On International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), the Canadian prime minister issued a politely anodyne public statement that somehow omitted any mention of Jews. Gil Troy, addressing Prime Minister Trudeau in an open letter, explains why this enraged so many of his Jewish constituents:
The key to understanding the Holocaust and to empathizing with those of us who felt excluded when you didn’t single the Jews out for sympathy is realizing that the Nazis singled us out for slaughter. Yes, they killed others, targeting dissidents, Communists, and gays. But . . . killing Jews . . . was central to their ideology, to their mission. It was “the war against the Jews,” not just an unjust war. It wasn’t any kind of evil. It was a specific evil, with a particular pathology and focus. . . .
This visibility-invisibility issue is playing out to our disadvantage again. Shortly after your statement, Israeli [security forces] killed three heavily armed Palestinian terrorists in mid-attack outside Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate. The terrorists had killed Hadar Cohen, a sweet nineteen-year-old who had just been drafted two months earlier to serve her country. Yet CBS News proclaimed (in a headline that was amended after complaints): “Three Palestinians killed as daily violence grinds on.” . . .
It’s not “daily violence” that both sides provoke equally. It’s not Palestinians being killed as part of some routine. It’s Palestinian terrorists hunting Jews. . . .
Please reassure freedom-lovers worldwide that while positioning Canada to be a constructive force for peace, you won’t succumb to the moral laziness of a pox-on-both-your-houses evenhandedness, failing to see who is guiltiest for perpetuating this conflict.
Read more on Canadian Jewish News: http://www.cjnews.com/perspectives/opinions/my-open-letter-to-trudeau-jewish-invisibility-hurts