The first is what exists now (whether or not it is legalised in the terms suggested by Bibi’s Levy Commission) with daily ethnic cleansing on both sides of the “occupation” lines and in Jerusalem. This will see BDS grow to become the prevalent condition of Israel’s existence, whatever the arguments for and against. BDS will grow because the oppression and injustice will grow and be increasingly blatant and visible as the delusion of a peace process fades.

Only the achievement of a non-ethnic democracy will fulfill the conditions for the end of this struggle because without justice there cannot ever be long-term normality and peace.

Such a non-ethnic democracy will put an end to the “Jewish state” which demands a guaranteed majority, and instead create a very Jewish country where voting will eventually settle into the usual patterns of left and right, rich and poor, secular and religious, north and south etc, across the ethnic blocs.

This will happen. BDS is simply a means, and a good one because it enables sympathisers including many Jews (far outnumbering J-Street) to be involved in working for it. The issue has gone beyond 2-states or one: it’s now entirely about apartheid vs. democracy.

The history of multi-national states composed of warring ethnicities is just atrocious, and commonly leads to ethnic cleansing or genocide. Yugoslavia, pre-partition India, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and Turkey are just a few of the examples. And need I even mention the history of Jews under Arab rule? (Hint: There aren’t any any more.) Most of us progressive Jews have relatives who were viciously mistreated when living as minorities, and we don’t seem to have forgotten history quite as fast as the bloggers on this site.

Do any of the one-staters here want to forcibly reunify Yugoslavia or India/Pakistan? Or perhaps you hypocritically advocated Kosovo independence while simultaneously wanting to destroy Israeli independence?

In the context, it was both necessary and possible, and the ends justified the means, especially as the parties themselves had decent leadership that was able to reconcile.

That is NOT confident in the case of Israel/Palestine.

Again, Israel is not foreign the way that South Africa was. Israel’s economy is connected to the US economy. The South African economy relative to the US and European economy was a link of gold, diamonds, and some agriculture.

South African gold and diamonds got into the world economy even with a boycott, though just took some additional middle men so less profits for the 1% of 1% there.

A boycott of Israel is a boycott of one’s friends of friends.

And, again, to be successful it must be harsh, not incidental as currently. And, to get to being harsh, and to people that one’s leaderships know and care about, is a different beast than organizing a shunning of an alien community.

And, again and again, the stated goals of the movement are vague, opportunistically so, almost designed to not be achieved.

Can I wish for that movement to be a “success”?

No.

Can one guided by moral principles (as distinct from ideology)?

Its their choice. I would say no.

Ignoring for the moment some deeper issues around “democratic and jewish”, the 1967 territories are a much simpler question. For 45 years now the majority of Israelis feel that the benefits of the occupation outweigh its costs.

Every Israeli benefits economically from the occupation, whether they support it or not, thru the theft of water and its attendent lower price, the disposal of Israeli garbage in the West Bank, the extraction of building materials from the territories to name a few. For the more committed, those willing to cross the 1967 line, there are even greater benefits in the form of subsidized housing, jobs, education, water, electricity, roads, etc.

To be successful, a boycott would not to affect this balance of power, which it only would if it affected all of Israeli society. With Israel’s huge import/export ratio, every segment of Israeli society but the settlers will within days bear the increased costs of the occupation, changing the underlying balance of power, isolating the settlers as an internal enemy and lead to a South-African style resolution.

This spectre of success is EXACTLY why you see such hysterical effort on the part of the Israeli government and Jewish organizations to smear any such effort and pull out all the stops to squash it.

Like most people, US Jews are not very knowledgable about the occupation. Nor do they realize how they are manipulated by the establishment’s scare tactics of smearing as “anti-jewish” any critic of Israeli policy. Things are somewhat different with governments, as they are well aware of the horros of the occupation, but there interests and Israel’s significant American clout is the club by which other countries are kept in line.

In short, while an economic boycot of Israel would resolve the occupation very quickly, it will take a while to overcome the massive forces trying to squash it.