Uzbekistan-born diamond mogul Lev Leviev announced late in August that his company, Africa-Israel, was drowning in debt of more than $5.5 billion that it could not repay. Over the next two days, shares in the company’s stock plummeted by more than one-third. It was relentless bad news for one of the world’s richest men. His holding and investment company had lost $1.4 billion since 2008, mostly due to failed real estate investments in the United States.
Watching Leviev’s precipitous downfall from the sidelines were pro-Palestinian activists. And they were cheering.
Though certainly not the cause of his financial collapse, for the past two years, these activists have singled out Leviev as one of their high-profile villains for his large contributions to West Bank settlements. And they have been effective gadflies. Several of the company’s major shareholders have divested their holdings from Africa-Israel after receiving complaints from clients. And at least two charities have declared publicly they will not accept Leviev’s contributions.
The pro-Palestinian activists are affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, an international coalition with the goal of isolating and discomfiting Israel just as South Africa’s apartheid regime was targeted in the 1980s.
Initiated by Palestinian groups in 2005 but strengthened by a network that takes in dozens of leftist organizations in Europe and the United States, the Global BDS Movement claims a number of recent successes. Especially in the wake of the Gaza incursion of last winter, groups associated with the boycott have now felt spurred to expand their efforts into even the sensitive realm of academic and cultural boycotts of Israel.
As Omar Barghouti, one of the Palestinian leaders of the BDS movement, told the Forward, “Our South Africa moment has finally arrived.”
Some major Jewish groups acknowledge BDS as a possible threat. “There are clearly a number of episodes building up here that would allow advocates of a boycott to say that slowly, slowly we are achieving what we want, which is the South Africanization of Israel,” said American Jewish Committee spokesman Ben Cohen. “I’m not sure that the increase in activity is quite as dramatic as some people would believe, but it’s clear to me that this discourse of boycott is being increasingly legitimized, and it would appear that some companies are responsive to it.”
The BDS movement is highly decentralized, with each group in the coalition allowed to choose its own targets as it sees fit. It has no articulated political vision. such as a one- or two-state solution to the conflict. The principles that guide the movement — as set out in a call for boycott, divestment and sanctions issued in June 2005 by a wide group of Palestinian civil society organizations — demand instead that Israel adhere to international and human rights law. The amorphous structure and broad goals appear to be responsible for many of the group’s appeal. But some who watch this movement closely contend that, in the end, even a “targetted” boycott is ultimately aimed at all of Israel.
The actual monetary impact of the movement is often unclear. But for activists seeking as much to affect Israel’s image in the public’s mind, money is not always the bottom line.
The campaign against Leviev is a good example. It was initiated by Adalah-NY, one of the handful of American groups in the BDS movement’s network. It was Adalah’s activists who chose to focus on Leviev’s construction projects in the West Bank and on contributions he has made to the Land Redemption Fund, which gives money for settlement development. Adalah-NY protesters first picketed the opening two years ago of Leviev’s diamond retail store, yelling at actress Susan Sarandon as she entered the Madison Avenue shop. Since then, the group has taken every opportunity to point out his connections to the West Bank settlements.
Lately, the fruits of this focus on Leviev have been piling up. On Sept. 11 TIAA-CREF, the giant pension fund, announced that it had divested from Africa-Israel last March after 59 of the company’s investors accused it of being “a company which violates human rights and international law.” UNICEF and OXFAM denied Leviev’s public claims to have given them generous contributions and added that they would not accept contributions from him because of his financial support for West Bank settlements. Also, in the past few weeks, a couple of Africa-Israel’s largest investors have sold their stock in Leviev’s company after receiving pressure from their clients. Most notable was BlackRock, the British subsidiary of the major Wall Street banking firm, which announced that it was divesting following concerns expressed by three client Scandinavian banks.
“Those aren’t small things,” said Andrew Kadi, a member of Adalah who is involved with the Leviev campaign. “People don’t completely grasp how serious it is when two of your top 10 or 12 shareholders divest. We’re talking about millions of dollars.”
Neither Leviev nor Africa-Israel responded to requests for comment.
