by Harvey Oberfeld
Keeping it Real…
July 29, 2024
Historians one day (since the media has failed to do so) will connect the dots of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government’s treatment of Israel and Canada’s Jewish population over the past year … and the picture that emerges will be an ugly one.
Just a few days ago, the Canada Revenue Agency revoked the charitable status of Canada’s 100-year-old Jewish National Fund.
The CRA refused to meet with JNF officials to discuss its change in status for the charitable organization or explain its actions to the media.
After operating here for a hundred years! Looks very suspicious and political to me!
The National Post reported that “JNF had an earlier run-in with the CRA following a financial audit showing that donations from the organization were used to build military infrastructure for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).”
But what does that mean? “Infrastructure” could be anything: actual military facilities or just housing, offices, hospitals or even community centres used by military personnel or maybe even bomb shelters to escape rockets/missiles!
And why just the JNF?
Surely, there are other Canadian charities that have been raised/contributed funds used for what could be used/classified as “military infrastructures”… in the Ukraine, Palestinian territories, Ireland, the Punjab, Sudan, Haiti etc. etc.?
Does anyone believe that all the funds raised in Canada for Palestinian charitable causes and sent overseas are never used for anything that could be classified as military “infrastructures”?
It’s very strange that, the JNF, which started raising funds in Canada in 1901 for Israeli non-profit activities (planting trees, building parks, playgrounds, offering seniors’ support is a big part of their mission) has now suddenly been singled out.
(Here’s the full National Post article: https://nationalpost.com/news/cra-jewish-national-fund-charitable-status.)
And that’s not all.
In March, the Liberals, along with the Greens and he Bloc, supported and passed an NDP motion in the Commons calling for Canada to halt arms sales to Israel.
Now the NDP’s and Green’s stance didn’t surprise me: the far left worldwide have become infested with anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bigotry/biases that betray their historical ideals and original appeal. (While, hypocritically, staying so silent, taking no actions on the much worse human rights violations in Russia, China, Cuba, India, Venezuela, Iran, Sudan, Syria etc.)
But it was the Trudeau Liberal government that announced it would actually implement the non-binding motion … barring Canadian companies from selling weapons to Israel: turning its back on the mid-East’s ONLY democracy as it fights for its life.
(Here are the details: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/19/canada-halt-arms-sales-to-israel.)
Trudeau also called on Israel not to move in on Rafah as it hunted Hamas leaders and active rocket launching sites still firing from inside the crowded city.
What did Trudeau expect Israel to do? Just let Hamas keep firing missiles from Rafah and keep killing Israelis? Clearly, our PM has never served in the military!
In fact, the results in Rafah showed Trudeau was wrong, very wrong:
“Israel has made vital strategic gains since breaching the city in early May, pivotally snuffing out Hamas’s smuggling operations along the Philadelphia corridor between Gaza and Egypt. The Israel Defense Forces has also rooted out multiple high-value targets in and around Rafah, recently carrying out a strike that likely killed October 7 mastermind Mohammed Deif,” concluded Calgary-based political columnist Rahim Mohammed, in a July 23 analysis.
(Read more here: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rahim-mohamed-israels-successful-rafah-offensive-proves-trudeau-wrong.)
Pierre Poilievre and the Conservatives, on the other hand, have been very clear in their support for the Jewish state as it struggles to destroy Hamas/Islamic Jihad, end the terrorist attacks it has endured for decades, and finally pave the way for a two-state solution.
While Trudeau has called for remaining Israeli hostages to be released by Hamas/Islamic terrorists, what I have not seen from our PM: calls on Hamas/Islamic terrorists to STOP hiding amongst those civilians; STOP firing rockets from homes, schools, near hospitals, mosques; STOP oppressing/terrorizing the Gazan people; STOP stealing and confiscating food and fuel sent in to help civilians; and, just STOP the war, deaths, destruction by simply surrendering or withdrawing , if not to the Israelis, to the Egyptians, Qataris, Saudis … or into the hands of their prime backers, Iran.
Why is Trudeau/his government so silent on those issues?
Although Trudeau and the Liberal government have given much on-camera lip service to fighting anti-Semitic hate campaigns, intimidation of Jewish students, attacks on religious people, businesses and institutions … or violence and destruction of property … actual actions by the Liberal government against the organizers/perpetrators have been almost non-existent.
If the CRA can so assiduously and suddenly target a 100-year-old Jewish charity, surely Immigration Canada should be able to zero in on ANY foreign agitators, “students”, immigrants and refugees who promoted and spread so much hate across the country … and initiate actions to get them out of here!
Not yet convinced something stinks?
Well, how about the Trudeau Liberal government’s appointment in June of Canada’s new Human Rights Chief Commissioner, Birju Hattani, the first Muslim to ever hold the post..
“Shortly after his historic appointment, national Jewish organizations cited what they described as antisemitic social media posts made under the name “Mujahid Dattani” and a controversial appearance on a debate panel in the U.K.,” the CBC reported.
“Mr. Dattani had also shared a platform with a member of a radical Islamist group opposed to the existence of the state of Israel and attended an anti-Israel rally in London after a senior Hamas figure was killed in an air strike,” the Globe and Mail revealed.
“Dattani has denied holding such views. What came out even later was that he had also written a paper taking the position that terror is a rational strategy with high success rates rather than decrying it as a human rights atrocity and act of political violence,” according to The Financial Post.
Good grief!! A “human rights chief” defending terrorism? No wonder he wrote under a fake name!!
Is that the best Trudeau/Liberals could do in finding a new Human Rights head for Canada?
Join the dots …
Not since the 1930s, has Canada’s Jewish population felt so threatened, so isolated, and so abandoned by a Prime Minister, our federal government … and so many politicians who sit in our House of Commons.
Why so little action and such double standards?
I believe it’s because a desperate Trudeau and his Liberal government, watching the polls, have decided to actively court the votes of the now 1.7 Million Muslims in Canada … by turning their backs on Israel and Canada’s 394,000 Jewish citizens.
Watch … there will be more.
Pandering and politics over principles.
The picture is clear … and quite ugly … once you join the dots.
Harv Oberfeld
Harv,
You sound like one of those “dual passport” Canadians.