Now that this site has finally reached critical mass (which, in blog-speak, means family members have started asking why I’m spending so much time focusing on this particular issue), I thought it might be worth republishing something I wrote five years ago at the end of my first divestment battle. It was when I was living in Somerville Massachusetts, the site of BDS’s municipal Waterloo, that a friend became curious as to why the fight against BDS was taking up so much of my time. If he only knew…
A close friend, whose opinion I respect on all matters, is having trouble figuring out my devotion to seeing the divestiture motion defeated this week.
Over beers, and between trading tips on raising young sons, he wondered why this issue raised such dander when there was so much else going on in the world. For example, we discussed at length the prisoners in Guantanamo and whether or not their nebulous status represented a slippery slope that would lead to the dismantling of the Geneva Conventions, the last century's formal rules on war.
While our debate focused on prisoners, I've been reflecting more on the "slippery slope" part of our conversation since it seemed apparent to me that the slippery slope towards warfare unrestrained by rules actually began four decades ago.
That was the time that modern terrorism was born, represented by the persona of the recently deceased Yassir Arafat. Over the first twenty years of Palestinian war against the state of Israel, the new battlefield became airplanes hijacked from Europe, the Olympic Village in Munich, and a schoolyard in Maalot, in Northern Israel. Airline passengers, Olympic athletes and school children became the new targets for "military" action, contravening every known rule of war going back decades, if not centuries.
And with each Palestinian outrage, the rules of warfare were carefully rewritten or reinterpreted to allow murderous assaults against Israeli civilians to pose as something other than a war crime. The slippery slope became steeper over the next twenty years until now when we cannot even gain worldwide consensus that blowing up a pizzeria in Jerusalem represents an act of terror.
Point of fact, we are well past the slippery slope. Today, we are at the bottom of the hill, with the Geneva Convention and all known human rights conventions in tatters, the shredded remains burned and those that destroyed them laughing over the ashes. At the same time, those that declared a war against all as a national (if not divine) right are simultaneously demanding that the rules they just incinerated still apply, but only to preventing any defensive action being taken against them.
As in the last century, tyrants have demanded the rules of humane behavior be rewritten to make room for ruthlessness directed against the Jews. And just like the last century, these exceptions, meant originally for just the Jews, has allows us to define deviancy down to where anyone in the world is now a legitimate target in a war directed primarily against civilians, from disco dancers blown up in Bali, to Kurds gassed in Iraq, to a million Rwandans hacked to pieces, to 3000 dead in a cemetery that was once a high-rise building in Manhattan.
So by a strange twist of fate, this supposedly narrow goal of defending the honor of tiny Israel has universal implications. Similarly, those who use universal ideals like human right and the rule of law as a smoke screen for their narrow attack on the Jewish state are the ones sacrificing global principle for provincial aims.
I at this word processor, we in this town do not have the wealth or the power to turn back the clock to when warfare had boundaries. We cannot, unaided, repair organizations like the UN and the recently debauched World Court that have been so corrupted by oil wealth and the power such wealth brings.
But we can do something. We can say NO to this odious assault on a small, beleaguered country, dressed clumsily as a humanitarian call for socially responsible investing. We can say it stops here. And with courage, and by example, we may be able to take back noble ideals like human rights from those who have stolen them in support of ruthless and intolerant ends.
It's easy to talk about thinking globally and acting locally, but tonight Somerville has a chance to do both. Let's hope our leaders have the wisdom to make the right choice.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Have they no shame? - The Latest Divestment Hoax
Given the disasters BDSers have had over the last few years in schools, municipalities and churches, one would think the limited success they’ve had infiltrating international unions might give them a starting point to rebuild their “movement” which has otherwise been only going backwards over the last several years.
Which makes you wonder why they would resort to this type of naked fraud in an attempt to push their toxins into the US labor movement (good luck with that, by the way).
Apparently, the Dissident Voice petition asking AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka to abandon 60+ years of uninterrupted devotion to Israel (after a drearily long stream of “We Hate Israel” boilderplate) included the name of African-American trade unionist Crayola Brown. “What a catch!” (they must have thought), except for the one little detail that Brown never heard of the petition, certainly never signed it, and had this to say to those who still feature her name on their work:
“It is with disgust and dismay that I find my name listed as a signer of “Boycott Apartheid Israel: Open Letter from US Trade Unionists.” I demand that my name be removed immediately!
Prior to seeing the letter on the Palestine Chronicle website, I had never seen such a letter or engaged in discussions about its content. I find it disrespectful that someone would attach my name to a document and circulate such a document without contact with me, or consent from me.
Please make every effort to convey my demand to and any other publications that you have used or are likely to use your letter with.”
Honestly (if I can use that word in a sentence that also contains “BDS”), why do these kinds of forgeries, frauds and hoaxes seem so prominent among divestment advocates these last few years? While I had originally thought that the movement’s continuing failures had caused them to jump from exaggeration to outright lying, I’m beginning to think that they just don’t care whether what they are presenting the world has any resemblance to the truth.
Anyway, I’ve just started a petition on behalf of the South African labor movement which asks the people of Syria to give President-for-Life Assad a wedgie. And, believe it or not, my first signatures include Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Donnie and Marie Osmond! Better tighten the old belt Bashir!
Which makes you wonder why they would resort to this type of naked fraud in an attempt to push their toxins into the US labor movement (good luck with that, by the way).
Apparently, the Dissident Voice petition asking AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka to abandon 60+ years of uninterrupted devotion to Israel (after a drearily long stream of “We Hate Israel” boilderplate) included the name of African-American trade unionist Crayola Brown. “What a catch!” (they must have thought), except for the one little detail that Brown never heard of the petition, certainly never signed it, and had this to say to those who still feature her name on their work:
“It is with disgust and dismay that I find my name listed as a signer of “Boycott Apartheid Israel: Open Letter from US Trade Unionists.” I demand that my name be removed immediately!
Prior to seeing the letter on the Palestine Chronicle website, I had never seen such a letter or engaged in discussions about its content. I find it disrespectful that someone would attach my name to a document and circulate such a document without contact with me, or consent from me.
Please make every effort to convey my demand to and any other publications that you have used or are likely to use your letter with.”
Honestly (if I can use that word in a sentence that also contains “BDS”), why do these kinds of forgeries, frauds and hoaxes seem so prominent among divestment advocates these last few years? While I had originally thought that the movement’s continuing failures had caused them to jump from exaggeration to outright lying, I’m beginning to think that they just don’t care whether what they are presenting the world has any resemblance to the truth.
Anyway, I’ve just started a petition on behalf of the South African labor movement which asks the people of Syria to give President-for-Life Assad a wedgie. And, believe it or not, my first signatures include Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Donnie and Marie Osmond! Better tighten the old belt Bashir!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Hampshire and The Brain - Part 3
For those who need to catch up: Part 1 Part 2
When we last left our heroes, Brain had just activated the Hypno-Hat which had begun to work its will on the Hampshire Board of Trustees…
Pinky wanders to the top of Brain’s robot suit where the Hypno-hat now encloses Brain like a command center. Pinky opens a small door in the side of the hat and wanders over to Brain’s side.
