The National Post has never tried to hide its hatred of social-democratic politicians. Over-the-top, incendiary language is part of this American-owned media chain’s playbook. So, needless to say, I don’t tend to pay much attention to their columnists.
But a recent column on New Democratic Party leader Avi Lewis crossed the line into an extremist hate threat. It needs to be called out.
Columnist Yoni Goldstein declared that the entire Jewish community in Canada is “duty-bound” to take “forceful” action to stop the NDP leader from speaking up on the Gaza genocide.
He used two key Hebrew words to justify an attack on Lewis: “mosar” (a kind of race traitor) and “rodef” (a man threatening the community). They were the code words invoked by Jewish extremists in justifying the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for having signed the Oslo Peace Accord.
It is appalling to see those words being invoked against a democratic leader in Canada.
Lewis is the third Jewish Canadian federal leader in Canadian history. But because he has spoken up on Israel’s responsibility for the genocide in Gaza, he has become a lightning rod for right-wing media and the pro-Israeli lobby.
He is attacked with a vitriol that would not be used against a non-Jewish leader.
On the day that he was elected leader of the NDP, the Israel lobby in Canada denounced convention delegates for electing Lewis and Niall Ricardo, who is also Jewish, as party president.
They claimed that the party “has become a hostile place for the vast majority of Jewish Canadians.”
It was a ridiculous statement, but it set the pattern for using Lewis’ Jewish heritage as a reason to attack and try to silence him.
The National Post article, however, has gone way beyond criticism and into the level of menace.
In describing Lewis, the columnist drew on the biblical story of Korach, whose family was burned alive and swallowed by the earth for daring to question Moses’s leadership.
What was Lewis’s crime? He wrote a reflection on Yom Kippur and the need to speak up about the genocide:
Yom Kippur is a time of atonement — a time to grieve those who have been lost, a time to acknowledge and take responsibility for harms we have caused, individually and collectively.
For Jewish people, the personal has always been political and the political always personal. This year I’m reflecting on the fact that we failed to do our part to stop an ongoing genocide committed in our name.
Was this reflection so egregious that it met the biblical test of burning a man and his family alive? Goldstein seems to consider it a reasonable comparison:
It is indeed an extreme consequence for eliciting communal harm, but then Jewish law is fairly clear on the subject: when a Jew endangers the Jewish community, the community is obligated to stop them.
Goldstein used the horrific Belleville Synagogue shooting to smear Lewis and those speaking up about Palestine. The shooting had nothing to do with Gaza. The shooter was an anti-vaccine extremist driven by hatred of immigrants and Jews. It was a deeply cynical move to try and connect Mr. Lewis’ Yom Kippur reflection to this hate crime.
Nonetheless, The National Post went on to dig up references from Leviticus on appropriate punishments for Lewis. The book of Leviticus has many edicts on dealing with problems in civil society – they usually end up in people being stoned to death.
Goldstein also referenced a case from 1363 as a reason for the Canadian Jews to feel justified in taking action against Lewis:
“…when a Jew endangers another Jew. There is no real debate to be had — only rebuke and, in extreme situations, removal from the community.”
This is where he invoked the race-traitor words favoured by the extremists in the Rabin murder.
Canada is not a theocracy. We cannot allow political debate to be silenced by someone quoting injunctions from a 3,500-year-old religious book.
Some may say that I am not Jewish and therefore have no emotional understanding of the frightening rise of anti-Semitic backlash in North America and Europe.
This is true.
But I have some experience having religious faith used as a means to extort silence on important issues of democratic debate. In 2005, I was threatened with excommunication over my plan to vote for same sex marriage rights in Canada.
At the time, I was the newly elected member of parliament in a largely Catholic constituency. A snap election was looming, and the Timmins Diocese informed me that they would deny me communion and work to have me defeated if I didn’t change my vote.
It was a serious threat to both my political future and my whole sense of community. I had grown up in the church. I ran a youth choir and was active at the parish. I was raising my children in the traditions tied to the calendar of the year - Lent, Easter, Advent, Christmas.
The threat of excommunication affected me and everyone I loved.
I learned two important lessons from that time.
The first was seeing how many people from faith and non-faith backgrounds came out to support me. I heard from many priests, nuns, and rank-and-file churchgoers who were deeply offended that self-appointed gatekeepers attempted to use faith as leverage to silence democratic duty.
I imagine that many in the Jewish community, with their rich tradition of civic engagement, will be equally offended by this threat against Mr. Lewis.
The second lesson I learned was the importance of having people speak up so that I did not feel so alone in standing up to the power of the Church.
This is why I am speaking up today.
The threat against Mr. Lewis goes far beyond the bounds of any justifiable rhetoric. It is hate speech, and it is dangerously threatening. As citizens in a democratic and secular society, we are all duty-bound to call out extremism and threats.
So far, I am hearing crickets from those media pundits who promote the messages of the pro-Israel lobby. That’s not good enough.
The National Post needs to understand that this is not 1362.
This is Canada in 2026, and fanaticism has no place here.
Mr. Lewis signed up to serve the Canadian people. One can vote for him or vote against him. People can agree or passionately disagree. But he and his family deserve to be kept safe from the kind of threat being promoted by The National Post and its columnists.
Here is a link to the National News Media Council, where you can file complaints about the promotion of hate and threats in national publications.
https://www.mediacouncil.ca/complaint/file-a-complaint-online-steps/
The National Post & Mr Goldstein are truly vile. Calling for the execution of Mr Lewis for decrying the Genocide in Gaza is way over the line. This exemplifies the Zionist mindset - dehumanize the Palestinian people, attack anyone who supports them and play the victim - cry antisemitism - whenever Israël, its leaders or its actions are justifiably criticized.
Imagine if a Muslim leader invoked the Quran and called for the murder of a Canadian political leader. The National Post would decry “Sharia Law” being imported to Canada and smear the Islamic community. But of course, in this case, the US-owned National Post, promotes hatred.
Appalling. I am horrified but not shocked. Netanyahu is the one putting Jews at risk. In recognizing the atonement Jews (and the rest of us) are called upon to make over this ongoing genocide, Avi Lewis is exhibiting what is at the heart of Judaism, by which I mean moral clarity, standing for justice, and caring for the neighbor. Perhaps those attacking him would do well to read two books: Benjamin Moser’s ANTI-ZIONISM and Peter Beinhart’s BEING JEWISH AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF GAZA. Both authors are observant Jews.