How Israel Is Feeding BDS

Why the Jewish state has more say than the Diaspora over what the country
stands for and where it is going
By Mick Davis
The latest wave of Palestinian violence against Israels citizens has been a
chilling reminder that incitement and extremism remain the major obstacle to
peace. Young Palestinian men, and sometimes women, fed a diet of incitement
built on liesmost notably the lie that Israel is seeking to undermine the status
quo of the Temple Mounthave set out to murder Israeli men, women, and
children. A 13-year-old boy riding his bike in Jerusalem, for instance. A 76-yearold mana lifelong peace activistmurdered in an attack on a bus. An 80-yearold woman knifed in Rishon LeZion. Extremism has also raised its ugly head deep
within Israeli society, too.
If there was any doubt before the latest wave of violence, one thing is now clear
the conflict cannot be managed. It is impossible to calibrate an inherently
unstable equilibrium, and it is cynical that both sides in this conflict have
attempted to do this for such a long period of time.
When I was speaking to friends on a recent trip to Israel, the sense of trauma
seemed twofold. Theres the trauma of knowing that you, your children, your
elderly parents could be murdered anytime, anyplace by a youngster with a
kitchen knife. The wave of violence has been a massive shock, even for an
embattled nation that knows all too well the effects of terror. But this time, for
my friends, outward-facing, secular Israelis, the violence seems to have
triggered an additional traumaa questioning of their own legitimacy; a profound
anxiety that as a society they are on edge, that they are not how they had
always seen themselves.
That soul-searching was exemplified by reactions to the lynching of an Eritrean
immigrant, beaten by a mob of Israelis after he had already been mistaken for a
terrorist and shot eight times following a terrorist attack at Beer Sheva bus
station. It was there too after footage emerged of Rachel Eizenkot, the 80year-old grandmother stabbed in the back by a Palestinian in Rishon LeZion, lying
untreated on the ground. The footage showed people jumping over her as they
pursued the attacker. Look whats become of us, her granddaughter said. Its
terrible to see the clip of my grandmother falling and no one helping her. It says
something about our society. Its a question I heard asked one way or another
throughout my last visitwhat has become of us? What is becoming of us?
Behind the soul-searching lies a loss of confidence. Inherent in this is a cry for
leadership that will not simply seek to manage the status quo but will seek a path

toward a future that seems worth living in. Instead, the political headlines in
Israel are dominated by surreal statements and actions from those who claim to
lead.
A deputy foreign minister dreams of the day, she tells us, when the Israeli flag
flies on the Temple Mount. A justice minister fantasizes about making
representatives of foreign-funded NGOs wear a special badge in the Knesset.
The prime ministers proposed new spokesman is revealed to have described
President Barack Obama as an anti-Semite and trolled Israels President
Reuven Rivlin. There is little confidence right now; rather, a great deal of anger
and frustration.
The same can be said for the Diaspora and for the Jewish communities around
the world who proudly defend Israels legitimacy and celebrate our bond to the
Jewish State in our own countries. The challenge for us has been intensifying as
the extremists behind BDSthe Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement
have pushed their agenda closer toward the mainstream of public life.
The BDS movement wishes to delegitimize and isolate Israel from the
community of nations. It depends on a total and willful blindness to the
responsibilities of the Palestinians. BDS has an agenda. It is not the creation of
a Palestinian State (that is a byproduct) but rather Israels destruction as a
Jewish state. In order to appeal to the mainstream, however, BDS and its
sympathizers push the argument that boycotting Israel will pressure it into
making peace with the Palestinians. It is an absurd notionin part because of
the hypocrisy that defines the movement, whose activists never call for
boycotts or sanctions against genuinely malignant and far more globally
significant international actors, but also because it ignores the fact that to
achieve peace the Palestinian people will need to embrace it as well. So far, they
have not.
The Palestinian Authority has been unable to deliver, even when presented with
authentic offers of a Palestinian state, as in 2000 and 2008. Before the latest
wave of violence an opinion poll found that only a minority of Palestinians support
a two-state solution. Palestinian leaders have not promoted a positive vision of
what such a Palestinian State would look like in practice. Salam Fayyad tried to
implement onethe years of relative calm that preceded the current violence
are in no small measure down to the nation-building and economic foundations he
put in place. But Fayyad was unable to bring his fellow Palestinian leaders, let
alone his people, any further along the journey to statehood.
A two-state solution, with a Palestinian state alongside Israel, is still regarded
even by many moderate, pragmatic Palestinians as nothing more than a sad
attempt to make the best of a bad handa historical booby prize. Set against