Leviev’s trouble is just one of many recent signs of the movement’s higher profile. There was the protest joined by several celebrities in mid-September at the Toronto International Film Festival of the festival’s official cultural partnership with the city of Tel Aviv in celebration of the latter’s 100th anniversary. A few days earlier, Neve Gordon, a professor at Ben-Gurion University, wrote a controversial opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, endorsing the BDS movement as the “only way to counter the apartheid trend in Israel.” This past June, the French company Veolia Environnement SA abandoned its multibillion-dollar project to build a light rail train system in Jerusalem after pressure mounted in France from BDS-affiliated groups. The activists counted it as one more victory.
Ironically, Barghouti, who appears to be one of the movement’s chief strategists, is currently in a master’s degree program in philosophy at Tel Aviv University — even though he is one of the founding members of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. He has been one of the activists strongly pushing the greater BDS movement in the direction of opposing any institution associated with Israel.
Asked about his affiliation with an institution he wants boycotted, Barghouti declined to discuss his personal life.
In an e-mail to the Forward, Barghouti emphasized that the BDS movement “does not adopt a particular political solution to the colonial conflict.” The main strategy, he wrote, “is based on the principle that human rights and international law must be upheld and respected no matter what the political solution may be. This was key to securing a near consensus in Palestinian civil society and a wide network of support around the world, including the Western mainstream.”
The exclusive focus on rights rather than on a political prescription for the conflict brings together both those who want to target Israel’s existence as a whole and those—mostly American activists—who stick to the more narrow issue of the occupation and settlement activity.
As far as Barghouti is concerned, BDS is a “comprehensive boycott of Israel, including all its products, academic and cultural institutions, etc.” But he understands “the tactical needs of our partners to carry out a selective boycott of settlement products, say, or military suppliers of the Israeli occupation army as the easiest way to rally support around as a black-and-white violation of international law and basic human rights.”
Cohen, the AJC spokesman, views this tactic as a transparent deception. “If you probe these groups a little deeper, you’ll find that really this is entirely ideologically motivated. They are just a bunch of radical groups that want to see the state of Israel eliminated,” he said. “That is the thread that unites all the disparate groups in the BDS movement, they all see BDS as a means to arrive at the goal of a world without Israel. I think that many people who might be troubled by Israel’s presence in the West Bank are going to run a mile when they see what the real agenda of these groups are.”
The activist group Code Pink: Women for Peace recently turned its attention to this type of targeted boycott, focusing on the cosmetics company Ahava. Based in the kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem, a settlement in the West Bank, Ahava was a convenient target for the group. After picketing stores that sold Ahava products — mostly mud masks and mineral salts from the Dead Sea — the Code Pink activists looked on with satisfaction as the company’s spokeswoman, “Sex and the City” star Kristin Davis, was dropped as an ambassador for OXFAM. The group gave its reasons in a statement, saying that it “remains opposed to settlement trade, in which Ahava is engaged.”
Nancy Kricorian, Code Pink’s New York City coordinator and the organizer of its Ahava campaign, dubbed Stolen Beauty, said that this push against the cosmetics company was effective precisely because it was tightly focused on a settlement operation. And yet, it also fell squarely within the guidelines of the BDS movement’s principles and objectives and was even cited by Barghouti as a successful model because it sullied Ahava’s name publicly.
Barghouti, Kricorian and other BDS activists attended the national conference of the U.S. Campaign to the End the Israeli Occupation, which took place on September 12 and 13 in Chicago. The organization is itself an amalgamation of dozens of smaller pro-Palestinian groups from across the country. Up until this conference, its BDS activity had also been narrowly focused on American companies involved in the West Bank. Specifically, they have targeted Caterpillar Inc. for manufacturing the bulldozers involved in settlement construction, and Motorola USA for the surveillance and communications equipment used by the Israeli army.
But according to David Hosey, national media coordinator for the campaign, the group resolved at the conference to extend its activities for the first time to the more sensitive cultural and academic boycott. Like many other pro-Palestinian activists, Hosey dated this willingness to increase boycott activity to the Gaza incursion of this past winter.
“It was a big shock to the system, and it caused a big sea change in what people were willing to do,” said Rebecca Vilkomerson, the national director of Jewish Voice for Peace, which, though supportive of the BDS movement, has not officially joined it.
