Want to be elected? Just pander to the Palestinian population

Once upon a time, someone running for elected office would do their best to promise a better future for those who lived in their city or district. By outlining specific problems and offering a cogent plan to fix them, that individual bettered their chances of winning. That is no longer happening.

Take the case of prospective Ottawa mayoral candidate, Neil Saravanamuttoo, who just, last week, posted on social media that, if elected to office, “he would raise the Palestinian flag at City Hall.”

No, he’s not Palestinian or Muslim. He’s your average, run-of-the-mill well-educated white guy who studied at the London School of Economics. Being compared to New York’s controversial mayor, Zohran Mamdani, Saravanamuttoo, likewise, shares his democratic socialist platform and hopes to radically shake up Ottawa.

Hard-pressed to find anything online about his background or what helped to form his opinion that Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza, the would-be mayor offers no factual evidence to back his libelous charge, but then he doesn’t have to!

Because when you have a Muslim population of 114,780, comprising 9.9% of the Ottawa population, and you’re unprincipled, you just pander to them, as opposed to the estimated 15,000 Jewish residents, who only make up a little over 1% of the overall population. Clearly, the larger group is worth more electoral capital!

And that’s exactly what Saravanamuttoo did. By using the skewed numbers of the U.N. International Commission of Inquiry, taken directly from Hamas, he makes his case on Instagram for a massive death toll as well as the razing of whole neighborhoods. Who could doubt the veracity of the U.N?

Not that a conflict over 10,000 miles away is anything that would better the city he hopes to govern, but it sure earns him points for appearing to care! And when so many, among your constituency, share the sentiments, why not go for it?

One can only assume that Sarvanamuttoo has never personally paid a visit to Israel, taken the tour of the kibbutz communities that were brutally attacked on the morning of October 7, or visited the forest where hundreds were defenselessly hunted down and slaughtered. Almost assuredly, he never got the briefings of how nearly every residential area in Gaza was used as a launching pad for deadly rockets, aimed at the Israeli population.

Nor did he visit the hospitals and homes which rested over the sophisticated labyrinth of tunnels that took 20 years to create, all for the purpose of infiltrating the Jewish homeland where the intended genocide would take place.

Of course, he didn’t sit with the survivors who had been held in those dungeons of death, while being systematically taunted and starved or the eye-witnesses who watched entire families being burned alive.

All of those events escape Sarvanamuttoo’s great sense of compassion, sympathy or concern, because to publicly acknowledge them would cost him too much and preclude him from the victory that he covets.

But one thing can be said of the candidate. He has learned what needs to be done in order to achieve his dream. Just figure out who can put you in office, and what is most important to them.

It isn’t the problems that are presently plaguing the Canadian City of Ottawa, such as the high cost of housing, with around 77% of residents claiming that it remains unattainable to them. Nor is it the issue of public transportation, riddled with constant disruptions, causing most residents to lose faith in the system.

Perhaps, given Saravanamuttoo’s background in economics, he would be more inclined to focus on the city’s economy and infrastructure, which is said to have a deficit of roughly $3.8 billion for roads, sidewalks and parks that continues to grow faster than budgeted repairs.

Sadly, all of those important daily worries must take a back seat to the more pressing issue of a genocide in Gaza. So, what about the other 90% of Ottawa residents who couldn’t give a flying fig about Middle East events? Why are their interests being swept aside for the greater cause of something that has no effect on them personally?

That’s easy! Because getting elected is the prize, whose cost is never too great to pay – even if it means being indifferent and abandoning the real needs of the constituency, in favor of making sure you secure the vote of those who will put you over the top.

And how does Saravanamuttoo intend to begin his four-year term as mayor? By raising the Palestinian flag at City Hall. Added to or replacing the flags of Canada, Ontario and Ottawa, which already fly over City Hall, this mayor would turn his region into an appendage of the Middle East, sending the message that Israel is a murderous nation.

How else could it be interpreted? When such an extreme and subversive decision is made by the city’s top leader, the consideration behind it is to display alignment with the group you are championing. In this case, the facts are clear.

A newly-elected mayor, who did no investigative research of his own or took the time to hear the other side of the events that occurred following a bloody massacre, would essentially be making the choice to support a terror organization whose flag would be unfurled over the seat of governance in his city.

What would that mean for those 15,000 Jews whose ethnicity is intrinsically linked to the country which would then be seen as the perpetrators of genocide? Could he guarantee their safety after igniting a firestorm against them?

Saravanamuttoo, whose deliberate ignorance is evident, should realize that being a Jew, in today’s world, is interpreted, by the misinformed, as being connected to Israel – whether that’s true or not. In most cases, it isn’t.

But how would those Jewish residents feel, each time they pass City Hall, seeing a flag which, to them, represents an aspirational desire to eliminate their homeland and replace it with a Palestinian one instead? Is that not a complete betrayal to them, not to mention a personal threat?

Apparently, Saravanamuttoo has no qualms placing them on the altar of sacrifice if it means winning. But by doing so, he may actually end up further satisfying the 9.9% who would be just as happy to see the 1.1% leave, reducing their city to a Jew-free zone.