Boycott? What boycott?
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence from around the world that the anti-Israeli ‘boycott campaigns’ have exactly the opposite effect on the public at large.
Even among the Palestinians we read that numbers of Palestinians have abandoned their West Bank Palestinian shops after missing several items and go to stores in Israeli areas instead, like the supermarket in the Etzion and Ram area, which is packed with Palestinian customers, as if nothing has happened. A ‘Boycott Israel’ campaign coordinator in Bethlehem is quoted on a Palestinian website as lamenting this failure, giving the reason for it “that people need to have the will to fast from Israeli products”.
[ Barghouti’s boast that BDS has been widely successful is not matched
by reality. No American university, for instance, which hosts the
largest number of visiting Israeli academics globally, has adopted any
measure of the campaign. And attempts to gain a foothold in the
British academy have likewise been met with resistance. The global BDS
movement hasn’t even made that much headway on the Internet: A Google
search for ‘BDS’ places it below the website for the British Deer
Society. See VIEWPOINT: True colours of the BDS movement
http://www.justjournalism.com/media-analysis/view/viewpoint-true-colours-of-the-bds-movement ]
I am not surprised that the National Council of Churches in Australia passed their resolution of boycotting Israeli goods from the Territories. I do not like it, but I can understand why the hierarchy may have felt compelled to do so.They have Christian minorities under siege in many Islamic countries, including in the Palestinian territories, so they try to appease the anti-Israelis for their sake. After all,- nothing will happen to the Christian community in Israel, will it?
But as Ruth Allison writes (AJN 11/8), our Christian friends will continue to do as they please regardless of any ACC resolutions, our enemies don’t count, while we should double our support for Israeli products.
Thank goodness that there are many prominenet non-Jewish supporters of Israel who understand the complexities of Israel’s existence.
This is their well measured statement.
http://online.wsj.com/article/NA_WSJ_PUB:SB10001424052748704862404575351430715581608.html
Israel: A Normal Country
Hostility to the Jews has been a stain on the Western world's honor for centuries.
• The following statement has been signed by Jose Maria Aznar, David Trimble, John R. Bolton, Alejandro Toledo, Marcello Pera, Andrew Roberts, Fiamma Nirenstein, George Weigel, Robert F. Agostinelli and Carlos Bustelo:
Mr. Aznar is a former prime minister of Spain. Mr. Trimble is a former first minister of Northern Ireland. Mr. Bolton is a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Mr. Toledo is a former president of Peru. Mr. Pera is a former president of the Italian Senate. Mr. Roberts is a British historian. Ms. Nirenstein is vice-president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Mr. Weigel is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Mr. Agostinelli is managing director of the Rhône Group. Mr. Bustelo is a former minister of industry in Spain.
Israel is a Western democracy and a normal country. Nonetheless, Israel has faced abnormal circumstances since its inception. In fact, Israel is the only Western democracy whose existence has been questioned by force, and whose legitimacy is still being questioned independently of its actions.
The recent flotilla crisis in the Mediterranean provided yet another occasion for Israel's detractors to renew their frenzied campaign. It was so even before the facts of that tragic incident had come to light. Eyes were blind to the reasons why Israel had to respond to the Gaza flotilla's clear provocation.
Because we believe Israel is subjected to unfair treatment, and are convinced that defending Israel means defending the values that made and sustain our Western civilization, we have decided to launch the Friends of Israel Initiative. Our goal is to bring reason and decency back to the discussion about Israel. We are an eclectic group, coming from different countries and holding different opinions on a range of issues. It goes without saying that we do not speak for the State of Israel and we do not defend every course of action that it decides upon. We are united, however, by the following beliefs, principles and aims:
First, Israel is a normal, Western democracy and should be treated as such. Its parliamentary system, legal traditions, education and scientific research facilities, and cultural achievements are as fundamental to it as to any other Western society. Indeed, in some of these areas, Israel is a world leader.
Second, attempts to question Israel's basic legitimacy as a Jewish state in the Middle East are unacceptable to people who support liberal democratic values. The State of Israel was founded in the wake of United Nations Resolution 181, passed in 1947. It also arose out of an unbroken Jewish connection to the land that stretches back thousands of years. Israel does not derive its legitimacy, as some claim, from sympathy over the Holocaust. Instead, it derives legitimacy from international law and from the same right to self-determination claimed by all nations.
Third, as a fully legitimate member of the international community, Israel's basic right to self-defense should not be questioned. Nor should it be forgotten that Israel faces unique security threats—from terror groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and from an Iran seeking nuclear weapons.
United Nations condemnations of Israel arising from last year's Goldstone Report on the recent war in Gaza, for example, ignore the security challenges that Israel faces. All democracies should oppose such campaigns, which ultimately undermine the legitimacy not merely of Israel but of the U.N. itself.
Fourth, we must never forget that Israel is on our side in the battle against Islamism and terror. Israel stands on the front line of that fight as a bulwark of Judeo-Christian values. The belief that the democratic world can sacrifice Israel in order to placate Islamism is profoundly wrong and dangerous. Appeasement failed in the 1930s and it will fail today.
Fifth, attempts by people of good faith to facilitate peace between Israel and the Palestinians are always to be supported. But outsiders should beware of attempting to impose their own solutions. Israelis and Palestinians should know how to build a viable peace on their own. We can help them, but we cannot force them.
Sixth, we must be alive to the dangers that the campaign against Israel poses in reawakening anti-Semitism. Hostility to the Jews has been a stain on the Western world's honor for centuries. It is a matter of basic self-respect that we actively confront and oppose new manifestations of an old and ugly problem.
The Friends of Israel Initiative has come together to encourage men and women of goodwill to reconsider their attitudes toward the Jewish state, and to relocate those attitudes inside the best of Western traditions rather than the worst. We urge them to recognize that it is in our own best interests that an increasingly jaded relationship between Israel and many of the world's other liberal democracies is rescued and reinvigorated before it is too late for us all.
On the other hand, the Jewish Left in Melbourne, as represented by the Australian Jewish Democratic Society (AJDS), thinks differently.
From their website we see that they passed a Resolution based on talking to a Palestinian activist pro-boycotts, while calling Israel an ‘apartheid state’ and only looking at their OWN narrative.
The AJDS is opposed to any Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign aimed at the breadth of Israeli economic, cultural or intellectual activity. However, the AJDS does support selected BDS actions designed to bring about an end to the Israeli occupation, blockade and settlement on Palestinian lands lying outside of the June 1967 Israeli borders. Such limited and focused BDS support might include boycotts of settlement products and divestment from military Research and Development (R&D) and boycott of industrial/military activities unrelated to Israel's defence and security. It might also include selected sanctions or boycotts against specific Israeli academics openly supportive of the Occupation.
The AJDS will make any decisions on these matters on a case-by-case basis, and exercise its judgment as to the political/social cost-benefits of any such actions before granting specific endorsement or approval.
So who cares what their resolution states? Most Jews and others will buy whatever products they need, like and want to buy. Palestinians will buy from Israelis whatever they can and want,- to the detriment of their own Palestinian businesses!
See:
http://www.shoebat.com/blog/archives/355
PALESTINIANS BOYCOTTING ISRAEL ONLY BOYCOTTS PALESTINIANS
By Walid Shoebat
The Walid Shoebat Foundation Blog
Former PLO Terrorist Now Speaks Out For USA and Israel
Let us hope that our importers, distributors and retailers will assess their products on their saleability not on the political interests of the enemies of the State of Israel and their supporters or their “Jewish useful idiots’!MM
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