Cast a vote for Israel

Editorial

On March 17, voters in the federal constituency of Vancouver Quadra will elect their next member of Parliament. Even though the winner of this by-election will almost certainly be back on the hustings within weeks or months, due to the inevitable demise of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority government, the results of March 17 could well spark a momentum that will significantly affect the next general election.

Under Stephen Owen, a thoughtful Liberal MP who seemed intuitively understanding of Jewish constituents and their issues, this was a safe Liberal seat. With the race now made up of relative unknowns to the Jewish community, the contest could revolve more around national, rather than local, personalities and issues. Since constituents last voted, the Conservative party has demonstrated that its support for Israel is more than lip-service. Weeks after their election, the Harper government went out on a limb to support Israel's right to defend itself during the Lebanon war. Every time an issue of Israeli security has emerged, the Conservatives have pleased – and surprised – most Jewish voters. The decision to yank Canada from the apparently impending rerun of the 2000 Durban anti-Semitic debacle is the government's latest conscientious act.

Every party says what it thinks voters want to hear. The Conservative government's willingness to back up its pro-Israel words with unequivocal, firm action has stunned many observers, including us. There appears to be a groundswell, of indeterminate proportions, among even traditionally Liberal-voting Jews, toward the Conservatives.

This by-election takes place concurrently with three others across Canada – Toronto Centre and Willowdale in Toronto, and Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River in Saskatchewan. Quadra and the two Ontario ridings are among the safest Liberal seats in the country. The Saskatchewan race is in a Conservative riding where the Liberal candidate came a respectable second last time.

With the exception of the Saskatchewan race, each of the ridings has a sizeable Jewish constituency – still small, but enough to turn the results in a very close race. If a noticeable shift takes place in Jewish voting patterns, it could signal a generational change from dependable Liberal voting habits.

The apparently growing Jewish support for the Conservatives appears founded on foreign policy, which raises the inevitable question: do Jews vote simply in the interest of Israel? In fact, there is a raft of issues of concern to most Jewish voters. There are specific issues like the desire for federal support for infrastructure needed by communities at risk to ensure safety – like the surveillance equipment and physical barriers our community institutions are obligated to erect because of incidents at Jewish institutions worldwide. Separation of religion and state remains as relevant an issue today, in multicultural, multifaith Canada, as it did decades ago when the organized Jewish community was among the few vocal defenders of such separation. Justice for perpetrators of war crimes residing in Canada – be they Nazi, Rwandan, Cambodian, whatever – are also important to Jewish voters. Support for multiculturalism in a general sense has always been top of mind for Jewish voters who remember or have been told of the sense of outside status that Jews felt before the era of official multiculturalism. Then, of course, there is the panorama of other issues that inform every voter – economic and social policies of every variation.

But Israel is a top concern for Jewish voters – and for very good reasons. Rare is the Jewish Canadian family that does not have some familial connection to Israel. Even among those who do not have family in Israel, there is an unbreakable connection to the country, based on – depending on the individual – religious, historic, cultural, linguistic or political reasons.

There are larger geopolitical reasons, too. Simply because Jews were more acutely aware of the potential and objectives of jihadi terrorism before the rest of the world clued in around Sept. 11, 2001, most of us recognize that Israel is simply the first front in a worldwide struggle

But these reasons, completely valid, are probably subordinate to the overriding reason why Canadian Jews cite Israel as a core election issue. A candidate's position on Israel telegraphs a larger sensitivity to Jewish voters.

If a Canadian politician can remain unmoved by existential threats to the Jews of Israel, who are under daily rocket attacks and who have lived for 60 years now under continuous threats and incessant calls for their elimination by the leaders of their closest and most powerful neighbors, what confidence should the few hundred thousand Canadian Jews have that these same politicians would be prepared to stand up for Canadian Jews should similar threats, God forbid, emerge here?

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