Sunday, March 19, 2017

Jews Remain the #1 Target of Hated In Canada--So Why, Asks Sue-Ann Levy, Is Antisemitism Being Ignored?

While anti-Islamophobia efforts are all the rage today, the Toronto Sun's Sue-Ann Levy notes that antisemitism is being pointedly ignored:
While our politicians at City Hall, Queen’s Park and in Ottawa make a big show of pandering to political correctness when it comes to perceived Islamophobia and about battling other forms of racism, anti-Semitism seems not to be on their radar at all. 
Let’s start with the very controversial M-103 anti-Islamophobia motion introduced by Liberal MP Iqra Khalid. A recent poll says only 14% of Canadians support it and a whopping 71% say either take out the focus on Islam and/or mention all religions. 
Or take Michael Coteau, Ontario’s anti-racism minister. When he released his new three-year plan to combat varying forms of racism two weeks ago, there was plenty in it about racism against Indigenous people, blacks and Islamophobia but not a word, from what I could see, about the rise in anti-Semitism. 
Ironically our provincial champion of anti-racism launched his plan on the day Toronto’s downtown Jewish Community Centre was targeted with a bomb threat and barely made mention of it. 
Ditto for Toronto City Hall which has launched a five-phase Toronto for All education campaign — costing $80,000 per phase — to target Islamophobia and anti-black racism while conspicuously ignoring the rise in anti-Semitism in the city.
In light of the seeming indifference, Levy draws this conclusion:
It’s shocking to think but it’s like anti-Semitism is so ingrained in our culture, it doesn’t matter to our politicians anymore.
Ingrained anti-Semitism? No doubt that's partly to blame. However, I see something else at work here. It's the fact that, not only can left-of-center politicians count on the Jews' support no matter what, at this stage of the game our population is much smaller than that of other "sexier" victim groups. Opportunistic politicians, therefore, are much likelier to want to pander to those groups, some members of whom, ironically enough, are likely also responsible for the Jew-hate/Israel-hate.

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