Contact Gal Beckerman at beckerman@forward.com
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Further information about BDS is available at: Joint Advocacy Initiative [East Jerusalem YMCA /YWCA of Palestine] Information [articles, groups, and actions] re. BDS: http://www.jai-pal.org/content.php?section=24
For the text and signatories to the Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights -- July 9, 2005 -- http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52
For Naomi Klein's article in the Nation re BDS: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090126/klein
Also see Jewish Voice for Peace A Moral Choice: Divesting from the Israeli Occupation http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/selective.shtml
Gush Shalom FAQ re. National Boycott Over Settlements Products http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/campaigns/boycott_settlements_products/
Thanks for the links, Michael.
I heard a South African describe the first time somebody asked him for his passport after South Africa became a democracy. For the first time, he was proud to be a South African.
I'm looking forward to the day when we can be proud of Israel like that.
Frank the Palestinians are semites. European jews are not.
Get a grip man.
To Norman: I flew on the South African Airlines 10+ ago and thought that it was the best airline in the world. I flew agaon in 2004 and can attest that I was a victim of reverse discrimination, open and hostile, the service and accommodation were horrible. Something for the South Africa to be truly proud of! The former USSR citizens were told to say that they were the happiest in the world, too. Did not make it true.
As to the Jewish supporters of BDS: they will be 'cured of the decease' the moment their own children are killed by the forces behind these 'human right' movements. History has the tendency to repeat itself, especially when we, Jews, succumb to the euphoria of peaceful prosperity and let down our guard.
This issue is complex to be sure. I am deeply troubled that so many well meaning Jewish & non-Jewish folks can boycott any aspect of Israel without focusing on the violence of Hamas, Fatah, and other Palestinian groups. Mr. Barghouti's hypocricy is palpable. Yet I am just as troubled by the inability of so many of my fellow Jews to look at the Israeli military's actions in Gaza with open eyes. The destruction of the tunnels from Egypt into Gaza was a temporary victory at best. They have and are being rebuilt. The IDF takes many laudable steps in order to warn civilians of upcoming bombings, but there is no excuse for bombing a Mosque during prayer time (Goldstone UN Report) no matter how many weapons were believed to be inside with the people there. Israel can not live in a vacuum. It can not remain a country with an essentially Jewish character if it continues the status quo in the West Bank. The Gaza war caused so much death and destruction and did not gain Israel any more security or respect.
The Palestinians must get their own house in order, somehow - but won't as long as Israel holds the keys to the front and back doors. The entire region is hamstrung by the policies of the WW 1 Allies in the 1920s. I only hope that we can all celebrate true peace for everyone's children in our lifetime.
That's Leviev's problem- he does not respond to calls for comment. Defend yourself, man!
I am not jewish, and it is quite disconcerting to be told, when one is expressing reservations about Israel's policy toward the Palestinians, that any such criticism (of Israel) is, by definition, anti-semitic. Nonsense that does a disservice to all decent-thinking jews, of whom, I am happy to confirm, there are many.
Marilyn,
Yes, the Palestinians and other Arabs (Ethiopians and others too) are Semites, but so are most Ashkenazim (and all Jews). Jews migrated into Europe. Like other Jews in other lands they mixed with the inhabitants, but they are Semites (mixed). As a matter of fact, many believe that a sizable minority of Palestinians are descendents of Jews. Also, many Arabs in that region are also mixed with Europeans (due to Crusades).
Now some believe in the Khazar myth, but only the Khazar nobility converted en masse (it was a multi-cultural religious society), and many Jews from the Middle East moved there becasuse of the religious freedom (made up of Jews, Muslims, pagans and Christians). Many of the converts later converted to another religion, the rest mixed in with the other Jews.
Please read more history.
