In which the Honourable Wife Beater is stupid and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs is worse

[sabotabby]

The Honourable Wife Beater's official response to his Nazi photoshoot is that he didn't know who Latvis was. Which—okay. Despite years as a member of Anti-Racist Action, I wouldn't know who Latvis was if he walked up to me on the street.

You know. Unless he was in uniform. Which he was.

I am not awesome at uniform identification (though some of his pins were, um, easily identifiable) but if I were mayor of the city and had faced some criticism in the past for my racist and homophobic statements, I might pause long enough to ask someone, at least, whether that is indeed a Nazi stormtrooper uniform before putting my arm around the dude.

But one expects stupid from the HWB. As someone on Twitter put it, he's the only politician who would deny all knowledge and have that actually be true.

This is an opportunity for strange bedfellows, though. Warren Kinsella, who is an utter slimeball, was the first mainstream journalist to break the story. He's not someone I'd normally associate with progressive politics. The SUN and National Post also followed suit (along with more progressive media outlets like the CBC and the Star.).

You know why? Because, while the SUN and National Post are pretty racist, they do need to court the right-wing Jewish community. And in the past, said community has at least been helpful where going up against neo-Nazis is concerned. When I was in ARA, we had an uncomfortable relationship with the now-defunct CJC—they didn't want to have much to do with us because we didn't approve of racism against Arabs either, but they hated neo-Nazis as much as we did. So they'd at least talk to us.

But the CJC is gone, swallowed by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs. Said organization believes anti-Semitism is dead, unless it's Arab anti-Semitism. They actually don't give two fucks about the Canadian Jewish community unless they see an opportunity to slam Palestinians. Bernie Farber is too left-wing for them. But I did expect them to draw the line when the mayor of the city meets with a prominent neo-Nazi, twice.

Nope!

“We want to thank Mayor Ford for his quick response to this matter, and reiterate the fact that we consider the Mayor a true friend of Toronto’s Jewish community."

Awesome. I hope everyone knows that that CIJA doesn't represent anyone but themselves.

Keep that photo circulating, folks. Especially if you have older relatives who voted for Ford because he promised to cut their taxes. This deserves to be a massive political scandal.

Comments

[sabotabby]

Link away! The more people know, the better.

[culpster.livejournal.com]

Kinsella bought the line too. In fact the story became 'Kinsella didn't like this, but now he's ok with it.' So long, strange bedfellow.

[sabotabby]

Well, I was already squicked that Kinsella broke the story. Dude's a creep. We're better off not associating with him.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

Well the nazis arent any real threat to them
anymore. Its all about the arabs, now.

[sabotabby]

Arabs aren't an actual threat either (and they don't go after say, publishers spreading Protocols of the Elders of Zion in Egypt or wherever. They go after criticism of Israel, most of it from Jews). In fact, North American Jews are doing really well, and there's very little need for an advocacy organization. Some people in said advocacy organization get a lot of funding and high salaries, though, so it needs to justify its existence.

[icedrake.livejournal.com]

Rob, you so crazy!
(and really, painfully, obviously, dumb)

[sabotabby]

It'd be funny if he weren't running the city.

[lienne.livejournal.com]

shgfdhsah

[sabotabby]

SABO SMASH