BDS -THE DEFEAT AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

Over a year ago, the BDS movement claimed a ‘’great victory’’-Ben & Jerry’s, the famous ice cream producers decided to stop selling their products in the regions of Judea and Samaria known also as the West Bank, expressing their opposition to the existence of Jewish communities in these areas. Well, the overall impact of this decision on the Israeli economy, or on any other aspect of life in Israel was zero , but this is famous ice cream ,so it aroused world wide interest, also because the original founders of the company were two Progressive Jews from Vermont. Their support of the decision was used by the global BDS movement in their propaganda to the effect , that they are not anti-Semites , ‘’only’’ anti Zionists. This however was just the beginning of the story , not the end. Ben & Jerry’s belong to UNILEVER, and soon enough the camp of real Democratic people , real supporters of human rights and peace entered into action. This is the world wide global formidable coalition of Jews, Christians AND Muslims including Palestinians, which can be considered the pro Israel camp, though not necessarily pro every Israeli policy, including not some aspects of its settlements policy. Governors in the US activated their anti BDS laws, companies all over the world divested from UNILEVER, the Kosher food industry in the world, which caters for not just Jews also joined, and the results were soon to be felt. No impact in Israel, but a loss for UNILEVER, whose share plunged in the stock exchange markets. UNILEVER realized the consequences, and today -29 JUNE, 2022, cancelled the previous shameful decision-no more blatant discrimination against JEWS, and the ice cream will be sold again everywhere in Israel and in Judea and Samaria. That said, here are the lessons/implications of all that.

Let us start with the article published by the two founders of the ice cream in the NYT, in itself a propaganda mouthpiece of every anti Israel lies, in which they explained why they supported the initial boycott. If one wants to know how hypocritical , morally distorted and politically wrong this BDS movement is , please go and read this piece.[NYT, 28 July, 2021]. So, the gentlemen are against occupation, but , for example, at that time, no word on Chinese occupation of Tibet, Russian of the Crimea. No word on human rights violations anywhere else in the world. Syria?, Iran?, Hamas?. FORGET IT. I can go on and on, but pay attention again to the date when it was written-when more and more Arab countries signed peace and normalization agreements with Israel. When trade between Israel and Arab countries develop significantly, when Jordan lives on the water supplied by Israel, and Egypt gets a lot of its energy from the natural gas supplied by Israel. When the Palestinian Authority itself does NOT boycott Israeli products, when even GAZA’s economy depends on the money earned by the Gazans working in Israel. With all that happening, Progressives all over the world, though outside of the Middle East itself agitate and inflame hatred towards Israel, arouse false hopes among the Palestinians, and in the process try to derail any movement towards peace. Put in sum, the BDS movement, including the two Jews who established Ben and Jerry’s are enemies of peace, and yes, they are promoters of antisemitism in the US and everywhere else. Just recently, the BDS movement in BOSTON , a stronghold of so-called progress and liberalism, published a map showing the exact location in the city of every Jewish institution, and when that is happening, the leaders of BDS raise not an eyebrow . When it comes to Israel, then ALL means justify the end , but here is the reality of all that. It fails , and it fails big time. It fails because Israel is fighting back, because many people all over the world fight back, when Arabs in growing numbers also fight back, as they simply ignore the angels of destruction and hatred known as BDS. Israel GDP in 2005 when this movement started was 143 BN $ , and now it is 524 BN US $. So , BDS failed to cause any damage to Israel’s economy , and when one looks at the visits of musical bands, political figures, sport teams in Israel one can draw another conclusion-also this boycott fails. Yes, there are academic boycotts, including a boycott by the American Association of Middle East Studies, and it is irritating and obviously discriminatory , but then a simple question-who is damaged by this? Israel , or all the American students who are being deprived of their natural right of learning and understanding what REALLY happens in the Middle East?. The answer is clear, and this academic boycott will become now the focus of a counter action by the forces of REAL free speech and peace. BDS lost, is losing and will continue to lose.

The battle though is not over yet. What should be done is to focus all our efforts to prevent also these sacred values of free speech , peace and tolerance from being buried under the volume of false propaganda, thought police and sheer antisemitism-all the values that the BDS movement represents. There will be a victory in this campaign as well, and time will prove it, exactly as there was a victory over Ben & Jerry’s.