Brain: It’s working! The Hampshire Board of Trustees is coming under my control. Are you thinking what I’m thinking Pinky?
Pinky: I think so Brain, but why would they call themselves Hamas if they can’t eat pork?
Brain: No Pinky. I’m thinking that this is just the first step to global divestment domination! Once Hampshire divests, then all the dominos will all start to fall. Framingham State will be next… then – who knows – Oakton Community College, the University of Nebraska at Kearney, even – dare I say it – the greatest prize of all: Brown!
As Brain continues to rant, the door to the conference room opens and Alan Dershowitz walks in. Still hidden beneath the Hypno-Hat, neither Pinky nor Brain notice as Dershowitz sneaks up on the robot suit, pulling a pencil from behind his ear and sticking it into the mechanism of the hat’s whirling disk. The machinery begins to seize up.
Brain (inside the now shaking command center of the Hypno-hatted suit): Something’s going wrong Pinky!
Pinky: Whooooooo! This is fun Brain!
With the pencil stuck in the mechanism, the hypno-wheel seizes up. Unfortunately, this causes all of the disk’s angular momentum to be transferred to the suit which begins to spin like a propeller.
Pinky and Brain: Waaaaaaa! (Tumbling about.)
The suit crashes into an electrical panel on the wall which causes it to discharge bolts of lightning. The force of the shock sends the suit careening through a plate glass window where it tumbles three stories to the Hampshire quad below, exploding and sending the two lab mice flying into the sky.
Brain and Pinky: Ahhhhhhh!!!!!
Pinky and the Brain finally crash-land on the grass near the burning debris of their now destroyed suit.
Brain (looking charred and scarred): Now that is going to sting.
Brain looks up to see the Board of Trustees staring down from the broken window, somewhat bewildered.
Inside the boardroom, President Hexter shrugs and the Board returns to its seats.
President Hexter: Now where were we? Oh yes, all in favor of the SHUSH proposal to invest the remaining $9,562.15 of Hampshire’s endowment in Israeli Bonds say Aye.
All: Aye!
President Hexter: OK, I guess we’re done here. Who’s ready to head out to the water park?
All: Me!!!!! (grabbing towels, donning sunglasses and wrapping inflatable animal life preservers around their waists, the entire Board rushes towards the door).
Back on the ground, Pinky finally gets up and notices little Stars of David dancing around his head.
Pinky: Oh look Brain, it’s Morgan David!
Brain swats away the stars which dissipate in a huff.
Brain: Stop that Pinky, it’s bad enough after that headline-hogging shyster Dershowitz ruined our scheme and destroyed our suit. How could he have known about our plan? How?
Dershowitz walks up to the two still-dazed lab mice.
Alan Dershowitz: Isn’t it obvious Brain?
Dershowitz pulls his own head off which turns out to have been a robotic rubber mask atop a mechanical suit similar to Brain’s now destroyed one (although shaped like Alan Dershowitz’s body). Protruding from the top of the robot’s is the larger-than-usual head of a hamster.
Brain and Pinky simultaneously: Snowball!
Snowball: Yes, Brain, Snowball you’re oldest and most devoted enemy. And once again I have proven there is no plan you can create that I cannot demolish. Nyahahahahahahaha!
Brain: Oh yeah! Well Pinky could have ruined this plan without your help. You, you big Zio-ninny!
Pinky: Good one Brain!
Brain: Thanks Pinky.
Snowball: I have no time for this idol chitter chatter.
The sound of rumbling can be heard as rockets fire from the shoes of Snowball’s Alan Dershowitz robot feet, launching the villainous Hamster and his mechanical body into the sky.
Snowball: Shalom Suckers!
Brain helps Pinky get up and dust themselves off.
Brain: Come on Pinky, there’s just enough time to get back to the lab for tomorrow night.
Pinky: Why? What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?
Brain: The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to get Hampshire College to divest from Israel!
They’re Pinky, they’re Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain.
Allah Ahkbar!
Narf!
When we last left our heroes, Brain had just activated the Hypno-Hat which had begun to work its will on the Hampshire Board of Trustees…
Pinky wanders to the top of Brain’s robot suit where the Hypno-hat now encloses Brain like a command center. Pinky opens a small door in the side of the hat and wanders over to Brain’s side.
Brain: It’s working! The Hampshire Board of Trustees is coming under my control. Are you thinking what I’m thinking Pinky?
Pinky: I think so Brain, but why would they call themselves Hamas if they can’t eat pork?
Brain: No Pinky. I’m thinking that this is just the first step to global divestment domination! Once Hampshire divests, then all the dominos will all start to fall. Framingham State will be next… then – who knows – Oakton Community College, the University of Nebraska at Kearney, even – dare I say it – the greatest prize of all: Brown!
As Brain continues to rant, the door to the conference room opens and Alan Dershowitz walks in. Still hidden beneath the Hypno-Hat, neither Pinky nor Brain notice as Dershowitz sneaks up on the robot suit, pulling a pencil from behind his ear and sticking it into the mechanism of the hat’s whirling disk. The machinery begins to seize up.
Brain (inside the now shaking command center of the Hypno-hatted suit): Something’s going wrong Pinky!
Pinky: Whooooooo! This is fun Brain!
With the pencil stuck in the mechanism, the hypno-wheel seizes up. Unfortunately, this causes all of the disk’s angular momentum to be transferred to the suit which begins to spin like a propeller.
Pinky and Brain: Waaaaaaa! (Tumbling about.)
The suit crashes into an electrical panel on the wall which causes it to discharge bolts of lightning. The force of the shock sends the suit careening through a plate glass window where it tumbles three stories to the Hampshire quad below, exploding and sending the two lab mice flying into the sky.
Brain and Pinky: Ahhhhhhh!!!!!
Pinky and the Brain finally crash-land on the grass near the burning debris of their now destroyed suit.
Brain (looking charred and scarred): Now that is going to sting.
Brain looks up to see the Board of Trustees staring down from the broken window, somewhat bewildered.
Inside the boardroom, President Hexter shrugs and the Board returns to its seats.
President Hexter: Now where were we? Oh yes, all in favor of the SHUSH proposal to invest the remaining $9,562.15 of Hampshire’s endowment in Israeli Bonds say Aye.
All: Aye!
President Hexter: OK, I guess we’re done here. Who’s ready to head out to the water park?
All: Me!!!!! (grabbing towels, donning sunglasses and wrapping inflatable animal life preservers around their waists, the entire Board rushes towards the door).
Back on the ground, Pinky finally gets up and notices little Stars of David dancing around his head.
Pinky: Oh look Brain, it’s Morgan David!
Brain swats away the stars which dissipate in a huff.
Brain: Stop that Pinky, it’s bad enough after that headline-hogging shyster Dershowitz ruined our scheme and destroyed our suit. How could he have known about our plan? How?
Dershowitz walks up to the two still-dazed lab mice.
Alan Dershowitz: Isn’t it obvious Brain?
Dershowitz pulls his own head off which turns out to have been a robotic rubber mask atop a mechanical suit similar to Brain’s now destroyed one (although shaped like Alan Dershowitz’s body). Protruding from the top of the robot’s is the larger-than-usual head of a hamster.
