Monday, March 26, 2018
Elder of Ziyon
Word has it that a municipality in my area (one with a habit
of making official statements on foreign policy matters) will be visited by the
boycott brigade next month requesting the city pass some sort of “Israel is
guilty of everything” resolution.
As usual, this is being presented as a simple,
straightforward human-rights question, one that will get turned into a “See, a
major city agrees with us that Israel is an Apartheid state!!!!!!!” message
through the BDS bullhorn if government leaders decide to hand the name and
reputation of their city to a group of ruthless, single-issue partisans.
As most readers know, this kind of bait-and-switch is
standard operating procedure for the Israel-disliking community, one predictable
enough to boil down to a simple and straightforward playbook (part
of a larger
work that describes ways to defeat these predicable BDS tactics).
Before getting too worked up about the whole affair, keep in
mind that even back in 2005 when some of us were dealing with an actual
divestment resolution being debated in a neighboring city, we learned that the city
where next month’s debate will take place had passed a couple of resolutions
condemning Israel for this and that a decade earlier, resolutions no one could
remember because they had zero impact outside the BDS bubble.
The lack of impact of such symbolic votes outside the city
should not minimize the havoc caused within a community when BDS comes knocking
and demands everyone take a side on their pet issue.
Back when divestment was roiling Somerville, I pointed out
to city leaders that:
“It’s
hard not to notice that, despite the troubles in the Middle East, the towns of
Methuen, Springfield and Ipswich do not find their citizens at each other’s
throats over the Arab-Israeli conflict. Nor are aldermen or town meeting
members in Medford, Winchester or Malden sorting through hundreds of e-mails a
day, trying to rapidly learn enough to officially come down on one side or the
other.
The
difference between Somerville and virtually every other community in America is
that we have chosen to turn a conflict that has challenged and perplexed wise
and committed men and women for generations into official city business.”
So, as with every debate instigated by anti-Israel
propagandists ready to drag anyone and everyone in their vendetta by any means
necessary, next month’s city hall debate will not be about the Middle
East. Rather, it will be over whether
city leaders are ready to harm the community they are pledged to serve by
dragging it into one of the most vexing conflicts in history, just because a
gang of single-issue fanatics insist that this is their only moral choice.
