
Daily Kickoff: What happened to Canada’s Green Party? + Emhoff meets Jewish Dems
👋 Good Wednesday morning!
Seeing Green. See below for a 5,000+ word in-depth report on the controversy roiling Canada’s Green Party.
AIPAC has held hundreds of virtual meetings with House and Senate lawmakers this week as part of its fall National Council meeting, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod has learned, focusing on issues including Iron Dome funding, Iran’s nuclear program and the Israel Relations Normalization Act.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) is facing criticism from the far-left Democratic Socialists of America over his participation in a J Street-sponsored trip to Israel last week — two weeks after a Wisconsin chapter of the group called for his expulsion from the organization due to his vote in favor of supplemental Iron Dome funding.
The group’s national political committee said in a statement yesterday that it “unapologetically stands in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their ongoing struggle for liberation. Our platform proudly states continued support for and involvement with the… BDS movement, and efforts to eliminate U.S. military aid to Israel, while resisting the ‘normalization’ of relationships between the Israeli government and other governments.”
The group added it is “treating this as its highest priority right now; to work with the DSA BDS & Palestine Solidarity Working Group and the Congressman’s local chapters to address this directly with Representative Bowman,” and that it would be meeting with him soon.
The House is set to vote today on censuring Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and removing him from both of his committee seats for posting an edited video showing himself killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
Israeli President Isaac Herzog spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday, in the first-ever phone call between the presidents of the two countries, according to a statement by Herzog’s office. The two discussed opportunities to enhance Israeli-Chinese bilateral ties with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations coming next year.
northern exposure
Is the Green Party over?

Green Party Leader Annamie Paul hugs her tearful mother-in-law Claire Freeman after she announced today at Suydam Park that she is stepping down as leader of her party at in Toronto. September 27, 2021.
It wasn’t too long ago that the Green Party of Canada had been gaining notice for what seemed like all the right reasons. Newly emboldened by a series of milestone achievements, the party had entered 2021 on strong footing. The Greens boasted a record three parliamentary seats, while their new figurehead, Annamie Paul, had just been elected as the first Black and Jewish party leader in Canadian history, heralded as the new face of Canadian politics. Paul, 49, emphasized an array of progressive policies that she viewed with as much urgency as climate change, and her perspective contributed to a sense of optimism among Green members who believed the party was finally embracing diversity and inclusion, as Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports. Then, last spring, everything fell apart.
War of attrition: That was when escalating violence between Israel and Hamas gave rise to a fierce, unusually personal and ultimately unresolved war of attrition within Green Party ranks, replete with allegations of antisemitism and other recriminations that have cropped up with increasing regularity in recent internecine political battles where divisions over Israel have fueled tensions. Now, the party is in shambles as it strains to move on from a dramatic implosion culminating last week in Paul’s high-profile resignation after months of turmoil. The ensuing wreckage, which represents an extraordinary reversal of fortune for the Greens, has left some party members wondering whether the party will ever recover.
Proper accounting: If so, any proper accounting will need to contend with accusations that the party has become inhospitable to Jewish members whose support for Israel now seems largely unwelcome, at least among an outspoken contingent of anti-Israel critics. Over the past several months, these critics have asserted their dominance over party dynamics, while others allege that their rhetoric has crossed the line into antisemitism. Noah Zatzman, a former senior advisor in Paul’s office, argues as much. The 37-year-old public relations specialist, who is Jewish and identifies as a pro-Israel progressive, is credited with precipitating the recent party breakdown after vowing to unseat Green members who perpetuated what he viewed as antisemitic tropes during the May conflict. When Paul refused to condemn him, she was all but forcefully ejected from the party.
‘Zionists are not welcome’: Zatzman, for his part, was expelled from his post when, last June, the Green Party’s executive committee voted against renewing his contract, though he says the feeling was mutual. He stands by his vow, even as he remains subject to what he characterized as an effluvium of hateful and in some cases violent rhetoric. Such invective, he suggested, only underscores his point. “When they say that Zionists are not welcome in the party,” he said, “it leads one to think that, for the Green Party of Canada and for the progressive movement in Canada, when it comes to Jews, none is too many.”
Full Corbynization? That two formerly high-ranking Green officials, who happen to be Jewish, are now viewed as outcasts within the party is proof enough, Zatzman said, that the Greens have a problem with antisemitism. Moreover, he argues, the recent blow-up represents the troubling fulfillment of what many Jews have feared possible elsewhere across the globe but have nevertheless proven capable of repelling, including in the recent U.K. Labour Party scandal where Jeremy Corbyn, the former leader, was suspended amid reports of rampant antisemitism from within his own ranks. “In this case,” Zatzman told JI, referring to the Greens, “the party looks as if it will be Corbynized.”