Nevertheless, the shill must go on, and the attack on Ryan and CUPE Ontario gives us insight into the tactics the zionist bully brigade employs to terrorize those who criticize Israel.

Historical fraud and “the poor Jew”
The boycott debunks one of the great icons of zionist propaganda; namely, the stereotype of the ever-suffering, put-upon victimized Jew. Since victims are the objects of hatred, it cannot make sense that they could be perpetrators of hatred. Therefore, since Jews are defined as victims, anyone who attacks the “Jewish State” [sic] must be anti-Jewish. Moreover, Jewish victimhood is integral to Israel because without it the “Jewish State” has no raison d’être.

Logicians know the flaw in this type of reasoning as petitio principii, “begging the question.” In fact, there are two implied fallacies here: one, that Jews are victims of oppression, and that Zionist = Jew. CUPE Ontario’s decision to join the boycott exposed both these fallacies, and the response was a combination of hatemongering and disinformation.

One of the most odious attacks came from Naomi Lakritz of the Calgary Herald, whose 700-word vituperation was carried by the Asper empire:

	“After CUPE Ontario voted last weekend to join an international boycott against Israel, its president, Sid Ryan, said, ‘This is not an attack on Jewish people.’ Yes, and some of your best friends are Jewish. Right, Sid? C’mon, let’s see how many patronizing clichés you can trot out.”
Naomi Lakritz

Note how Lakritz cites Ryan’s proper distinction between Jews and Israel and then deliberately mischaracterizes it so she can insult and denigrate him. After having done this, she segues into the predictable libel of “anti-Semitism”:

“CUPE B.C., as rife with anti-Semitism as its Ontario counterpart… produced an ‘educational’ booklet, which asked: ‘What is daily life like under Israeli occupation?’ That booklet sounds about as ‘educational’ as the anti-Semitic textbooks used to poison kids’ minds in Palestinian schools.”

The recourse to “anti-Semitism” is proof of intellectual bankruptcy, since this epithet has no meaning and is used merely as a term of libel and self-denial. Note also how the question of the boycott is now nowhere to be found.

The true measure of Lakritz’s zionist venom can be measured in the way she again adopts a condescending personal tone to buttress the lie that Israel needs the Wall for self-defence—an argument the International Criminal Court rejected. It has also been conclusively proven that sacrifice bombings are a direct result of Israeli killings, tortures, land thefts and home demolitions.

As far as Lakritz is concerned, Palestinians don’t exist as people. They cannot be the victims of terrorism because in the zionist mentality Jews cannot be aggressors, and this frame of reference leads her to treat Ryan and CUPE Ontario with the same contempt as Zionist Jews treat Arabs:

“Likening Israel’s wall to South African apartheid is disgraceful. The wall went up because Israelis were tired of picking bits of their children’s bodies off the bloodied floors of pizza parlours. You see, Sid, suicide bombers weren’t dropping in at these places just for the pepperoni."

For sheer comic relief in this ignoble cause, we have the sadly predictable B’nai Brith Canada, which issued a condemnatory manifesto that regurgitated the standard fictions of Israeli virtue: it’s a vibrant society, a democracy and “the only country in the Middle East founded on the rule of law.” Moreover, it denounced the boycott as politically motivated, anti-Israel, as if to say anti-boycott activity weren’t politically motivated and anti-Palestinian.

		We support the State of Israel, a sister democracy to Canada, the only country in the Middle East founded on the rule of law.… We applaud Israel as a vibrant society that respects the civil, religious and cultural rights of all its citizens. We oppose the CUPE Ontario boycott of Israel, as inherently biased and discriminatory, betraying a politically-charged agenda. We warn that the “Right of Return” demanded by CUPE Ontario would ultimately lead to the destruction of the Jewish State. [ad naus.]
Frank Dimant V-P B’nai Brith

Note how the right of return for Palestinians, codified in law and acknowledged by Israel, is portrayed as hostile, and how the arbitrary existence of the “Jewish State” takes precedence over international law. This casuistry is necessary because Israel is a living contempt of international law.

