Israel Thrives: Fighting BDS in the States

Monday, June 1, 2015

Fighting BDS in the States

JayinPhiladelphia

Back in April, Tennessee made a stir by becoming the first state legislature in the US to pass a bill condemning BDS. Indiana's legislature shortly followed suit with a similar measure.

Illinois then took things up a notch last month, by becoming the first state to pass an anti-BDS bill which moved beyond formal condemnation of BDS, turning the tactic right back on the boycotters by barring state pension funds from investing in companies that boycott or divest from Israel.

New York is now currently considering a similar bill to Illinois regarding state pension funds, while here in my state, Pennsylvania State Representative Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks) has introduced H.B. 1018, the Stand with Israel Act, which will bar any college or university in Pennsylvania from receiving state funding if it boycotts or divests from Israel. The Pennsylvania bill is currently in the House Education Committee, where it has bipartisan sponsorship of 41 members (20% of the House), including my own, Rep. Michael O'Brien (D-Philadelphia), and House Education Committee Chairman, Rep. Stan Saylor (R-York).

Particularly encouraging is the wide and deep bipartisan support these bills are finding. This should serve to remind us that no matter how dark the news possibly sometimes looks for those of us with a tendency to go looking for the dark side of things, the fact remains that the anti-Israel fanatics aren't anywhere near close to gaining any sort of foothold at levels where things actually matter, and that as long as we keep up the good fight, we'll keep winning.

As we surely know, boycotting Jews is once again all the rage amongst certain types of folks. They sit around their virtual cyber-camp-fires, or at their SJP rallies, and tell tall tales of Jewish villainy and perfidy in service of monstrous terrorist organizations which they like to pretend don't exist. Or if they do, it's only because of "The Occupation" [sic], or because of Jews building apartments or second bathrooms in the land where Jews come from.

While certainly not an original tactic, what is new about this current round of Jew Boycotts is that they're currently being framed in 'progressive' terms of 'justice' and 'fairness' and 'peace' and, I suppose, puppies and rainbows and water ice and all that good stuff, too.

While federal legislation taking on the BDS bullies is currently working its way through Congress, the states are quickly taking the lead in this fight for now.

3 comments:

JeffwithaJJune 1, 2015 at 3:18 PM
That is encouraging news, Jay, as long as we don't let our guard down I remain optimistic.

"what is new about this current round of Jew Boycotts..."
But is there anything really new about any of this?
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Barack Obama on the so-called "Arab Spring" (May 19, 2011):

"There are times in the course of history when the actions of ordinary citizens spark movements for change because they speak to a longing for freedom that has been building up for years. In America, think of the defiance of those patriots in Boston who refused to pay taxes to a King, or the dignity of Rosa Parks as she sat courageously in her seat."

The "Arab Spring" was the brutal rise of political Islam in the Middle East and this is what Obama compares the Civil Rights Movement to?

How's that for a kick in the head to Martin Luther King, Jr.?

The Fundamental Argument:

The progressive movement, and the activist base of the Democratic Party, creates and supports venues that demonize and defame the Jewish state, thereby also creating hatred toward the Jewish people.

Such venues include political journals, such as, but not limited to, Daily Kos, the Huffington Post, and the UK Guardian, numerous universities throughout the United States and Europe, various NGOs with an anti-Israel agenda, and the entire progressive-left movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction (BDS) the Jewish people of the state of Israel.

These venues and organizations do not generally criticize Israel, but dehumanize that country.

For this reason, among others, the progressive movement, and the activist base of the Democratic Party, undermines the well-being and safety of Jews around the world, sometimes resulting in violence toward us.

Therefore, as a matter of common sense and basic human decency, Jews should leave the progressive movement and the Democratic Party as we seek to build alternative political structures that are not home to toxic anti-Semitic anti-Zionists, who would see us robbed of self-determination and self-defense.

What You Can't Discuss:

This is a partial list of taboo topics within progressive-left venues around the Arab-Israel conflict. You cannot discuss this material because it undermines the "Palestinian narrative" of perpetual victimhood. This narrative is a club used by the Arab and Muslim enemies of Israel, along with their western progressive allies, to delegitimize that country in preparation for its eventual dissolution.

1) The centuries of Jewish dhimmitude under the boot of Islamic imperialism.

2) The recent construction of Palestinian identity, its connection to Soviet Cold War politics, and how this is an Arab people with a Roman name that refers to Greeks.

3) Arab and Palestinian Koranically-based racism as the fundamental source of the conflict.

4) The ways in which contemporary progressive anti-Zionism serves as a cloak for gross anti-Semitism.

5) The Palestinian theft and appropriation of Jewish history.

6) "Pallywood."

7) The historical connections between the Nazis, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Palestinian national movement.

8) The perpetual refusal of the Palestinian-Arabs to accept a state for themselves in peace next to the Jewish one.

9) The progressive portrayal of terrorists as those fighting a righteous war of "resistance."

10) The Arab-Palestinian indoctrination of children with Jew hatred.

11) Human rights violations against women, children, and Gay people in the Muslim Middle East.

12) The fact that violent Jihadis call themselves "Jihadis" and claim to love death above life.

This is only a partial list, so please let us know the many more that we are missing.

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Monday, June 1, 2015

Fighting BDS in the States

3 comments: