Bloodthirsty Liberal

Jews in Canada are starting to leave the Liberal Party in response to the position of the Liberal Party that Canada should be neutral in the war against Hizballah, even though Hizballah is considered a terrorist organization in Canada.

Canada’s pro-Israel premier lures Jews to Tories
By BILL GLADSTONE / JTA

Speaking recently at a large pro-Israel rally in Toronto, prominent Canadian filmmaker Robert Lantos voiced frustration with Canada’s Liberal Party.

Lantos thanked the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper for its “principled support” of Israel, then said, “I hereby take off my lifelong federal Liberal hat to you. Symbolically, I toss it away, if there were anyone willing to catch it.”

If the laughter and applause that greeted Lantos’ statements were any indication, his sentiments seem to be shared by many in Canada’s 360,000-strong Jewish community.

High-profile defections by two other prominent Jewish Canadians soon followed, as powerful business couple Heather Reisman and Gerald Schwartz, both long-time Liberal activists, were among eight signatories to a newspaper ad thanking Harper for “standing by Israel.”

Reisman is head of Toronto-based Indigo Books and a former chair of the Liberal’s national policy committee. Schwartz is head of Onex Corporation and a former president of the Liberal Party.

Both are leading philanthropists in Toronto’s Jewish community.

Reisman also announced she was quitting the Liberal Party to support Harper’s Tories. “I’m right there alongside Robert,” she e-mailed a friend, according to the Calgary Sun. “After a lifetime of being a Liberal, I have made the switch. It feels strange, but it is totally and unequivocally right.”

I know what you mean. I know exactly what you mean. And this next bit is reminiscent of the Clinton era:

The Liberals are perceived by some Jews as “poll-driven” and lacking firm principles to guide their foreign policy, said Ed Morgan, national president of the Canadian Jewish Congress.

“What the community definitely appreciates in the Conservatives is that they’re only singing one tune,” Morgan said. “They don’t take a poll and then change their mind on significant policy issues.

…Ties between the mainstream Jewish community and the Liberals run deep.

Historically, Canadian Jews have supported the Liberals in greater proportions than have other Canadians, although the differences between the community and the general population have diminished in recent years.

Canadian Jews are feeling the same discomfort with the Liberal Party that many Jews in the United States feel towards the Democrats as some of the politicians and too much of the grassroots express hostility towards Israel. The truth is that Jewish people were reliable, proud democrat voters ever since Harry Truman recognized the State of Israel, and probably most of us still are. But that support is eroding. The party has changed; we really haven’t.

-Aggie