Ad hominem attacks and hatemongering
As expected, The Lobby and their media shills are attacking Ryan’s character, as if that somehow would weaken CUPE Ontario’s rationale for joining the boycott. First, there is the idea that CUPE and Ryan himself have no business engaging in the boycott: “Nowadays, union leaders are too busy drinking their own political bathwater to spare a thought for mundane concerns about members’ jobs. Why bother with petty gripes about holiday pay when there’s a whole world out there that needs changing?”—Lakritz

As repugnant as Lakritz’s screed may be, the epitome of the hateful zionist campaign against CUPE Ontario is Ezra Levant’s June 5 column in the Calgary Sun.

	“Why has CUPE started issuing statements about foreign policy, such as its decision last week to call for a boycott of Israel, and the de-Judification of Israel through the relocation of millions of Arabs into Israel proper? The answer is easy: CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan is a failed NDP political candidate, and he’s using his members’ money and reputation to play left-wing foreign minister.”
Ezra Levant

Levant has made a career out of being a Zionist shill and anti-Arab hatemonger and this citation is a fool’s gold mine of dishonesty, denial and defamation. Note, like B’nai Brith, Levant tendentiously misrepresents the Palestinians’ legally recognized right of return as “the de-Judification of Israel through the relocation of millions of Arabs into Israel proper.” First, it was the relocation of European and North American Jews into Arab Palestine that caused this problem, yet here we have Levant reinventing Arabs as aliens, which is constant with the zionist denial of Palestine’s right to exist.

Second, Levant impugns Ryan’s character by bringing up his former candidacy for the NDP, but character assassination got much worse:

	“Ezra Levant called me a Nazi. This is the kind of guy they let loose, and he gets published in a Canadian newspaper. Over what? A boycott?! Boycotts are a peaceful form of protest.… The Canadian Jewish Congress has told their members to go into their synagogues to denounce us. Rabbis have even instructed their members to disaffiliate from CUPE. That’s union busting!’’
Sid Ryan

Levant’s use of Nazi allusions shows how low the Lobby will sink to smear someone who stand up to Israel:

“‘Kauft nicht bei Juden’ was one of the official slogans of the Nazi party in Germany before it implemented its Final Solution. Before Jews were rounded up and killed, before they were de-humanized, they were economically marginalized. ‘Kauft nicht bei Juden’ meant ‘don’t buy from Jews,’ and it was spray-painted on Jewish businesses around Germany. At least Ryan had the courtesy to draft his resolution in English.”

Levant seems not to care that Ryan said nothing about Jews, or that it was Zionists who broke the Jewish-led world boycott against Hitler during the 1930s. Moreover, Levant seems unaware that Israel has deliberately destroyed Palestine’s economy so that Palestinians would be forced to support the economy of their occupiers. Of course, Levant is mute on the subject of Israel’s policy of “Kauft nicht bei Palästinensern.”

Faux reasonableness
Few Zionists are better at feigning morality than Natan Sharansky, a former Israeli minister of housing [read: Arab dispossession], who milks an undeserved reputation as a human rights martyr to pontificate on Jewish suffering:

	“I was shocked and saddened—and deeply offended —to learn that the Ontario branch of a Canadian union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, has called for an international campaign to boycott and sanction Israel until it ‘meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination’ and it allows Palestinian refugees a so-called [sic] right of return to Israel. This decision is totally out of sync with Mideast realities, and runs counter to every principle of justice and human rights.”
Natan Sharansky

Sharansky spent his political career denying “every principle of justice and human rights” to Palestinians, but here he tries to pass himself off as someone genuinely concerned about human rights. This piece ran on June 5 in the Globe and Mail, which has virtually given over its commentary page to Zionists like Sharansky and Daniel Pipes.

Note how different Sharansky’s language is compared with that of Lakritz or Levant. Instead of frothing hysteria, he comes across as reasonable, even though the message is just as invidious. This is the most effective form of propaganda because it can convince otherwise intelligent people that Israel has a right to wage genocide on Palestine’s native Semitic people.

Historical fraud, ad hominem attacks, intimidation, bomb scares and faux reasonableness are all part of the zionist terror campaign against CUPE Ontario for having the courage to speak its mind. A free society is anathema to the zionist, who must always be prepared to censor inconvenient truths.

Despite the mudslinging and hatemongering, Ryan is determined to stand his ground: “If they think I’m going to buckle down, forget it! They picked on the wrong guy. If anything, it toughens my resolve. I won’t buckle under their pressure. Hell will freeze over first.”

I have a feeling that the zionists gave Ryan’s political career the boost it needed.