Israeli winter of 2013: From rainbows to snow – watch the photo album
Finally, in mid-December, the rain started to pour over the land of Israel, and temperature dropped. The rain is blessed, no doubt, but like every year, it caught us unprepared. After two straight stormy days, the streets were flooded and trashcans filled with broken umbrellas. Most of us, however, stayed at home with a hot coco; after all, we are not used to a cold weather of any sort.
Since winter here is rather short, and lasts a maximum of two months a year, many talented photographers took out their cameras and smartphones, stepped outside, and captured the beauty of winter, all over Israel. Enjoy their beautiful photos!
The Dams of Gaza
I still don’t understand the far left’s desire to create and promote an image of a devil-Israel. Is it simply libelistic antisemitism?
On Saturday, as the Middle-Eastern storm wound down, Occupy London posted on facebook (“>transferred water pumps to Gaza as well as “>56 Sudanese asylum-seekers that simply took off from the “Holot” facility in southern Israel Sunday morning, to show up in downtown Be’er Sheva, actually fled a North-Korean-style gulag under hellish fire. Would a claim of that sort help the asylum-seekers? Did the dams story help anyone in Gaza?
Like an old-school model train builder, they’re busy piecing together, one libel at a time, a parallel world so far out of reality, so detached from the challenges facing anyone who'd like to see peace in the region, so counter to peace itself. This is not an exaggeration or amplification, but a complete, fantastic inversion.
Another participant in the thread brought the irony of this inversion home: “Israel didn't flood Gaza with sewage, it purifies and recycles most of its sewage for use in irrigating crops.”
80% of its waste water, to be exact, the highest percentage in the World, with 2nd place Spain hitting the 12% mark. The Dams of Gaza Read More »
December 16, 2013
The US
Headline: Kerry: Syria non-lethal aid to resume quickly
Read: According to Gordon Lubold, Chuck Hagel's presence still isn't being felt at the Pentagon-
Since he arrived at the Pentagon, there has been little public evidence of the quiet brashness for which Hagel was known in the Senate. There have been few signs of the audacity that animated the man whose public service began when he volunteered for the Vietnam War and continued through to the political maelstrom he entered after being nominated to head the Defense Department — and fought hard enough to survive.
Instead, Hagel's contributions thus far seem mostly to fall in the behind-the-scenes category, more circumspect than courageous, and that style is at odds with a department that some believe needs a take-no-prisoners strongman of a manager.
Quote: “We’ve seen several red lines put forward by the president, which went along and became pinkish as time grew, and eventually ended up completely white”, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the former intelligence chief of Saudi Arabia, mocking President Obama's red lines.
Number: 45%, President Obama's declining approval rate among millennials.
Israel
Headline: Ya'alon: Israel holds Lebanon and its army responsible for killing of IDF soldier
To Read: Nachum Barnea doesn't like the excessive accusations against the authorities following the unexpected mega-storm that hit Israel-
Immediately, like a conditioned reflex, radio and television channels were conquered by the magic word: Failure. It was immediately followed by its young, vibrant sibling: The state commission of inquiry. The finger was pointed at the Israel Electric Corporation, the police, the Home Front Command, the welfare system, mayors. “Israel is a third world country,” complained commentators and instant experts on natural disasters.
I doubt if they know much about what happens in real life, in the first world and in the third world.
Quote: “Today all of the towns of Israel will be connected to the power grid”, Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) CEO Eli Glickman vowing to return power to all of Israel by the end of the day.
Number: As many as 150 African detainees left the new open detention facility by foot yesterday and marched to Beersheba.
The Middle East
Headline: Death toll rises in Syria bombing raid
To Read: Michael Rubin believes that Morocco is a much better model for the Arab world and the Middle East than Turkey-
Neither Morocco nor Turkey is perfect, but trajectory is important. Morocco provides a path toward reconciliation and moderation, while Turkey’s political leadership has increasingly turned that country into a beacon for populism and hate. Generations of diplomats have become accustomed to thinking of Turkey as a partner and a model for the region. But autopilot should never be a substitute for wisdom. Increasingly, it is apparent that a moderate, more democratic future for the Middle East lies not in the Turkish model but rather the Moroccan one.
Quote: “We witnessed today the first flight that took place from Arbil International Airport to Qamishli city, which is populated by Kurdish inhabitants in Syria. This is the first flight to be conducted in this manner,” Dindar Zibari, deputy head of Kurdistan's Foreign Relations Department, commenting on the first UN aid delivery flight from Iraq to Syria.
