{"id":52528,"date":"2025-04-15T07:53:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T15:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=52528"},"modified":"2025-04-15T07:58:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T15:58:30","slug":"why-the-double-standard-about-israels-foreign-interference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/15\/why-the-double-standard-about-israels-foreign-interference\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Double Standard About Israel’s Foreign Interference?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Yves Engler\u2019s website<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Reporting from Canada.<\/em><\/p>\n

Benjamin Netanyahu is openly throwing his weight behind Pierre Poilievre. But few are pushing back against this flagrant interference in Canada\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

On Friday the Israeli prime minister posted, \u201cCanada has always sided with civilization. So should Mr. Carney [Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney]. But instead of supporting Israel, a democracy that is fighting a just war with just means against the barbarians of Hamas, he attacks the one and only Jewish state. Mr. Carney, backtrack your irresponsible statement!\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s post quoted Carney\u2019s response to a recent heckler, who shouted that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. In seeming agreement with the heckler\u2019s statement, Carney responded, \u201cI\u2019m aware, that\u2019s why we have an arms embargo.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s notable that Netanyahu\u2019s post came after Carney had already partially walked back his comment.<\/p>\n

Twenty-four hours after Netanyahu\u2019s intervention into the election Poilievre took a further step toward aligning with the Netanyahu\/Trump axis. The Conservative leader announced that he would copy the Trump administration, which at the behest of mega donor Miriam Adelson and other Zionist forces is deporting critics of Israel. \u201cAnyone who is here on a visitor visa who carries out law-breaking will be deported from this country,\u201d Poilievre told reporters Saturday in response to a question about Israel. \u201cWe will bring in tougher laws to target vandalism, hate marches that break laws [and] violent attacks based on ethnicity and religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s intervention is on top of various other forms of Israeli interventions into Canadian affairs. Israel\u2019s diaspora ministry is spending millions<\/a> and millions of dollars on online disinformation efforts targeting US and Canadian officials. They were caught<\/a> last year promoting explicitly Islamophobic positions to deflect criticism of their holocaust in Gaza.<\/p>\n

The Israeli diaspora minister also funds<\/a> Canadian schools that send children to pro-genocide demonstrations. Israel invests tens of millions of dollars into North American Jewish schools. In 2023 minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, visited Toronto\u2019s TanenbaumChat school, noting \u201cInvestment in Jewish education is an investment in the future of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

At many Canadian Jewish schools Israeli emissaries are seconded to \u201cprovide<\/a> a living connection to Israel by promoting Israeli experiences.\u201d Hundreds<\/a> of Israeli emissaries are also sent to Canadian summer camps and community organizations through a program between Canada\u2019s Jewish federations and the Jewish Agency for Israel.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s Jewish federations have long been formally tied<\/a> to the parastatal Jewish Agency for Israel (Jewish Agency for Palestine until 1948). Its website notes<\/a>, \u201cCanadian Federations are engaged in unique alliances with the Jewish Agency for Israel\u201d and \u201cfounded in 1929, the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) is a primary agent for JFC-UIA in carrying out our mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Jewish Agency for Israel effectively became Israel\u2019s government in 1948 with long-time head David Ben-Gurion its first prime minister. Israel\u2019s first foreign minister and second prime minister, Moshe Sharett, subsequently led the Jewish Agency while current Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, stepped down as head of the Jewish Agency to take that position. Today the Jewish Agency for Israel is a parastatal organization that seeks to further Judaize Israel, especially far-flung areas.<\/p>\n

The federations\u2019 official advocacy agent is the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. CIJA has formally lobbied or sponsored trips to Israel for 58 per cent<\/a> of incumbents running in the federal election. After restrictions<\/a> were introduced on registered lobbying groups sponsoring international trips in late 2023, Toronto\u2019s Jewish federation paid for five MPs<\/a> to travel to Israel in November of that year.<\/p>\n

Despite the obvious ongoing foreign state interference in Canadian politics, despite Benjamin Netanyahu trying to help Pierre Poilievre become prime minister, media outlets such as the Globe and Mail<\/em> express no outrage. If China or Russia or India was caught doing 10 percent of Israel\u2019s regular ongoing involvement in Canadian politics the mainstream media would whip the public into a frenzy about foreign interference.<\/p>\n

Why the double standard? Is it because Israel is Canada\u2019s ally as Zionists claim? An ally in the announced Trump-Netanyahu plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza? An ally in the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian children? An ally in an ongoing genocide?<\/p>\n

All candidates in the ongoing federal election should be asked these questions.<\/p>\n

Support Yves\u2019 work. Donate Now.<\/a><\/p>\n

Yves Engler is the author of <\/em>Stand on Guard for Whom? <\/em>A People\u2019s History of the Canadian Military<\/a> and twelve other books<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Yves Engler\u2019s website.\u00a0\u00a0 Reporting from Canada. Benjamin Netanyahu is openly throwing his weight behind Pierre Poilievre. But few are pushing back against this flagrant interference in Canada\u2019s election. On Friday the Israeli prime minister posted, \u201cCanada has always sided with civilization. So should Mr. Carney [Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney]. But instead of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":244,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1315],"class_list":["post-52528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/244"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52528"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52534,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52528\/revisions\/52534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52528"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=52528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}