This is just ridiculous. More then 3000 Palestinians have died and only less then 50 Israel and thats called Fair? we’ve observed the most gruesome atrocities launched upon the innocent civilian, non-combatant population of Gaza. Most of the 1,383 deaths in last year’s operation ‘Cast Lead’, conducted by the Israeli forces, were civilians, 333 of them being children. In the aftermath, Gaza has now become one of the world’s largest concentration camps. The fact is that currently, more than 80% of the civilians in Gaza can’t find reliable sources of food (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Locked in: The Humanitarian Impact of Two Years of Blockade on the Gaza Strip, August 2009). This is as a direct result of the inhumane Israeli restrictions placed on Life-Sustaining International food aid. They’re blocking food for God’s sake, not unnecessary items, but food!! Our US Tax dollars were used to inflict the original loss of life, think about it, that’s more than a third of the lives lost on 9/11. Now US aid is being used to block basic food aid from reaching civilians? What does Israel gain from this, other than prolonging the suffering of those who have already lost so much? Can you imagine yourself and your family being in a situation where they don’t know if they’ll get their next meal? Visit www.ifamericansknew.org to find out more on how you can help in bringing to an end the use of our tax dollars in perpetuating this torture and injustice!!
ron mac "I am not jewish, and it is quite disconcerting to be told, when one is expressing reservations about Israel's policy toward the Palestinians, that any such criticism (of Israel) is, by definition, anti-semitic."
Ron you are an antisemite, period.
Israeli policy towards the Palestinians has been more benign than they deserve. No country would put up with the kind of attacks on its civilians perpetrated by the Pals.
Not Russia, not China, not even any Western European country.
The British treated the Irish much worse for many years yet mac here would never complain about that. And the Irish in the US for years treated Blacks with contempt and hatred.
It is unfortunate that some Jews care more about boycotting Israel than supporting their own brethren.
Leviev uses his wealth to fund synagogues, yeshivot, and new communities. His funds also help preserve the unique institutions of the Bukharian Jewish community, from which he comes.
What have the leftist Jews done for Judaism? Some vague references to tikun olam and tzedek tzedek tirdof?
If anything, Leviev should stand up for his actions, and educate his investors on his philanthropic actvities. Give them tours of the yeshivot, synagogues, and settlements.
Show them that a Kassam rocket is a far greater threat to peace than a Jewish house on a barren hilltop.
When you defend Israels treatment of the Palestinians, this is what you're defending.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfT4QrqOnYM
SY, You call me an anti-Semite because I criticize Israel's policies. Don’t waste your time with that kind of argument. You lost it a long time ago. Every correct-thinking person in the world acknowledges that Israel has the right, indeed obligation, to defend its citizens. But international laws and norms must be observed in the process. The deliberate use of disproportionate force is not permitted. You are losing your friends. Or perhaps you are so arrogant and cock-sure you think you don't need any. Try not to be a victim of your own hubris. Not only does it fatally impair judgment, it ultimately destroys its victims.
ron mac, you're right. You're repeating Richard Goldstone's words. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/opinion/17goldstone.html
All nations, all parties to a conflict must obey international law, and we must judge them all by the same standard. I believe this.
The people who claim to defend Israel are defending Israel's crimes, and are leading Israel to disaster.
Israel's crimes are well-documented and irrefutable.
The final proof is that Israel's "defenders" are reduced to calling their critics anti-Semites. They've made the word "anti-Semite" meaningless.
ron mac, (to state the obvious) you're not an anti-Semite. I apologize for these insults.
Thanks for standing up for law and justice, which is the only thing that will save Israel.
Forward's editors are to be commended for publishing a wide range of comment, much of which enables us to examine the intellectual and moral structure of the arguments in the debate.
I have no trouble with the focused action of boycotting Leviev. He's financing settlements that are, bluntly, contrary to international law and actually reduce Israel's security.
Hamas wishes its rockets targeting children were more effective, but the fact they are not is no reason to let them off the hook. Boycott both Israel and the Palestinians if that's what it takes to get these nimrods to the negotiating table. But blaming Israel alone just emboldens terrorists.
Goldstone got it right. The detail of his report evidently (and I say that only because the report itself has been described but not made public) shows the Israeli government and its blanket rejection for what it is -- the product of liars and loons. The original UN charge to Goldstone's investigation -- investigate only the Israelis -- shows the UN commission also to be made up of liars and loons.
This cannot continue (as we all said around 1990...). The consequences to both sides should be dire indeed if they don't start real negotiations. My guess is that any unfocused action by BDS just delays the day because it gives one set of liars and loons a free pass.
