November 29, 2010: Adbusters crossed the line – and it was hardly the first time

By Michael Regenstreif

Adbusters, a Vancouver-based anti-globalization, anti-capitalist and anti-consumerism bimonthly magazine caused somewhat of a media storm when a photo essay in the November-December 2010 issue – published just as Holocaust Education Week was about to be marked in many communities, including ours – directly compared contemporary Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto of the early-1940s and the Gaza Palestinians with the Warsaw Ghetto Jews, and, by overt implication, Israel with Nazi Germany.

The comparison, to be sure, is not only wholly inaccurate, there is little doubt that it crosses way over the line, dividing legitimate criticism of Israel from blatant antisemitism.

The Warsaw Ghetto images that Adbusters used came from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Apparently, the magazine received permission from the museum to use the images on the pretence that they were being used for a 2009 article about war crimes in the Warsaw Ghetto.

When the museum was advised on how the images were actually being used, they took legal action, forcing Adbusters to remove the images from its website, and issued a statement that emphatically said, “Any comparison between the Warsaw Ghetto (or the Holocaust as a whole) and the situation in Gaza is wildly inaccurate, a gross misrepresentation of the facts and offensive to victims of the Holocaust.”

This recent photo essay was not the first time Adbusters had compared Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto. That supposed article about war crimes in the Warsaw Ghetto for which the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum granted permission to use its images was actually an article in the May-June 2009 issue directly comparing Gaza with the Warsaw Ghetto.

And that 2009 issue was not the only other Adbusters article that has crossed the line vis-à-vis Israel and or Jews. A perusal of its online archive reveals a pattern of typical fringe-left anti-Zionism, including the all-too-predictable references to “Israeli apartheid” and a fawning tribute to Hamas as a revolutionary movement.

Perhaps the most infamous example of antisemitism in Adbusters is “Why won’t anyone say they are Jewish?”, a March-April 2004 exposé by publisher Kalle Lasn about how Jewish neo-conservatives controlled the Middle East policies of the administration of then-U.S. president George W. Bush, manipulating Bush on everything from Israel to Iraq. Adbusters published what it called “a carefully researched list of who appear to be the 50 most influential neocons in the U.S.,” pointing out, with a black dot next to their names, that more than half on the list were Jews.

These examples from Adbusters are consistent with what has been termed the “new antisemitism,” which was addressed this month in Ottawa at the conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating antisemitism. The unequivocal conference speech by Prime Minister Stephen Harper left absolutely no doubt as to the position of the Canadian government on this type of antisemitism.

The speech by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, while not as strong a statement as Harper’s, indicated that there is little tolerance within mainstream Canadian politics for any variety of antisemitism.

November 8, 2010: Peace, justice and human rights are not on the BDS agenda

By Michael Regenstreif

Late last month, a coalition of anti-Israel groups held what they promoted as a global BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) conference on the campus of the Université du Québec à Montréal.

Although some of the groups involved in the BDS movement pretend to be about peace, justice and human rights, those admirable ideals are not really on their agenda.

Their agenda is all about promoting the delegitimization of the State of Israel with the long-term goal of what many of them call “Free Palestine,” a Palestine that isn’t just about the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem – it’s also about West Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.

The BDS activists are the same people who talk about “Israeli apartheid.” Their game has nothing to do with promoting the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. They reject the peace process.

I happened to hear an interview with some of the BDS activists on a Montreal campus radio station a few weeks ago and they described the peace talks as being about nothing other than who collects the trash on the West Bank.

The BDS activists reject the peace process because they reject peace. It serves their anti-Israel propaganda interests to eternally maintain the Palestinians as an oppressed people, as victims.

So, the BDS movement would seek to isolate Israel through boycott, divestment and sanctions.

They would have consumers boycott Israeli products and stop collaborations between universities in North America and Europe with universities in Israel. They’ve even called for boycotts of businesses – like Chapters bookstores – whose owners are known to be supporters of Israel.

A cultural boycott of Israel is one of the hallmarks of the BDS movement. They’ve applied great amounts of public pressure on prominent musical artists booked to perform in Israel in the past couple of years to cancel their concerts.

Sometimes they’ve been successful, sometimes not.

Elvis Costello and Carlos Santana are the two most prominent artists who caved to the BDS pressure.

Among those who didn’t are Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney, Elton John and Diana Krall (who is married to Costello).

This past summer, it was announced that Pete Seeger would participate in an Israeli-organized global peace rally over the Internet on November 14.

Immediately, the BDS movement went into high gear trying to persuade the 91-year-old folksinger to cancel his participation.

I’ve known Pete Seeger for many years and I know him to be one of the most sincere and most committed peace activists I’ve ever met.

I know he believes peace between Israelis and Palestinians to be a righteous goal. I was not at all surprised to see him recognize the BDS movement for what it is, to reject the cultural boycott and the demands that he withdraw from the online peace rally, and to carry on his support for the search for peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.

October 25, 2010: Good news, finally, for Hillel Lodge expansion

By Michael Regenstreif

As noted on page 1, Hillel Lodge has finally won approval from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to add 21 additional long-term care beds to the 100 currently in operation.

It’s about time.

The issue of the 21 beds was an important item on the community’s agenda well before I arrived in Ottawa to work at the Bulletin during the summer of 2007. The acute need for many hundreds of additional long-term care beds in the Ontario system, and particularly in the Ottawa area, was well known.

A few weeks after my arrival, I was covering the Jewish Federation of Ottawa’s Communications and Community Relations Committee roundtable meetings with local candidates running in the October 10 provincial election. Representatives of all of the parties – Liberals, Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats – were universally supportive of the Jewish community’s quest to add the 21 beds at Hillel Lodge. With the available space, and the community’s desire to use it, it seemed like a no-brainer to just approve the beds and get on with it.