Brain and Pinky simultaneously: Snowball!
Snowball: Yes, Brain, Snowball you’re oldest and most devoted enemy. And once again I have proven there is no plan you can create that I cannot demolish. Nyahahahahahahaha!
Brain: Oh yeah! Well Pinky could have ruined this plan without your help. You, you big Zio-ninny!
Pinky: Good one Brain!
Brain: Thanks Pinky.
Snowball: I have no time for this idol chitter chatter.
The sound of rumbling can be heard as rockets fire from the shoes of Snowball’s Alan Dershowitz robot feet, launching the villainous Hamster and his mechanical body into the sky.
Snowball: Shalom Suckers!
Brain helps Pinky get up and dust themselves off.
Brain: Come on Pinky, there’s just enough time to get back to the lab for tomorrow night.
Pinky: Why? What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?
Brain: The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to get Hampshire College to divest from Israel!
They’re Pinky, they’re Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain.
Allah Ahkbar!
Narf!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Hampshire and The Brain - Part 2
Continuing from Part 1 of Hampshire and The Brain…
I guess I lost track of Pinky and the Brain before they won an Emmy and ended up with a Facebook group with over 300,000 members. If you’re looking for one episode that sums up the series (and includes the Robot suit mentioned below), I recommend Win Big (available here).
So, picking up where we left off:
Scene 2: A conference room at Hampshire College where President Hexter is meeting with the school’s Board of Trustees. For some reason, Hexter is using the conference room projector to make shadow puppets against the wall. The trustees, in the meantime, seem distracted, with two of them playing cat’s cradle and another pair engaged in a rather aggressive game of gin rummy.
President Hexter: Apologies for leaving my laptop at home, but if you can all use your imagination, assume this duck is the head of the Buildings and Grounds Department, while this Indian…
Board Member Closest to Hexter: Don’t you mean “Native American?”
Hexter: Apologies (blushing), this Native American represent’s the Chairman of the Town of Amherst’s Water and Sewer Board. Now if I just…
Hexter’s Administrative Assistant enters the room, interrupting his presentation.
Administrative Assistant: Apologies sir, but the new sole, legitimate representative of the student body is outside in the hall demanding an audience.
Board Member Playing Cards: Well send him in! I’m about to lose my sixth straight game!
Other Card Playing Board Member: Too late [putting down his cards] Gin!
Both Card Players: You cheated! Did not! Did too!
A fight breaks out, interrupted by the arrival of a full sized robotic suit with The Brain’s tiny head protruding from the top.
I guess I lost track of Pinky and the Brain before they won an Emmy and ended up with a Facebook group with over 300,000 members. If you’re looking for one episode that sums up the series (and includes the Robot suit mentioned below), I recommend Win Big (available here).
So, picking up where we left off:
Scene 2: A conference room at Hampshire College where President Hexter is meeting with the school’s Board of Trustees. For some reason, Hexter is using the conference room projector to make shadow puppets against the wall. The trustees, in the meantime, seem distracted, with two of them playing cat’s cradle and another pair engaged in a rather aggressive game of gin rummy.
President Hexter: Apologies for leaving my laptop at home, but if you can all use your imagination, assume this duck is the head of the Buildings and Grounds Department, while this Indian…
Board Member Closest to Hexter: Don’t you mean “Native American?”
Hexter: Apologies (blushing), this Native American represent’s the Chairman of the Town of Amherst’s Water and Sewer Board. Now if I just…
Hexter’s Administrative Assistant enters the room, interrupting his presentation.
Administrative Assistant: Apologies sir, but the new sole, legitimate representative of the student body is outside in the hall demanding an audience.
Board Member Playing Cards: Well send him in! I’m about to lose my sixth straight game!
Other Card Playing Board Member: Too late [putting down his cards] Gin!
Both Card Players: You cheated! Did not! Did too!
A fight breaks out, interrupted by the arrival of a full sized robotic suit with The Brain’s tiny head protruding from the top.
Brain: Greetings, ah, trustee dudes!
Hexter: Ah, yes. A warm welcome from myself and the entire Board of Trustees. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to the new sole, legitimate representative of student opinion on campus: Brian.
Brain: That’s Brain!
Hexter: Apologies, apologies.
Board Member Closest to Hexter: Nice to meet you Brain. Um, if you don’t mind my asking, isn’t your head somewhat small in comparison to your body?
Brain: Actually, my proportions are quite average for someone of… my race.
The entire board begins apologizing profusely. In the meantime, Pinky, resting in the Hypno-Hat hidden behind Brain’s enormous robotic body, crawls up to ask Brain a question.
Pinky: Should I turn on the Hypno-Hat now, Brain?
Brain: Not yet Pinky. For given the extraordinary mandate I have been handed by the students of Hampshire College, I shall first try to convince this group of cretins to divest from Israel using only my powers of persuasion.
He turns towards the Board
Brain: Gentlemen, and ladies. For too many years, this school has profited from the occupation of sacred Arab soil by a barbarous group of Zionist imperialists who simultaneously control and are a puppet of the so-called United States of AmeriKKKa. Now allow me to show you why the only possible moral choice you have is to obey my commands and divest, I say DIVEST! from the so-called state of “Israel.”
A small door pops open in Brain’s robotic body which projects an image onto the conference room screen of a pair of Paramecium wearing keffiyeh.
Brain: If you’ll allow me to start at the beginning, here we have a pair of Palestinian single-cell organisms, demonstrating that Palestinians have been indigenous to the region since life first began on earth…
Six hours later…
The screen now shows a primitive cartoon of a tank with the Star of David drawn on it in blue crayon with its turret gun pointing at stick figures of a baby, a nun, a pregnant woman and Burt and Ernie from Sesame Street.
Brain: Now given the situation today in Gaza, the college should, no MUST divest itself of all holdings that benefit the NaZionist occupier.
Hexter [looking warily at the Board members in the room]: Um, thank you very much for your edifying presentation Brian.
Brain (annoyed): Brain!
Hexter: Apologies, Brain. It’s just that we’ve been through this at least a dozen times with that Students for Justice in Palestine crowd. And like we keep telling them, we’ve already decided that Israel doesn’t rise to the level of human rights abusers of say Sudan, or Saudi Arabia, Hamas, or even France for that matter.
Board Member: Besides, since BDS got started, not one college in the country has divested, which I believe reflects the fact that divestment is really more about stuffing the BDS mantra of Israel = Apartheid into the mouth of a school like Hampshire using any means, fair or foul.
Another Board Member: And didn’t the Methodists reject divestment unanimously last year?
Still Another Board Member: And one of those BDSers smeared mud on themselves at the mall where my mother was shopping. Blecchhhhh!
Brain: I think I’m losing them, Pinky. It’s time for Plan B.
Pinky: Right! Plan B! Is that the one where I distract them by disguising as Paula Abdul and inviting them to audition?
Brain: No you dolt. Tonight’s Plan B. Activate the Hypno-Hat!
Pinky: Oh right Brain!
[Pinky throws a lever and the Hypno-Hat snaps over the top of the robot suit, covering Brain. The wheel begins to spin.]
