Two More BDS Fails

Elder or Ziyon recently cited two very interesting reports.

Apparently goods made in Israel are very popular in Sinai and there is a flourishing smuggling business through the Gaza tunnels.   The "Made in Israel" label is actually a selling point.

Furthermore, in spite of a PA law banning Palestinian Arabs from working in the Jewish communities of the West Bank, 31,000 workers are doing just that.  Another 70,000 have jobs inside Israel's green line. So much for the call from Palestinian Civil Society.

Just sayin'

The Truth Abouth the Refugees

A five and a half minute history lesson on a complicated subject:

Who Wants Peace? Who Doesn't?

Israel and the U.S. - more

In my previous post I wrote about Israel's strategic value to the United States, as discussed by Robert D. Blackwill and Walter B. Slocombe. Their detailed report, “Israel: A Strategic Asset for the United States,” was just published by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The report can be downloaded for free, or you can view a video of the authors' presentation.

Tablet Magazine has an article by Lee Smith about the the report. Smith writes:

The paper offers chapter and verse on Israeli contributions to the U.S. national interest. They include: Israeli counter-proliferation efforts, such as the 1981 bombing of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear facility and the 2007 attack on Syria’s secret nuclear facility at al-Kibar; joint military training exercises, as well as exchanges on military doctrine; Israeli technology, like unmanned aerial systems, armored vehicle protection, defense against short-range rocket threats, and robotics; missile defense cooperation; counterterrorism and intelligence cooperation; and cyber defense. Blackwill and Slocombe conclude that the alliance is in fact so central to U.S. national interests that U.S. policymakers should find ways to further enhance cooperation with Jerusalem.

...If the alliance with Israel really is a liability to U.S. national interests, there should be concrete evidence to back it up. “We tried to identify episodes when you could plausibly argue that Arab governments exacted a price from the U.S. for its alliance with Israel.” Blackwill said. He and Slocombe found only one example: the Arab oil embargo after the 1973 war.

“Without doubt that embargo was related to the U.S. re-supply during the ’73 Arab-Israeli war,” Blackwill said. “We thought, ‘Well, there have to be other examples. We’re just not looking hard enough.’ But to our surprise, we couldn’t find another example from that instance to today.”

Lee Smith is the author a fascinating book about the Arab world, The Strong Horse: Power, Politics, and the Clash of Arab Civilizations. Smith spent time living in Eqypt studying Arabic and the Koran. He gives a very different perspective than most journalists.

(h/t Silke)

Israel and the U.S.

One of the often repeated claims of the anti-Israel camp - and our Park Slope pro-BDSers are no exception - is that American aid to Israel is: 1) used to oppress Palestinians, 2) counter to American interests, and 3) money better spent here at home. I responded here.

The Los Angeles Times has an op-ed piece, Israel: A true ally in the Middle East, detailing the many ways in which Israel advances U.S. national interests. The authors are Robert D. Blackwill, deputy national security advisor for strategic planning in the George W. Bush administration, and Walter B. Slocombe, undersecretary of defense for policy in the Clinton administration.  Guys who know what they are talking about.

Today, Israeli contributions to U.S. national interests cover a broad spectrum. Through joint training, exercises and exchanges on military doctrine, the United States has benefited in the areas of counter-terrorism, intelligence and experience in urban warfare. Increasingly, U.S. homeland security and military agencies are turning to Israeli technology to solve some of their most vexing technical and strategic problems.

Go read the whole thing for the specifics.

Plain and Simple #1 - The "Israel Lobby"

This stunning statement appears on the website the Coop members who are promoting BDS: 

The “Israel Lobby” has the power to punish any U.S. politician who gives less than full-throated support to Israeli policy.

