KINSELLA: Why have the Liberals abandoned being an ally of Israel?

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“Demographics.”

Back in the fall, former NDP leader Thomas Mulcair told a story about a revealing exchange with Melanie Joly, then as now the inexplicable choice for Global Affairs minister for both Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney.

Joly’s position on the Jewish state is easy to ascertain. In October 2023, Joly blamed Israel for bombing a hospital in Gaza and killing hundreds. Even after the facts came out — that Israel did not fire the missile, Palestinian Islamic Jihad did; that hundreds were not killed, at all; and that hospital was still standing — Joly did not recant.

Hamas is a listed terrorist entity in Canada. Despite that, Joly has called for the murderous cult to be given a spot at the negotiating table with Israel. She favours funding UNRWA, even after the aid agency admitted its members participated in the atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023 in Israel. And she has refused to condemn South Africa’s dishonest campaign to prosecute Israel at the International Court of Justice for genocide.

Her opposition to the Jewish state was well-known even before she told Mulcair that the “demographics of her riding” — where voters of Arab or Muslim lineage ostensibly dominate — dictate her decision-making.

She’s not alone, apparently.

Liberal leader Carney has been been largely AWOL on the issue, as he is on most issues that are contentious. So, just a few days ago, Anita Anand — Carney’s minister of Innovation, Science and Technology — appeared at a Liberal campaign officer to holler: “We will make sure that we do not allow the forced displacement of people from their land, including in Gaza.”

Left unsaid: That Israel didn’t want anyone “displaced,” and was living in peace with Gazans — until they slaughtered hundreds of Jews on Oct. 7, 2023.

Another example: “Vote Palestine” describes itself as “a grassroots campaign aimed at putting Palestine on the ballot.” They lobby to get MPs, candidates, and political parties to endorse their platform — which, among other things, demands recognition of the Hamas-led “state of Palestine,” continued funding for the terrorist-infiltrated UNRWA, and prosecution of the Jewish state for “war crimes.”

Multiple Liberal MPs or candidates have endorsed all that. Patrick Weiner, the MP for West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast; Fares Abu al-Soud in Mississauga Centre; MP Iqra Khalid in Mississauga-Erin Mills; MP Tim Louis in Kitchener-Conestoga; MP Jenna Sudds in Kanata; MP Adam Koeverden in Burlington North-Milton West; and, of course, Salma Zahid in Scarborough Centre. Zahid has even attended a “solidarity event” where a Holocaust denier was present, and has called on the prosecution of Israel for “genocide.”

And so on and so on. There’s a lot of this anti-Israel, anti-Jewish hate if you’ve got the stomach for it. But a question remains.

Why has the Liberal Party of Canada abandoned its traditional position, which was to be an ally of Israel? Why has it associated itself with those who traffic in antisemitism?

Likely “demographics,” as Melanie Joly pithily put it. As in, there are more opponents of the Jewish state than Jews. Slightly more than 300,000 Jews are Canadian citizens. Muslims, meanwhile, number closer to two million.

There is a problem with that sort of crass political calculation, however: Namely, that all Canadian Muslims embrace the notion of a Hamas-led Palestinian state. They do not.

Just last week, this writer moderated a B’nai Brith panel that featured spiritual leaders from the Christian, Hindu, Indigenous, Jewish and — notably — Muslim communities. There were many Muslims in the audience, too.

As I held the microphone for him to speak, one Muslim man spoke movingly to the Jews present. He rejects terrorism, he said. He rejects Hamas. “You are my brothers and sisters,” he told them.

That, then, is the fallacy — the tragic error — at the centre of what Melanie Joly, Anita Anand and the others have done to the Liberal Party of Canada. They have embraced an extreme position thinking it might pay political dividends.

It won’t. In the fullness of time, the haters will come to hate them, too.