I do not support boycotting the State of Israel. On the contrary, I believe those of us who care about Israelis and Palestinians should support those brave Israelis (B'tselem, Peace Now, Rabbis for Human Rights, Gush Shalom, Machsom Watch, Gisha, Israelis Against Home Demolitions, etc. ) who fight the occupation with everything they have. These Israelis (I particularly think of Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis For Human Rights) actually put their bodies on the line to fight settlers and soldiers when the need arises. I think of Uri Avney, the old Haganah fighter, who has struggled against the occupation from the beginning. I think of Emil Grunzweig and Yitzhak Rabin who were both murdered by the Jewish right for supporting an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.
Boycotting Israel would mean boycotting people like them and other like-minded Israelis (as in liberal, secular North Tel Aviv) who hate the occupation and try to end it.
But I do favor boycotting West Bank settlements for obvious reasons. The settlement movement is, in its results, profoundly anti-Israel and anti-Palestinian. That is because it is the most powerful obstacle to ending the occupation and achieving peace with the Palestinians. And that means, ultimately, the end of the Jewish state.
That is why progressives need to make sure we do nothing to support the settlements. And that means not buying any products manufactured in settlements. (Here is a list of products from the settlements. Buy their American, European or Israeli equivalents but not these.)
Now progressive Israeli are boycotting a theater in the Ariel settlement, one of the largest settlement towns built smack in the middle of the West Bank. The boycotters include the most prominent Israeli writers, Amos Oz and David Grossman, and some 150 others. The Israeli right is threatening to destroy the careers of any Israeli artist who refuses to perform or have their works performed in the West Bank. But the boycott is going ahead anyway. Actually, the threats of the crazed right has energized it.
And now Hollywood and Broadway are joining the boycott. The American effort to support the Israeli artists is organized by Jewish Voice for Peace. JVP has put together an impressive list, but there are some missing names that should be there. The list needs George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks, Angelina Jolie (to make up for her dad, Jon Voight, who is a deranged Muslim hater) and big Jewish artists like James Franco, Drake, Larry David, Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal, the Coen Brothers, Barbra Streisand, Sasha Baron Cohen, and Scarlett Johannson.
I don't know if these artists are aware of the boycott. But I fear that they might think that supporting their Israeli colleagues might be construed as anti-Israel. It would be, but only by the tiny Jewish and Israeli far right which these stars can afford to write off. (The crazy right tends to insulate themselves from the modern world and non-Jewish culture, so they don't go to movies anyway).
Hollywood progressives should do the right thing, which is supporting the boycott of the settlements. That is not only the pro-Israel thing to do; it is also supporting the end of the oppression of Palestinians, who are routinely brutalized by these same settlers. Yes to Israel. No to settlements.
Stars, have your people contact JVP's people.
HERE IS THE LATEST LIST OF THOSE ARTISTS SUPPORTING THE BOYCOTT.
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But really, one gets used to this sort of false debate.
How about: If we penalized the Palestinians for electing Hamas by cutting off all foreign aid, then do the same by cutting off all aid, loan guarantees and tax breaks to Israel for electing obstructionist governments.
Now THAT would be logical.
Happy New Year!
Then boycott banks and other financial institutions that do business with Israel.
Only then will Israel negotiate a true peace deal when they are on an equal poverty footing with Palestine.
However the Hasbara types have used this word for their convenience. The only way Israel might understand that the world is not pleased with their tactics is to boycott everything Israel. Holding another nation under siege, and controlling what they can get into their country, and out of it, is unacceptable, especially when it is food and medicine, basic human needs. The world is slowly opening it's eyes and realizing the Israel has played the defense game too many times, and breaking far too many international laws. When you behave like a rogue nation, you should be treated like one. I hope our Hollywood personalities, can be fair enough, to put aside their loyalties
and make a statement, like they have for other law breaking nations.
OK, the myth about the "food, medicine and basic human needs" was dispelled long ago. Even the Pals admit they are "not starving"....there are in depth posts about that, so I will not bother to repeat.
"I hope our Hollywood personalities, can be fair enough..." to see that if they are going to "boycott everything Israel" then they should also boycott everything Hamas. It is always the *occupation* as the excuse for everything wrong the Pals do.....so I would ask you, why did they not want peace BEFORE the occupation?
The Israeli blockade of Gaza ensures that the entire world is in an enforced and prolonged boycott of Gaza manufactured goods.
Calls to boycott Jewish businesses in Palestine Mandate were heard as early as the 1920s. To enforce them, the Arab "leadership" (and the "rioters" who did their bid) used and threatened violence against those Arabs who tried to do business with the Jews.
"The Arab Executive Committee of the Syria-Palestine Congress called for a boycott of Jewish businesses in 1933 and in 1934, the Arab Labor Federation conducted a boycott as well as an organized picketing of Jewish businesses. In 1936, the Palestinian Arab leadership called on another boycott and threatened those who did not respect the boycott with violence..." a.s.o. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_boycott)
Post-1948, after being repeatedly defeated in their attempt to destroy the Jewish state by military force, the Arabs tried (unsuccessfully, of course) to starve it by boycotts and blockades. Smaller/less developed non-Arab countries were blackmailed into adhering to the boycott. Such boycotts included:
- Products/services originating in Israel
- Businesses doing business with Israel
- Businesses shipping or flying into Israeli ports/airports
- Foreign nationals with Israeli visas in their passports
Well, haters can continue to do their worst. But pretending that this is either "new" or "non-violent" presupposes that people are either stupid or ignorant. Unfortunately for the haters, most are not.
