Naive Israelis tend to believe that pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel boycott activists are not anti-Semitic; they are justice-seekers with good intentions who want to boycott Israel in the way that apartheid South Africa was boycotted. To boycott until Israel is forced to withdraw from the territories.
"They were not anti-Semitic in South Africa and they are not anti-Semitic now," some Israelis say of the Europeans who support the boycott. You could say that "in every generation they rise against us" to confuse us. From the Enlightenment and Moses Mendelssohn until the end of time.
This kind view of boycott activists, the belief that they are only against the occupation and the settlements, takes me back 63 years to when I first read Shaul Tchernichovsky's "Dumplings." The text told of a grandmother cooking dumplings and speaking to her granddaughter who had become "progressive" and "humanitarian." She fought the bourgeoisie and the czar's rule, she had been sent to prison, and she simply did not understand that a global revolution would not benefit the Jews.
All those types later joined the Jewish Labor Bund, while others belonged to the Jewish branch of the Soviet Union's murderous Communist Party. Their fate is known. As is their shame. Their faith in the justice of the revolution, their loyalty to the ideas of "The Internationale," rather than those of "Hatikvah," drained their very blood. And the progressive and enlightened gentiles whose company they kept promptly turned their backs -- just as is bound to happen to the Jews who have become the advocates of the self-righteous, enlightened Europeans who are immersed in the boycott.
The boycott is a key component, though not the only one, in the delegitimization campaign against Israel. The problem is not only with the content of the claims made by the Breaking the Silence organization or with the money they receive from those who oppose Israel. It is not even the fact that they gave up the struggle in Israel in favor of exporting it to Europe, as though they were informers. The real problem is with the foreign partners, whose hatred for Israel will not stop the moment the settlers leave Samaria. Let us recall how they refused to condone Operation Protective Edge or its predecessors in the attempt protect residents of the south from rocket fire, and this despite the fact that Israel had long since withdrawn from the settlements in Gaza.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked was right when she said that Israeli concessions (which I favor in negotiations with the Palestinians) did not prevent the boycott. There is no connection. Jews are being expelled wherever possible, only the terminology keeps changing. At the bottom of it, even novelist Gunter Grass was a Nazi, and his true colors shone through when he blamed Israel (and not Iran) for endangering world peace. Anti-Semitism is their default, but now it is not so popular, while boycotting Israel is "in" this season.
Of course, not everyone is like that. Even in the dark days of yore, when the parents and grandparents of our generation served the evil regimes, Europe was also home to the Righteous Among the Nations. I was told this week about the president of the African Christian Democratic Party in South Africa, Kenneth Meshoe. He created an organization in his country dedicated to defending Israel and explaining that it is not an apartheid state. I saw videos he made that explained why there was no apartheid in Israel, and guess who spoke out against them? The boycotters of Israel, including liberal Jews.
This is another kind of war between the Sons of Light and the Sons of Darkness. Once again, the Jews face evil. A war on all fronts, with all weapons. There is a Foreign Ministry and Public Diplomacy Minister Gilad Erdan has a new job on his hands. Everyone must be prepared to act, but first and foremost, this is an opportunity to breathe new life into indifferent Jewish youth in the Diaspora and to encourage them to protest in the streets throughout Europe, and especially in England, where the national student union chose to back the boycott.
A boycott for a boycott, a protest for a protest, a banner for a banner. A new incarnation -- modern and moderate -- of the Jewish Defense League.
טעינו? נתקן! אם מצאתם טעות בכתבה, נשמח שתשתפו אותנו