This is one of those mornings when I feel sick and disgusted and embarrassed to be a working journalist in B.C.
It relates to the ridiculous controversy that has erupted over comments that Vancouver-Kensington NDP candidate Mable Elmore made to an on-line publication called Seven Oaks in 2004.
Elmore, a critic of Israel’s actions in the Middle East (which have often been condemned by the United Nations), said it was difficult to generate opposition to the war in Iraq because of vocal Zionists in the workplace.
The war in Iraq was illegal. Elmore was correct in trying to prevent Canadian kids from getting killed and wounded in this illegal war. And I have no doubt that she probably encountered opposition from vocal Zionists in her workplace.
I’m not going to apologize for saying this.
Elmore, however, was forced to apologize because NDP Leader Carole James—whom I’m tempted to describe as a dimwit—didn’t understand that the term “Zionist” describes someone who supports the establishment of a Jewish homeland in the Middle East.
“The comments were clearly unacceptable and they were offensive and she has issued an apology,” James told reporters.
The Zionist movement was created in the late 19th century by journalist Theodor Herzl to encourage the migration of people to the land now known as Israel. The term is used regularly in the Israeli media.
Herzl's idea probably prevented some of his fellow Jews from being killed by the Nazis.
Yet we’ve come to a state in B.C. in which a politician can’t utter the word “Zionist” in conversation because this has somehow become offensive. I bet they’re guffawing at us in Tel Aviv.
James demonstrated a similar level of idiocy in 2005 when she condemned another very capable NDP candidate, Rollie Keith, for suggesting that former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic’s war-crime trial was a farce.
Many people agreed with Keith’s remarks, including Michael Mandel, a law professor at Osgoode Hall.
Keith was forced to step down because James kowtowed to gutter journalism.
Our local reporters and columnists also egged Elmore into apologizing, and then James chimed in with her condemnation of her newest candidate.
Some B.C. journalists who've dealt with this story have probably never read a book about the history of the Middle East, but they knew that jumping all over Elmore would please the bosses at Canwest Global Communications Corp.
It smacked of sycophancy to me. That’s why I feel sick and disgusted and embarrassed to be a working journalist in B.C. this morning.