Brain (speaking through a microphone within the hat): Fools! If you will not be convinced by my powers of persuasion, perhaps you will be more pliant as my Hypno-Hat takes control over what you laughably call your cerebral cortexes! You are now falling under my command! You will now do whatever Brain orders!
Board of Trustees in unison: We will do whatever The Brain tells us to do.
Brain’s voice coming from inside the hat: Yes Pinky! It’s working, just another minute of exposure to my hypnotic suggestions and the Board will be ready to divest from “Israel” forever!
Poit! Onto Part 3!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Hampshire and The Brain - Part 1
This latest piece was done on a dare from my reader.
In one of the final pieces I wrote on the Hampshire BDS conference, I made reference to the Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine’s “Pinky-and-the-Brain” type schemes to get Hampshire on board the BDS “bandwagon.” This is a reference to a 10+ year old Warner cartoon series featuring a pair of genetically engineered lab mice who every night concoct a sure-to-fail scheme to take over the world. This intro clip doesn’t do it justice, so anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about (at least more than usual) should feel free to remain bewildered.
Hampshire and The Brain - Part 1
Pinky (running on a wheel in his cage): What are we going to do tonight Brain?
Brain (turning towards the camera): The same thing we do every night Pinky: try to get Hampshire College to divest from Israel!
They’re Pinky and The Brain
Yes Pinky and the Brain
One is a genius, the other’s insane
They’ll do their very best
To get Hampshire to divest
They’re dinky, their Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain
Narf!
Scene 1: Pinky is playing with a keffiyeh, trying desperately to tie it around his head in a form that resembles Israel. Unfortunately, his attempts leave the scarf looking more like the former Soviet Union. Brain, in the meanwhile, is tinkering with some undisclosed technology.
Pinky: Look at me Brain! I’m Yassir Aeroflot!
Pinky puts his arms in the air and begins running around the cage. Brain grabs him by the snout, causing his keffiyeh to fly off.
Brain: While I appreciate your attempts at solidarity with the downtrodden, my cretinous companion, we have no time for such tomfoolery. For tonight, I have come up with my most ingenious plan yet for getting Hampshire College to remove investment’s that benefit the Zionist Entity from its $10,000 endowment.
Pinky: Are you going to send out press releases pretending the college already divested?
Brain: Pinky, think for a moment. What imbecile would believe a press release coming from a set of experimental laboratory mice? Why the idea is almost as ridiculous as a press release from a student group claiming to speak for the college. No, in order for such an announcement to be taken seriously it must come directly from Hampshire’s administration and Board of Trustees. And in order to secure such an annoucement: Behold, the Hypno-Hat!
Brain pulls off a sheet covering his latest creation: A top hat featuring a spinning hypno-wheel bolted to its brim. Pinky starts staring at the wheel, his head spinning in circles.
Brain: Just a few minutes of exposure to my Hypno-Hat and Hampshire’s Board of Trustees will do whatever I command. And I shall command them to sell off the $437.85 they currently have invested in the state of “Israel”.
Pinky (getting dizzy as he continues to stare at the hat’s spinning disk): That’s great Brain, but why do you have quote marks around “Israel?”
Brain: Never mind that now, Pinky [turning off the hat before his companion falls under its spell]. For tonight we shall achieve the greatest triumph for BDS in ten years.
Pinky: But wait a minute, what about Katie Couric?
Brain: Not CBS, you dolt, BDS: the global movement for boycott, sanctions and divestment against the so-called “Jewish state.”
Pinky: Oh right Brain! Oh wait, no. No. Your hat is really whirly-twirly and everything, but how are you going to get it in front of the entire Hampshire board?
Brain: I’m glad you asked that, Pinky. [Walking towards a computer which he operates with a pair of robot arms typing on the keyboard.] For as we speak, a six-point ballot I have created using my free SurveyChimp subscription is winging its way to every Hampshire student, alumni and teacher, including everyone who has ever visited the Eric Carl Museum. Behold!
Brain’s ballot/survey appears on the screen that reads the following:
We, the Undersigned, agree to the following six point plan for Hampshire College:
· Free beer in the dining hall
· Bongs installed in the public lavatories
· Sabbaticals extended to every month containing the letter R
· An end to ROTC recruitment on campus
· Free Eric Carl finger puppets for each museum visitor
Pinky: I can’t read the sixth point Brain. The print is too tiny.
Brain: Let me magnify it for you friend.
Brain hits another button which zooms in on the tiny print which now reads:
· And we declare The Brain to be the sole, legitimate representative of the Hampshire Student body
Brain: Now let’s see what has transpired since my petition hit Facebook a half an hour ago.
[The screen indicates that the petition has been signed by 800 people.]
Brain: Yes! The student body has unanimously declared me their spokesmouse. And tomorrow we will present our demands to the Hampshire Board of Trustees!
Pinky: Oh, nummy!
Go to Part 2
In one of the final pieces I wrote on the Hampshire BDS conference, I made reference to the Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine’s “Pinky-and-the-Brain” type schemes to get Hampshire on board the BDS “bandwagon.” This is a reference to a 10+ year old Warner cartoon series featuring a pair of genetically engineered lab mice who every night concoct a sure-to-fail scheme to take over the world. This intro clip doesn’t do it justice, so anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about (at least more than usual) should feel free to remain bewildered.
Hampshire and The Brain - Part 1
Pinky (running on a wheel in his cage): What are we going to do tonight Brain?
Brain (turning towards the camera): The same thing we do every night Pinky: try to get Hampshire College to divest from Israel!
They’re Pinky and The Brain
Yes Pinky and the Brain
One is a genius, the other’s insane
They’ll do their very best
To get Hampshire to divest
They’re dinky, their Pinky and the Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain
Narf!
Scene 1: Pinky is playing with a keffiyeh, trying desperately to tie it around his head in a form that resembles Israel. Unfortunately, his attempts leave the scarf looking more like the former Soviet Union. Brain, in the meanwhile, is tinkering with some undisclosed technology.
Pinky: Look at me Brain! I’m Yassir Aeroflot!
Pinky puts his arms in the air and begins running around the cage. Brain grabs him by the snout, causing his keffiyeh to fly off.
Brain: While I appreciate your attempts at solidarity with the downtrodden, my cretinous companion, we have no time for such tomfoolery. For tonight, I have come up with my most ingenious plan yet for getting Hampshire College to remove investment’s that benefit the Zionist Entity from its $10,000 endowment.
Pinky: Are you going to send out press releases pretending the college already divested?
Brain: Pinky, think for a moment. What imbecile would believe a press release coming from a set of experimental laboratory mice? Why the idea is almost as ridiculous as a press release from a student group claiming to speak for the college. No, in order for such an announcement to be taken seriously it must come directly from Hampshire’s administration and Board of Trustees. And in order to secure such an annoucement: Behold, the Hypno-Hat!
Brain pulls off a sheet covering his latest creation: A top hat featuring a spinning hypno-wheel bolted to its brim. Pinky starts staring at the wheel, his head spinning in circles.
Brain: Just a few minutes of exposure to my Hypno-Hat and Hampshire’s Board of Trustees will do whatever I command. And I shall command them to sell off the $437.85 they currently have invested in the state of “Israel”.