No matter how horendous I find Israeli Gov policies, academic and artistic isolation is not right and I will do all I can to fight that. Israel's art and science constitute apolitic treasures that are apolitic pillars of makind. It is a shame that anyone would impose a boycott on them just as it would be to do the same to Palestinian arts&sciences. If Israeli and Palestinian artists and scientists gain spiritual sustenance from eachother, who are any of us abroad to deny any of them a welcome? I don't think the spiritual side of a people should pay for the political chutzpah of its government. It is truly a shame, though not unexpected. Count me among those who will fight for their rights. Don't give up. On this, your righteous critics are totally your friends.
editorsteve, the UN report was made public on the same day they announced it.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf
Norman and Michael Levin can be counted on to use every opportunity to bring up their anti-Israel, and at times anti-Semitic (despite their Jewish heritage), positions and weblinks. The demonizing of Israel and the different standards for Israel and for other nations are a primary criteria for anti-Semitism - Norman and Michael's positions meet both criteria.
accept Gods will for what is happening anywhere in the world... realize it is all perfect. It is not the people that is screwing over Israel... it is the government. It is jews against jews unfortunatley.
even on all the comments above we see this to be true. When we can start getting along with each other only then can we sit down with the palis and have real peace and vice versa. lets stop blaming and start accepting that resistance and arguing is part of the journey to waking up. realizing that i do not want to be part of war nor do i want that for my children.
practice compassion and sympathy.... instead of projecting our internal fights on to the other side.
I hate to sound like a "love it or leave it" type of Jews but in this case, we must love it. The margins of error for Israel are only a sliver thin. It is still surrounded by millions upon millions of people who, like the "president" of Iran, wish it to go away. To date, there is no evidence that either the Palestinians or their brothers in the wider Arab world want peace. Do we really need to revisit/rehash '48, '56, '67, '73, Oslo, or '05 again to make that point? Do we really need to remind our fellow Jews like Norman that there were terror attacks against our people, before 1967 and the settlements?
The job of the IDF is to defend the people and land of Israel. I believe that our job, for those of us living outside Israel, should be to publically support the state. And to do it, as James Browne would have said, loud and proud. For Israel has a great deal to be proud of.
Is that to say that Israeli foreign and domestic policy needs to be viewed through an uncritical lense? No. But I think it would be more productive to work behind the scenes with our friends and brothers, rather than out in the open with our enemies.
Tearing Israel down, Norman, will not make Israel better. It will only lead to a pile of rubble.
Nowhere do the pro-boycotters explain how boycotting Israel or Israeli companies helps the Palestinians. To continue the South African analogy, which I think is inappropriate given the level of civil rights enjoyed by Arabs in Israel, nothing changed in South Africa because of the boycott, even Olympic-level boycotts. What changed was a leader coming to power who recognized that apartheid was wrong. I think Israel has no shortage of leaders who want peace and prosperity for all people in the region. I don't know whether the Palestinians do, or whether those people can get elected.
As to criticism of Israeli politics being anti-Semitic: in that case, many Israelis are anti-Semitic. They criticize Israel all the time. As to Arabs being Semites too: the term "anti-Semitism" originated to refer exclusively to anti-Jewish prejudice. It was used most often by German writers to explain why the Aryan race was superior to the Semitic race, and they weren't talking about Arabs. It's a side issue, but one which the Palestinians and their advocates are trying to claim as part of their very ineffective advocacy, in my view. With enemies like these, Israel should be OK. With friends like us, though, who don't try to persuade Israel to do the right thing, Israel will not be OK.
Leonard Eisenstein,
I haven't answered because I'm ignoring you.
You seem to have an anger problem.
David,
How many times do the Palestinians need to recognize Israel and sue for peace before you get it through your head? How many times does the Arab League have to put their offer back on the table - the one that offered Israel every single thing she ever whined about in exchange for a two state solution based on the Green Line and a negotiated settlement to the refugee problem - before you and others like you get off the broken record that Israel is always the poor besieged victim?
"Do we really need to revisit/rehash '48, '56, '67, '73, Oslo, or '05 again to make that point?"
