For a year now, Canadian Jews have been under assault from terrorist sympathizers marching on our streets, threatening families, students, children, neighbourhoods and targeting homes, businesses, community centres and synagogues.
What they do not need from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and other Liberals are kumbaya speeches telling them this is not who we are as Canadians.
This is exactly who some “Canadians” are — burning Canadian flags, calling for the death of Canada, the U.S. and Israel, attacking Jews in Canada for the actions of the Israeli government in fighting terrorism in Gaza.
This orchestrated demonizing and delegitimizing of the world’s only Jewish state — ranting that unlike every other nation on earth, Israel has no right to defend itself and should be destroyed — is textbook Jew hatred.
The Trudeau Liberals from the start of Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel last Oct. 7 and its festering impact in Canada, have tried to establish a false equivalency between anti-Semitism and Islamophobia — as if there were mobs of Jewish Canadians invading Muslim, Arab and Palestinian neighbourhoods here, threatening them and holding them responsible for Hamas’ terrorism in Israel.
Yes, hate crimes against these communities have increased as well, we condemn them and call for our governments and police to protect them.
But the hatred being aimed at Canada’s tiny Jewish community is different in frequency, degree, kind and intensity compared to other minority groups.
At the UN, Canada under the Trudeau government has drifted away from the moral clarity of previous Stephen Harper and Brian Mulroney Conservative governments in supporting Israel.
By delivering confusing and conflicting messages about where Canada stands to Jews, Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims, the Liberals are dividing Canadians in their quest to turn such divisions to their political advantage during elections.
We don’t agree with Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre that the Trudeau government is actively pro-Hamas.
But we do believe it has failed Canada’s Jewish community and that Conservatives, who have exhibited moral clarity on this issue, should keep calling them on it.
The Liberals, who have accused Conservatives of being anti-Semitic for years, should stop clutching their pearls when facing legitimate questions about Jew hatred in their own party, and clean up their own house before condemning others.