FW: To defeat BDS stop "fighting BDS"

[Robert Hand]

> Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2016 05:00:42 +0300
> Subject: To defeat BDS stop "fighting BDS"
> To: womeni...@womeningreen.org
> From: womeni...@womeningreen.org
>
> Instructions for unsubscribing can be found in the footer of this message.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Op-Ed: To defeat BDS, stop 'fighting BDS'
> The fight against the haters begins and ends with Zionism. Instead of
> reacting to their brand, let's re-create our own - it's been sitting
> right in front of us all along.
> June 02, 2016
> by Ari Soffer
> http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/18964#.V1DMd2df1Hg
>
> Another day, another "anti-BDS conference." Surely they must be defeated by now?
>
> But alas, no. Even a truly impressive conference featuring a panoply
> of American and Israeli Jewish leaders could not generate enough
> energy to magically vaporize the organized grassroots efforts to
> delegitimize and demonize Israel, while bullying and intimidating
> Diaspora Jews into silence or complicity.
>
> Why?
>
> The question really shouldn't need to be asked. After all, successful
> politicians like Danny Danon and businessmen like Ron Lauder know full
> well that, had they spent their entire lives in meetings and
> conferences (even at the UN), they most certainly would not have
> gained anything like the status they enjoy today.
>
> Yet this is a common malaise among the Jewish community. An odd,
> self-deluding belief that meetings, conferences and "declarations" -
> and maybe some social media "activism" - are a substitute for real
> action. Perhaps it is because the real-life arena is more intimidating
> now than ever, having been abandoned to the militant-left, Islamists
> and even elements of the far-right for so long.
>
> But the problem stretches beyond ineffective execution - it is more
> fundamental than that.
>
> Among the more predictable speeches and one-liners, there were several
> important truths expressed. In particular, Prime Minister Binyamin
> Netanyahu, in a pre-recorded message, correctly noted that the BDS
> movement will never succeed in its declared goal of enacting a global
> boycott of Israel. Even within Europe, the hub of much anti-Israel
> agitation, Israeli trade figures are rising. The odd B-list
> celebrity's cancelled tour, or a boycott of an Israeli cosmetics store
> in London, isn't going to bring the Jewish state to its knees.
> (Shortly after publication of this column, a Bloomberg report
> illustrated just how massively the BDS campaign is failing.)
>
> Even if the forces of anti-Zionism were somehow to succeed in
> mobilizing a global boycott and sanctions campaign, anyone remotely
> familiar with Israeli society knows that, far from cowing us into
> submission, such an effort would merely rally Israelis from the Left
> and Right together in resistance. A nation which has withstood a
> series of wars of annihilation launched by its neighbors, followed by
> wave after wave of deadly Islamic terrorism, isn't going to surrender
> in the face of boycotts.
>
> And they know that. At most, those behind the BDS campaign see a
> genuine global boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against
> Israel as a far-off, very long-term goal, certainly not realizable at
> this time, if ever. Their main and immediate objective is in fact far
> simpler, and aimed closer to home: Create a brand, rally the troops
> behind it, and set about dismantling and shouting down all organized
> opposition in the grassroots arena - be it on campus, on the streets,
> or in the halls of power.
>
> In that, they have been far more successful. Indeed, their brand is so
> powerful that even pro-Israel groups use it, coming up with new
> "anti-BDS" campaigns and initiatives almost every other day it seems.
> We are being played like the proverbial fiddle. By perpetually
> "fighting BDS" we further energize its brand, puff up the egos of a
> mostly pathetic array of extremist activists by screaming about how
> dangerous they are, while simultaneously succeeding only in
> accentuating the sense of fear and intimidation felt by "our own".
>
> As I have written before, the pro-Israel camp is not lacking any of
> the funds of our opponents. Nor is it true to say that we are so
> hopelessly outnumbered. As recently illustrated in an insightful
> investigation by Haaretz, the anti-Israel movement on campus is in
> fact propelled by a small, vocal, active and highly-organized minority
> of extremists. Most students don't care either way - and this is
> something which anyone who actually attended an American or European
> university in the last 10 years will attest to.
>
> Instead of wasting money, time and energy on yet more conferences
> which grant free PR to precisely the phenomenon they profess to
> combat, I would humbly suggest trying something radically different.
>
> Create our own brand.
>
> Or rather, recreate it. Because really, the formula for winning over
> the hearts and minds of the public - on university campuses, in the
> media, on the streets and in the halls of power - has been lying in
> our laps this whole time: Zionism.
