* BDS- Boycott, Divest and Sanction (An organized international movement targeted at businesses that have connections with Israel)
Nichole Hungerford has written an article on BDS for David Horowitz's Frontpage. The article was written in response that LA Jewish Journal editor Rob Eshman had written. I am cross-posting it here because it makes good sense-and because it briefly mentions yours truly. The article also touches on the Olive Tree Initiative and Israel Apartheid Week at UC-Irvine.
http://frontpagemag.com/2011/03/11/what%E2%80%99s-the-matter-with-boycotting-israel/
I am not Hamas.
ReplyDeleteI am not Hizb-i-u-Lah.
I do not support boycott, divestment and sanctions.
I do support withdrawal of all taxpayer-financed economic and military aid to Israel, which is free to be intransigent on its own dime as a sovereign nation.
I see no reason that "Jewish community organizations" should feel any obligation to fund campaigns for any of the above. Nor do I see any reason that individuals of the Jewish faith should not provide funds to the Olive Tree Initiative. For that matter there is no reason that Jewish organizations should not choose to do so.
Private, voluntary organizations are not big civic umbrellas with some duty to reflect all points of view, or to live up to ANY standard of "political correctness," whether that of an abstract homogenous Jewish community, or of some culture-vulture pseudo-leftist rejection of Israel. Every voluntary assemblage of people is free to set its own standards, and conform to no other.
The linked article manages to dance around that fundamental point, then miss it entirely, by discussing what Jewish organizations in general should or should not do.
Siarlys,
ReplyDeleteIt is easy for you to say that Israel is intransigent when it is surrounded by millions of people who want to kill them all. Kinda like 49 states trying to wipe out Wisconsin, I might say.
Witness Itimar.
As for OTI, I think now in the face of Itimar, they have a harder sell than ever to convince Jewish donors to fund Jewish students to go to the PA and "dialogue" with those folks.
Gary, your shabby cliche about "Jewish donors" reminds one of the hoary myths of the "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion." Do you really think there is ANYTHING that all "Jewish donors" are going to agree on? Especially in America? Those who support OTI, will donate to it, no matter what various OTHER Jewish voices might say. Those who do not, will not.
ReplyDeleteI say that Israel is intransigent because it is obvious that if they allow festering wounds which do exist among the civilian population of verifiable human beings surrounding them to continue, then eventually they will find themselves facing a force they cannot successfully combat. Right now, there are people within the PA who are building a functional economy on the West Bank, building an effective security and police force, and creating precisely the conditions most conducive to stable, civil governance.
If Israel passes by this opportunity, because somewhere among the population are homicidal fanatics, then it is only a matter of time before they have nobody to deal with except homicidal fanatics. They can't afford to lose one war, and sooner or later, they will lose one. Realpolitik is not a matter of moral outrage. It is a matter of doing what is necessary.
If a treaty recognizing a Palestinian state had been signed five or ten years ago, the Fogels would be alive today, albeit, they might be living (much against their will) somewhere closer to Haifa.