It is on a  page titled “Why Israel?”  The reference is to an article “The Israel Lobby,” by Professors John Mearsheimer and Steven Walt published 5 years ago in the London Review of Books. Never mind that the authors’ subsequent book of the same title was criticized by numerous reviewers for sloppy scholarship, faulty logic and omission of important context and information. Walter Russel Mead wrote the book will give “aid and comfort to anti-Semites wherever they are found.” And never mind that Mearsheimer recently provided a book jacket blurb and endorsement for a vicious, anti-Semitic book. Never mind all that.

Their website reasons that Israel is worthy of being singled out for boycott because it receives aid from the United States.  This aid is provided because "the Israel Lobby" has a "stranglehold" of  on our politicians.  In other words, in their advocacy for the Coop to join BDS, our fellow Park Slope Food Coop members, are suggesting that a Jewish cabal an "Israel Lobby" controls the United States Government. (Does this sound a little like The Protocols of the Elders of Zion?)

It is true that American aid to Israel is generous.  It is also true that the United States has historically provided aid to countries or people who were at risk or victims of military aggression.  Interventions have included Somalia, Kuwait, Kosovo, Bosnia, and most recently, Libya.   Israel is at continuous risk from the neighboring countries, although you would never know it by reading a BDS website.  In Lebanon, to Israel's north,  Hizballah has over 40,000 rockets pointed at Israel.  Syria is still in a state of war with Israel, as is Iraq and Saudi Arabia.  To the west, Gaza is controlled by Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of Israel.  Terrorist organizations still operate within the areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority.  Iran is developing nuclear weapons and constantly boasts an intention to destroy Israel.

Furthermore, the United States reaps many, many benefits from Israel.  The US Sixth Fleet is serviced there. Israel hosts a US radar station and provides storage for US weapons.  Israel provides our country with intelligence, shared weapons development and tactical training.  World civilization has benefited from Israel in technology, medicine, science and the arts.  Israel provides rescue and humanitarian relief around the world, notably the rapid deployment of a field hospital in Haiti following the earthquake.

Polls consistently show that Americans support Israel.  In a May CNN poll, 67% responded their sympathies are more with Israel than with the Palestinians.  In an April Pew Center poll, 76% considered it important for the US to help protect Israel.  US Aid to Israel appears to be consistent with public opinion.

Pro-Israel groups have been very effective in presenting Israel's cause to the American public and to Congress. Special interests groups of all natures are part of the American political landscape. Compared to the insurance industry, pharmaceuticals, banks and lawyers, the so-called "Israel Lobby" is not nearly as well funded nor effective. If it were as powerful as our BDS friends would have us believe then all of the following would be true:

• Jerusalem would be recognized as Israel's capital.
• There would be no arms sales to Arab countries.
• Congressmen who vote against Israel would not be re-elected.
• There would never be any question of loan guarantees.

None of this is of any interest to the folks who want the Coop to join BDS.  They only know what they hear from their sources.  Plain and simple, they don't know what they are talking about.

Candid Camera

How do Israelis treat Arabs?  What happens when an Arab woman tries to buy coffee and the counterman refuses to sell to her?  The hidden camera tells all.

(h/t Victor Shikhman)

So Much Misinformation

A Park Slope blogger wrote a post about the Coop and BDS, this past May, just when we were starting out.  There was one comment that I always wanted to answer.  Here is a guy, who writes like he thinks he knows what he is talking about, but is wrong on every single point.

Why is there so much misinformaton?

As for Israel, regardless of their role as our strongest ally in the middle east, the country does not belong there. 

What are his reasons?

1. What other religion has a country created for it? How would the world react if we carved out a new country for all Muslims or all Christians, etc)

Actually, the "world" reacts just fine.  The Partition of India created Muslim Pakistan.  Lebanon was carved out of the Ottoman Empire to create a Christian enclave, not to mention all the other Arab countries created that are officially Islamic.  Recently Roman Catholic East Timor declared independence from Muslim Indonesia.  South Sudan became independent from Sudan.

It is not religion, but ethnicity, that is the basis for the creation of nation-states.   Jews are a people.  The world acknowledges the right of peoples to protect and develop their unique cultures.  So there are states for Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croatians, Lithuanians, Armenian, Greeks, etc.  And a state for Jews.