Number: 100%, according to Iranian FM Zarif, Iran is “committed 100%” to reaching a final deal.
The Jewish World
Headline: Israel reaches out to US Jewish community
To Read: A Forward piece by Nathan Guttman takes a look at the salaries of the leading Jewish charity executives-
The analysis, produced for the Forward by Abraham Wyner, a professor of statistics at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, built a model of predicted salaries for Jewish executives, based on the size of the organization each heads. This is the key criterion used by the federal government to assess salary levels in the not-for-profit sector.
The results shed light on the animating factor in determining salaries in some of the Jewish community’s largest and most influential organizations: It’s not about how large the group is — it’s about the power of the leader’s brand name.
Quote: “You are telling Kanye West he should know better. He does know better, and that’s why he said what he said”, Louis Farrakhan defending Kanye West against Abe Foxman.
Number: 70%, according to the analysis done by the Wharton school for Forward, Abe Foxman's $688,280 salary represents a 70% overpayment.
Human Rights Organizations Challenge the Knesset’s New Amendment to Infiltration Law
As readers of my blog know, I have been writing of the travails of the estimated 55,000 Eritrean and Sudanese Refugees who made it to Israel by walking hundreds of miles because they desperately sought safety from the genocidal dictatorships ruling their countries.
In last week's blog I wrote of the Knesset's passing a new amendment to the Anti-Infiltration Law that permits incarceration of these political asylum seekers for up to one year in an open incarceration center (i.e. prison) in the south in the middle of nowhere. In this center, there is a roll-call performed three times every day, so these people cannot successfully walk to the nearest Israeli town to buy food or toothpaste or anything in a grocery store and return to the incarceration center in time for roll-call. Should they not show up, they would be deported to their country of origin and most likely suffer death at the hands of their government.
Despite the High Court's earlier ruling that the original Knesset bill calling for three years incarceration was contrary to Israel's Basic Laws about freedom, the Knesset modified the law to one year.
I print below this morning's press release (December 16) from Israel's “Hotline for Refugees and Migrants” whose leader Sigal Rozen led my congregants and I on a walking tour of the South Tel Aviv neighborhood in October in which 35,000 Eritreans and Sudanese Refugees are forced to live (this is a 3 or 4 block area around the central bus station).
Israel's human rights organizations are not taking the most recent Knesset bill without fighting back. As you can see below, they are going back to the High Court of Justice (Israel's Supreme Court) and appealing the legality of the Knesset bill.
Stay tuned!
Press release
December 16, 2013
Human Rights Organizations Challenge New Amendment to Infiltration Law
New law even more unconstitutional than the one overturned by Court in September
Yesterday (December 15) several human rights organizations filed a petition with the High Court of Justice seeking the nullification of the new amendment to the Law to Prevent Infiltration. The organizations claim that the new amendment does not abide by the principles set forth by the Court's September 15 decision to overturn the previous amendment to the law, and is in many ways more severe than the nullified amendment.
The petition was submitted by Attorneys Oded Feller and Yonatan Berman of theAssociation for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), Attorneys Asaf Weitzan and Nimrod Avigal of the Hotline for Refugees and Migrants (formerly the Hotline for Migrant Workers), Attorneys Anat Ben Dor and Elad Cahana of the Refugee Rights Clinic at Tel Aviv University Faculty of Law, and Attorney Osnat Cohen Lifshitz of theClinic for Migrants' Right at the Academic Center for Law and Business, on behalf of ASSAF – Aid Organization for Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Israel, Kav Laoved, Physicians for Human Rights, the African Refugee Development Center (ARDC), and two asylum seekers from Eritrea transferred last weekend from Saharonim prison to the Holot “open” facility across the road.
The petition strongly criticized the state's actions following the High Court decision. Rather than seek new humane solutions to the refugee issue as the Court directed, the respondents delayed the releases ordered by the Court as long as possible and rushed through a piece of legislation that undermines the ruling and continues treating the asylum seekers inhumanely. The new amendment's one-year administrative detention provision ignores the Court's ruling on the unconstitutionality of imprisoning people who cannot be deported. Perhaps worse, the amendment allows for the interminable detention of non-deportable migrants in facilities managed by the prison authorities and designed to break their spirit until they “voluntarily” self-deport, even if it means endangering their lives.
