Combating the Anti-Semitism of the BDS Movement
Pro-Israel students should be commended for their efforts and supported in any way possible, since it requires real courage to speak out in these situations. Moreover, these examples should motivate the pro-Israel community to work far harder to educate students, parents, and stakeholders about the Arab-Israeli conflict. The most basic facts, such as the circumstances of Israel’s creation, are lost or falsified in order to depict Israel as the eternal outlaw state.
Conceptually, what makes this battle so arduous for the pro-Israel community and so attractive for the antagonizers of Israel is the umbrella of academic freedom that argues that it is legitimate to debate all aspects of Israel, from specific policies through its elimination. Many in the Jewish community in their naïveté are willing to engage in these debates precisely because it is cloaked in academic freedom, which gives it the impression of legitimate criticism rather than racism.
As the BSD movement has redrawn the lines of acceptable discourse, the mainstream Jewish community has begun to respond. For example, in February 2010 the San Francisco Jewish Federation announced a policy which refuses funding to groups that “advocate for, or endorse, undermining the legitimacy of Israel as a secure independent, democratic Jewish state, including through participation in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, in whole or in part.” At the same time, NGO Monitor also exposed the New Israel Fund’s support of various BDS groups. Drawing red lines around Jewish support for BDS has proved more controversial than might have been expected.
A new initiative launched by the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) in partnership with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) called the Israel Action Network, designed to fight de-legitimization and BDS, proves the point. There is a broad consensus that BDS must be confronted and defeated, not defended and funded. But as a recent article in the Jewish Week shows, the New Israel Fund continues to waffle on its red lines, as do groups like J Street. Defenders of the status quo cry censorship and claim that voices critical of Israel are being marginalized. Until the main institutions of the Jewish community square the circle, BDS will continue to grow at the grassroots.
That we now find ourselves defining the defense of Israel as a purely Jewish responsibility is an sign of how effective Israel’s enemies have become in delgitimizing the Jewish State.
The truth is that Israel has Christian defenders and supporters as well, but out of some fear of missionizing, American Jews have been reluctant to utilize this large group of enthusiastic and generous people.
The State of Israel and the Jewish values it represents is a necessary and important member of the international community and this is why our enemies are laboring so intensively to destroy us.
As a People the Jews and Israel are only recently coming to grips with the invidious attempts by our enemies to delegitimize us and to date our response has been inconsistent and usually weak.
But now that we are aware of what exactly our enemies are up to we can develop and effective plans for our defense and ultimate success against them.
If these Islamonazis were to destroy the state of Israel – they would get to celebrate for 10 minutes — until the Israeli nukes obliterated 1 billion Muslims.
PJM = Persistent Jewish Mouthpiece.
1. Organized BDS is a dangerous front for anti-semitism and and we all need to properly condemn it as an attack on the legitimacy of the Jewish State. Important to understand thst some people — certainly not the organizers, are more naively swept into this and that not everyone involved is anti-semitic. These are the persuadable people whom we need to reach. If we tar each and everyone as an anti-semite, we will not reach the persuadables.
2. You (and NGO Monitor) mischaracterize and misrepresent both J Street and the New Israel Fund in regard to BDS.
NIF: “Our position is clear. We disagree with BDS as a strategy used against Israel to end the occupation.” (see: http://www.nif.org/media-center/press-releases/baloney-distortions-simply-not-true.html)
J Street: “J Street strongly opposes views and positions such as those captured at the Palestinian BDS National Committee’s website” (see: http://jstreet.org/page/boycott-divestment-sanctions-movement)
J Street, working along with ZOA, Hillel and numerous groups across the political spectrum, was key in defeating the Univ of California – Berkeley BDS initiative.
Asaf, you need to decide if you are more interested in promoting your political agenda or if you really want to defeat anti-Israel BDS, which will require a coordinated effort of the entire community working on this issue together.
You know, I’ve heard this thing before from muslims about Israel wanting to expand to the Euphrates. Do these people ever read maps or think through their moronic assumptions before they open their mouths? The answer is: apparently no. How in the world several million Israelis are going to be able to blunder their way across Jordan and Iraq or why they would want to in the first place seems to be a secondary consideration. Why not just say Israel wants to encompass the entire globe; the chance is just as likely.
These are the same I.Q.’s that talk about Jewish folks evacuating themselves from the twin towers on 9/11 without regard for the logistics and secrecy that would be necessary to accomplish such a thing.
They are the same people who believe America and Israel bombed buildings using airplanes as a cover. This would involve a scenario even a science fiction writer wouldn’t touch and yet there are people ever ready to trot out the unlikeliest scenario in the history of mankind on youtube and countless forums. Why not just say a giant invisible Bigfoot pancaked the towers – it would have equal traction.
Their is no wrong or right here in regard to the former Mandate of Palestine, only a power play where people who shouldn’t play with guns lost to Palestinian Jews and can’t utter the words “I surrender”. With all their masterminding of unlikely scenarios, there is never a word from the Palestinian Arabs as to why muslim Jordan seized the West Bank for 20 years or address the fact that Palestinian Arabs cannot get along with anybody and are basically prisoners in refugee camps in Lebanon. If they’d shut the frick and frack up for a few years and knock off the eternal waqf equivalent of the Zionism they purport to detest, maybe someone might mistake them for a people who actually have brains and lack cultural bigotry. Their are websites I’ve seen here in Egypt that show the silhouette of Israeli soldiers gunning down other silhouettes of unarmed men carrying a Palestinian flag. This gives one an insight into how muslims view Palestinian Arabs as having been sitting around a campfire when waves of Israeli soldiers debouched from amtraks and kicked out Palestinian Arabs from their campfire in a Trail of Tears scenario called the Nakba. Their was no civil war or intent to do the same thing to Jews as eventually happened to the Arabs.
Apartheid? Apartheid ain’t building a wall to keep out people who want to kill you baby; get a dictionary. The sudden interest in law on the part of Palestinian Arabs actually means: “They took our guns.” If Robert E. Lee had been Yassir Arafat, there’d be a giant wall around Mississippi, Georgia and Alabama and we’d be trying to sell it to a reluctant Cuba or Mexico.
Its funny when I read how these muslims talk about Israel expanding from the Mediterriean to the Euphtates river. If you look at the Hebrew bible in Genesis God does talk about this. Its the muslims who do not want peace. The type of peace they preach is of the piece by piece type. I am a Jew and I will defend ISrael. I dare say most Muslims do not practice a religion of peace. They are possess by Satan himself and they will never be happy until all non muslims are no more. The Muslims are the ones who are some of the most intorlorent people on earth. I say screw all the muslims.
How do some of you rationalize your abhorence of anti Semitism, with your own obvious hatred for Arabs and Muslims? Why is it only Anti Semitic to criticize Jews, when Arabs are Semites too? Are some of you afraid that if people find out that some Jews are bad too, that the ovens will be preheated? No group is perfect. Israel is indeed the blind spot for many Jewish as well as Christian Americans. That does not make me a hater.