prevented Jewsfrom coming to the country in his infamous None Is Too Many immigration policy.

Things are much different today in 2015 in my more multicultural and tolerant country (at least for Jews, if not forMuslims or indigenous peoples). Yet, this purported ironclad unity among about 380,000 Jews out of a totalpopulation of 35 million Canadians is a complete fiction. Left-right divisions have always festered above or beneaththe surface here. It was especially so during the recent October 19 election when Jews joined other Canadians inrejecting the right-wing wedge politics of Stephen Harpers right-wing Conservatives and helping to usher in the moreinclusive Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party.

Farber attributes the return of Jews to the Liberal fold in key Montreal and Toronto parliamentary seats to Liberalleader Justin Trudeaus successful combination of a socially conscious and inclusive politics with a continuedcommitment to Israel. It was quite clear, with one minor exception that in fact, the Jewish vote did come back to theprogressive side, Liberal or NDP, he explains.

From CJC to CIJA

In its 100-year history, the CJC functioned like a Jewish Parliament with its annual meetings, membership input, andfocus on advocacy for human rights for all Canadians. It was also not wildly radical or outspoken on the subject ofIsrael.

Nevertheless, in 2011 wealthy funders in the Jewish community, including the high profile financier Gerry Schwartzand his wife and book chain owner Heather Reisman, pressured the CJC to merge with the Canada-Israel committeeand other organizations to form a new hybrid body that eventually became the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.They were reacting to the increased activism of pro-Palestinian rights groups on Canadian university campuses. Butthe new body discarded the CJCs social justice themes. There is no longer a Canadian Jewish Congress, but the[Jewish] community is still finding ways [to speak out], maybe not through its official body, Farber told me in aninterview a few years ago.

The Canadian foreign policy establishment sympathized with Israels concerns since its founding in 1948. But therewas an even-handedness in Canadian votes at the United Nations on Middle East issues that especially alarmed pro-Israel advocates. In recent years the country edged into a closer orbit with Israel, starting in the last days of theprevious Liberal government and then ramping up further during the last 10 years of rule under Stephen HarpersConservatives. Closer military and economic links developed between Canada and the Jewish state, and in the 2011Canadian election 52 per cent of Jews voted Conservative, according to an exit poll conducted by Ipsos Reid. In April2011 before that election the Globe and Mail reported from another pollster Nik Nanos that in four of five ridings inToronto and Montreal with a sizable Jewish minority, the Liberal vote declined significantly between the 2006 and2008 elections - at more than double the rate in the rest of the country.

As the new voice for Canadas Jews, the CIJA reflected this turn toward narrower concerns with a focus primarily ondefending the Jewish state at all coststo the point of equating criticism of Israel on university campuses and throughboycott campaigns as anti-Semitic. It continues to do that today. This fall for instance, the CIJA has attributedresponsibility for the horrific violence between ordinary Palestinians and Israeli Jews to only one side in the 100-year-old conflict.

All the explanations and equivocations we have heard this month refuse to acknowledge the primary cause of theseattacks: Palestinian incitement, writes David Cape, current CIJA president, in an email. In mosques, media, andespecially graphic social media, young Palestinians are encouraged to martyr themselves by attacking Israelisandthose inflaming the situation includes PA officials and activists from Fatah, the governing party in the PA,

In an article that I wrote for Inter Press Service in 2004. CIJA CEO Shimon Fogel described the occupied Palestinianterritories as disputed, rather than occupied. In addition, a few years ago his organization supported the massive E1Jewish settlement project on Palestinian land in greater Jerusalem, despite criticism from Middle East experts that itwould undermine the establishment of a future contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank. This downplaying ofthe role and impact of the occupation appeared to be shared by both CIJA and the Harper government, says SheldonGordon, a spokesperson for Canadian Friends of Peace Now.

Furthermore, the Harper government turned a blind eye to its own official opposition to the expansion of Jewishsettlements, Gordon notes.

Its rhetoric [was] extremely pro-Israel, which is fine, but they are not pro-two state solution. They had iton their web site, the foreign affairs web site, but in a meaningful sense, they were not supportive of atwo state solution.

And although CIJA has representation from all the major political parties on its board, it was especially close with theHarper government. By linking post-9/11 fears of terrorism with threats to Israel from the Arab and the Muslim world,many of the harder-edge measures passed into law in Parliament by the Conservatives under Harpertougher anti-terror measures (Bill C-51), restrictive refugee policies (Bill-31), and a more complicated path toward achievingCanadian citizenship for landed immigrants (Bill C-24)were also in sync with how CIJA and the Israeli right viewedpolitics.

We also support the introduction of measures to ensure that those who apply for Canadian citizenship actually intendto maintain a meaningful connection to Canada after taking the oath, CIJA CEO Fogel told a parliamentarycommittee on May 5, 2015.

Fogels clout on Parliament Hill in Ottawa during the Harper governments tenure was given credence by the HillTimes, which described the CIJA CEO as among the most 100 influential political actors. A sister publication,Embassy Magazine, stated Fogel was one of 50 people with the greatest impact on Canadian foreign policy.

