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Andrew Yang smears BDS as rooted in Nazi thought (and sadly, he knows what he’s doing)

NY mayor candidate Andrew Yang enraged the left by saying BDS is "rooted in antisemitic thought and history," going back to Nazi boycotts of Jewish businesses.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang announced a run for New York mayor last week and today he penned a piece for the Forward, titled “My Vision for New York City’s Jewish Community” in which he said that the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign targeting Israel is “rooted in antisemitic thought and history, hearkening back” to Nazi boycotts of Jewish businesses.

“[N]ot all hate crimes are committed by organized neo-Nazis,” Yang wrote, speaking of the need for empathy across racial and religious lines. Then:

A Yang administration will push back against the BDS movement, which singles out Israel for unfair economic punishment. Not only is BDS rooted in antisemitic thought and history, hearkening back to fascist boycotts of Jewish businesses, it’s also a direct shot at New York City’s economy. Strong ties with Israel are essential for a global city such as ours, which boasts the highest Jewish population in the world outside of Israel. Our economy is struggling, and we should be looking for ways to bring back small businesses, not stop commerce.

The op-ed promptly won praise from the Democratic Majority for Israel, an interest group that has poured resources into pro-Israel candidates.

Yang’s comments are obviously intentional and instrumental. He is a mainstream candidate– and front runner– who is likely to take the right-wing lane in the Democratic primary against opponents Scott Stringer and Brooklyn Boro President Eric Adams.

But Yang’s statement that BDS, a nonviolent movement started by Palestinians who are discriminated against in countless ways, is rooted in antisemitism and is kin to Nazi boycotts stirred outrage on the left.

Yousef Munayyer wrote:

By likening the non-violent Palestinian civil society call for international solidarity to hold Israel accountable for human rights violations – which is inspired by the civil rights and anti-apartheid movement – to Nazism(!), you show ignorance & smear a people asking to be free

So @AndrewYang, how many Palestinians did you actually speak to before deciding to smear them in the course of your political campaign?

“Zero,” Linda Sarsour responded.

The progressive group The Jewish Vote wrote that not all Jews will like Yang’s stance.

Jews AREN’T a single-issue voting bloc. We’re tired of being treated like one. If @AndrewYang wants to win our votes, he should focus on #TaxTheRich, Defund the Police, a #GreenNewDeal—NOT equating a nonviolent human rights tactic to literal Nazis.

Yang’s comments are especially distressing because they follow a bombshell human rights report by a leading Israeli group saying that Israel is an “apartheid regime” from river to sea. The clear response to apartheid is international boycott.

Alex Kane called Yang’s comments “messed up, wrong.” Tony Karon:

Your ignorance on this issue is toxic. Many Jewish New Yorkers support the BDS movement as a non-violent form of protest against Israeli apartheid, and you’re calling them anti-Semites?

Mitchell Plitnick agreed:

This is an absurd characterization of #BDS.Very unfortunate that Yang would speak at length on a topic he obviously knows nothing about. There is room for reasonable debate about BDS. It is rather telling that, rather pursue such legitimate debate, BDS opponents lie about it.

Writer David Grossman chimed in:

My great-grandfather was in the shmata business on Rivington. For him to compare BDS to “fascist boycotts” shows no understanding of either fascism, anti-Semitism, or the occupation of Palestine

John Haltiwanger of Business Insider wrote:

Yang effectively endorsing apartheid and offering a take with dual loyalty connotations all at once.

BDS is not aimed at Jewish businesses; it targets the Israeli denial of Palestinian human rights.

I believe Andrew Yang knew just what he was doing. It won’t hurt him with his middle of the road base, and it will only help him with the New York establishment and more conservative Jews. Political observer Abe Silberstein notes the importance of donors:

I’m not surprised Yang is taking a strong position against BDS. It’s a cost-free statement (for him) and it could bring in donors who otherwise would have stayed on the sidelines. And if those donors are from NYC, there is an 8:1 match.

Governor Andrew Cuomo has made opposition to BDS a keystone position of his administration. And Andrew Yang already has the endorsement of Ritchie Torres, the new congressperson who won in part by touting Israel.

Torres got the endorsement of Democratic Majority for Israel, as did Raphael Warnock, the pastor who just was sworn in as a new senator from Georgia. Warnock won that endorsement by walking back statements critical of Israel. Yang has obviously seen all this and figured out his tactics.

As for The Jewish Vote’s claim that Jews are not monolithic, Yang’s stance will surely hurt him with leftwing Jews. But it will help him with other Jews, who are surely more empowered. 95 percent of American Jews support Israel, says Batya Ungar-Sargon, formerly of the Forward; that’s surely an exaggeration but if the number is closer to 70 percent, it means that anti-Zionist Jews are still marginal in the American Jewish community.

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It’s cute how Zionist donkey-fellators like Mr. Yang – who routinely and anti-Semitically conflate Israel with all Jews and all Jews with Israel – conveniently fail to see that a thoroughly and unapologetically supremacist ideology like Zionism is far more “rooted in Nazi thought” than is BDS.

I remember Yang, from the candidate debates, demonstrating a strong knowledge of the high tech economy but zero knowledge of, or interest in, foreign affairs. His answer, when asked about holding Israel accountable for human rights violations, was something like, “Why would we want to piss off an ally like Israel?”

A brilliant and thought-provoking answer, Andrew. Now, please go back to counting your money and leave NY politics to those who know better.

Nothing original in Yang’s argument, if you can call it that. He has just repeated something Zionists often say about BDS. Boycotting an oppressive state in defense of those it persecutes obviously has nothing in common with an oppressive state demanding that its citizens boycott a minority it is persecuting, except that in both cases the targets are Jewish (although that is the only thing that matters to tribalists). A better reference point is the boycott of Nazi Germany by Jewish and other anti-fascists.

It isn’t clear to me that Yang’s point about BDS harming the New York economy has any validity. What does New York export to Israel? New York Jews buy kosher food products imported from Israel, but if they did not wouldn’t they buy similar products of local manufacture? Wouldn’t that help to stimulate the local economy?

It is at this point in a politicians quest to run for office, they realize they have to prostrate themselves before the zionist alter, and do some brown nosing here with AIPAC members, and those who give them the approving nod, on behalf of the zionists. Only after that will they feel empowered and blessed enough to continue. Also there are a plenty of Jewish votes in New York.

This is US politics, and it is well known in the world. The world’s greatest superpower is controlled politically by the zionists, and we know it.

Yang: “Our economy is struggling, and we should be looking for ways to bring back small businesses, not stop commerce.”

Meanwhile, racist, fascistic, expansionist, illegal/brutal occupier Israel receives about $12 million in aid every day from U.S. taxpayers. Why doesn’t it concern you? Indeed, all you do is cowtow to the Zionist lobby.

BTW:
U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel (fas.org)

It is no secret that Israel is the world’s leading recipient of US aid since World War II. According to data provided by the US Congressional Research Service, it has received $146 billion of US taxpayers’ money as of November 2020. 

Logic and morality dictate that U.S. politicians should demand that hard pressed struggling Americans receive the aid, not Israel. After all, the Zionist entity has been milking U.S. taxpayers for over 72 years. It is long since time that it stood on its own feet or fade away.