We are fine with ethnic nation states.  What we don't like are states that abuse the human and civil rights of their citizens.

2. It was created out of guilt over the Holocaust. (please do not misunderstand my point. i am not agreeing with, justifying or diminishing the Holocaust in ANY WAY. simple stating a fact. the country was carved out by the allies as a safe haven for Jews after the war.)

Actually,  Jews settled in the Land of Israel over 3000 years ago, and established a sovereign nation there.  The nation was defeated by the Romans nearly 2000 years ago.  The area was subsequently ruled as a province of numerous foreign empires.

Jews have lived in the Land of Israel continuously, their population and condition dependent upon the tolerance of the local ruler.  By the second half of the 19th Century, conditions allowed for an increase in Jewish immigration into the Land of Israel.  (The total population estimate at the time was 300,000)

International support for the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people began long before World War II.  In July 1922, the League of Nations granted Great Britain the Mandate for Palestine/The Land of Israel to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish national homeland in the land of Israel.

In 1947, the UN General Assembly recommended partition into 2 states - 1 Jewish and 1 Arab - as a means of stopping the violence of Arabs against Jews.   By the time of partition, Israel already was a functioning country with a language, culture, agriculture, universities, newspapers and military forces which proved capable of defending against the invading armies of several Arab nations. 

3. When it was carved out, it was created without a single thought to the ethnic groups of people ALREADY LIVING IN THE AREA. I almost always tend to side with Israel against the Palestinians in modern arguments but in this point they are correct. The creation of Israel is a kin to the American government creating states by carving up already existing Native American borders.

Actually, there was quite a lot of thought.  The UN General Assembly partition ceded areas with majority Jewish population for the Jewish State.  There was one exception.  100,000 Jews lived in and around Jerusalem.  They were a majority of the population in Jerusalem and they were 1/6 of the Jewish population of Mandatory Palestine.  This area was designated to be an international zone.  However, the UN and the British provided no protection nor security for this area. 

4. I often hear the argument, "There is no such country as Palestine." Well there was no such country as Israel until we all agreed there would be. Seems to me what is good for one is good for another.

You hear there is no such nation as Palestine.  The Palestinian Arabs are ethnically the same as the Arabs of Syria and Jordan.  Although they have a unique recent history, it is a result of politics, not as a result of an organic cultural development.  They have suffered far more abuse at the hands of their Arab "champions" than as a result of the creation of the State of Israel.

Products from Israel at the Coop

I went shopping tonight and here are some of things from Israel I found in the coop:

• Yehuda Matzos - in the Passover section
• Organic Tomatoes on the Vine - alas, I only saw the sign, there were none on the shelves when we were there. 
• Sabra Hummous - this is actually made in America, although the company is half-owned by an Israeli company.  But I bought some because it was a target of a FAILED BDS effort at Princeton University in December 2010.
• Dorot Frozen Herbs - You will find these in the freezer section.  These are containers of 20 individual teaspoons for frozen herbs.  There is parsley, garlic, ginger, cilantro, basil and hot pepper varieties.  A great idea when you are in a hurry to prepare a meal.
• Masada Foot Scrub - smooth your callouses away.
• Masada Bath Salts - the coop had 4 varieties on the shelf, when I was there.  You can get detox, muscle relax, rejuvenate, refresh.  They all sounded wonderful to me. 
• Mud - a face mask that will make your skin smooth and resilient.

Pick up a few of these on your next food coop visit.  Let me know if you see any other products.

Tomorrow Is a BIG Day

Wednesday, March 30, is Buy Israeli Goods day, a day set aside to counter an annual BDS day of action for that same date.

I don't know what the coop is stocking these days, but go see if there are any organic pepper from Israel, or marshmallows, or bath salts from the Dead Sea.  But, if you're out shopping, make a point to buy something.

Here is a link on how to find more Israeli Products in local stores. 

Read more at StandWithUs