Pinky (getting dizzy as he continues to stare at the hat’s spinning disk): That’s great Brain, but why do you have quote marks around “Israel?”
Brain: Never mind that now, Pinky [turning off the hat before his companion falls under its spell]. For tonight we shall achieve the greatest triumph for BDS in ten years.
Pinky: But wait a minute, what about Katie Couric?
Brain: Not CBS, you dolt, BDS: the global movement for boycott, sanctions and divestment against the so-called “Jewish state.”
Pinky: Oh right Brain! Oh wait, no. No. Your hat is really whirly-twirly and everything, but how are you going to get it in front of the entire Hampshire board?
Brain: I’m glad you asked that, Pinky. [Walking towards a computer which he operates with a pair of robot arms typing on the keyboard.] For as we speak, a six-point ballot I have created using my free SurveyChimp subscription is winging its way to every Hampshire student, alumni and teacher, including everyone who has ever visited the Eric Carl Museum. Behold!
Brain’s ballot/survey appears on the screen that reads the following:
We, the Undersigned, agree to the following six point plan for Hampshire College:
· Free beer in the dining hall
· Bongs installed in the public lavatories
· Sabbaticals extended to every month containing the letter R
· An end to ROTC recruitment on campus
· Free Eric Carl finger puppets for each museum visitor
Pinky: I can’t read the sixth point Brain. The print is too tiny.
Brain: Let me magnify it for you friend.
Brain hits another button which zooms in on the tiny print which now reads:
· And we declare The Brain to be the sole, legitimate representative of the Hampshire Student body
Brain: Now let’s see what has transpired since my petition hit Facebook a half an hour ago.
[The screen indicates that the petition has been signed by 800 people.]
Brain: Yes! The student body has unanimously declared me their spokesmouse. And tomorrow we will present our demands to the Hampshire Board of Trustees!
Pinky: Oh, nummy!
Go to Part 2
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Invest
Whenever divestment hits a college or other institution, a frequent response of divestment opponents is to propose positive investment in companies and organizations that support both Arabs and Jews in Israel as a counter to the wholly negative program of divestment.
While investment is a logical response to BDS, one that reflects the commendable desire to build and grow vs. punish and destroy, I’ve rarely seen much come out of these suggestions. Partly this is because divestment really has nothing to do with business or economics. As has been pointed out here again and again, BDS is a political propaganda project, one designed to drag high-profile organizations (by any means necessary) under the banner of “Israel=Apartheid.” As such, the idea of investing to benefit the people of the region means nothing to advocates of boycott, divestment and sanction.
But even when investment in the region is proposed (regardless of whether or not such suggestions were triggered by a divestment program), such projects are difficult to sustain (assuming they can get off the ground in the first place). This is no great surprise since most activism (particularly campus activism) involves short bursts of activity: holding a rally, protesting an event, sponsoring panel discussions or educational events, etc., etc.. These are all extremely important and valuable activities, but not ones that fit the “buy and hold” timeframes required for involvement in a real investment program.
Can this circle be squared? Can these noble sentiments for positive change via investment be channeled in a direction where they can do long-term good?
Enter the Israeli economy.
Two books, The Israel Test and Startup Nation have come out recently highlighting the incredible dynamism of Israel’s entrepreneurial society, one which continues to grow and thrive despite 60 years of being in the cross-hairs of every dysfunctional government in the Middle East, despite endless war and terror, despite even the recent economic downturn.
Such an economy provides open doors for those offering to combine good ideas, hard work and a willingness to take risks. And a group of students at the University of Michigan has walked through one of those doors, creating the Tamid Israel Investment Group, a remarkable student-run organization that connects members with entrepreneurs in Israel, providing opportunities to invest, intern and generally take part in the project that is Israel in ways that jibe with these student’s emerging identities as international businessmen and women.
Now this is not to say that taking part in the wide variety of social, religious and political organizations designed to support Israel should be supplanted by a drive towards economics and business. As we’ve seen in the two decades since Oslo, economic development will not create the incentive for those who prefer war to opt for peace. The battle against BDS, like the battle to defend Israel from its enemies and defamers can and must go on at all levels.
But one of those levels can and should be the practical activities of business. Tamid (an organization I can only hope will spread to campuses across the nation) provides students who may not have felt they had a stake in the Jewish state a way to connect deeply and professionally with Israel, creating bonds that will last a lifetime. And if they can accelerate their careers and grow the Israeli economy in the process, so much the better.
While investment is a logical response to BDS, one that reflects the commendable desire to build and grow vs. punish and destroy, I’ve rarely seen much come out of these suggestions. Partly this is because divestment really has nothing to do with business or economics. As has been pointed out here again and again, BDS is a political propaganda project, one designed to drag high-profile organizations (by any means necessary) under the banner of “Israel=Apartheid.” As such, the idea of investing to benefit the people of the region means nothing to advocates of boycott, divestment and sanction.
But even when investment in the region is proposed (regardless of whether or not such suggestions were triggered by a divestment program), such projects are difficult to sustain (assuming they can get off the ground in the first place). This is no great surprise since most activism (particularly campus activism) involves short bursts of activity: holding a rally, protesting an event, sponsoring panel discussions or educational events, etc., etc.. These are all extremely important and valuable activities, but not ones that fit the “buy and hold” timeframes required for involvement in a real investment program.
Can this circle be squared? Can these noble sentiments for positive change via investment be channeled in a direction where they can do long-term good?
Enter the Israeli economy.
Two books, The Israel Test and Startup Nation have come out recently highlighting the incredible dynamism of Israel’s entrepreneurial society, one which continues to grow and thrive despite 60 years of being in the cross-hairs of every dysfunctional government in the Middle East, despite endless war and terror, despite even the recent economic downturn.
Such an economy provides open doors for those offering to combine good ideas, hard work and a willingness to take risks. And a group of students at the University of Michigan has walked through one of those doors, creating the Tamid Israel Investment Group, a remarkable student-run organization that connects members with entrepreneurs in Israel, providing opportunities to invest, intern and generally take part in the project that is Israel in ways that jibe with these student’s emerging identities as international businessmen and women.
Now this is not to say that taking part in the wide variety of social, religious and political organizations designed to support Israel should be supplanted by a drive towards economics and business. As we’ve seen in the two decades since Oslo, economic development will not create the incentive for those who prefer war to opt for peace. The battle against BDS, like the battle to defend Israel from its enemies and defamers can and must go on at all levels.
But one of those levels can and should be the practical activities of business. Tamid (an organization I can only hope will spread to campuses across the nation) provides students who may not have felt they had a stake in the Jewish state a way to connect deeply and professionally with Israel, creating bonds that will last a lifetime. And if they can accelerate their careers and grow the Israeli economy in the process, so much the better.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Clip Show 6: A New Generation of Gnats
Now this one may represent my desire to unnecessarily "get the boot in" one more time, but the bombast associated with the self-evaluation of the event really left me no choice. After all, a group of kids getting together to plan how to effectively lie to the public while simultaneoulsy lying to themselves hardly seems the equivalent of The Greatest Generation.
And so, in conclusion...