Are you joking? Do you not even read the Israeli press? The released documents from the IDF archives certainly put to rest any notions of Israel's innocence in '48. In '56 Israel colluded with France and Britain to take the Suez Canal, and Eisenhower booted them all out. In '67 Israel attacked first while Egypt was pleading with LBJ to help back the area from war. In '73 Israel was attacked by Egypt who wanted their land back which Israel had refused to return. Let's also mention the '82 invasion of Lebanon, where Israel killed 20,000 in the first three months and carried on a twenty-year occupation.
And yes there were terror attacks before '67 - but need we really remind you of the far more numerous Israeli terror attacks before '67? Do the names "Irgun" and "Stern gang" ring a bell? Dier Yassin, for just one of the more than two dozen massacres from '47 to '48 alone? Shall we mention the Zionists bombings in Rome and London? The cowardly assassination of the UN mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte and the French Colonel sitting next to him, the perpetrators of which are now lauded as Israeli heroes, with streets named after them? I might mention also that Bernadotte was one of those great Swedish diplomats, along with Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jews from the death camps during the war. A nice thank you he received. Search as you might, you will not find a tree for him at Yad Vashem, as righteous a gentile he was.
Israel continually claims she has no partner for peace, believing as she does that endless repetition will make a lie more palatable. What is true is that it is the Palestinians who have no partner for peace and never have, The imperatives of the Jewish State preclude a just peace. As an Israeli minister said just last week, "This land is ours. It is the Arabs who are the occupiers." Ah yes, now there's an Israeli peace offer for you.
Jews!
Look at the facts and legal arguments of the Goldstone report!
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf
Look at the killing of innocent children!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfT4QrqOnYM
Look at what the Israeli government's advocates say on this comments page.
If the facts and the law supported them, they would argue the facts and the law.
But the facts and the law don't support them. That's why they use personal attacks and insults.
Decide for yourself what's right.
Decide for yourself whether to boycott Israel.
Anyone who thinks the BDS movement is gathering strength hasn't been paying attention.
Africa-Israel tanked as a result of the economic downturn, not because of divestment activism.
The United Church of Canada voted down two boycott resolutions this past summer.
The BDS campaign is stalled, at least in North America.
I am the kind of human being who believes there is no excuse for soldiers to deliberately kill children http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfT4QrqOnYM
And you are the kind of human being who believes there is an excuse. Right?
I just heard a documentary on public radio about how the Nazis invaded Poland 50 years ago. A Polish woman said the Germans came into her town and killed the Jews. She saw the Jews hanging for several days in the square.
Killing Jews, killing Palestinians. No difference.
It's like the lawyer's joke, "When the facts are against you, pound the law. When the law is against you, pound the facts. When the facts and the law are against you, pound the table."
To Norman.
The Beirut Initiative or "Saudi Plan" is a bad joke, and another Arab trick. It offers "normalization" of relations with Israel if it pulls back to the 1949 Armistice lines. You spoke about Poland. My mother was from Poland. In 1938 both Germany and the USSR had "normal" relations with Poland. They had embassies, trade, etc. The only problem was, that neither Germany nor Russia every really accepted Poland's right to exist. And so, in 1940 my mother lost her home to the invading Soviets, and less than two years later lost her whole family, including child, brothers, my grandmother, et al., to the Nazis and their collaborators.
Israel must never accept anything less than FULL recognition as the wholly legitimate state of the Jewish nation in return for a fully demilitarized, democratic, peaceful and cooperative state for the Palestinian Arabs. That is what Netanyahu has offered. As for the so-called "refugee problem" that was long ago negated by the expulsion of 900,000 Jews from the Arab countries after 1948. That subject is off the table, as is Jerusalem, which shall remain as the united capital of the Jewish nation-state. Israel has been the victor, and the Palestinians the vanquished, and I have never read in all of history of the vanquished dictating terms to the victor of wars imposed upon it. It is utter rubbish. The US and the Allies occupied Germany and Japan until both accepted constitutional changes to bring them into line with the security needs of the victors. Israel should demand no less.
