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This was published in The Times of Israel!

June 16, 2015

In Blog News

You’re the reason BDS is winning!

JUNE 16, 2015, 11:09 AM

So you think BDS is the big threat against Israel?

You just can’t understand why it is the world is so obsessed by a few houses Israel builds while so many other countries do so many other things?
You are trying to counter BDS but all that’s happening is it’s getting stronger and stronger and you know why…anti-Semitism. But you’re wrong. About everything.

Did you ever think during your endless meetings and conferences on anti-Semitism and Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) that the reason BDS keeps getting stronger no matter how hard you work is actuallybecause of the work you’re doing?

Did it ever occur to you that the reason every country around the world, without exception, thinks settlements are a negative mark on a beautiful country is…because they are?

Did it ever occur to you that every op-ed you write justifying the annexation of land and the movement of civilians into it serves to galvanise people into the BDS movement to fight the very mindset you advocate?

Did it ever occur to you for a second that the Palestinians you read about in the papers perpetrating terror attacks aren’t representative by any means of the whole?

Do you really wonder why it is that Palestinians hate Israelis when they spend their entire lives living under our occupation, subject to our military law? How would you feel if you lived in perpetual fear of that knock on the door? Do you really think Palestinians are going to love Israel while living under our regime? Is that your standard for whether the occupation should stop? Are you mad?

Again and again so-called Israel advocates make the mistake of thinking they should be defending settlements for the good of the country when for the good of the country they need to be asking why it is the government insists on building them.

Last week Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barakat begged Washington DC to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. But they won’t. Nobody will. As long as all any country sees is Israeli belligerence they won’t grant any recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Surely you know this is true.

This little piece of dirt that Israelis are now tied to because every rock has significance from thousands of years ago will ensure the end of the Jewish national project.

This little piece of dirt the Jordanians fled from is, for some reason, considered vital for Israel’s security needs. This piece of dirt that the IDF took in a day has hills. 2,000 years ago that might have been important, of course now with helicopters and an awesome air force the definition of “high ground” is rather different.

But we’re not being led by the Godfathers of Israel any more. We’re led by pygmies. Products of Zionism gone mad. People who look at the West Bank but don’t see Palestinians in it, they see obstacles. Increasingly when they look at the state of Israel they don’t see loyal citizens in it, they see traitors. That is why Breaking the Silence, a non governmental organisation with all of 60 members would seem to be such a threat that it requires a change to the law.

That is why a movement whose biggest successes are convincing a couple of musicians to cancel performances in Israel and a few companies to leave the country now takes centre stage as enemy number one.

Every time an Israeli diplomat talks about settlements and defends Israel’s right to build them their membership swells, every time another Jewish leader calls BDS anti-Semitism they enjoy phone calls from newspapers asking them for op-eds countering the claims.

The truth is simple and one you will continue to ignore, to the detriment of the country you claim to love so much.

People join BDS because they don’t like seeing the racism the occupation breeds, they join BDS because they hate the stink of lies coming from a government who argues on the one hand the Palestinians pose a huge threat and on the other that the only way to counter them is to move women and children into their land and build schools and infrastructure next to their population centres.

So if you support settlement at least tell the truth. Say you support it because your Zionism dictates that anywhere a Jew once lived a Jew must live now. Don’t pretend building houses is in some way necessary for Israel’s future and don’t pretend that the greatest threat to Israel is BDS or Breaking the Silence. Not only does that make you nothing more than the object of ridicule it makes the very enemy you’re attempting to fight go from strength to strength.

The real enemy to Israel isn’t the BDS movement. It’s you.