I wrote recently about events like the BDS conference at Hampshire College being primarily about the BDSers themselves, an event adding up to little more than a group hug during which the divestment crowd could sing their own praises and crow about their unquestionable virtue.
While I've grown used to the self-important bombast that turns up whenever I give folks like Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine a gentle ribbing (especially one that ends up taking up the bulk of the first page of Google search results for "Hampshire BDS"), nothing I could ever write would rival the near parody level self-congratulations of this piece.
A few Divest This operatives attended the Hampshire event last weekend (they were the girls wearing fake beards if anyone who attended is reading this) and gave me the skinny on what went on. Naturally, I was most curious about how the BDSers managed to spend an entire weekend ginning up the troops while having to work around the little detail that their Pinky and the Brain-type schemes have met with nothing but failure over the last eight years. With zero colleges choosing to divest after all that time (and Hampshire providing an abject lesson to college administrators nationwide on what can happen if you give the BDS crowd the time of day), with churches running from their program, with "right wing" groups like J Street abandoning their squalid little project, how would they apply their innovative imaginations into spinning excrement into gold? Envelope please!
It turns out that the utter lack of real BDS victories is more than made up for by the fact that AIPAC, J-Street, et al have been forced to react to their activities! In other words, condemnation from their enemies is proof positive of not just relevance, but unstoppable political momentum! Come again? Can anyone play this game? Does the divestnista's endless harping on Israel and its supporters mean our success if finally getting to them? That we're now too unstoppable to ignore? Or is it only the BDSniks who get to demand we agree to the endlessly changing terms by which the success of their "movement" is to be judged? In the past, I described BDS as resembling a lame pickup artist that highlights the sheer number of their unsuccessful advances as proof of their sexual prowess. But their latest interpretation take the metaphor one step further, whereby everyone in the bar asking them to keep their hands to themselves or get out is further proof that they must really be getting somewhere!
I'll return tomorrow with a description of some real heroes of the Happy Valley, not self-important, self-described "Giants," but simple happy warriors with their hearts in the right place.
And so, in conclusion...
I wrote recently about events like the BDS conference at Hampshire College being primarily about the BDSers themselves, an event adding up to little more than a group hug during which the divestment crowd could sing their own praises and crow about their unquestionable virtue.
While I've grown used to the self-important bombast that turns up whenever I give folks like Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine a gentle ribbing (especially one that ends up taking up the bulk of the first page of Google search results for "Hampshire BDS"), nothing I could ever write would rival the near parody level self-congratulations of this piece.
A few Divest This operatives attended the Hampshire event last weekend (they were the girls wearing fake beards if anyone who attended is reading this) and gave me the skinny on what went on. Naturally, I was most curious about how the BDSers managed to spend an entire weekend ginning up the troops while having to work around the little detail that their Pinky and the Brain-type schemes have met with nothing but failure over the last eight years. With zero colleges choosing to divest after all that time (and Hampshire providing an abject lesson to college administrators nationwide on what can happen if you give the BDS crowd the time of day), with churches running from their program, with "right wing" groups like J Street abandoning their squalid little project, how would they apply their innovative imaginations into spinning excrement into gold? Envelope please!
It turns out that the utter lack of real BDS victories is more than made up for by the fact that AIPAC, J-Street, et al have been forced to react to their activities! In other words, condemnation from their enemies is proof positive of not just relevance, but unstoppable political momentum! Come again? Can anyone play this game? Does the divestnista's endless harping on Israel and its supporters mean our success if finally getting to them? That we're now too unstoppable to ignore? Or is it only the BDSniks who get to demand we agree to the endlessly changing terms by which the success of their "movement" is to be judged? In the past, I described BDS as resembling a lame pickup artist that highlights the sheer number of their unsuccessful advances as proof of their sexual prowess. But their latest interpretation take the metaphor one step further, whereby everyone in the bar asking them to keep their hands to themselves or get out is further proof that they must really be getting somewhere!
I'll return tomorrow with a description of some real heroes of the Happy Valley, not self-important, self-described "Giants," but simple happy warriors with their hearts in the right place.
Clip Show 5: Et tu J-Street
With Hampshire's BDS conference fading into insignificance, I wanted to wrap up the clip-show consolidation of information on that event with my last two entries on the subject. This one appeared the day before the Hampshire meeting when J-Street came out condemning BDS in general, and the Hampshire event in particular. Now there's a lot to be said about J Street (which a friend of mine is saying), but I still consider it interesting how loathesome BDS has become that condemning it is a way for even contraversial groups to prove their alleged support for the Jewish state.
Oh, and I was wrong about the J Street statement being ignored by the Hamshire BDS-ites. So bereft of real victories are they that they talked incesssently about the statement, claiming it was proof positive that their ultimate triumph is assured. Dream on...
Well the Hampshire BDS conference begins tonight (be still my heart). Yet even as the divestment "juggernaut" keeps careening between defeat and hoax, the only thing that seems to be gaining momentum is the backlash against what will be discussed during the boycotter's upcoming Sabbath celebration.
Academic boycott seems to particularly strike a nerve here in the US with organizations like the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers not only rejecting the notion in the US, but condemning fellow unions in other countries for even considering such an assault on academic freedom.
Think about San Francisco State College for a minute. Here is a school in which administration indifference has allowed Israel-hatred to reach such a fevered pitch that mobs hurling death threats against pro-Israel demonstrators are treated as free-speech practitioners. Yet even here, the President of SF State has seen fit to condemn BDS as "deeply wrong - and deeply dangerous." On the academic boycott in particular, she says: "An academic boycott is a wrongheaded tactic that diminishes any institution that would pursue it," Corrigan wrote. "It is antithetical to this University's values of inclusion and mutual respect ... An academic boycott is anathema to such civil discourse."
Disgust with BDS has even reached the corridors of J Street, a lobbying organization that has drawn considerable controversy for the distance between its self-proclaimed identity as "pro-Israel" and its political stances that many claim are at odds with the security needs of the Jewish state. J Street has protested Israel's actions in Gaza. It has lobbied against sanctions being placed on Iran. It has condemned the US Congress for its rejection of the Goldstone Report. Yet even J Street condemned BDS generally, and the upcoming Hampshire conference specifically.
Given the difficulty of characterizing SF State and J Street as "right-wing Zealots," these latest setbacks are likely to be ignored as the Hampshire SJPians begin their "March to Victory" weekend celebrations and poetry readings. But it is intriguing to think about why BDS is receiving such widespread rejection on the furthest edges of both ends of the political spectrum.
One possible explanation is that people are starting to realize that actual (vs. fantasy) divestment and boycott comes at a cost. Particularly in the case of academic boycott, a boycotting school would have to formally place itself outside of the consensus regarding the free exchange of ideas. Now it's one thing to stand back while a bunch of Jewish students get attacked by a mob on your campus, but to have your face plastered in the newspapers as supporting an end to academic dialog for political reasons is too much even for the leadership of San Francisco State.
There also seems to be a trend whereby controversial organizations (like J Street) use their condemnation of BDS to prove their pro-Israel bone fides. To a certain extent, this is meant to insulate them from criticism for their other activities, but it does say something that BDS is understood as being so loathsome that condemnation of boycott would be considered a safe choice for a political fig leaf.