>
> No, not "pro-Israelism". Not beaches, diversity, high-tech and liberal
> democracy. All of these are lovely things, and promoting "brand
> Israel" as an aside won't do any harm at all. But none of that can
> ever replace our most powerful conceptual weapon: the Jewish story.
>
> Imagine: An indigenous nation - one of the oldest still around today -
> ethnically-cleansed, scattered, oppressed, murdered, forcibly
> assimilated, brought to the very edge of annihilation, returning to
> its ancestral homeland after 2,000 years, against all the odds. And
> then, when confronted by the forces of imperialism, the tiny,
> beleaguered people which defies history fought and defeated scores of
> far mightier armies. They outlasted the Ottomans, defeated the mighty
> British Empire, and smashed the (first British- then later Soviet-led)
> Arab armies whose openly stated goal was to exterminate us and
> re-install the "pax-Arabia" (mostly in the service of their masters in
> London or Moscow).
>
> Today, free and independent in our land, regressive forces from both
> the East and the West continue to buffet our liberated homeland, all
> as we continue to slowly and painstakingly rebuild Hebrew civilization
> in Eretz Yisrael, and shake off the legacies of two millennia of
> slavery, exile and oppression.
>
> Our leaders - with all their many flaws - continue to defy the
> modern-day Sykes-Picots, who arrogantly arrange "international peace
> conferences" to which the native peoples whose conflict they are
> addressing are not invited.
>
> Our people - despite being mercilessly assaulted and brutalized -
> continue to defy terror by living, thriving, and fighting back
> (sometimes armed with little more than selfie sticks, umbrellas or
> their bare hands). In what other country do civilians run towards the
> scene of terrorist attacks rather than away from it, both to tend to
> the wounded and neutralize the attackers?
>
> What more compelling narrative do we need to formulate our own,
> independent brand - one which will certainly eclipse that hateful
> gaggle of Marxists, Islamic fascist and obsessive, attention-seeking
> bullies?
>
> That's not to say pro-Israel organizations shouldn't mobilize to
> counter BDS as well, encouraging people to buy Israeli goods, being
> sure to counter the lies spread by anti-Israel groups, and so on. In
> fact, it is extremely important to go toe-to-toe with the
> anti-Zionists at every possible occasion, to never abandon the playing
> field to them or give them room to influence the public unchallenged.
> But "activism" is merely the tool, and must be carried by a powerful
> idea. Efforts to respond to anti-Israel lies, while necessary, are
> only a side-dish; the meat of pro-Israel advocacy must be the
> narrative of pure Zionism.
>
> And we must certainly stop defining all of our actions by the other
> side's terms. Every "anti-BDS" conference, every social media meme
> screaming "Is THIS an apartheid state?!", is simply pouring fuel on
> the fire and further perpetuating those very myths.
>
> While many pro-Israel activists have by now grasped the basic concept
> of being "proactive" instead of "reactive" in the realm of ideas -
> including some of those who spoke at the UN conference - most fall
> foul of this point. They shy away from any talking points which cannot
> be fitted within the liberal consensus, and are positively allergic to
> any mention of "the West Bank"/Judea and Samaria - which,
> inconveniently, just so happens to be the cradle of Jewish heritage
> and civilization in Israel - or, God forbid, anything which sounds too
> much like "nationalism" (er... Zionism?).
>
> This tendency is in large part a reaction to the hyper-aggressive
> anti-Israel campaign itself. But the tactic of avoiding the most
> vociferously-fought arguments as a means of outmaneuvering their
> purveyors is a humiliating exercise in futility and contributes to the
> cycle of defeat.
>
> Instead, we must embrace the narrative of Zionism, wholly and without
> any ifs or buts, and confront "BDS" and every other hateful acronym
> armed with our own, far more potent, independent narrative.
>
> =============================================
> Women For Israel's Tomorrow (Women in Green)
> POB 7352, Jerusalem 91072, Israel
> mailto:wf...@womeningreen.org
> http://www.womeningreen.org
> For online donations to Women in Green:
> http://www.razoo.com/story/Women-In-Green
>
> To subscribe to the Women in Green list,
> please send a blank email message to:
> womeningree...@womeningreen.org
> Check your spam filter for confirmation to reply to
>
> To unsubscribe from the Women in Green list,
> please send a blank email message to:
> womeningreen...@womeningreen.org
>
>