The B.D.S. Threat

[Mosby]

Roger Cohen writing in the NYT:

-snip-

I am a strong supporter of a two-state peace. The messianic idea of Greater Israel, occupying all the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, must wither. Jews, having suffered for most of their history as a minority, cannot, as a majority now in their state, keep their boots on the heads of the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank any longer.

Palestinians must accept the permanence of the state of Israel within the 1967 lines with equitable land swaps. Competitive victimhood should cede to collaborative viability for the nation states of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples. Narratives and revealed truth do not a future make. They perpetuate the imprisoning past.

So, in theory, B.D.S. might be a positive factor. When the largest Dutch pension fund and the largest Danish bank withdraw investments from, or cease business with, Israeli banks because of their operations in the settlements, they send a powerful signal to Israel to get out of the West Bank.

Yet these developments make me uneasy for a simple reason: I do not trust the B.D.S. movement. Its stated aim is to end the occupation, secure “full equality” for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and fight for the right of return of all Palestinian refugees. The first objective is essential to Israel’s future. The second is laudable. The third, combined with the second, equals the end of Israel as a Jewish state. This is the hidden agenda of B.D.S., its unacceptable subterfuge: beguile, disguise and suffocate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/opinion/cohen-the-bds-threat.html?_r=0

[Mosby]

1. West Bank Boycott: A Political Act or Prejudice?

Last edited Tue Feb 11, 2014, 07:36 PM - Edit history (1)

JERUSALEM — Many, many words have been uttered recently about the mounting boycott movement targeting Israeli products made in West Bank settlements, and, in some cases, all Israeli businesses and institutions. One worth closer examination is “immoral,” which is what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel called the boycott earlier this month.

Boycotts have an admirable history as a nonviolent political tool. British Christians in the 18th century refused to buy sugar produced by slaves. Black people walked rather than sit in the back of buses in the American South. Divestment helped topple apartheid.

But for many Israelis, the boycott that comes to mind is the Nazi-led one of Jewish-owned businesses that spread in the 1930s from Germany across Europe and beyond. Avoiding a coffee shop because you don’t like the way the boss treats his employees is voting with your wallet; doing so because the boss is Jewish — or black or female or gay — is discrimination.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/12/world/middleeast/west-bank-boycott-a-political-act-or-prejudice.html

What the heck happened at the NYT? They are scaring me, lol.