Monday, January 07, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
Do As I Say
I recently created a new web site using the Wix platform, a
nifty little system that apparently has over 100,000,000 users. Over the years, I’ve used Google Blogger and
WordPress to create sites, including different incarnations of Divest This. And while Wix is not as infinitely expandable
as WordPress, it was the preferred choice to get a good looking, simple site up
and running fast.
Why the product placement?
Well Wix is an Israeli company (Booga! Booga! Booga!) and thus should
have a place of prominence on the BDS blacklist, given the millions the company
brings into the dreaded Zionist entity (far more than other Israeli products,
services, concerts et all that the boycotters insist be shunned by the
world).
Except it’s not! In
fact, it was just a few years ago that a brief dustup occurred once it was
pointed out that a Student for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group at Cornell
was using tainted Jewish (I mean Israeli) technology, i.e., WIX, to create
their “why we should boycott all things Israeli” web site.
As long-time readers know, I tend to avoid the whole “if you
want to boycott Israel, give up your computer/cell phone/Wasserman Test” theme,
given that it’s used so much (by those better at presenting it than me), and
because the boycotters tend to turn to their preferred tactic (ignoring you)
when presented with this argument.
But, for some reason, the BDSers at Cornell took great
offense at accusations of hypocrisy that flooded the Twit-o-sphere once they
were outed as WIX users (i.e., Israel non-boycotters). And their OUTRAGED
response demonstrates the rhetorical atrophying that takes place
when you spend time shouting at your opponents, rather than actually debating
them.
If you sweep away all the usual accusations of distortion
and insincerity directed at critics, and wild (unsubstantiated) claims of
growing success of the BDS “movement,” the nut of Cornell SJP’s argument can be
summed up in their statement that “BDS is a tactic, not a principle, let alone
a call for abstention.”
You might be surprised that I’m actually in sympathy with
part of this argument, in that I’ve pointed out for years that BDS is simply a tactic (albeit the Cornell
SJP does not explain the Apartheid Strategy propaganda campaign this tactic
supports, nor the ultimate goal
of the “movement”). And their reference
to not being required to be “beautiful souls” was a welcome philosophical
reference (even if they used rock lyrics rather than Hegel to explain the
concept).
Now I could point out that throwing away every piece of
technology that makes use of Israeli components or code requires genuine effort
and sacrifice, while selecting one free (non-Israeli) web hosting service vs.
WIX does not (implying that the boycotters are too lazy to live by even the
simplest application of their alleged principles). But I think this lighter argument (which they
actually address) missed a more important point (which they ignore).
As I have pointed out again and again on this site and
elsewhere, the BDS goal/strategy/tactic is built around getting their
accusations to come out of the mouth of a third party, be it a university,
church, municipality, academic organization, food coop or other civic institution. And in order to do this, they must first
claim that this university/church/municipality, etc. is already “taking sides”
in the Arab-Israeli conflict by investing in companies or selling products
somehow tied to the Jewish state (or, as they prefer to put it, “The
Occupation”™).
Why kick off a divestment campaign at a college or
university? Because the school’s
investment portfolio includes stocks on the BDS blacklist (maybe). Why target this or that food coop? Because they sell Sabra Hummus or Israeli ice
cream cones. Why protest in front of some
hardware store in San Francisco or Cambridge?
Because they sell SodaStream drink dispensers.
Now in each and every case, the BDSers have detailed
explanations as to why these particular stocks or those particular products are
the target of their ire. And, even when
they don’t, they are ready to make up new
excuses when the situation requires it.
But this brings up the question of why are they the only
ones who get to choose which use of Israeli anything is evil vs. non-evil? After all, if a store selling hummus made in
New Jersey is fair game in their battle
against “Apartheid Israel,” why should use of a web hosting service that brings
millions of dollars in investment into the Israeli economy (and thus the tax
base of the state they so loath) be similarly sinful?
Indeed, the BDSers have given themselves license to create
mayhem in community after community based on links to Israel far more tenuous than
their own use of WIX. If they are so
ready to declare themselves innocent, how can they then turn around and declare
everyone else guilty unless they do what the boycotters say is their only moral
choice?
This gets back to the claim of BDS as a tactic. For this tactic is designed to allow the
BDSers to speak in someone else’s name, no matter what the cost to that someone
else. And the basis for their demand
that every civic organization they target give into their demands is the
choices those organizations make regarding where to invest or what to buy and
sell. But as the Cornell SJP informed
us, involving yourself with the Israeli economy is perfectly
OK/innocent/unavoidable – as long as you’re them, and not the people they have
chosen to torment for their own political gain.
