New Theory on Antisemitism

A new and perverse theory on antisemitism seems to be taking hold, and some of its proponents come from very unlikely quarters.  Let us take the example of a long-time friend of Israel, Liberal MP Anita Neville.  In comments at a hearing of the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism, she alleged that the Jewish community faced a possible “backlash” of hate in response to the Harper Government’s proclamations in support of the Jewish State and its decisions to defund organizations engaged in antisemitic activity.  What is surprising is that her comments were tantamount to a repeat of various other statements emanating from organizations such as the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), which also recently alleged that the government’s support of Israel is “fostering” antisemitism.

To B’nai Brith Canada, Canadian Jewry’s senior advocacy organization, suggesting that the government’s clear and principled policies on the Middle East and on countering antisemitism are creating a backlash against the Jewish community is simply preposterous.

All mainstream Jewish organizations in Canada have continually appealed to governments of varying political affiliations to counter, both verbally and materially, all manifestations of antisemitism in Canada, and to stop the moral equivalency between the democratic state of Israel and the terrorists who seek its destruction.  These Jewish organizations, ours included, also urged governments to ensure that there be full accountability for all taxpayer dollars funding overseas NGOs, and to give unqualified assurance to Canadians that these funds will not be utilized directly or indirectly in promoting un-Canadian activities such as glorifying terrorism, the publication of textbooks that include antisemitic and anti-Christian material, or any other activity which undermines the legitimacy of a fellow democracy and ally.

Today, Canada has exactly such a government.  It has assumed the responsibility of ensuring that there is full accountability for Canadian taxpayers’ dollars in the foreign aid that we distribute.  As an example of this principled position, we recently learned that Canadian funds which used to be sent to the general fund of UNRWA (an organization with a history of terrorist infiltration) have now been redirected to food aid.  Specific projects which will lay the groundwork for a fully-functioning justice system in the West Bank, a crucial element in building a strong Palestinian civil society that will strive for peace, will also be funded.  How ironic it is that there are now suggestions that this sort of accountability in the re-distribution of Canadian aid dollars for the benefit of the Palestinians will somehow lead to a backlash against the Jewish community.  How sad if such a far-fetched notion were true.  How short-sighted to try to create any kind of conceptual justification for such activity.

The demonization and delegitimization of the world’s only Jewish State amounts to antisemitism: it is the denial of the legitimate right of the Jewish people as a collective entity to self-determination in its own homeland in much the same way as Jews as individuals were denied basic human rights accorded to all others in the past.  This is a statement which has emanated not only from Canadian parliamentarians from more than one side of the political spectrum, but indeed from authoritative sources and public figures from across the globe.  Pushing the idea that taking action to denounce and defund exactly that type of antisemitism in Canada will somehow endanger the Jewish community is ill-advised since it unwittingly gives license to the base motives of Jew-haters everywhere.

In essence, the newest theory on antisemitism seems to go like this: when the Government makes policy changes which support an ally and fellow democracy, Jews are ultimately responsible and, therefore, bring upon themselves any repercussions from antisemites who take offence at those changes.  Such an assertion would be laughable, if not for the chorus of disparate voices saying just that.

If, according to the likes of CAF, action taken against the enemies of the Jewish community and Israel will in some way encourage antisemitism, than what is the suggested course of action?  Is our government supposed to sit back and continue sending millions of public dollars to obsessively anti-Israel entities in order to appease them and their Canadian supporters?  Is this to be done out of fear of the purported “repercussions” to be faced by Canadian Jews?  The success of appeasement in solving global issues in modern history has a very sad track record. We would do well to bear that lesson in mind, instead of crafting theories that could, unfortunately, become self-fulfilling prophecies.