I'm a Polish Jew. I'm as aware as anyone that we are all humans and have similar rights, but as a child of Holocaust survivors I refuse to commit suicide to preserve other people's rights. I think the last operation in Gaza was started to prevent the Israeli right from coming to power and it almost worked.If Israel used only proportionate means it would result in Armageddon. If the Arab and Muslim people believed for a moment that they would get away it they would have millions of volunteers to fight Israel's very existence with bare hands. Purely from a moral perspective why was it acceptable for the German people after Hitler's defeat to suffer much more than even the Palestinian people in Gaza. Please don't forget the Jews from the Arab and Moslem worlds and other places that Jews were oppressed. What about the multitudes of other oppressed people, especially in the Moslem world? The Palestinian people are no more chosen than Israeli Jews. I believe in President Obama and that he can somehow lead these two people on this sliver of Earth to justice and peace.
There appears no shard of evidence that the euro-asians with mosheic faith are descendants of hebrews. Ca. 3K-4K yrs ago hebrews were just small clans of a shemitic people living as shephards on fringes of canaan.
By the yr 3K they had been assimilated by other shemo-hamitic peoples such as jebusites, hivvites, amonites, amorites, nabateans, and arameans. The latter two migrating from arabia into canaan some 5K yrs ago. It became a huge melting pot of shemitic tribes; lingua franca being arameic dialect of a common shemitic tongue.
Even the bible {an unreliable book, tho} says that sanhedrin had to change the law pertaining who can be an yehuda because benjaminim were marrying too many jebusitic women in j'lem ca. tenh century bc.
In roman times, inhabitants of palestine were one people. History does not mention that many arabians settled in palestine after its conquest by arabs in around 1200-1300 ad.
in any case, by the year '22, the inhabitants of palestine were most likely one people again but with three cults. And they got along till euro-asian invasion of palestine with help from christian world.
So the curioso appears that a totally nons[sh]emitic people are slaying near-totally [sh]semitic people. And, nevertheless, lament that people who point out their crimes against semites are antisemitic. Go figure! Long live s[h]emites! tnx
@Marilyn European jews are semites too a 2007 publication revealed. You should stop running threw the world with an eye bandage. I, as a non-Jew knows more about you than you do.
Not since Nazi Germany has so much anti-semitic filth reached the public through the reponses to this article, I've read so many lies, distortions and tendentious half-truths that I could be reading a Joseph Goebbels speech in Der Sturmer. To think that my saintly grandmother and saintly grandfather read this newspaper in yiddish for sixty years is such a shame. I lived in Israel and every Jew there is a refugee, survivor or the children of refugees or survivors from the kind of hate espoused in these responses, the end result of which was mass extermination. In a sense Jews are like canaries in the mine, these responses prove if representative of homo sapien sapiens that there is no moral right for this species of jew hating animal to continue anymore than the animal I just had for dinner. If God applied justice alone the human race at least every jew hater would no longer exist. I cheer for the success of Israel to destroy its murderous bloodthirsty jew hating enemies and to inflict death and pain on its murderous bloodthirsty jew hating enemies, I cheer that its murderous bloodthirsty jew hating enemies including their children are dead and suffering and not Israeli children.
Listen to an informative interview on Chicago Public Radio [WBEZ - 9/22/09] with Omar Barghouti ["a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. And he’s a driving force behind the BDS Movement"]: Is Boycotting Israel Appropriate? A Palestinian Perspective. You can listen to this radio interview -- uploaded to WBEZ's website -- at http://www.wbez.org/content.aspx?audioID=36943
Naomi Klein ["Contributing Editor to Harper’s Magazine and author of the book The Shock Doctrine: the Rise of Disaster Capitalism"] is interviewed in the next segment: Is Boycotting Israel Appropriate? A Jewish-Canadian Perspective. You can listen to this radio interview -- uploaded to WBEZ's website -- at http://www.wbez.org/content.aspx?audioID=36944
Alon Pinkas ["Ambassador-at-Large for the State of Israel"] is interviewed in the final segment: Is Boycotting Israel Appropriate? An Israeli Perspective. You can listen to this radio interview -- uploaded to WBEZ's website -- at http://www.wbez.org/content.aspx?audioID=36945
It's really simple: if you are Jewish and support disinvestment or boycotting of Israel, you are a neo - Kappo; if you aren't Jewish and support those, you are a neo Nazi. The only other possibility - the supporters are mentally disturbed.
