Canada’s Jews don’t speak with a single voice

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs supports Harper policies routinely

What was interesting about Justin Trudeau’s recent musings on religious freedom — the most substantial remarks of his leadership — was that in defending the wearing of the niqab, he used an analogy that some say “trivialized” the Holocaust.

It underscored, yet again, the dangers of invoking the Holocaust in 2015. The standard rebuke usually comes from Jews, who are understandably sensitive to any reference to the greatest calamity in their history.

So it was no surprise when Jewish organizations piled on Trudeau, who should have seen the dangers in this. The loudest complaint came from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Canada’s leading Jewish advocacy organization. It issued a statement scolding Trudeau for his “unfortunate comparison” of Islamophobia in Canada to the reaction to the rise of Nazism in the 1930s.

CIJA called Trudeau’s remarks “inaccurate and inappropriate,” promising to communicate that sentiment to Trudeau’s office, as if its sonorous statement were not enough.

It noted, as well, that “the Government of Canada” had distinguished between radical Muslims and the broader community, invoking a speech by Defence Minister Jason Kenney.

Why, you might have thought the statement was written in Office of the Prime Minister.

The response to Trudeau’s remarks is the latest example of the partisanship of this self-proclaimed “non-partisan” organization. After all, why bother with a third party leader’s reference that can be read in different ways? And why declare, with faux outrage, that you are going to tell him off directly?

It was curious, two days later, to read CIJA’s response to Steven Blaney, the Public Safety Minister, who went before a parliamentary committee to discuss the government’s anti-terror bill. “The Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers,” Blaney said. “It began with words.”

The NDP critic, Randall Garrison, said there was nothing equivalent to the Holocaust in the discussion of the bill, and “at best, the reference seems to trivialize the Holocaust.”

This time, though, there was no rebuke from CIJA. Shimon Fogel, its chief executive officer, offered only a terse, Talmudic parsing of Blaney’s language. Oh, said he, Blaney had referenced a part of the bill on the power of words in the Holocaust and Rwanda. Given the genocidal nature of threats from Iran and ISIL, the minister was “not entirely out of place.”

Having rendered that Solomonic judgment, Fogel then warned, gratuitously, that “politicians run an obvious risk when they invoke the Holocaust.”

Trudeau punished, Blaney praised. Of course. This is the way with CIJA. It seems congenitally unable to utter a discouraging word about Stephen Harper, Benjamin Netanyahu or the State of Israel — while allowing Canadians to think its view reflects a consensus among Canadian Jews. It does not.

When John Baird resigned as foreign minister, CIJA saluted his “clear and conscientious foreign policy vision of which all Canadians can be proud.” All Canadians?

While other organizations in Canada no less committed to Israel — the New Israel Fund of Canada and Canadian Friends of Peace Now among them — reflected ruefully on Netanyahu’s tainted victory, there was no such angst from CIJA. It issued a statement celebrating Israeli democracy, which was fair, and wishing Netanyahu success, which was fine.

Of his rejection of the two-state solution (which he has since “renounced”), or his race-baiting, there was no protest from CIJA, as there was none from the government of Canada. Of course.

Yet CIJA reliably casts doubt on the great power nuclear talks with Iran, warning of the dangers of an agreement. This echoes the view of our government, which has no role in the talks but expresses more skepticism than encouragement.

When an agreement is reached, expect Canada to oppose it. And watch CIJA do the same. Of course.

The reality is that Canada has a rich diversity of Jewish voices.

You will find few reflected in the work of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. It trivializes them.