March 11 – March 18: Useful idiots

The term “useful idiot” is allegedly a quote from Lenin but probably uttered by the Italian politician Mario Scelba. In one of its current meanings, a useful idiot is a bobblehead who supports a cause that, on the surface, aligns with their interest but poses long-term substantial threats. Queers for Palestine is an excellent example since militant Islam deals harshly with members of the LGBTQ2S? community. Thus, relatively benign by themselves, useful idiots swell the numbers of Pro-Palestinian protesters.  More insidious, they reinforce half-truths and outright lies that cause the “silent majority” to retreat from the conversation.

More insidious are intellectual Jews who disavow Israel.  At the Academy Awards, Jonathan Glazer, who is Jewish, condemned the Holocaust being highjacked. Many celebrities wore red pins, signifying their support for the Gazans. Now, it is worthy to express support for innocent civilians caught in a brutal war, but support for a cease-fire will only allow Hamas to regroup. The cease-fire would be immediate were Hamas to release the hostages. Imagine if these airhead Hollywood stars and many of the leaders of the Western world demanded the return of the hostages. Imagine if the restoration of UNWRA funding were contingent on the return of the hostages.

Another useful idiot – Jewish again – is Judith Butler, who has waged a pseudo-intellectual campaign against the legitimacy of Israel. In this latest diatribe, she argues that the October 7 “event” was an act of armed resistance against the brutality of the Israeli state against Palestinians.  Many intellectuals who are pro-Palestinian, and this includes Norm Finkelstein, Gabor Mate, and Noam Chomsky, conveniently omit key facts. To take the most obvious, Israel left Gaza in 2005, uprooting some 9000 settlers and even going so far as to excavate and move graves.

In the subsequent elections, Hanas won and, in an extremely bloody coup, drove its main political competitor, Fatah, from the region. Hamas then set about to make Gaza into a rocket base from which to attach Israel and divert billions in foreign aid into a tunnel infrastructure of 500 kilometres, effectively conscription all Gazans into its effort to drive Jews from Israel.

Israel only created border controls with Gaza after experiencing rocket attacks from Hamas. Incidentally, Egypt also created border controls along its border with Gaze and recently strengthened them to prevent crossing by Gazans seeking safety from the fighting. I will comment in the next few weeks on the reasons why Arab countries such as Jordan and Egypt want no part of the Palestinians.

The final group of useful idiots was fully displayed at the Academy Awards. Many of the glitterati wore red buttons, and Jonathan Glazer, winner as the director of a film on the Holocaust, reversed causality and argued that the “occupation” and not Hamas was the real cause of the Israeli deaths and the fate of so many Gazan citizens. There is much to unpack here; l will leave that to a separate post.

Another group, not really idiots, may be called “useful cynics,” are politicians sniffing for votes like dogs circling a garbage can. In BC, Selina Robinson, a former finance minister and the minister of post-secondary education, had referred to land before the First World War as a “crappy” piece of land.  David Ebby pressured her to resign as cabinet minister, and she promised to take training in combatting Islamophobia. Robinson recently resigned from the NDP caucus, citing pervasive antisemitism in the party. You can read the whole sordid story here.

Wab Kinew recently joined the crowd, braying for a ceasefire. His 1200-word statement seems balanced on the first read. By starting with the demand for a ceasefire and not insisting Hamas return the hostages as a precondition for the cessation of hostilities, he inverted the responsibility for civilian suffering in Gaza. And just to be clear with the October 7 attack, Hamas broke the ceasefire. Finally, Kinew has no authority over foreign policy … he is just another political grifter sniffing for votes like a dog circling a garbage can.

This week concludes with the Democrats calling for the ouster of Benjamin Netanyahu. Recall that Barak Obama declined to call for regime change in Iran, the theocracy driving terrorism in the Middle East and elsewhere. This is a topsy-turvy world of hypocrites.