The petition further argues that the ostensible deterrence purpose of the legislation presents a solution to a problem that does not exist because no new asylum seekers are reaching Israel. “Less than three months after the decision, which included harsh criticism, the legislation was passed in lighting speed. What changed during this period? Nothing. Was there a substantial increase of asylum seekers entering Israel that required a response? No. According to Population and Immigration Authority publications, in the past three moths, 4 Sudanese men have entered Israel irregularly.”
To support their request for an interim injunction, the petitioners point out that despite the government having decided to build the “open” facility over than three years ago, it saw no use for it until the court's decision to overturn the prior amendment. “The urgency of the legislation and the completion of the facility demonstrate that its establishment and operation are not the result not of substantive considerations but rather the desire to avoid releasing the detainees, in defiance of the decision of the Court.”
For these reasons, the petitioners claim that the new amendment, like the old one, is “outside constitutional boundaries and does not comport to the principles set forth by the High Court of Justice, to the point of ignoring [the prior amendment's] having been voided at all.” The petitioners seek an urgent hearing on the petition and an injunction to stay the transfer of asylum seekers to the Holot facility. Justice Handel ordered the respondents to file their response to the injunction request within ten days.
To read the entire petition (in Hebrew) click here.
For more information about the previous legal proceedings (in English) click here.
Media enquiries:
Anat Ovadia (Hotline for Refugees and Migrants)
054-3177851
Marc Grey (ACRI)
0544405203
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Believe
Every year Politifact.com awards one unlucky schmuck the not-so-prestigious Lie of the Year Award. This year’s recipient was our very own commander in chief Barack Obama. Now as far as I’m concerned politicians should just be exempt from this whole thing because every last one of them lies or at the very least stretches the truth further than Octomom’s waistline when she’s carrying a litter of 8.
Suffice to say, every year that they’ve been presenting this award it’s gone to a politician. It really is an unfair advantage, especially in regard to those of us busting our butts everyday to come up with the ultimate Teflon lie.
At any rate, the lie that nominated and ultimately awarded Mr. Obama was his repeated statement in regard to people’s insurance coverage and his Affordable Care Act. Specifically this one line; “If you’re happy with your health care plan, you can keep it.”
The catch is, under the ACA’s new guidelines, a lot of people’s (4 million to be exact) health plans didn’t qualify, thus they were canceled and Obama was by default, a liar.
Let’s keep in mind that even though 4 million seems like a lot, it only accounted for around 2% of the insured population. That’s not to say that there weren’t a lot of folks who were royally pissed upon finding out that their plans had been canceled. But in retrospect, the new plans they’d received were more comprehensive and after subsidies and credits were applied the cost was just a little higher than their original plans but covered them a lot more.
None of this really matters though in the age of the repetitive sound bite. Conservatives have been screaming at the top of their self-righteous lungs about this and absolutely no one is surprised. As irony would have it, the 3 runners up this year were Ted Cruz, Ann Coulter & Michele Bachmann, all for their lies about the ACA.
Regardless of that though Fox News is gonna be all over this Lie of the Year Award quicker than Rush Limbaugh is at an all you can eat buffet on dollar night with complimentary pain killers, no limit.
But do any of us really care what Fox News has to say? Because anybody with a 5th grader’s wisdom knows that Fox News is on par with any given trashy reality TV show. It’s lowest common denominator entertainment.
ANYWAY-
Truth be told, Obama wasn’t forthcoming with all the information he was privy to. But who the hell is completely honest when talking about a sensitive subject? Men and women of all creeds, social and financial backgrounds know when to say just enough but not divulge the entire truth lest they want their asses handed to them.
In the Babylonian Talmud, there's a story about a town named “Kushtah” (which means 'truth' in Aramaic.) Basically, the point of the story is that there is no such thing as 100% truth–there are times, specifically when trying to keep the peace, pursuing a mitzvah, or just trying to maintain some modesty and kindness, that people bend the truth to avoid an all-out war. See? Even God understands that sometimes it's best to skirt the issue delicately.
Here’s a very relatable example: “Honey, does this dress make me look fat?”
Now if it does and you know it and you say it, the only thing that will come of it is a fat lip. So the correct response is: “Baby, if you’re happy with that dress, you can keep it.”
In retrospect, we could all learn a thing or two from our President and his award.
Israeli soldier killed while on patrol on Lebanese border
An Israeli soldier patrolling Israel’s border with Lebanon was killed by what is believed to be a rogue Lebanese soldier.