Norman-
"Killing Jews, killing Palestinians. No difference."
~ there is every difference. Israelis have never- and WILL NEVER- state as a goal that they wish to systematically annihilate the Palestinian people. Why? Because that is not their goal, and you display only ignorance when you make comparisons of the violence which goes on in the region with the atrocities of Nazi Germany.
In Israel/Palestine there rages a land and power struggle that is ongoing. It gets ugly, horrendous even. However, as an onlooker, if you are truly in possession of your wits, you must avoid such disrespectful comparisons. Let the Jewish victims of the Holocaust rest in peace and let the Gazan children rest in peace, and maybe try to be productive in coming up with a solution which will allow everyone to live in the region safely?
Look at this BBC report and tell me whether this is any different than the killing of Jews:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfT4QrqOnYM
(BTW, the Goldstone commission investigated this case. Search for "white flag" http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf)
It's not sufficient to say that you want the Palestinian children to rest in peace.
You must do whatever you can to stop any more children from being killed like this by Israeli forces again.
I would like a list of all those organizations that are members of Global BDS as well as all corporations, businesses, and individuals who have joined the boycott against Israel and all its institutions.
It's time to boycott the boycotters.
"It's time to boycott the boycotters."
AMEN!
I will not do business with any organization that boycotts or hurts Israel or America.
You want an example? DON'T STAY AT THE HYATT.
It's owned by the Pritzkers, and they support Amadinjad and Iran's efforts to destroy Israel.
VIDEO of Bibi's U.N. Speech evicerates Goldston's UN farce, and those who conflate terrorists with victims.
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2009/09/israeli-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahus-un-speechbut-to-those-who-gave-this-holocaustdenier-a-hea.html
....
(By the way, why is the antisemitic graffiti of the Jew- haters who libel Israel, like the antisemitic arab/Nazi vitriol of "Norman", "Grif", and "Levin", et al, not washed off this site, like swastikas on the wall of a "Jewish" publication? Is it because the faux-"Jewish" Israel-hating Forward welcomes them?)
Frank, I am not anti-Semitic for saying that we should not tolerate the murder of 3-year-old Palestinian children by Israeli soldiers.
I am a better Jew than you.
This FULL Video of Bibi giving the seminal speech of the century on behalf of the Jewish people should be watched by (actual) Jews:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5mmCshkaN0
To the vile anti-Israel hard-left "Jewish" libelers of Israel, as Bibi said: "Have you no shame? Have you no decency?" The answer is no.
Here is a wonderful answer to the arab, European, and faux-"Jewish" anti-Semites: Organizations to counter their vile tactics, by starting groups like "BUYcott Israel". It looks like a way to defeat the Jew-haters and support Israel! Here is their web site: http://www.buycottisrael.ca/form.php
Can anyone who cares about Israel believe that "Jews" would support an arab boycott of Israel? Slime like "Jewish Voice for Peace" are obviously enemies of the Jewish people, and the vile anti-Israel (George Soros and arab supported J Street ally) the "Jewish" Forward, obscenely provides readers a "link" to this vile anti-Israel group in this article!
Ever-ready to help the virulent enemies of Israel, the blatantly anti-Israel faux-"Jewish" Forward actually provides a link to the arab boycotters so that its readers can join Israel's enemies!
Look at what the "Jewish" Forward says in its "Editorial":
"Perhaps the first thing that these “boycotters” ought to sacrifice is their self-righteous belief that only one side of this conflict bears any responsibility for its continuance."
Amazing! Maybe the hard-left Israel-bashers at the Forward should sacrifice their evil self-righteous belief that Israel bears any responsibility for the continuance of the "conflict" (which is nothing but the arabs' continuous efforts to destroy Israel since its birth).
Leave it to their side -- if you want something blown up or otherwise destroyed call on the Palestinians and all of their little groupies.
However, if you want to make a medical discovery, a new technology, or otherwise improve the lot of human life call on the Israelis.
Robin Dean,
the pride of your heart. Do not anger the LORD against you, my friend. The wrongs of mankind will be paid back by G-D. Sit back it will be done to both sides, that have wronged. read Obadiah
For it is written...Obad. All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword, which say, the evil shall not overtake nor prevent us. In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: