Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Elder of Ziyon
While I take a back seat to no one in expressing glee when
some SJP/JVP-sponsored student government divestment vote goes down in flames
(not to mention burning with rage when such votes go the BDSholes’ way –
especially when they cheat),
it might be time to stop tracking success or failure of the BDS “movement” (or
Israel’s standing among the young) based on what a handful of Student Senators
say or do.
Claims that student government votes carry actual political
weight can only be supported if at least one of the following conditions is
true:
( 1)
That there exists a
plausible chance that such a vote will be taken seriously by those who actually
make decisions regarding where a college or university invests its money (i.e.,
the school’s adult leadership and institutional investment managers), leading
to the possibility of actual divestment; and/or
( 2)
That such votes represent
genuine anti-Israel sentiments among the wider student body that student
government is supposed to represent
Regarding condition (1), given that college Presidents,
Boards of Trustees and investment managers have been saying “No!” to BDS calls
since the start of the Millennium, it’s pretty safe to say that the number of
schools actually considering divestment from Israel continues to stand at
zero.
In fact, during a BDS era that stretches back close to two
decades, college and universities have been falling all over one another to
build or strengthen partnerships with their Israeli counterparts (many of them
investing – rather than divesting – millions into these relationships).
And keep in mind that during this same era, schools have joined divestment projects –
targeting Sudan and Iran – for their genuine human rights abuses vs. the
fictional ones ginned up by BDS activists against Israel. So it’s not that colleges and universities
are loath to use their investment portfolios to make political statements. Rather, their loud condemnation of student
calls for BDS – often within
hours of those calls being made – represents their rejection of the
political snake oil the boycotters continue to peddle.
Regarding condition (2), as recent history has shown, school
administrators are loath to show disrespect for student opinion, especially if
that opinion can plausibly be said to represent the actual will of the majority
of the student body (or at least a large minority). So the fact that those same administrators
are ready to tell Student Senates to shove their BDS resolutions where the sun
doesn’t shine (or something to that effect) means they know what the boycotters
also know: that student governments pass divestment votes in spite of the fact that those votes do not represent wider
student opinion.
Much has been made of recent last-minute divestment votes
announced or taken during the Jewish holidays.
Beyond the underhanded nature of sneaking such votes in while political
enemies are celebrating religious holidays, this sort of behavior also
represents an admission by cynical BDS activists that they could never win a
fair fight for the simple reason that student opinion is not on their side.
If it were, you’d see student pols running on BDS platforms,
informing voters that this would be their top priority if elected. Instead, you only see pro-divestment votes
being cast by ignorant Senators brow beaten by the boycotters throughout
grueling all-nighters, or stealth BDSers who run for office with the sole
purpose of passing divestment measures (who then leave office if they get – or
don’t get – their way on this one issue).
In fact, on one of the few occasions when Israel has played a role in a
campus election, the result was a rout
for divestment supporters.
So if pandering administrators and normally indifferent students
are all comfortable telling the boycotters to take a hike, why should any of us
be still getting bent out of shape when a gaggle of Students for Justice in
Palestine types manage to squeak through a “victory” by getting an impotent
divestment resolution passed that is guaranteed to be ignored?
Even if you believe (as I do) that BDS campaigns are just
the means to inject a steady drip of anti-Israel venom into the minds of
impressionable students, we can fight against that campaign more effectively if
we don’t treat such votes as stunning victories, harrowing near misses, or
terrible blows. Rather, we should see
them for what they are: the boobie prize the boycotters are forced to content
themselves with in an era when boycotts are nowhere to be seen, investment in
the Jewish state continues to skyrocket, and the only sanctions being enacted
are by dozens of state legislatures and the US government to condemn the aptly
named BDS “movement.”