CIJAs registration with Canadas office of the commissioner of lobbying reveals that its Ottawa office of 15 staffers,including Fogel, regularly visit a host of federal government ministry offices to press their concerns about Israel andanti-Semitism and more general subjects such as security, immigration, and refugee policy. Fogel is also listed on theCIJA web site as having served as consultant to Parliaments Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and as amember of the prestigious Round Table on Global Security under the Department of National Defense in Ottawa.

The CIJA functions in many ways like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The difference is that AIPAC isstrictly focused on lobbying for Israel and does not purport to represent the full range of interests of the AmericanJewish community. What adds to the confusion in Canada is that CIJA was represented before the recent Canadianelection at some public functions by a Conservative party representative on its board, former Harper governmentcabinet minister and evangelical Christian, Stockwell Day. A letter writer to the Canadian Jewish News wonderedalmost facetiously whether CIJA was in reality a Jewish representative body.

CIJA has a low public profile here among Canadian Jews, in comparison to the now disbanded CJC or the formerhead, Bernie Farber. He has re-established himself as a public commentator in print. CIJAs budget is also difficult totrack on its web site.

Harper vs. Trudeau

Before his election as the new Liberal prime minister, Justin Trudeauthe son of Pierre Trudeau, Canadas primeminister for the most of the time from the late 1960s to 1984 always stressed his pro-Israel credentials. But he alsorefused to march entirely in lockstep with the Harper governments 9/11 narrative. As a result, he became a subject ofsuspicion in Jewish leadership circles in the run-up to the October election.

Trudeau had, for instance, supported US President Barack Obamas negotiated deal with Iran over its nuclear energytechnology programin contrast to both CIJA and the Harper government. Nonetheless, it was the Liberals leadersdenunciation of intolerance against Muslims in Canada and his drawing of parallels to Canadas exclusionary policytowards Jews of an earlier time that drew the ire of CIJA CEO Fogel in March 2015.

We view this comparison as inaccurate and inappropriate, and we will communicate that sentiment to Mr. Trudeausoffice, Fogel wrote. In this regard, we note that the Government of Canada has appropriately and consistentlydistinguished between marginal, extreme, terrorist elements of the Muslim community and the broader Muslimcommunity. Going further Jewish Canadian businessman and philanthropist Michael Diamond was quoted on Oct.16, 2015 in the Globe and Mail as the federal election loomed: In electing a Liberal government we are increasingthe risk of giving power to those who may be tied to radical Islam.

Election Results

Canadian Jews did not follow Diamonds advice in the October election. We know this from looking at urbanparliamentary seats where pollsters tell us that the Jewish vote is significant. The Liberals won in Montreals MontRoyal (36.3 per cent Jewish), Torontos York Centre (23.7 per cent Jewish) and Torontos Eglinton-Lawrence (18. 6per cent Jewish). The one exception, Torontos Thornhill (36.6 per cent Jewish) stayed with the Conservatives,partially because of a significant presence of orthodox Jews there, says Bernie Farber, the former CJC CEO.

Losing Harpers leadership in this area [i.e. supporting Israel] will not be an easy pill to swallow, Diamond wrote inthe Canadian Jewish News on October 29. He added later, Trudeau talks about a Canada for all Canadians. How heinterprets that, given the diversity of our countrys population will be the challenge.

Harper, in an attempt to drum up support from his conservative base, injected a dose of Islamophobia into theelectoral campaign. One of the hot-button issues involved the wearing of the full head covering or niqab duringcitizenship ceremonies. The CIJA, normally an organizational chatterbox, did not speak out against the ConservativePartys targeting of a handful of wearers of the niqab in the last desperate days of the election campaign. CIJAspokesman Steve McDonald emailed that his organization was simply following Canadian law in not responding to

the niqab issue:

Because the niqab has become a partisan policy issue, Canada Revenue Agency regulations prohibitCIJA [as an organization with charitable tax status] from commenting, particularly during the election.As with most things though, our community does not appear to be of a single mind on the issue.

In the post-election fallout the CIJA seems reconciled to the Liberals taking power in Ottawa. CIJAs current chairDavid Cape was quoted in CJN stating he and his colleagues are grateful for the positions taken by the new primeminister on a host of issues including social justice challenges and a close Canada-Israel relationship.

But Bernie Farber is skeptical that CIJA can easily morph from its pro-Harper partisanship to a politically neutralstance in the post-election period. I know CIJA denies that it is top down, I get all of that, he says. But the fact is it isa tightly run, professionally run, advocacy group that made serious errors in judgment [during the Harper years].

The question for me is whether the small moves away from the stifling unity in the Canadian Jewish community aresufficient when the violence in Israel and Palestine seems to be spiraling out of control.

Photo: Justin Trudeau interviewed by the CBC (courtesy of Alex Guibord via Flickr)

Paul Weinberg is a Hamilton, Ontario-based freelance journalist whose work appears in rabble.ca, Outlook, and theMonitor, a publication of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

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