AIPAC ED fears the growing movement to sanction Israel could fundamentally change US policy towards

[ProgressiveMuslim]

Israel. He's right.


(Phil Weiss reporting from AIPAC conference)

One of the most interesting speeches given at the AIPAC Policy Conference was one that received the least media attention. AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr addressed the capacity crowd Sunday night before Newt Gingrich, and he came with a stern and clear warning - there is a growing movement to de-legitimize Israel in the eyes of its allies. He warned it's growing, it's successful and it's coming to the US. In a conference full of fire and brimstone bluster about Iran and the omnipresent threat of annihilation, when it came to this speech Kohr was exactly on the mark.

Kohr moved beyond simply focusing on the familiar bogeymen of Ahmadinejad, Hugo Chavez and the Durban II conference, and took on what is clearly viewed as a grave threat - the growing movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. During his rundown of the gathering storm he included "400 British academics demanded that Britain's Science Museum cancel an event highlighting the work of Israeli scientists" and an Italian "trade union calls for a boycott of Israeli products." He also included the increasing comparisons between Israel and apartheid South Africa. As part of this trend he mentioned Israel Apartheid Week (twice) which he explained,"Its aim, to build boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns as part of a growing global movement." He's right.

More impressively, he gave real attention to this movement. Rather than attempting to simply de-legitimatize it with charges of anti-Semitism, he recognized its true motivation: "This is more than the simple spewing of hatred. This is a conscious campaign to shift policy, to transform the way Israel is treated by its friends to a state that deserves not our support, but our contempt; not our protection, but pressured to change its essential nature." And even more, he knows the movement is building steam:

No longer is this campaign confined to the ravings of the political far left or far right, but increasingly it is entering the American mainstream: an ordinary political discourse on our T.V. and radio talk shows; in the pages of our major newspapers and in countless blogs, in town hall meetings, on campuses and city squares . . . :


And I want to be clearly understood here. I'm not saying that these allegations have become accepted. But they have become acceptable. More and more they are invading the mainstream discourse, becoming part of the constant and unrelenting drumbeat against Israel. These voices are laying the predicate for a abandonment.

Finally, Kohr threw down the gauntlet:

There is a battle for basic perception underway, a fight to focus the lens through which our policy makers will receive and perceive all events in Israel and the broader Middle East. And the stakes in that battle are nothing less than the survival of Israel, linked inexorably to the relationship between Israel and the United States. In this battle we are the firewall, the last rampart.

Kohr said, "in the moment - we find our mission." And in many ways the threat Kohr identified was an undercurrent throughout the conference. This was seen in the effort by AIPAC to co-opt the divestment mantle by pushing divestment from Iran. Not only is this a focus in Congress, but on campuses and in municipalities as well. After Kohr's speech it was difficult to see these as anything but a diversionary tactic to keep attention on the real movement for divestment Kohr outlined growing across the world.

read on...
http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/05/howard-kohr-bds.html#more

[peacetalksforall]

1. Very interesting. This isn't just us protesting Israel's actions - it's the world

and this may be the first time I've read about anyone in this country even pausing or even recognizing or acknowledging that we are outraged.

[bemildred]

2. Gee, who could have predicted this?

This moron needs to learn the lesson that what is not good for the USA is not good for Israel. Then he might start to get somewhere. Self-serving bullshit will only take you so far, and no farther.

[TomClash]

3. In other words

Please give us more money so we can fight the good fight.

The p.r. tide is turning a bit but people don't vote on this issue and only the AIPAC/Israel right or wrong types give money. I'm skeptical when half the Congress turns out at their convention to pay homage to AIPAC and Israel. We'll see.