03 February '14..
As the leader of a “movement” that has accomplished next to nothing in close to fifteen years, Omar Barghouti seems to have developed special vision powers (perhaps learned while studying at an Israeli school he insists everyone in the world but he should boycott). These powers allow him to see panic-stricken Israeli supporters on all sides that quiver in perpetual fear of BDS’s explosive growth that always seems to arrive in the form of a damp squib.
Barghouti’s latest New York Times piece (paired with a “rebuttal” by Hirsh Goodman which declares Israel to be guilty, but urges something other than boycotting as a punishment – great diversity of opinion Grey Lady!) demonstrates all the rhetoric ticks that give BDS staying power despite lack of concrete victory (incidental or otherwise).
Thus 16% of the American Studies Association’s membership voting for an academic boycott is a “landslide vote” while the stunning backlash against the boycott from across the academy goes unmentioned. Or perhaps that is just part of the panicked response of Israeli supporters? (Keep in mind that in the heads-I-win-tails-you-lose world of BDS, both the BDSers own activity and the overwhelmingly negative response it generates counts as a victories for them.)
Then you’ve got odd-hand quotes from people like Secretary of State John Kerry treated like official policy, without mentioning actual US policy which has been to reject and condemn boycott and divestment (as well as enforce anti-boycott legislation implemented by that Zionist stooge Jimmy Carter in the 1970s).
Mix in two parts Apartheid accusations, a sprinkling of “non-violence” and “we can’t be anti-Semitic because we’re anti-racists” and voila: the rhetorical magic that seems to have kept Mr. Barghouti on top of a movement willing to fly him around the planet, despite his inability to get anything bigger than a student council to do his bidding (and even then, only barely).
Oh, and speaking of BDS talking points, my favorite one that gets trotted out whenever someone mentions the Dear Leader’s hypocrisy of continuing to study and work at an Israeli college he insists be boycotted by everyone else is that even Nelson Mandela once worked in a South Africa law office. Perhaps those who use this pre-digested excuse can provide us information of how the administrators of a genuine Apartheid system allowed Mr. Mandela to travel the planet propagandizing against them (as opposed to putting him into jail for decades – a punishment Mr. Barghouti knows he will never face, unless he has to go into Israeli protective custody for those Mohammed cartoons he drew – Just kidding!).
Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, I was giving my own panic-stricken response to BDS’s impending triumph (it must be panic stricken, since any criticism of the “movement” has been defined as falling into that category).
Look, as I’ve mentioned countless times in the past, Israel faces an set of existentialist crises: nations on all sides falling to pieces while declaring their eternal enmity to the Jewish state, new fanatical movements demonstrating their “authenticity” by escalating genocidal anti-Semitic rhetoric into the stratosphere, an Iran both nuclearizing and pouring arms into places like Gaza and Lebanon, and a global propaganda campaign dedicated to ensuring that when any of these players gets around to pulling the trigger, every step will be taken to limit Israel’s ability to shoot back.
BDS is just a small piece of a multi-faceted campaign that has already corrupted virtually every institution designed to deal with genuine human problems like war, bigotry, refugee crises and global poverty. And while individuals have no control over what the tyrannical rulers of Israel’s opponents do next, and cannot cure the rot that has seeped into institutions like the United Nations, we do have some influence over the institutions of civil society we have created and helped to maintain.
And it is at this very grassroots level that BDS finds it impossible to achieve a lasting success without the kind of backroom deals designed specifically to get around the fact that the grassroots loathes their message and are disgusted by their behavior.
In fact, it has been the failure of BDS to achieve its goals at the level of civil society that has helped de-legitimize the entire de-legitimization movement, which is why the boycotters have to resort to badgering a film star about which soft drink she endorses in order to get anyone’s attention (ignoring the fact that the planet has already decided to flip them the bird by stocking up on Zionist bubbles and flavor).
Speaking of which I guess I need to get back to my “favorite” subject, BDS and celebrity, with a look into the whole Soda Stream, Oxfam, Scarlett Johansson brouhaha (*sigh*). Apologies if I take a day or two to get to it.
Link: http://divestthis.com/about-divest-this
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.
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