Comments on: Jewish Week op-ed makes (bad) case for Israel’s boycott law

By: Marian Hennings

Marian Hennings — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:43:28 +0000

Noam, I think one target of the boycott bill is the group of IDF veterans who have been opposing the occupation. Several Israeli vets who refuse to go back to the territories for miluim have been in the US in the last few years and the Israeli government probably wants to shut them up. Vietnam Veterans Against the War was a real thorn in the US government’s side in the early 1970s because they could not be smeared as draft dodgers and were actual witnesses to the war. Similarly, the current IDF refuseniks who are veterans are the biggest threat the occupation supporters face.

By: Jazzy

Jazzy — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:20:38 +0000

Peter H: Agreed. We all agree that the boycott law is bad; I argue separately that even fervent Zionists shouldn’t feel threatened by it, and that explaining why would be worthwhile.

By: Peter H

Peter H — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:24:30 +0000

Noam & Jazzy- If I recall correctly, groups like Gush Shalom have been calling for a boycott of settlement products since the late 1990′s, well before the international BDS campaign began. I suspect an anti-settlement campaign like Gush Shalom’s will be far more impacted by the anti-boycott law than the handful of anti-Zionist Jews within Israel (For Palestinian-Israelis, it may very well be a different story – I honestly don’t know).

Of course, as Noam says, being anti-Zionist is no reason to be outlawed.

By: Jazzy

Jazzy — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:03:17 +0000

Noam: I’m not Israeli, but if I were, I would say no, its not enough of a reason to outlaw it. Even if I were a right wing Israeli Religious Zionist, I wouldn’t want to outlaw it for any reason other than wanting to scare more people into voting for my political allies because I know that BDS is a non-factor as far as the viability of state Zionism is concerned. Does creating that fear have political benefits for me that outweigh the backlash from leftists and foreigners? Seems like it. Explaining this calculus is a better way to persuade moderate American Jews who are afraid of BDS to loosen up over the boycott law than just saying that the Israeli Boycotters aren’t really that anti-zionist or are being mis-labelled. Yes its a bit more complex an argument but maybe worth it…

By: Noam Sheizaf

Noam Sheizaf — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:40:55 +0000

@Jazzy: and if BDS is anti-Zionist (probably true) is that reason enough to outlaw it?

By: Jazzy

Jazzy — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:44:19 +0000

Noam: I agree with your last comment – I guess I’m just saying it seems like your argument against Levi is incomplete because you don’t want to acknowledge that the BDS leadership are anti-Zionists – I guess you’re doing this because you think admitting this gives ammunition to the right. But ultimately I think its more persuasive to acknowledge the truth about this and simply explain that BDS anti-Zionists aren’t a credible threat to Zionism and that’s another reason why the boycott law is stupid. Maybe also you agree with BDS enough that you don’t want to put it down by saying this. OK, fine, but the Levi constituency thinks without any sense of proportion, without any nuanced sense of what really threatens their values and what doesn’t. If they’re your audience (maybe not but you are responding to Levi’s piece), going beyond the one-dimensional world of what ‘they’ ‘really want’ is probably going to be more effective. If you’re just trying to ridicule Levi for the amusement of people who already agree with you, yeah you’ve written the right piece. No offense…

By: Noam Sheizaf

Noam Sheizaf — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:53:27 +0000

@Jazzy: note that the boycott law is not about BDS but any form of boycott against the occupation, for example, a case in which a group of parents don’t want to send their kids to a school trip in the settlements. this is what the JW article failed to mention.

Ironically, since the BDS movement is almost not present in Israel, the boycott bill is first and foremost on freedom of speech and political action in Israel proper.

By: Greg Pollock

Greg Pollock — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:56:16 +0000

Israelis must be told what to think; they are part of corporate Israel and must conform, and laws will help them to the correct end. Deviation is a form of sickness. Expulsion or correction or incarceration are the medical tools at hand. The Soviets did this. Consider the hysteria behind the logic quoted in the post. The real fear is that people will think for themselves. In a corporate ideology, the person is important ony for the ends of the people. Stop this path.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 03:13:49 +0000

Jazzy said: “The point is that the BDS threat isn’t credible.”

I think many would disagree that a massive amount of the world trying to single out Israel more than any other is a credible threat, and some crazed extreme-left Israelis supporting it makes it an even bigger problem

By: Jazzy

Jazzy — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 02:58:28 +0000

Steve: there are parties in the Knesset against Israel’s existence. The point is that the BDS threat isn’t credible. The whole BDS/boycott law debate is basically irrelevant – the extreme lefties’ opposition to the boycott law is just self-flattery because they’re pretending that the law is actually preventing them from influencing people in a meaningful way (its not) and the right is pretending the same thing for different reasons…whether the law exists or not just isn’t an issue as far as ending the occupation is concerned.