Master Sgt. Sholmi Cohen, 31, of Afula, was killed on Sunday night when the Lebanese soldier fired as many as seven shots from a pistol at an army patrol near the Israeli army outpost at Rosh Hanikra.
Israeli reports say several Lebanese soldiers attempted to stop their fellow soldier, jumping on him as he began shooting.
The Lebanese soldier, who went missing after the incident occurred, turned himself in to his base on Monday morning, according to media reports in Lebanon.
Several hours after the incident, Israeli troops shot and injured two Lebanese soldiers after seeing “suspicious movement” along the border, according to an Israeli military spokesperson.
Both the Israel Defense Forces and the Lebanese army said they are investigating the incident that led to the death of the Israeli soldier. Israel also protested the incident to UNIFIL, the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, which secures the border with Israel.
Representatives of the Israeli and Lebanese militaries and UNIFIL officials were scheduled to meet to discuss the incident, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said, according to Haaretz. Yaalon said in a statement that Israel holds the Lebanese government and its army responsible.
“We will not tolerate aggression against the State of Israel, and maintain the right to exercise self-defense against perpetrators of attacks against Israel and its civilians,” said IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner.
Israeli soldier killed while on patrol on Lebanese border Read More »
Agunah crowd shouldn’t target families
The preeminent sacred cow to many Jews is compassion for agunot (“chained” women whose husbands withhold a Jewish bill of divorce, or “Get”). But enough already: the Internet crowd attacking Avrohom Meir Weiss in his divorce from Gital Dodelson is becoming as heartless and halachically problematic as Weiss himself.
Dodelson fired the first public salvo with a Nov. 4 article in The New York Post stating that Weiss has refused her a Get for more than three years. She provided unquestionably disturbing details, such as that Weiss demanded $350,000 to back down and said “I can’t give you a Get – how else would I control you?”
I sympathize with Dodelson – and here I completely accept her version of the truth. Every agunah situation is a tragedy, more so when children are involved (the couple has a son). Dodelson’s supporters have organized a Web site, setgitalfree.com, and an associated Facebook page.
But their methods reflect poorly on the entire urgent movement to help agunot. Instead of the traditional focus on the recalcitrant husband, this bandwagon mostly targets Weiss’s relatives.
First, Internet warriors boycotted Orthodox publisher ArtScroll until it fired Weiss’s father and uncle. A Facebook commenter claimed victory, saying ArtScroll “heard us loud and clear, and they did exactly what we asked.”
Next, agunah activists turned against Yeshiva of Staten Island (YSI), where Weiss learns and which is run by his grandfather, Rabbi Reuven Feinstein. They demanded that the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) remove YSI’s accreditation and reject rabbis ordained by the yeshiva’s sister school. They also convinced at least one synagogue to cancel an appearance by Rabbi Feinstein.
“Set Gital Free” even bullied Weiss’s elderly grandmother by publishing her telephone number and urging people to “politely and respectfully” inundate her with calls until a Get is granted.
The pro-Dodelson site calls these family members “enablers” who “support” Weiss’s actions. But the relatives are pretty much chained themselves – caught in the no-win position of wishing to succor a humiliated loved one while wanting an ugly divorce resolved. Besides, who knows what they’ve said to Weiss privately?
Those who punish relatives of Get refusers remind me of opponents of Israel’s policies on the West Bank who randomly say “I know – let’s boycott Israeli universities and scholars!” Only this improvisation is worse.
No act, however spiteful, justifies a posse deciding to assault the livelihoods and reputations of relatives and colleagues. It doesn’t seem very Jewish to me: Did a horde attack Jacob because of Esau’s misdeeds, or Jonathan because of Saul’s?
So I contacted RCA Executive Vice President Rabbi Mark Dratch, the rabbi “Set Gital Free” recommended to explain the Torah basis for their strategy. To my surprise, he said absolutely nothing in halachic literature endorses communal pressure on family members of Get refusers, and he never prescribed that approach. Thus, the activists are disregarding the counsel of the man they claim is their rabbi. Orthodox Jews just don’t do that.
I later consulted Rabbi Jeremy Stern from the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot (ORA), who also could think of no text in a Jewish source describing anything like the “Free Gital” tactics – and he would know. ORA’s extensive Web site promotes many ways to pressure husbands but none to pressure relatives.
