My Great Good Friends,
The change in fortune of the BDS-Israel movement has been so dramatic and rapid since President Obama’s decision to allow the Security Council’s (unanimous) adoption of resolution 2334 as to be breathtaking.
Reminiscent of the precipitous collapse of the Soviet Union, oppression and injustice can not hold back the swell of global opinion forever. And apparently when the dam breaks it’s hard and fast.
The current moment has positive domestic and geo-political ramifications.
First domestic: Assuming the Trump Administration reverts to the Middle East policies of President G.W. Bush, it will become increasingly clear the US is alone in supporting Israeli aggression and oppression. A fact heretofore obscured by America blocking unanimous United Nations boycotts, divestitures and sanctions.
To the extent those action are now being put into place, our fellow countrymen will be confronted by what it costs American interests to be subordinate to Israeli, which will in turn illuminate those fifth columnists’ here who have so cravenly betrayed us.
Internationally the positives are too obvious to list, however, before yesterday’s Paris Summit and tomorrow’s UN Security Council meeting overwhelm the more pedestrian accomplishments of the movement, I would like to briefly review some of the 2016 BDS victories.
- Under crushing international condemnation Veolia, Orange, CRH and G4S have all divested their businesses in Israel.
- In spite of Likud ‘declaring war on BDS’ with propaganda, espionage, intimidation and legal action, The European Union and numerous individual countries upheld the right of their citizens to boycott Israeli products and companies doing business with Israel.
- The UN Human Rights Commission has begun compiling a database of Israeli and international corporations complicit in and / or profiting from the occupation regime.
- And the zeitgeist needle moves: The Brookings Institute recently published an opinion poll finding 46% of all Americans and 60% 0f Democrats support “sanctions against Israel for it’s colonization of Palestinian land”.
- Broadening mainstream church groups participation in BDS including the United Methodist, the Presbyterian, and the Alliance of Baptists Churches joining the long list which began with the National Coalition of American Nuns boycott on October 21, 2007.
And my favorite each year: - Those wild and crazy young whippersnappers. Pharrell Williams and Beyonce cancelling scheduled gigs in Tel Aviv and undergraduate student governments from the University of Chicago to the University of Quatar.
- Finally organized labor from the United Electrical Workers Union to the NYU Graduate Assistant Teachers Union.
So, once again this year: ‘A Big Tent’.
-ATN
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