Congress is the next battleground for the boycott movement against Israel. Some congressmen are leaping to introduce legislation to stem these efforts. And the Israelis are enraged that John Kerry even dignified the boycott movement by mentioning it out loud.
From Lord Charnwood’s Biography of Lincoln:
“If [the Abolitionists] did not gain love in the quarters where they might have looked for it, they gained the very valuable hatred of their enemies; for they goaded Southern politicians to fury and madness, of which the first symptom was their effort to suppress Abolitionist petitions in Congress. But above all they educated in their labor of thirty years, a school of opinion, not entirely in agreement with them but ready one day to revolt with decision from continued complicity in wrong.”
I think this insight about educating the public applies also to liberal Zionists Peter Beinart and Tom Friedman, who while forswearing the Boycott-divestment-sanctions movement’s aims have embraced BDS as a tactic to force Israel to leave the West Bank. When there is significant violence in Israel/Palestine (which I regard as inevitable), they will accept BDS as the nonviolent alternative.
Thanks to the same friend who passed along the gem from Hugh Trevor-Roper.
Well, the sentiment in Congress suggests that a war *against,* not for, BDS. But what did the remark about “the Boycott-divestment-sanctions movement’s aims” mean? Not really limited to the “West Bank,” are they. Nor is the axiomatic boilerplate use of the term “nonviolent” convincing. BDS rhetoric smells of “your money or your life.”
>> BDS rhetoric smells of “your money or your life.”
BDS only smells that way to people who value (Jewish) supremacism above justice, morality and equality.
Israel is strong enough that the BDS movement is not about to do serious damage to Israel. But the BDS movement is damaging Israel’s REPUTATION. BDS provides an opportunity for people around the world to say that they don’t approve of Israel’s racism. This will cancel out the energetic PR campaign that Israelis have waged ever since 1948. Israel, and its supporters and defenders in the US, are starting to lose control of the conversation.
And an economic boycott can result in some negative consequences for Israel. Until now, there have been essentially no consequences for the average Israeli Jew, not even from Israel’s most extreme bursts of violence. For example, the 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the massacres at Sabra and Chatila refugees camps resulted in zero consequences for Israel. 20,000 dead, but it’s only Arabs so there were no consequences.
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“Valuable hatred” is a very interesting insight, Phil, as is the notion of a slowly developed “school of opinion” among those watching the dispute between Abolitionists and Slavers, “ready one day to revolt with decision against continued complicity in wrong.” I am reminded of Grant’s reflection, which I think reflects that “school of opinion:”
“There was no time during the rebellion when I did not think . . . that the South was more to be benefited by its defeat than the North. . . . The former was burdened with an institution abhorrent to all civilized people not brought up under it, and one which degraded labor, kept it in ignorance, and enervated the governing class. With the outside world at war with this institution, they could not have extended their territory. The labor of the country was not skilled, nor allowed to become so. The whites could not toil without becoming degraded, and those who did were denominated ‘poor white trash.’ The system of labor would have soon exhausted the soil and left the people poor. The non-slaveholders would have left the country, and the small slaveholder must have sold out to his more fortunate neighbor. Soon the slaves would have outnumbered the masters, and not being in sympathy with them, would have risen in their might and exterminated them. The war was expensive to the South as well as to the North, both in blood and treasure, but it was worth all it cost.” Grant’s Memoirs, Volume 2 (loc 217 of 6031 on Kindle).
RE: “Gaining the ‘valuable hatred of their enemies,’ boycott movement is educating others”
MY COMMENT: Speaking of the “hatred of their enemies”, watch the video below (especially the Q&A session at the end) to appreciate the hatred some Brits have for Shlomo Sand. Some really ugly stuff.
● The Invention of the Land of Israel – book launch with Shlomo Sand (Streamed live on Feb 19, 2013) [VIDEO, 1:24:40] – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5s_trEBcbU