Rabbi Stern referenced the impressive “Kol Koreh” (proclamation) signed by ten leading American rabbis, including five from the renowned Council of Torah Sages and ORA’s halachic expert, Yeshiva University Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Herschel Schachter.
The Kol Koreh imposes more than a dozen harsh penalties on Weiss, but only one regarding his family: that ArtScroll must terminate the father and uncle. That directive clearly relates to the laws of a Jewish court (beit din), not those of agunot, since any man who flouts a beit din’s rulings risks retribution. But the rabbis didn’t call for a boycott. (The Facebook site’s supposed triumph over ArtScroll is absurd – as if it had more sway than our generation’s most respected rabbis.) The proclamation also says nothing about canceled speeches, disaccreditations, rejected ordinations, or harassment of old ladies.
Rabbi Schachter and several other Kol Koreh rabbis have been “consulted” throughout the process, Rabbi Stern said. But he would not answer specific questions whether Rabbi Schachter (who declined comment) approved the extreme actions against the relatives. Surely the Gedolei Hador (today’s leading rabbis) would have demanded further steps against the family in the Kol Koreh if they felt them licit and necessary.
It’s alarming that poor Gital’s agunah case would arouse the most disproportionate response in Jewish history undoubtedly due to a 2,500-word essay in a non-Jewish newspaper. Now, before you get out the pitchforks: I don’t defend Weiss one bit. I just think we should heed the measured voice of the Kol Koreh instead of the “Set Gital Free” overreaction.
David Benkof lives in Jerusalem, where he teaches Hebrew at a yeshiva and constructs the weekly Jerusalem Post crossword puzzle. He can be reached at DavidBenkof@gmail.com.
Agunah crowd shouldn’t target families Read More »
Alan Dershowitz retiring from Harvard Law School
Alan Dershowitz, one of the country’s most prominent lawyers and a passionate advocate for Israel, is retiring from Harvard Law School.
Dershowitz, 75, who is known for taking on high-profile and often unpopular causes and clients, has taught at Harvard Law for half a century. His retirement becomes official at the end of the week.
At a conference in Israel, he said last week, according to the Boston Globe, “Yeah, I’m really retiring. … My retirement consists of reducing my schedule down to only about 10 things at any given time.”
In 1967, he became the youngest full professor in the school’s history. An expert in criminal and constitutional law, Dershowitz has served on the defense team of celebrities including O.J. Simpson and Claus von Bulow, and more recently Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Dershowitz, a Brooklyn native who has written and spoken often on his Orthodox Jewish upbringing and education, has used his prominence to defend Israel over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Among his harshest critics is Noam Chomsky, the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology linguist with whom he has had a long-running public feud over Israel.
In 2006, Dershowitz publicly challenged former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, for the views he expressed in his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid,” calling the book biased.
While “proud to be Jewish and engaged with Israel’s future,” Dershowitz also assisted Palestinian students when they sought inclusion of the Palestinian flag in a campus display, Harvard Law School dean Martha Minow told JTA.
Minow described Dershowitz as a devoted teacher of 50 years.
“We look forward to his continuing vibrancy, wit, and wisdom,” she said in an email to JTA.
Alan Dershowitz retiring from Harvard Law School Read More »
American Studies Association votes for boycott of Israeli universities
The membership of the American Studies Association endorsed its national council’s call for a boycott of Israeli universities.
Two-thirds of the 1,252 members who voted approved the boycott, according to an ASA announcement Monday, a day after the deadline for voting.
At the time of the vote, there were 3,853 eligible voters, meaning a third of the membership participated.
The membership-wide canvas was unprecedented and was undertaken in part at the behest of boycott opponents, who said at a session during the ASA annual conference in Washington last month that the matter was too sensitive to leave up to the 20-member national council, which unanimously endorsed the boycott.
“The National Council engaged and addressed questions and concerns of the membership throughout the process,” the ASA statement said. “During the open discussion at the recent convention, members asked us to draft a resolution that was relevant to the ASA in particular and so the Council’s final resolution acknowledged that the US plays a significant role in enabling the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
The resolution, which applies to ASA as an organization, is not binding on members and targets institutions, not individuals.
In its announcement, the ASA said it would invite Israeli and Palestinian academics to its 2014 national meeting in Los Angeles. ASA describes itself as “devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history.”