The Liberal Party candidates, including cabinet ministers Jim Watson and Madeleine Meilleur, and Yasir Naqvi, running in Ottawa Centre, the riding that includes Hillel Lodge, were particularly supportive of the 21 new beds for the Lodge. Watson pledged to have the government act on the beds within the first six months of a new Liberal mandate.

Six months later, the authorization had not been received.

About 18 months after the election, Watson and Naqvi brought then-health minister David Caplan to Hillel Lodge and showed him the space earmarked for the 21-bed expansion.

Another year-and-a-half passed and Watson, now running to become mayor of Ottawa, was back for another roundtable meeting with the Communications and Community Relations Committee.

“I’m embarrassed by this file,” Watson said when the long-standing question of the 21 additional beds for Hillel Lodge was raised at the September 16 meeting.

Pledging to keep advocating on behalf of the Lodge should he win the election, Watson admitted to being deeply frustrated by his inability to gain approval for the beds, despite many assurances from two successive ministers of health and the premier’s office.

The approval for the Lodge’s 21 beds came on October 5, just one week after Watson’s comments appeared in the September 27 issue of the Bulletin.

Maybe it was pure coincidence, but the timing of the ratification, coming during the mayoralty race, days after a leading candidate talked about being frustrated at not being able to get it while he was a cabinet minister, was most curious.

The Lodge will now need our support as it embarks on a capital campaign to finance the expansion.

Police chief on home-grown terrorism

Earlier this month, I was one of several editors of Ottawa-area community newspapers invited to a roundtable luncheon with Chief Vern White and other top officials of the Ottawa Police Service where we were each encouraged to raise issues of interest.

Concern over terrorism in Ottawa was a topic I raised with the chief. Since the arrest of the alleged Ottawa-based terrorist cell with al-Qaeda links in August, not to mention the Royal Bank firebombing in the Glebe in May, apprehension over homegrown terrorism has heightened.

White told me such concerns have been “our reality” since the time of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. Pointing to the August arrests, he said the Ottawa Police, in concert with other police forces and security agencies work hard – often with officials from other countries – to stop terrorist activity, hopefully before plots become actuality.

White lamented that too many Canadians are complacent about terrorism and said vigilance was everyone’s responsibility.

October 11, 2010: Controversy over cartoon is a tempest in a teapot

By Michael Regenstreif

I’ve always found Parliament Hill and its buildings to be an inspiring place. Not because of the politics that play out there, but because of the democratic ideals Parliament represents.

One of the most inspiring sights on Parliament Hill is the Peace Tower. Built in the 1920s as a memorial to Canada’s fallen soldiers in the First World War, the Peace Tower looms high over Parliament Hill and, until the 1970s, was the tallest structure in Ottawa.

When I see the Peace Tower, whether up close on a visit to Parliament Hill or just catching a fleeting, distant glimpse from the 417, I am reminded of how privileged we are, as Canadians, to be living in a free and democratic country. Canada – however flawed our democracy may be – is one of the world’s most democratic countries.

Aside from its great height, one of the most instantly recognizable features of the Peace Tower is the clock with its four faces looking to the north, south, east and west.

The clock was a gift from the government of the United Kingdom in honour of the 60th anniversary of Confederation in 1927.

In the centre of the Peace Tower clock’s face is a geometric figure consisting of a series of triangles made of molded glass that make up a 12-pointed starlike design. And within that 12-pointed star-like figure, the dominant six points look like the six-pointed Star of David, a symbol of the Jewish people for the past 2,000 years.

Although the Star of David does appear to be within the clock face design, I doubt the designer had any kind of a Jewish message in mind more than 80 years ago.

I also don’t think Le Droit editorial cartoonist Guy Badeaux – who draws under the name ‘Bado’ – had any kind of a Jewish message in mind when he drew his September 20 cartoon marking the opening of the fall Parliamentary session. The cartoon is dominated by a traffic sign in front of Parliament Hill indicating a slippery road ahead.

As you can read in a news report on page 2, a controversy has erupted over whether the cartoon, which we show in the report, is antisemitic.

Officials of B’nai Brith Canada say that it is, that it represents the idea that Jews control the Canadian government, and that the cartoon will be used by anti-Jewish and Islamist websites to spread antisemitism.

According to Badeaux, the cartoon had nothing to do with Jews; that’s just how he draws a simplified version of the clock face design.

The Canadian Jewish Congress and the Quebec Jewish Congress are standing behind Badeaux, who, they say, has been a good friend to the Jewish community over the years. Badeaux recently participated in a panel discussion of cartoonists organized by the Quebec Jewish Congress in Montreal.

It’s all quite the tempest in a teapot. There are battles to be fought against antisemitism, but the Le Droit cartoon does not seem to be one of them. Without any evidence to suggest any antisemitic intent on Badeaux’s part, I would agree with the Canadian Jewish Congress position that we should accept his explanation and put this issue in the forget-about-it file.

B’nai Brith Canada, though, wouldn’t let go of the issue.

“The cartoon’s message is clear to those who understand the history of antisemitic imagery,” said B’nai Brith Canada CEO Frank Dimant in the September 30 issue of B’nai Brith’s Jewish Tribune newspaper.

Ironically, the page in the Tribune with Dimant’s comments was dominated by a large advertisement for a film called Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story. The graphic in the ad is a baseball whose seam stitching pattern is of Stars of David. Every stitch is another Star of David.

So, just who is it that controls baseball?