The last possibility is reflected in a boldfaced line in the J Street condemnation against BDS: "we're all going to get burned unless we speak out now." Ever aware of the latest political barometric pressure readings, J Street understands that BDS is a big, fat loser, and rather than go down with the ship supporting a strategy that is not only loathsome but so bereft of victories that it has to invent some, they've taken the safe route of placing divestment beyond the pale.
Oh, and I was wrong about the J Street statement being ignored by the Hamshire BDS-ites. So bereft of real victories are they that they talked incesssently about the statement, claiming it was proof positive that their ultimate triumph is assured. Dream on...
Well the Hampshire BDS conference begins tonight (be still my heart). Yet even as the divestment "juggernaut" keeps careening between defeat and hoax, the only thing that seems to be gaining momentum is the backlash against what will be discussed during the boycotter's upcoming Sabbath celebration.
Academic boycott seems to particularly strike a nerve here in the US with organizations like the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers not only rejecting the notion in the US, but condemning fellow unions in other countries for even considering such an assault on academic freedom.
Think about San Francisco State College for a minute. Here is a school in which administration indifference has allowed Israel-hatred to reach such a fevered pitch that mobs hurling death threats against pro-Israel demonstrators are treated as free-speech practitioners. Yet even here, the President of SF State has seen fit to condemn BDS as "deeply wrong - and deeply dangerous." On the academic boycott in particular, she says: "An academic boycott is a wrongheaded tactic that diminishes any institution that would pursue it," Corrigan wrote. "It is antithetical to this University's values of inclusion and mutual respect ... An academic boycott is anathema to such civil discourse."
Disgust with BDS has even reached the corridors of J Street, a lobbying organization that has drawn considerable controversy for the distance between its self-proclaimed identity as "pro-Israel" and its political stances that many claim are at odds with the security needs of the Jewish state. J Street has protested Israel's actions in Gaza. It has lobbied against sanctions being placed on Iran. It has condemned the US Congress for its rejection of the Goldstone Report. Yet even J Street condemned BDS generally, and the upcoming Hampshire conference specifically.
Given the difficulty of characterizing SF State and J Street as "right-wing Zealots," these latest setbacks are likely to be ignored as the Hampshire SJPians begin their "March to Victory" weekend celebrations and poetry readings. But it is intriguing to think about why BDS is receiving such widespread rejection on the furthest edges of both ends of the political spectrum.
One possible explanation is that people are starting to realize that actual (vs. fantasy) divestment and boycott comes at a cost. Particularly in the case of academic boycott, a boycotting school would have to formally place itself outside of the consensus regarding the free exchange of ideas. Now it's one thing to stand back while a bunch of Jewish students get attacked by a mob on your campus, but to have your face plastered in the newspapers as supporting an end to academic dialog for political reasons is too much even for the leadership of San Francisco State.
There also seems to be a trend whereby controversial organizations (like J Street) use their condemnation of BDS to prove their pro-Israel bone fides. To a certain extent, this is meant to insulate them from criticism for their other activities, but it does say something that BDS is understood as being so loathsome that condemnation of boycott would be considered a safe choice for a political fig leaf.
The last possibility is reflected in a boldfaced line in the J Street condemnation against BDS: "we're all going to get burned unless we speak out now." Ever aware of the latest political barometric pressure readings, J Street understands that BDS is a big, fat loser, and rather than go down with the ship supporting a strategy that is not only loathsome but so bereft of victories that it has to invent some, they've taken the safe route of placing divestment beyond the pale.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Divestment Article in Jerusalem Post
I just had something published on this subject at the Jerusalem Post.
Enjoy:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259243065278&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Enjoy:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259243065278&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
England, France, Underpants!
A brief break from Hampshire to talk about the latest activity from our friends up North:
Riddle me this, readers! What might cause underwear sales to skyrocket in our French and English speaking neighbor to the north?
The answer is three simple letters: B – Doh! – S.
Perhaps I should explain. And don’t worry, I’ll be brief (sorry – couldn’t resist).
I’ve talked before about Canadian BDS activity tending to focus on product boycotts, mostly consisting of a dozen or so protestors showing up to an local wine store or other retailer to demand an end to the sale of this or that Israeli product. There’s often a fig leaf of claiming to only be boycotting products that are somehow involved with “The Occupation” (one more time: Bogga, Bogga, Bogga!), even though (as one commenter pointed out) BDS boycotting has extended to Sabra Hummus made in that well-known Israeli settlement of Queens, NY.
Be that as it may, product boycotts never tend to turn out well for the protestors (most notably encapsulated in the protest of a Toronto wine store that turned into a Zionist wine-buying, drinking-in-the-streets, victory party). But that’s not stopped the boycotters from showing up at new venues for more of the “Thank you sir, may I have another!” treatment.
Last weekend, it was the Canadian sporting goods retailer Mountain Equipment Coop (or MEC) that got “the visit,” with 12 protestors outside it’s Vancouver store and another 10 outside it’s Calgary store demanding the organization stop selling long underwear manufactured by the Zionist entity.
Unfortunately for them the long arm of the Yehden/Zion/Neocon conspiracy extends to long johns. In this case, the backhand came from our old friends at Buycott Israel who put out the word that Canadian friends of Israel could show their support by buying MEC supportive undergarments the following day (Sunday).
Could there possibly be better laboratory conditions to compare support for BDS vs. support for Israel in the Great White North? And the results? According to an MEC spokesperson, sales of Israeli leggings soared over the weekend, with 69% of all men’s long underwear sales and 76% of all women’s for the entire four week period taking place on that single day. And, as one friend calculated, running those numbers across the entire four week period means the BDS protest against dreaded Zionist undergarments led to a 2000% increase in sales.
OK, perhaps this particular calculation is hitting the BDSers below the belt (OK, I'll stop now). But I think it’s safe to say that any way you slice the numbers the Battle of Underpants (like the previously mentioned Battle of Wine or the Battle of Couscous) has to go to the makers, sellers and buyers of Israeli goods, rather than the purveyors of boycott’s poison.
Rumor has it that Canadian retailers are stocking up on Israeli products and praying the boycott/Buycott bandwagon comes their way. Given that every boycott protest does us the double service of massively increasing sales of Israeli products while simultaneously making the BDSers look ever more ridiculous, we can only hope the BDS brigade decides to double down on this brilliant strategy.
Riddle me this, readers! What might cause underwear sales to skyrocket in our French and English speaking neighbor to the north?
The answer is three simple letters: B – Doh! – S.
Perhaps I should explain. And don’t worry, I’ll be brief (sorry – couldn’t resist).
I’ve talked before about Canadian BDS activity tending to focus on product boycotts, mostly consisting of a dozen or so protestors showing up to an local wine store or other retailer to demand an end to the sale of this or that Israeli product. There’s often a fig leaf of claiming to only be boycotting products that are somehow involved with “The Occupation” (one more time: Bogga, Bogga, Bogga!), even though (as one commenter pointed out) BDS boycotting has extended to Sabra Hummus made in that well-known Israeli settlement of Queens, NY.
