Yesterday, the organizers of an upcoming boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) conference at Penn published an op-ed in the university’s Daily Pennsylvanian explaining their effort, which promotes the economic isolation of the Jewish state. In this, they will near-undoubtedly fail.
They may succeed, perhaps unintentionally, however, in another way: by attracting the attention of campus Israel advocates toward them and away from the more subtle and far-reaching problem Israel faces at American universities.
In a decade of efforts, BDS campaigners have practically zero victories at American universities. Only the student governments of Evergreen State College (the alma mater of anti-Israelism’s poster child, Rachel Corrie), Wayne State University, and University of Michigan-Dearborn have passed divestment resolutions directed against Israel. Because they are passed by students and not administration, they have no practical impact on their schools’ finances. The schools’ administrations have also pointedly not followed their students’ advice that they cut whatever slight financial ties they may have to the Jewish state.
Practical effects, of course, aren’t really the intent of BDS, since even an effective divestment of Israel by every American university would likely have little effect on the country’s bottom line. The point is the symbolism of the thing.
But the schools in question are marginal to local and national conversation, the refusal to accept the calls by university administrators has a symbolism of its own, and even these small successes have little chance of being replicated at Penn or any other school. Last year, a laughably watered-down student referendum at Princeton that called only for the dining hall to provide alternatives to Sabra hummus was soundly defeated.
Just as it would be a mistake then to worry too much about campus BDS, though, it would be a mistake to take this record of failure as a sign all is well at America’s universities when it comes to Israel. For while students may not be lining up to sign off on divestment petitions, they are in many cases receiving the clear message the Jewish state is uniquely flawed.
The content of the critique or even its stated aims don’t matter as much as its ability to create, in many places, a campus environment of pervasive negativity toward Israel. Students at most schools these days don’t come away learning much. But many do pick up the idea that to be a member in good standing of the political left positive concern for the Jewish state is beyond the pale.
That is why the ongoing Center for American Progress affair should not be surprising. Many educated in a milieu negative to Israel are now finding themselves increasingly with something to say about the direction of the core institutions of the mainstream political left, and are turning them in a direction less sympathetic to Israel.
This, not BDS, is the true fight on campus. Turning the atmosphere in a more positive direction toward Israel will be a generational effort. It is also an essential one for those who hope to maintain the longstanding bipartisan consensus on the Jewish state.
I'm at Upenn. But anyway, I've got to disagree with you on: n n"They may succeed, perhaps unintentionally, however, in another way: by attracting the attention of campus Israel advocates toward them and away from the more subtle and far-reaching problem Israel faces at American universities." n nI'm sorry but being an Ivy League Israel advocate requires resilience and an ability to grapple with multiple threats, and there are many whose animus against Israel consumes their time. I would extend this truism to being an Ivy League Republican, or even an independent thinker. I look forward to engaging people I disagree with. BDSers aren't distracting, they're an opportunity to show the depth of my convictions and demonstrate the superiority of my arguments, which are hopefully sufficiently persuasive to outmaneuver the contrary arguments. No point of view, however contemptible should be outright banned from the academic milieu, that's tantamount to fascism. All ideas should be allowed to gain traction or falter on the basis of reasoning. Not to mention, I'm sick of being dismissed when I mention I am a Republican. Liberals who don't deign to even challenge me shouldn't have the right to criticize me. I hold that same standard to my own compunction.
Secular Humanist Progressive Liberal Alan “Two State” Dershowitz Speaks for the Jewish State? An odd choice, I would think. n nIn The Case for Peace, Alan Dershowitz, modestly, tells us all how the “Arab-Israeli conflict” can be resolved (if only we, children of a lesser god, would heed him) with the “obvious” two state solution, that is, another terrorist state in the Middle East, adjacent to Eretz Israel, in place of Judea Samaria, that is supposed to reduce violence and bring peace to the Israel, the Middle East and the world. n nSome make an overwhelming case that there is an Arab War to Destroy the Jewish State that has been going on for a 100 years and that another terrorist state in the Middle East won’t reduce violence or bring peace. n nIn the Case for Israel, Alan Dershowitz makes a secular and historical case without referencing the Torah as the truth that links all Jews from all time to eternity. n nWhat does Alan Dershowitz’s message communicate to Jews and non Jews? n
my suggestion for anyyone who cares about Israel is to start donating money to Birthright Israel. my daughter went on a Birthright trip when she was 19. when she left she was a secular college kid with no interest in religion. when she came back, she wanted to go back and do a semester-abroad in Tel Aviv, she's involved with her campus Hillel, she's stopped eating pork, and she tells me she believes in G-d now. n nI am firmly convinced that Birthright is the best way to educate young American Jews about their own heritage, which they are not getting at home. I know: I was as guilty as anyone else.
Talk's cheap. Why don't these students want to boycott and divest from the Muslim dictatorships that supply gasoline for their cars, and use the proceeds to fund schools that radicalize Muslim youth all over Africa, Asia, and the Middle East? Too much of a sacrifice? Too inconvenient? n nWhere is their outrage that a major American ally in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, doesn't even let women drive cars, get divorced from an abusive husband, or seek restitution for rape? That jails and executes gays, doesn't allow freedom of speech or free elections, no drugs, no alcohol, etc. etc.? n nUm, duh. It's easier to pick on the little Jewish kid than to go after a huge crowd of bullies. Same old same old, things never change.
The difference is that we're not funding and protecting Saudi Arabia like we are Israel. Also, the Saudis are not illegally occupying their neighbor like Israel is. It's time to stop seeing Israel as the victim and to see it as it really is…the aggressor who is violating all kinds of international law. That's why Jews, young and old alike, are abandoning support for Israel. Who wants to support an apartheid state?