BDS

Dear Drs. West and Zogby,

Thank you for your magnificent job in trying to convince your fellow platform writers to embrace a more balanced approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unfortunately, your arguments did not persuade your fellow committee members and the national security of both Israel and the U.S. are endangered by their failure to heed your advice.  While your questions were powerful and accurate, there were a number of points that you did not raise that should be considered when deciding whether to acknowledge that Palestinians live under occupation. I therefore provide the following analysis in the hopes that it will help you convince your fellow platform committee members to modify the current draft recommendations on Israel and Palestine and to take a more balanced approach.  

Those who read this blog probably know I'm not a big fan of Israel or its propaganda (hasbara).  I despise the settlements and the apartheid regime in the West Bank.  I dislike that Palestinians are treated like second class citizens even within the Green Line.  And I loathe how Israel and its supporters tried to sucker us into an unnecessary war with Iran by doing everything they could to sabotage the nuclear deal. 

In my last post I discussed how Israel's supporters tried to get a bill passed in New York State that would stomp on the free speech rights of those who supported the BDS (Boycott, Divestment Sanctions) movement..  In this post I will show that this bill is just part of a pattern amongst Israel's supporters to stifle debate about Israel's illegal occupation in the West Bank and the BDS movement that has arisen in response to it.

There is a very special form of bullying used to attack those who question Israel's right to exist as a "Jewish State", or its policies in the West Bank, or AIPAC's role in getting U.S. legislators to unquestioningly support  Israel, even if doing so jeopardizes American security interests.  These bullies roll all these criticisms into one category and accuse Israel's critics of being Anti-Semitic.

Scarlett Johansson received a lot of criticism when she agreed to become the spokesperson for the West Bank based corporation SodaStream, one of the more highly visible companies being targeted by the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement.  Ms. Johansson's promotion of SodaStream conflicts with her role as a Global Ambassador for Oxfam.  Oxfam published a statement praising Johansson's past work while pointing out its disapproval of her role as SodaStream spokesperson.