the maximalist positions of Hamas and others, with their pledges to liberate
Jerusalem with the blood of martyrs, a begrudging acceptance of a Palestinian
state is not exactly a potent rallying cry. Zionism is still regarded, even by those
who would be seen as potential peacemakers, as an abomination; the existence of
a Jewish state in the region as a bizarre and transient anomaly, like the
Crusader kingdoms of the Middle Ages. Until Palestinian leaders are able to
articulate a positive vision of a two-state future in which both peoples can enjoy
their rightful place under the sun, it is hard to see how or why their people
might be sufficiently inspired to commit to peace.
The Palestinian leadership, while succeeding in devising new ways to vilify Israel
and Israelis, has failed to lead its own people towards a better future. Those
who truly wish to see a Palestinian state alongside Israel, rather than instead of
it, should seek to encourage the Palestinians down a more constructive path. BDS
does nothing of the sort. It rewards radicalism among the Palestinians and
fosters radicalization among its Muslim and secular left-wing supporters in the
West. As the lack of momentum in the peace process increases the appeal of
BDS to the mainstream, BDS poses a threat not only to Israel, but to Jewish
communal life around the world and to our right to identify as Jews who are
inextricably and proudly connected to the State of Israel.
What Israel does or does not do is clearly an important factor, though far from
the only one, in bringing peace with the Palestinians; the Palestinians share the
responsibility for a failure that hurts both peoples. However, what Israel does
or does not do also has an enormous impact on our ability within Jewish
communities to fight its corner, make the case for Israel and win the struggle
against BDS. In that context, Israel has simply not done enough, and the
consequences of that failure are enormous, and growing.
***
A few months ago I was surprised to read of an initiative in the United States
by leading Jewish philanthropists to tackle BDS. My surprise was twofold.
Firstly, I wondered, what had kept them? Why had it taken them so long to
appreciate the corrosive effects of BDS? I had been warning of its rise for
years, but been dismissed as nave by many in Israel and the United States who
believed that they knew better, and who gladly characterized BDS as a fringe
movement. But better late than never and in fairness it was only earlier this
year, with increasing incidents of disinvestment from Europe and the
inflammatory statements of Oranges CEO, that the Israeli government itself
finally woke up to the extent of the challenge.
Secondly, I was surprised that for many of those involved in the initiative, as
well as officials in the Israeli government, the answer to BDS appears to be

investing in strategies that tell the same story that we have all been telling for
years, only more loudly and aggressively. That story is not without merit. Israel
is indeed an embattled liberal democracy. BDS indeed brings us further away
from peace. Those who drive the BDS movement include no shortage of
extremists, anti-Semites and hypocrites. But despite those inherent truths, and
despite the inadequacies and lack of vision of the Palestinian leadership, our
arguments are failing to gain traction while BDS is gaining momentum. The
reason is simple. While Zionists see Israel through the prism of the Start-Up
Nation, the developing world, Europe and increasingly elements within the
United Statesjustifiably, hypocritically, it doesnt matterview Israel through
the sole prism of the occupying nation.
No attempt was made in this latest initiative to ask how our story must change.
Rather, their question is merely to ask how the same story could be retold, even
louder. No questions are asked about whether some actions of the Israeli
government, regarding its settlement policy for example, or demolitions in the
West Bank, are tying the hands of Israels friends overseas in our struggle
against BDS. No serious reflection is undertaken on whether there are serious
steps Israel could take on the ground that might bolster efforts to seek peace,
or to improve the lives of ordinary Palestinians.
The failure to ask these questions results in courses of action that may attract
even greater financial resources but are incapable of succeedinglike appointing
a right-wing Evangelical Christian Zionist to lead the fight against BDS in the
left-liberal heartland of American university campuses. Like branding his group
the Campus Maccabees, a name more suited to a universitys Jewish soccer
team than to groups who need to make a contemporary, liberal-democratic,
secular case for Israel to the policy elites of the future. Its a strategy of
putting our fingers deeper into our own ears while shouting louder.
It is likely that violence that is being perpetrated on the streets of Israel by
Palestinians will create a temptation for Jewish communities and Israel
advocates to push our fingers even deeper into our ears, and shout even louder,
while feeling even more unjustifiably scorned and besieged. Look, we will be
tempted to say, surely now, as Palestinian teenagers murder Israeli men, women,
and children with meat cleavers and kitchen knives, encouraged by a culture of
incitement and hatred, the world will see our point. Israel is an island of
democracy in a sea of barbarism that all western democracies must and will
support, now that Paris and Jerusalem are beset by the very same terrorist
scourge. But unless Israel is advancing a two state vision and direction,
Palestinian turmoil will only serve to increase the relevance and momentum of

the BDS movement in the West: The more dire things are on the ground, the
more reasonable extreme statements and solutions begin to seem.
Our fight against extremists, delegitimizers and boycotters will only gain
momentum if it is accompanied by a new story that tells credibly of a renewed
Israeli vision of how to move from the current stagnation to a viable two-state
solution supported by concrete Israeli actions on the ground. This vision should
be rooted in a set of core government policies that encompass, among other
things,
1) The cessation of new settlement activity.
2) Arrangements within Israel that create clear conditions for voluntary
resettlement now within the green-line of those currently living in settlements
in the West Bank which are not within the major blocs likely to remain part of
Israel under a peace deal.
3) The mobilization by both Israel and the International Community of programs
to rebuild and renew infrastructure in both Gaza and the West Bank that will
provide water, electricity and sewerage solutions which are both fair and
affordable.
4) Constructive and continuous engagement by Israeli ministers with their
Palestinian counterparts on specific programs that will incrementally facilitate
free movement, investment, and entrepreneurship.
5) The recognition that todays potential alliances within the greater region, as
it grapples with the problems of an aggressive Iran and the march of ISIS, are
a mechanism to find common cause in the resolution of the Palestinian conflict,
which is essential to Israels security.
Thats not to say that such measures will magically bring about peace. But the
recent violence demonstrates that inaction and stagnation carry their own risks,
that the conflict can explode at any moment and that deferring the search for
solutions until an unspecified point in the future will merely store up greater
dangers, when the rest of the world will be even less sympathetic to Israel than
it is now, and Diaspora Jewry will be even less capable of making Israels case to
a hostile audience. As Israel continues to face the hostility of its enemies, many
on the Israeli right seem determined to alienate even its friends. A renewed
two-state vision would surely be a more productive approach.
Today we once again stare into the abyss. We may crawl out and sit for another
few years panting on its edge before we slide down into it again, or we could just
fall in, and then all will be lost. Israel must construct a new story about what the
country stands for and where it is going. It must do so whether or not the
Palestinian leadership is ready to move toward action and partnership and away

from violence. The collective future of the Jewish people remains in our hands,
not theirsbut only if we make it so.
***
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