‘NYT’ finally acknowledges that ‘growing number of American Jews’ support BDS

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/06/acknowledges-growing-american

There’s an incredibly fair report from the New York Times on the United Church of Christ divestment and boycott resolution enacted today. The fifth paragraph gives a hat tip to the BDS movement:

The United Church of Christ’s boycott resolution reflects what supporters call the growing momentum of a movement, known as boycott, divest and sanction, to pressure Israel over the unresolved Palestinian issue and the long-paralyzed Middle East peace process.

The piece, by Rick Gladstone, includes the Israeli government’s angry response a couple paragraphs after that but winds up with a straightforward description of the movement that is transforming Israel’s image internationally. Notice the reference to a “growing number of American Jews”:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his subordinates have denounced the B.D.S. movement, describing it as a new form of terrorism to delegitimize Israel.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. More...

"B.D.S. supporters, including a growing number of American Jews, have called such criticism a scaremongering and divisive tactic meant to thwart legitimate debate about the Israeli occupation of lands seized in the 1967 war."

[guillaumeb]

2. Also from the original article:

"The Israeli government, which has become increasingly concerned by the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, reacted swiftly, describing the church’s positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as distorted and historically biased against Israel."

“The U.C.C. resolutions on the Middle East conflict have reflected the most radical politics for more than a decade, and in no way reflect a moral stance or reality-based position,” said Emmanuel Nahshon, spokesman for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “People of faith ought to be acting to help Israel and the Palestinians to renew efforts to achieve peace, rather than endlessly demonizing one party in the conflict — in our view, the aggrieved party.”

My take:
Interesting that the spokesperson for the Israeli government can speak of "a reality-based position" while denying what the world sees. The reality is that the actions of the Israeli government show that it has no interest in vacating the land stolen from the Palestinians in 1967, and has no interest in allowing a viable Palestinian state to exist.

Also interesting that a terrorist and serial violator of International Law like Netanyahu described the BDS movement as a form of terrorism.

[Mosby]

3. why do you think bibi is a terrorist?

[guillaumeb]

4. If a person leads a terrorist state, and is the ex officio head of the state,

that person is responsible for the actions of the state. Thus Netanyahu is a terrorist.

It is not what I think that matters, but that the reality of what Israel is doing is impossible to cover up or justify.

[Little Tich]

5. You make it easy for people to disagree with you without having to touch the actual issue.

OTT.

[guillaumeb]

6. And you have specifics on my two responses here that you disagree with? eom

[Little Tich]

7. Netanyahu is the biggest danger to the Jewish state since 1947, but he's no terrorist.

Like some of his predecessors, he's a war criminal, but unlike some of his predecessors, he's no terrorist.

[guillaumeb]

8. I think our disagreement is with the word terrorist, rather than the guilt of

Netanyahu. But if we consider what a terrorist is and how we define a terrorist:


1. the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.
2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization.
3. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/terrorism

We can trade definitions, if you wish, but by this definition Netanyahu is a terrorist. He deliberately violates International Law by targeting civilians for collective punishment. He directs the soldiers who terrorize the Palestinian population. While he has no blood on his hands, he directs the terror. In that sense he is not a terrorist in the model of Menachem Begin, or Ariel Sharon, or the many Israeli politicians who got their start in the Jewish terror gangs like Irgun or Stern, but he is a terrorist all the same.