Grassroots. Gotcha.

The anti-Israel, pro-Hamas propagandists would like you do believe that theirs is a spontaneous, organic, community-based effort, one that is entirely funded by regular folks, presumably through bake sales.

Oh, and this: they want to reassure you that their advocacy isn’t against Jews.  It’s against “Zionists.” (Who Dr. Martin Luther King, no less, said are the same thing.)

Most of all, they want you to believe that it’s a grassroots effort.  That is, just a bunch of well-meaning ordinary people concerned about “genocide” being committed by “Zionists” in Gaza.

Even though, you know, Gaza’s population growth has far exceeded Israel’s.  Even though Israel provided Gazans with food, water, fuel, medical supplies and more, for years. Even though…well, you get the point.  If the “Zionists” were committing “genocide,” they sure weren’t doing a very good job at it.

Which suggests that the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas folks aren’t telling the truth about that, and quite a few other things, as well.  Such as how truly “grassroots-y” they are.

Because they aren’t.  They are, in fact, one of the best-organized, best-run, best-funded propaganda efforts many political people has seen in a long, long time.  Ask James Carville, the guru who got Bill Clinton and many others elected: “America’s far-left, for which I hold a very low opinion, is mobilized by the war. And they’ll undoubtedly seek to exploit the unrest it creates – foolishly believing the turmoil advances their cause.”

Former Republican strategist (and, full disclosure, friend) David Frum has said that “Iran, China and Russia have made large investments in anti-Israel, pro-Hamas messaging.” And that propaganda, Frum says, is too often working – particularly with young people.

And it’s not – not – grassroots.

Take, for example, the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights’ “City Council Palestine Organizing Toolkit,” recently leaked to this writer.  The multi-page “toolkit” is one of the most professional-looking (and sounding) lobby and PR blueprints I have ever seen.

Essentially, the document is a “guide on organizing for ceasefire resolutions in local city councils.” Here is what it contains:

•    draft anti-Israel resolutions for City Councils to pass
•    a media guide on how to manipulate news coverage
•    guides for calling and emailing voters to apply pressure on city councillors
•    maps on how to increase “grassroots advocacy capacity with digital tools, such as mass mailers, text alert systems, etc.”
•    how to host “weeks of action” to paralyze cities and towns who do not comply
•    how to “create narratives” that “ending genocide is a moral issue”
•    how to track votes
•    talking points, graphics and leave-behind documents

And on and on.  The plan reports on the cities where they have been successful (Dearborn, Providence, Akron, Detroit, Seattle, Oakland, Kalamazoo, Portland, St. Louis and Chicago – where, ominously, Democrats are having their convention in August.)

The “toolkit” gives the anti-Israel forces tips on how to manipulate their online presence – so that it will be harder for politicians and their staff to learn more about their backgrounds.  In particular, the plan describes how to effectively bully reluctant politicians into submission – or, if they are resolute, how to isolate them.

What’s incredible about all of this, of course, is that local city councils don’t set foreign policy.  They’re not even consulted about it – national governments do that.

But the anti-Israel/pro-Hamas forces are so organized, and so well-funded, they have enough resources to steal support for their extremist cause everywhere – including with people whose vote ultimately doesn’t ever change world events.

And make no mistake: the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) is no grassroots group.  It has a multi-million-dollar budget, a website that is better-looking than just about any professional political party, scores of full-time staff, field organizers, plus steering committees and advisory boards aplenty.

The USPCR regularly accuses Israel of “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing,” “genocide,” “war crimes,” and “colonialism.” It promotes anti-Israel “Boycott, Divestment and Sanction” efforts, going after companies from Ben and Jerry’s to Airbnb.  Most seriously, USCPR helps fund the Palestinian BDS National Committee – which, Israel notes, shares members with Hamas.

USPCR exists and, so far, that fact hasn’t changed.  But this, too, is a fact: the “grassroots” campaigns we’re seeing, just about everywhere?

Many of them – perhaps most of them – just aren’t.

And they’re just trying to fool people into thinking they are.

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What’s that old military saying?  You know you’re over target when you’re taking flak?

That’s what the B-17 pilots used to say when flying over Europe on missions to bomb the Jew-haters in Hitler’s armies during World War Two.  The most intense flak happens when flying directly over target.

That saying – and the circumstances that gave rise to it – apply in the post-October 7 era, too.  Here at Postmedia, arguably the most pro-Israel newspaper chain on the continent, we tend to know when we are getting close to target: when the Israel-hating, pro-Hamas propaganda effort kicks into gear.  That’s when the flak gets heavy.

In recent days, this writer (and my editors) have taken flak, big time.  We’ve received hundreds and hundreds of letters, attacking us and Israel – using, over and over (and tellingly) the exact same subject line.  Using the same language and attack lines.

That is what is done in “astroturf” propaganda campaigns – namely, hiding the sponsor of the propaganda, to make it look like a spontaneous and organic grassroots response to something.

What enraged the Israel-haters? A column that stated what every sane person knows to be true: there is a coordinated, global and well-funded campaign to demonize Jews and the Jewish state.

It is seen in anti-Israel protestors getting paid to show up.  It is seen in experienced, professional organizers running protests and rallies to attack Jews, Jewish businesses and Jewish neighbourhoods.