American Studies Association votes for boycott of Israeli universities Read More »
‘When Failure Succeeds’: The true goal of BDS and the ASA vote
In the recent boycott resolution passed by the America Asian Studies Association and being voted on by the American Studies Association we uncover the innate hatred, bigotry and destructive intolerance directed at Israel by boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) adherents and supporters. BDS stands for the elimination of the Jewish state of Israel.
Despite its virulence, the BDS effort in the United States has had virtually no success. Even the AASA and ASA resolutions will have no impact whatsoever. Though this past spring a number of University of California campuses passed student resolutions that support a boycott of companies that do business with Israel, not one of those campuses has instituted such a ban. Time and again, Jewish Voice for Peace and other organizations have attempted to get TIAA-CREF (one of the largest faculty pension funds) to divest from Israel only to be rebuffed.
Yet, there is a problem when Jewish responses to BDS activity have the unintended consequence of giving BDS and anti-Israel perspectives far more publicity and coverage than they would have had without a response. It is time that those of us opposed to BDS and the growing anti-Israel rhetoric BDS engenders rethink our strategy.
Understanding the BDS long term strategy may help us develop effective policies in response. At a conference held at UC Hastings Law School in the spring of 2011, Gwynne Skinner, plaintiff lawyer for Corrie vs. Caterpillar and Professor Jules Lobel, of Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) –argued that winning such legal cases, or by definition divestment and boycott efforts, are not and should not be the end goal of BDS. Instead, they said that the goal should be to change the opinions of young Americans about Israel.
Similarly, over the last two years members of organizations supporting BDS have argued in the same fashion at similar conferences, workshops and training camps about BDS campaigns.
Clearly, the goal of anti-Israel organizations is way beyond any boycott, divestment or sanctions initiative. Banning Soda Stream from Walmart and Costco or stopping the cafeteria from serving Sabra hummus might otherwise be farcical if that were the goal. But the mission that is increasingly revealed to us is changing the minds of the American public by delegitimizing Israel. Understanding this goal is critical for Israel and for the pro-Israel community, Jewish and non-Jewish, in the US and around the world. We must also understand that myth-based campaigns are by nature intended to delegitimize.
A historical example of such a myth-based campaign during prewar Germany is instructional for all of us who are fighting the BDS campaign, on or off campus.
In 1924, Julius Streicher, editor of the Der Stürmer newspaper, began a campaign of daily anti-Jewish invective, diatribe and hate. Liberally plagiarizing the already plagiarized Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Streicher embarked on a long-term campaign of vilification against many German Jewish community leaders and organizations. These community leaders and organizations sued Streicher in court dozens of times and won every verdict. Each time, Streicher paid the fine and laughed that, “Something always sticks.” “Something always sticks” became his unofficial motto.
Our conceptualization of the conflict surrounding BDS needs to change. Every time BDS or lawfare is mounted by anti-Israel forces something sticks, and over years attitude changes will ultimately have an impact on American student views toward Israel. We need to change the way we confront disinformation, lies and innuendo, while at the same time understanding that too much of a reaction and making campus issues into academic freedom or freedom of speech issues gives too much oxygen to the real goals of the BDS.
BDS efforts on college campus—though inconsequential to the actual campus policies—generate negative propaganda, the effects of which can “stick.” Such propaganda not only pollutes a campus environment but also tarnishes the reputation of the academic institution. Our universities are paragons of dialogue exchange; BDS quashes the freedom which we hold dear.
Therefore, the discussion on campus must be reframed to recapture the offensive from BDS supporters who have successfully used images, tropes and rhetorical strategies pioneered by the Zionist movement in supporting the creation of the state of Israel for their own use in attacking the legitimacy of Israel. We must focus our accusations against BDS to show that it inherently exists to counter the best interests of universities, students and faculty. We should communicate the relevance of Israel to faculty, students, trustees and administrators through joint research programs, curricular projects and courses, travel programs and faculty exchange programs between the US and Israel.
Nurturing a positive relationship with Israel is not only a matter of national security, but part of our democratic values as Americans. Engagement and conversations about Israel have to become organic parts of a campus experience where the message is not defensive rather educational and inspiring. Regardless of differences about Israel politics and social complexities, we have to encourage non-defensive communication about Israel and pro-active messaging that preempts the efforts of BDS.
Samuel M. Edelman, CSU Chico Emeritus Professor and former Dean at the American Jewish University
‘When Failure Succeeds’: The true goal of BDS and the ASA vote Read More »