Dear Gavin:

So here we are, a couple weeks after your Rebel Media "10 Things I Hate About Israel / Jews / Whatever" video dropped during a "fact-finding mission" to Israel, and the backlash that prompted your follow-up to that video where you repudiated Richard Spencer and David Duke, and your other video from Compound Media where you got hammered along with Faith Goldy and Sheila Gunn Reid and complained about the "propaganda tour" you were supposedly being subjected to in Israel as well as some choice comments about "Jewnicorns", and the backlash to that.

Nobody's come out of this mess looking good.

-White nationalists think the Rebel is now alt-lite for propagandizing on behalf of Israel.

-Sections of the Israeli media are annoyed with the Rebel for inserting themselves into the country's politics.

-Ezra has had to deflect and minimize and (depending on who you talk to) order you to walk back your comments.

-Jews upset about your videos are being asked uncomfortable questions about why they didn't complain when the Rebel was saying similarly uncomplimentary things about Muslims.

-Conservative Party of Canada leadership contenders who attended Rebel rallies in the past, as well as the new leader of the PC Party of Alberta, have had to distance themselves while left-wing commentators gleefully speculate about an emerging rift in Canada's right.

-And possibly worst of all, if your Twitter feed is to be believed, your wife isn't speaking to you.

Only you know for sure whether this whole thing was some elaborate attention-grabbing stunt or those long-debunked alternative facts you were ranting about were your real views on Jews, or if it was some bizarre fusion of column A and column B.

What I do know for sure is that I'm damn sick and tired of these ridiculous controversies breaking out over the so-called "Jewish Question" as it relates to the entire conservative movement, not just the alt-right.

I'm sick of seeing Ben Shapiro having to stop doing what he does best- which is wipe the floor with the modern left- to talk about how he's being distracted by trolls on Twitter saying he and his wife should be sent to the ovens.

I'm sick of side conversations and endless speculation about Steve Bannon and whether he wanted to send his kids to a school without Jews, or the alt-right's deplora-ball enforcing a strict "'Mind Your P's and Q's about Jews" policy, or (taking it closer to home) whether Lauren Southern left the Rebel because she didn't have the freedom to "name the Jew" in her quest to trigger everyone in the known universe.

Are you as done with this nonsense as I am?  I bet you are.

So, as someone who's also contributed to Rebel Media, including a couple of pieces where I've riffed on the alt-right's Jew confusion and the similar backlash to another of your video rants on the subject of #Gamergate, (and a Jew myself), I think I'm pretty well positioned to tackle this head on.

As I see it, the chief problem here appears to be that various members of the alt-right (and other parts of the political spectrum too) feel as though they can only talk about Jews behind closed doors, and there is the pressing, nagging, all-important need to do so publicly.  There is also apparently an unmet need to confront Jews about various behaviours that are supposedly unique to them.

So let me ask you, Gavin if I took it upon myself to be the listening ear you and all the people you're speaking on behalf of (?) have wanted a Jew who calmly hears out whatever charges you want to lay or clear up any confusion you may have would it keep you from feeling you have to say one thing behind closed doors after a few bottles of wine, and another thing publicly at Pearson Airport once you've stepped off the plane?

Would it put an end to this cutesy wutesy code-talk amongst alt-righters that fools no one?  This talk of "1488" and the "JQ" and the "fashy haircut"?  Would it keep Jews as a group from being broad-brushed because of the actions and statements of "Stalin's inner circle" and whichever left-wing intellectuals drafted the Treaty of Versailles?

If so, then that is a service I will happily provide.

But that all depends on whether it is just about speech, Gavin.  If it's about taking things farther, and if it's actually about attacking people, then you have a bigger problem.

And then it won't just be a Jewish Question you'll have to answer.

Photo Credit: Salon

Written by Josh Lieblein

Did y'all hear how we're getting 25 per cent off our hydro bills this summer?  The Liberals have been listening sympathetically to our economic plight the last several years over the haywire hydro rates and are acting swiftly to give us major relief promptly.

On top of the generous 8 per cent the Liberals already gave us off our bills by removing the provincial HST earlier this year, we're getting another 17 per cent off the cost of electricity in June.  I was listening to the radio the other day and heard the Liberals' new Fair Hydro Plan is going to give us long-term relief as well.

Of course there were the usual suspects being cynical assholes trashing the plan.  People from the peanut gallery saying something about our children and children's children having to pay for it down the road.  Do they really think Premier Kathleen Wynne — a grandmother herself — would leave her grandchildren drowning in debt?  She's just remortgaging our hydro assets to spread the cost to everyone who will use them in the next 30 years, including the next generations.  They shouldn't be spoiled rotten.  I also hear those windmills and solar panels produce a tonne of renewable energy in perpetuity, so it seems like a small price for them to pay for a sweet deal.

Then the whining opposition parties complained about the cost of the educational ads that the Liberals released last week.  The Progressive Conservatives went all melodramatic, blustering that the Liberals were in contempt of the legislature.

"This is just short of a million dollars from the taxpayers that's going towards Premier Kathleen Wynne's re-election campaign instead of desperately needed hydro relief for families and businesses.  It's only going to continue to cost more as the vanity ad campaign ramps up," said a joykill Brown.

No, Mr. Brown.  Wynne is in fact responsible for cleaning up election campaign financing laws.  Like her energy minister spokesperson Colin Nekolaichuk said, the government has a duty to inform Ontarians and the new rules for government ads give a "clearer definition" on how to keep them apolitical.

What I now know thanks to the Liberals is sweet relief is soon on the way.  You're harping about re-amortization costs and other such mundane details can go straight to the devil.

And now this week, the impartial Speaker of the House, Liberal MPP Dave Levac ruled that the ads were not in contempt because the Fair Hydro Plan legislation has not yet been tabled, so is not an impediment to future proceedings.  The Ontario Auditor General also approved the ads, although she was a bit nitpicky in her comments to the Toronto Sun: "However, they would not have passed under the previous legislation because we feel that these ads have the objective of fostering a positive impression of the government."

So the Ontario PC's got caught being wrong again, so why don't they heed the honest Liberals advice, "The facts still matter in Ontario," and check out their website with the unvarnished truth.

The truth is whatever Wynne says.  Mistakes were made by the previous NDP and Conservative governments and the Liberals have been spending the last 14 years tirelessly cleaning up their predecessors' messes.  They invested in green innovative energy that cleaned up our air and just cost a "bit more."  They drove a hard bargain for those contracts.  And now they've figured out an ingenious way to lower our bills that'll just end up costing "a bit" more down the road.

If you ask Wynne or me, things are looking up in June.

Written by Graeme C. Gordon