It is seen online, where Gen Z and millennials – in particular – have been bombarded with messaging denying the atrocities of October 7, denying the right of Israel to exist, and denying that Hamas raped, killed, mutilated and kidnapped hundreds of Israelis.  It is seen in the deployment of professional-looking graphics and agit-prop around the globe.  Always to turn Israel, the victim, into the wrongdoer.

This newspaper, and other media, have documented all of this, many times.  And when we do, the Israel-haters lose their minds. They are sent into a spit-flecked rage. Because they know, deep in the cavernous pits where their hearts are supposed to be, that they cannot let the Jewish state ever be the object of empathy.

They cannot let people remember that Hamas broke the ceasefire. That Hamas started the war.  That Hamas used, and uses, innocent Gazans as human shields.  That Hamas brutalized and murdered hundreds of innocent civilians – men, women, children and babies.

The haters know that, if that happens, they will lose the propaganda war.  In that way, they’re just like the Holocaust deniers that preceded them: they need to deny, deny, deny.  To rehabilitate the reputation of Adolf Hitler and National Socialism, the Holocaust deniers needed to erase the historical fact of the murder of six million Jews.

So, too, the October 7 deniers.  They need to deny the killings and the rapes and the kidnappings and the barbarism.  Because nobody will want to listen to their anti-Semitic chants if they recall that, on that day, Israel was the true victim.  Not the wrongdoer.

The astroturfing and hundreds of “spontaneous” letters aren’t going to work.  In their essence, they are a lie.  They are smoke and mirrors.  They are disinformation.

The letter-writers should know this, too: it’s not working.  In fact, it’s having precisely the opposite effect.  The more you complain – the more you attack – the more we know we are on the right track.

Because you’re telling us we are over target.

 

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A rain tax.

Seriously, they want to tax the rain.

Before we get started on the latest insanity to, um, seep out of Toronto’s municipal government, let’s give credit where credit is due, shall we? For sheer gall, for its bottomless brazen brassiness, you can’t beat this one: a tax on rain. You almost have to admire the Bolsheviks who presently run Canada’s largest city, for their inventiveness and their total indifference to the taxpayer.

Almost.

And, let’s make one thing clear: we are not making this up, Virginia.  Toronto-stan’s commissars have even issued a call for people to participate in what they call, benignly, a “Stormwater Charge & Water Service Charge Consultation.”

Here’s a few gems from their call for “consultation.” Get your smelling salts ready.

“The City of Toronto is consulting with water users and interested parties on the possible implementation of a stormwater charge,” they write, neglecting to mention that “water users” are all sentient beings living within the confines of Gulag Tee Dot.

They want to have “a stormwater charge for all property classes” – meaning, everyone will ultimately pay for the invasive wet stuff. Why? Well, just because.

Also, those pesky raindrops don’t just soak into the grass and plant life – which, last night we checked, is a good thing – they sometimes runs off into the sewers. Which, you know, were built to accommodate water that occasionally falls from the sky. But never mind.

Here in the Six, the Union of Soviet Toronto Republics, all that is now considered a bad thing. Writes the politburo:

“Stormwater is rain and melted snow. When not absorbed into the ground, stormwater runs off hard surfaces, onto streets, down storm drains and through a network of pipes that carry it into local waterways…Too much stormwater can overwhelm the City’s sewer system, which can lead to flooded basements and impacts to surface water quality in Toronto’s rivers, streams and Lake Ontario’s waterfront.”

And here, all this time, we thought rain was desirable. Apparently not. Apparently rain harms (checks notes) Lake Ontario. Gotcha.

So, the city wants to tax you for it. To calculate how much Rain Tax you will pay, the municipal apparatchiks will see how much “hard surface area” you have. They define that as frivolous and unnecessary things like “roofs, asphalt driveways, parking areas and concrete landscaping.”

The Rain Tax will appear as a separate line on your utility bill, but they won’t call it that. It’ll be called something to diminish the number of fainting spells and heart attacks it will inevitably cause. It’ll probably be located adjacent to their next proposal, “The Air Tax.”

How will the city calculate how much “hard surface” you’ve got? Good question. Knowing this crew, we’d wager they considered sending out a million New Democrat consultants with neon-orange measuring tapes, but they’re not doing that. Instead, they say they will “use aerial photography” to guesstimate how big your roof is. Sounds quite scientific, no?

“Marge, get my twelve gauge! The city’s sending spy drones over the back yard again!”

Now, before you have a stroke, the City’s overlords wish it known that other municipalities are just as insane. Kitchener, Mississauga and Orillia all have a Rain Tax, too. And, where goes Orillia, so goes the nation.

Because, make no mistake, Toronto-stan’s rulers really, really want to do this. They’ve tried it before, too. Back in 2017, city bureaucrats pleaded with council to go along with a Rain Tax, and John Tory – who, full disclosure, this writer worked for, and not just because he opposed taxing rain, but because he was an adult and a sane person – shut them down.

Figuring out who would pay a Rain Tax, and how and when, would be like “unscrambling an egg,” Tory said at the time, which was a bit of an odd metaphor, but which also makes us miss him all the more.

Undaunted, the ‘crats are trying again, doubtlessly, er, egged on by the Team Trotsky now running things.

A Rain Tax.  Seriously.

Now, before you head down to City Hall with pitchforks and torches, the Rain Taxers would like it known that they are merely “consulting” with you, to “provide feedback.” They’re even going to have some public meetings on the Rain Tax.

When? Well, in April, of course. Because, perhaps, April showers bring May flowers.

And, soon enough, a bigger bite out of your wallet.

Splish splash.

 

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