Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\nAnd recently, the Wall Street Journal<\/i> reported on a retired Saudi Arabian general\u2019s quixotic efforts to unite Israel and his country in a peace treaty in the face of a common enemy.<\/p>\n
As Gitlin notes, there\u2019s a lot of history still to be written. Or, to put it another way, push hasn\u2019t yet come to shove, so there\u2019s no pressing need to harden attitudes and engage in corrosive internal left-right bickering with one another.<\/p>\n
So far, partisan debate about the deal has been less caustic in Canada than south of the border. Let\u2019s hope it stays that way.<\/p>\n
Which brings up a related issue: Israel is increasingly perceived as a right-wing political football and a left-right litmus test. This is partly a product of simplistic left- and centre-left thinking, but it\u2019s also a function of conservatives in North America, Israel and elsewhere using it as a wedge issue.<\/p>\n
Yet Zionism comes in different flavours, as a careful examination of Israel\u2019s political scene shows, so allowing Israel to be used this way needlessly divides the Diaspora community. It\u2019s also worth recalling that federal election exit polls in 2011 found 52 per cent of Canadian Jews voted Conservative, which means almost half the community backed other parties.<\/span><\/p>\nYes, elements of the centre-left and the left tend to have a blind spot when it comes to the Jewish state and Zionism, often wrongly equating Israel with naked colonialism or worse. But it\u2019s important to keep lines of communication open to all parties and to not alienate progressive Zionists, Jewish or otherwise, in order to help them explain Israel and Zionism to their (sometimes misguided) fellow leftists. To reduce division in the community, Jews on the right should, therefore, resist using Israel as a wedge issue.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s still a long time until the election, but polls suggest the economy, the Duffy Senate scandal and a growing appetite for change could put an end to Conservative rule.<\/p>\n
If that transpires and the community is viewed warily by the other parties, what happens the day after the vote?<\/p>\n
This wRant was originally published as a Campaign Notebook column<\/a> in the Sept. 3 edition of The Canadian Jewish News.<\/em>