No help from the outside

[Behind the Aegis]

Gideon Levy thinks that opponents of the occupation should thank the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in Britain and the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Ontario "from the bottom of our hearts" for deciding to boycott Israel, "despite their flawed double standards," as he wrote in a Haaretz op-ed Sunday ("With a little help from the outside").

The "moral double standard" of the boycotters is expressed, he said, in the fact that they did not use the boycott weapon "to protest their own countries' war crimes and occupations" in Afghanistan and Iraq. Levy is also prepared to assume that "there may indeed be some elements of anti-Semitism among those calling for the boycott," but says there are also those "for whom Israel is close to their hearts," and who "want a just Israel." In any event, he says we should welcome the boycott, because Israeli opponents of the occupation do not have the power to bring it down; "thus, it only remains to hope for the world's help."

Let's leave aside the "elements of anti-Semitism" and focus on those "for whom Israel is close to their hearts," and who want a "just Israel." The question still remains: Why is only Israel close to their hearts (to the point of a boycott)? Why are their countries, Britain and Canada, not close to their hearts? Are a just Britain and a just Canada less important than a just Israel? And above all, is not the most important objective a just America?

After all, according to the groups supporting a boycott of Israel, over the last few decades, the United States has been the primary source of all types of evil in the world - including, of course, Israel's occupation of the territories. There is no universal criterion capable of describing the boycotters' decision to target Israel rather than the United States.


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