Politicians love to talk.
It’s a big part of the job. You speak in legislatures. You talk to committees. You talk to voters. You talk to journalists. If you’re lucky, you get asked to speak on television, radio, or other popular platforms.
Politicians need attention. It’s validating. It means you are important. You are someone who has important things to say. You are noticed. People listen.
Politicians know that the more important their job, the more careful they must be when speaking to audiences, whether small or large. This is especially true if you are a minister or a “leader”. Too much impromptu discussion can be dangerous.
So, more often than not, what politicians say as they speak is forgettable or worse, meaningless. They must stick to their arguments. They love clichés.
Yet there are times when politicians get too comfortable. They become complacent. They make mistakes and say something frank and revealing about who they are and what they really think and believe.
Fortunately, last week two politicians opted for refreshing bursts of honesty rather than the usual rhetorical mush. One is Canadian. The other is American. You probably don’t know the first politician. The second is quite well known.
Both spoke, in a roundabout way, about what is happening in Gaza.
The name of the first female politician is Selina Robinson. At the time of writing, she is Minister of Post-Secondary Education in the “socialist” provincial government of British Columbia, Canada.
On January 30, Robinson spoke on Zoom as part of a panel of Jewish politicians hosted by a pro-Israel advocacy group. She was among “friends,” talking to and with “friends.”
In one remarkable stroke, Robinson not only rewrote history, but also introduced a familiar racist trope. Before Israel’s artificial birth, she said, Palestine was “a rotten piece of land with nothing.”
“There were several hundred thousand people, but other than that it wasn’t producing an economy… it couldn’t make things grow. There was nothing on it and it was the displaced people who came and the people who had lived there for generations and worked hard together,” the minister said.
Translation: 700,000 idle Muslim and Christian Palestinians had, for generations, wasted the opportunity to make the desert flourish. Fortunately, it flourished after the arrival of “displaced” and hard-working Israelis who were “offered” the “crappy piece of land”.
Since saying what she said, Robinson has stopped speaking – at least in public. Instead, the minister had to watch and listen to many others explain how and why she should resign.
Even the pro-Israel group that invited Robinson to speak has more or less abandoned her, would have telling a CBC reporter that: “Minister Robinson’s comments…do not reflect the views of our organization.” »
You know you’ve talked too much when your once-close “friends” leave you adrift.
So, Robinson did what politicians must do when they fully express what they think and believe: she issued a groveling apology about X.
Robinson wrote that his “flippant” and “disrespectful” comments had “caused pain.”
“I regret what I said and apologize unreservedly.”
Few are convinced by Robinson’s belated, performative act of contrition, including two of his fellow “socialists” in Ottawa. An MP demands a “reassessment” of her place within the cabinet. Another MP pilloried Robinson for “his appalling disregard for the horrific violence inflicted on Palestinians.”
Robinson’s boss, the premier of British Columbia, is also speaking. He said the minister’s comments were “false”. Rather than fire her, the Prime Minister gives Robinson a good talking to. He actually told her to keep talking.
“She has work to do to address the community to address the harm caused by her comments,” he said.
In other curious words, the Prime Minister wants Robinson to talk her and the government out of a thorny impasse.
RIGHT. That should do it.
The second talkative politician is former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and grande dame of congressional Democrats, Nancy Pelosi. She made her painful speech in the always pleasant studios of CNN’s Washington bureau on January 29.
The influential “President Emeritus” was asked to comment on those pesky, mostly young protesters who interrupted President Joe Biden with chants of “Genocide Joe” during campaign stops and whether she “feared that They can just stay home” as the presidential election fast approaches.
Pelosi, condescending, immediately played the victim card, declaring: “I have been the target, shall we say, of their exuberance in this regard…they are in front of my house all the time. »
Poor pampered Pelosi.
The “President Emeritus” compounded her disdain, shall we say, by lecturing him, saying that unlike the “rambunctious” rabble, she and other serious types on Capitol Hill were being asked to “think” about “how to try to end the suffering in the country.” Gaza.”
Poor Pelosi, misunderstood.
Apparently, she “thinks” that a “ceasefire” would not “end the suffering in Gaza,” since that is what Russian President Vladimir Putin “would like to see.”
Pelosi’s McCarthyist and smear-laden logic is disgusting and bizarre. What, other than a ceasefire, will “end the suffering in Gaza” – with or without Putin’s blessing?
It’s stupid, I’m exuberant, but I can’t “think” of anything other than a “ceasefire” that will “end the suffering in Gaza.”
Pelosi should have stopped talking. Fortunately, she didn’t.
She then proved that behind every distinguished speaker carrying an American flag, there is an Alex Jones conspiracy theorist, convinced that the country is full of fifth columnists disguised as citizens exercising their constitutional rights to defy a sitting president.
“I think some of these protesters are spontaneous, organic and sincere,” Pelosi said. “Some, I think, are linked to Russia.”
Once again, Pelosi should have stopped talking.
Fortunately, she didn’t.
Still considering millions of her compatriots, albeit “exuberant”, of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian origin as useful tools of Putin, she confirmed that she was just as willing and eager as her enemy, Donald Trump, to attack the FBI. perceived enemies.
“There are some fundings that should be investigated and I want to ask the FBI to investigate that,” Pelosi said.
Call from J Edgar Hoover. Call from J Edgar Hoover.
I’m glad Pelosi continued to speak.
I’m happy because she denounced the Democratic Party for its “progressive” and “inclusive” sham.
The Democratic Party has never been and never will be the “home” of Arab, Muslim and Palestinian Americans. They will always be treated with suspicion and contempt by a party that confuses dissent with disloyalty and views Palestinians as disposable fodder.
You see, sometimes when politicians speak, it’s to clarify.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.
