Vivian Bercovici: Carney is our Chamberlain, not our Churchill

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But here’s the crux of his perspective, which is nothing more than old-school British Arabism, or simply rank antipathy towards Jews and Israel: Carney does not acknowledge the centrality and legitimacy of Jewish nationhood. He avoids mentioning Zionism, the modern political philosophy articulating the millennial attachment to Israel by those of the Jewish faith. In adopting this approach, he signals his alignment with Islamist values and extreme antisemites who have become a powerful force in Canadian society and openly express their feral hatred of Israel — and Jews — with words and acts of hatred and violence.

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In the first two rows of the synagogue performance were individuals representing various Jewish community organizations. They had been summoned and were given no information as to what the prime minister might say.

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Typically, when requested to attend such an event, senior leadership would be apprised broadly of the purpose of the gathering and message. It’s a baseline professional courtesy. Otherwise, they risk becoming props used cynically in political theatre.

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Which, as it happens, is what transpired that day.

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Carney droned on for 40 minutes. After acknowledging that anti-Jewish violence in Canada was unacceptable, he offered his remedy. His government would tweak the already existing Advisory Council on Rights, Equality and Inclusion by expanding its mandate and adding some new members, among them, former senator Marc Gold.

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That was it. Another committee. With a Jew as a member.

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Moments after this event ended, text messages began to circulate. Community leadership sat in their cars and read this new information with shock. Disbelief.

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In the synagogue, Carney chose not to mention additional new members of this committee, among them former Trudeau-era cabinet minister with overt Islamist sympathies, Omar Alghabra.

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They learned about this by text message. They had been used. Played. Humiliated.

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Even for Mark Carney, such a brazen double-cross was extreme.

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In the room, he did not utter four key phrases: radical Islam, extreme progressives, Zionism or Israel. Carney went into that synagogue knowing that his “big announcement” was an inaudible whimper.

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“I’ll give them a token Jew,” he likely thought. “That’ll satisfy them.”

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Since that debacle, there has been much speculation regarding Carney’s conduct. The most prevalent view is that he is just doing what politicians do: pandering to the much larger Muslim than Jewish vote in Canada.

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I give Carney more credit than that.

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He is an Oxford man with an impeccable professional pedigree. He has more than sufficient intelligence and experience to understand very well what he is doing.

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Based on his conduct over time, as well as his disregard for the safety of Canadian Jews, I think that he is just showing us who he is, what he thinks and what he values.

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He does not care if he alienates Canadian Jews.

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But the issue isn’t Jews. It is the emboldening of Islamist doctrine, which is alarmingly prevalent and normalized in Canada. In Europe, governments are focused on the “Islamization” of the continent, meaning that fundamental social, cultural and political ways of life are seen to be threatened. In Canada, leadership has chosen to frame opposition to this alarming trend as a Jewish issue.