Be that as it may, product boycotts never tend to turn out well for the protestors (most notably encapsulated in the protest of a Toronto wine store that turned into a Zionist wine-buying, drinking-in-the-streets, victory party). But that’s not stopped the boycotters from showing up at new venues for more of the “Thank you sir, may I have another!” treatment.
Last weekend, it was the Canadian sporting goods retailer Mountain Equipment Coop (or MEC) that got “the visit,” with 12 protestors outside it’s Vancouver store and another 10 outside it’s Calgary store demanding the organization stop selling long underwear manufactured by the Zionist entity.
Unfortunately for them the long arm of the Yehden/Zion/Neocon conspiracy extends to long johns. In this case, the backhand came from our old friends at Buycott Israel who put out the word that Canadian friends of Israel could show their support by buying MEC supportive undergarments the following day (Sunday).
Could there possibly be better laboratory conditions to compare support for BDS vs. support for Israel in the Great White North? And the results? According to an MEC spokesperson, sales of Israeli leggings soared over the weekend, with 69% of all men’s long underwear sales and 76% of all women’s for the entire four week period taking place on that single day. And, as one friend calculated, running those numbers across the entire four week period means the BDS protest against dreaded Zionist undergarments led to a 2000% increase in sales.
OK, perhaps this particular calculation is hitting the BDSers below the belt (OK, I'll stop now). But I think it’s safe to say that any way you slice the numbers the Battle of Underpants (like the previously mentioned Battle of Wine or the Battle of Couscous) has to go to the makers, sellers and buyers of Israeli goods, rather than the purveyors of boycott’s poison.
Rumor has it that Canadian retailers are stocking up on Israeli products and praying the boycott/Buycott bandwagon comes their way. Given that every boycott protest does us the double service of massively increasing sales of Israeli products while simultaneously making the BDSers look ever more ridiculous, we can only hope the BDS brigade decides to double down on this brilliant strategy.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Clip Show 4: Bonding with BDS
This piece grew out of my curiousity as to how the Hampshire BDS kids planned to create a feeling of momentum around a program (divestment) that has all but ground to a halt in terms of actual institutions making actual divestment decisions (as opposed to the trivial and/or fake "victories" the divestment crowd has been crowing about all year). This grew into some speculation that the point of BDS may have more to do with social bonding than actual politics [fade to flashback]...
The agenda for this weekend's Hampshire BDS conference is up, and it's fair to say that they've put together a pretty comprehensive program. Given that this event (and similar ones on other campuses) is likely a spin off from the 8th annual national divestment meeting that took place in Chicago earlier this year, you can't say that the Israel-dislikers out there have not been putting time, money and resources into this tactic over the last decade.
Which begs the question as to why, after nearly ten years of effort, they have far less to show for themselves than they did even four years ago?
One explanation (the one BDS champions have used in the past) is that it takes time to build a movement, and that everything that's taken place over the last 8+ years are small steps that will culminate in their overall victory getting Israel branded as the successor to Apartheid South Africa. But if we are to measure progress by success, rather than noise level, at best BDS is a project that has had its ups and downs, but is generally trending southward in terms of actual institutional victories.
Another explanation is that the early victories of BDS (Presbyterians, British unions) and divestment hoaxes (Hampshire, TIAA-CREF ) created countervailing forces in the form of activists such as myself, and awareness by those who would be involved with divestment decisions of the nastiness that underlies boycott, divestment and sanctions. In this way, the Presbyterian Church took one for Mainline Christianity by getting infected, healing and then spreading its antibodies around its fellow churches.
There is a third option (one that, admittedly, remains speculative) that BDS conferences like the one at Hampshire this weekend are ends in themselves. Under this interpretation, the purpose of these events is to make the participants feel like they are all part of a virtuous, all-seeing vanguard that understands the world in ways the masses who overwhelmingly support Israel and reject BDS do not.
Given the number of Israel=Apartheid events featuring posters with the world "Apartheid" misspelled, it's safe to say that current campus Boycott Israel participants are not propelled by experience or understanding of what the injustice of Apartheid was really like (beyond being a dirty word with emotional resonance). And given the speed at which BDSers turn their head and spin on their heels whenever they're confronted with their indifference to genuine human rights abuses committed by their political allies, it's safe to say that the distance between their virtuous self-image and reality remains as vast as ever.
Which gets us back to the notion that hate-fests like Israel-Apartheid Week and divestment hoax celebrations like this weekend's event at Hampshire may actually serve as a form of social bonding for the participants, rather than as a genuine form of political activity. After all, a truly political movement would have to put at least a few minutes into thinking through the consequences of their actions. And given how much worse the plight of the very Palestinians BDSers claim to care so much about has gotten with every year the divestment bandwagon marches on, serious political reflection is the one thing that won't be on the agenda at Hampshire this weekend.
The agenda for this weekend's Hampshire BDS conference is up, and it's fair to say that they've put together a pretty comprehensive program. Given that this event (and similar ones on other campuses) is likely a spin off from the 8th annual national divestment meeting that took place in Chicago earlier this year, you can't say that the Israel-dislikers out there have not been putting time, money and resources into this tactic over the last decade.
Which begs the question as to why, after nearly ten years of effort, they have far less to show for themselves than they did even four years ago?
One explanation (the one BDS champions have used in the past) is that it takes time to build a movement, and that everything that's taken place over the last 8+ years are small steps that will culminate in their overall victory getting Israel branded as the successor to Apartheid South Africa. But if we are to measure progress by success, rather than noise level, at best BDS is a project that has had its ups and downs, but is generally trending southward in terms of actual institutional victories.
Another explanation is that the early victories of BDS (Presbyterians, British unions) and divestment hoaxes (Hampshire, TIAA-CREF ) created countervailing forces in the form of activists such as myself, and awareness by those who would be involved with divestment decisions of the nastiness that underlies boycott, divestment and sanctions. In this way, the Presbyterian Church took one for Mainline Christianity by getting infected, healing and then spreading its antibodies around its fellow churches.
There is a third option (one that, admittedly, remains speculative) that BDS conferences like the one at Hampshire this weekend are ends in themselves. Under this interpretation, the purpose of these events is to make the participants feel like they are all part of a virtuous, all-seeing vanguard that understands the world in ways the masses who overwhelmingly support Israel and reject BDS do not.
Given the number of Israel=Apartheid events featuring posters with the world "Apartheid" misspelled, it's safe to say that current campus Boycott Israel participants are not propelled by experience or understanding of what the injustice of Apartheid was really like (beyond being a dirty word with emotional resonance). And given the speed at which BDSers turn their head and spin on their heels whenever they're confronted with their indifference to genuine human rights abuses committed by their political allies, it's safe to say that the distance between their virtuous self-image and reality remains as vast as ever.
Which gets us back to the notion that hate-fests like Israel-Apartheid Week and divestment hoax celebrations like this weekend's event at Hampshire may actually serve as a form of social bonding for the participants, rather than as a genuine form of political activity. After all, a truly political movement would have to put at least a few minutes into thinking through the consequences of their actions. And given how much worse the plight of the very Palestinians BDSers claim to care so much about has gotten with every year the divestment bandwagon marches on, serious political reflection is the one thing that won't be on the agenda at Hampshire this weekend.
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