Angry in the Great White North

[Hat tip to Warren Kinsella for this]

From the LongWalk (update: the LongWalk has been taken down -- use the cached Google image):

Thomas Hubert is TLW’s founder and editor-in-chief. He is a resident of the Vancouver area and a student of political science at Kwantlen University College. Thomas joined the New Democratic Party at 14 and was active with the NDP for a number of years, primarily as president of the Delta-Richmond East federal riding association. Thomas left the NDP and joined the Liberal Party of Canada in May of 2006, and is now VP of Communications for the Young Liberals of Canada in BC. He is a big supporter of leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy.

As a VP of Communications, you would think Thomas Hubert would know better than most how to best communicate clearly and concisely.

How do you explain this?

At 12:44 PM, Thomas said...

The Liberal Party is stronger without these violent Zionists in our party. I am glad for them to cease influencing our foreign policy so we are free to promote Canadian values of peace. It amazes me that this community is so absurdly selfish. The only issue that matters to them is the defence of a "state" that survives on the blood of innocent people. Shameful.

Thomas @ thelongwalk.ca

That appears on Jason Cherniak's blog, in response to an examination by Jason of a Toronto Star piece on how many long time supporters of the Liberal Party in the Jewish community were switching their loyalty to the Conservatives in response to Stephen Harper's unequivocal support of Israel.

Recent comments from other Liberals in support of Hezbollah aren't going to help matters.

But for Thomas Hubert, this was a great opportunity to purge the party of those insidious Zionists! With their tendrils of influence extending through Liberal foreign policy, agitating for war where there otherwise would be peace (because we all know that the Zionists are to blame for violence in the Middle East, what with their existing and such). Surviving on the blood of others -- Hubert is a hair away from dusting off the old blood libel.

And of course theose Jews are selfish, not wanting to be destroyed and all that. But then Jews have always been a greedy lot. Everyone knows that.

Well, Thomas Hubert has apologized (update: the LongWalk has been taken down, so we are limited to this record):

I would like to offer a full and unequivocal apology for comments I made earlier on other blogs regarding certain Liberals’ perspectives on the conflict in Middle East. I acknowledge and regret the fact that I crossed a line and that my writing came across in a manner I did not at all intend. I wrote the comments when I was impulsively angry that anyone would be leaving the Liberal Party over a foreign polic advocating peace and neutrality.

To clarify, I think it is important that all of us reject violence as a means of achieving objectives, regardless of our beliefs on conflicts abroad. Balance, objectivity, respect and a commitment to peace and social justice should all be cornerstones of both our party? and our country? position when it comes to solving this and any violent conflict.

I would like to apologize to any offended by those earlier comments, and once again, I am sorry that my comments were written in a way that allowed them to be taken offensively by anyone.

The question is whether Hubert has done enough. The problem for Hubert is that his comments don't seem to be isolated. When Liberal MP Boris Wrzesnewskyj calls for Hezbollah to be removed from the list of terrorist organizations following his "fact finding" trip to Syria, you have to wonder just how many Liberals have serious problems with having Jews, or at least Jews who support Israel, as members of the Liberal Party.

Hubert's sin might have been to actually say it out loud using language dripping with so much venom. In any case, you can read the comments where many are debating whether Hubert has to resign (update: the LongWalk has been taken down, so we've lost a record of that coversation).

Hubert is a small fish. Offering him up as a sacrifice to appease offended Jewish Liberals, and the rest of us for that matter, is going to seem miserly, as long as MPs like Wrzesnewskyj are allowed to act as cheerleaders for terrorist groups who launch rockets loaded with ball-bearings into towns and villages.