Everybody other observer in the world knows its because of Israels grotesque treatment of Palestinians and its disregard for international law and simple human dignity. Stay ignorant if you wish. We know different.
Boycott. Divest. Sanction.
Very few Europeans and Americans boycott Israel (see Israel's strong exports to both USA and Europe). Those few who do... some may be antisemites; the majority are just naive -- they are dupes of the hate propaganda.
Of course, you will be persuading yourself that you are winning... Arabs have been telling themselves this for 100 years now. No, you're not winning. Quite the opposite -- Israel's economy is booming (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2015602,00.html). But hey, keep hoping. As long as the Arabs will remain obsessed with defeating Israel, they will remain underdeveloped, meaning that they can't defeat it. It's called a vicious circle -- an apt name in this case.
However , I shall boycott all Israeli companies and anyone who travels there as I cant trust israel to tell the truth about where products come from.
Its purpose is not to throw out useful equipment and products where the money has already been spent. That obviously has no value and would have no efect on the Israeli economy.
While you are of course entitled to your opinion (pro-settlements, anti-settlements, pro-Israel, anti-Israel, whetever) my question to you is: if you DO support Israel's right to exist as the state of the Jewish people, why provide ammunition to those who don't?
And try and complete your excercise in dispensing nonsense as sound observations with something like..."if you DO support Israel's right to exist as the state of the Jewish people, why do you provide ammunition to those who don't?"
Textbook example NTT - thank you very much.
Do you agree that Israel should be the state of the Jewish people, just as the Palestinian people should have their own state? I.e. "two states for two peoples"?
"...fail to includeIsrael on the map and instead label all of it"Palestine"
according to research done on ME textbooks by CMIP.
I was talking to serious people, Nwo2012.
President Jimmy Carter helped produced the Sadat-Begin Camp David agreement in which, after much yelling in protest, Israel gave up 100% of the Sinai peninsula (captured by Israel in '67, just like the West Bank). Israel destroyed its settlements including a whole city, Yamit, and -- and this Israel said it would never do -- its Sinai air force bases.
In exchange, it got peace with the largest and most powerful Arab country, making a pan-Arab attack on Israel impossible. The peace is a cold one. BUT not a single shot has been fired in anger since the two signed the agreement. That border is 100% safe and without a wall.
But Israelis wondered. "What if the crazy militants kill Sadat because he signed the agreement. We can't really trust these dictatorships. We are a democracy so democratic continuity governs and one leader must live up to the obligations agreed to by another.
Then Sadat was killed precisely because he made peace with Israel. Mubarak took over, announced that the status of the peace with Israel was unchanged, and so it has been for 30 years.
Then there was the Oslo agreement. Rabin signs it with Arafat. The United States is the guarantor. A crazed Israeli fanatic -- identical to the thugs who killed Sadat -- murdered Rabin for signing Oslo. A new prime minister is elected, Prime Minister Netanyahu, who instantly repudiates Oslo and refuses to live up to its
to honor its commitments.
Peace with Egypt saved, no doubt, thousands of Israeli and Egyptian lives. But the same people, the lobby and the firsters, who fought Carter tooth and nail on his determination to get Israel out of Sinai, are even more determined to keep the West Bank and keep the war going.
1. Mubarak's "throne" is built on sand. Nobody knows who his successor will be and what that successor will do. One can safely assume that the Muslem Brotherhood (who killed Sadat and tried to kill Mubarak) will make a bid for power following the latter's demise.
2. The Oslo process was not "repudiated" by Netanyahu. It was killed by Palestinian terrorism, along with the 252 Israelis (and 1100 wounded) between Oslo and 2001. Indeed the 1994-1996 wave of suicide bombings is what brought Netanyahu to power in the first place. Requiring Netanyahu (or any other Israeli PM) to "honor his commitments" while the Palestinian side did not is pure nonsense.
1. Mubarak has maintained peace for thirty years. Your safe assumptions are likely to be built on sand, since whoever succeeds Mubarak will continue to receive military aid from the US on the grounds of continued support of the Israeli/Egyptian Peace Treaty.
2. Netanyahu's stance on the Oslo Agreement was proclaimed from his own mouth in the "family conversation" video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6KLFrye9Xk&feature=related
and since he had executive power at the time logically he is the one to blame.
"What saddens me today is that any Jew who speaks out with an independent voice especially with the conduct of the State of Israel, is regarded as a self-hating Jew.....Why should someone be made to choose between being a jew and ahving a conscience?"
In November 2009, the Israeli authorities took away Yitzchak Imas' weapons permit, because of his participation in the Temple Institute, a peaceful organization that attempts to preserve the Jewish claim to the Temple Mount, the site of two temples, which Muslims hijacked in order to build their Dome of the Rock. Yitzchak led groups to the Temple Mount to remind them that the site is part of the Jewish cultural and religious heritage. An act that upset and enraged the Muslims. To the Israeli authorities that made him an extremist, as anyone who upsets Muslims is considered to be an extremist.
Yitzchak Imas was disarmed and left unable to defend his pregnant wife and the other passengers in his car. Because by upsetting Muslims he had demonstrated that he was an "extremists" and had to be disarmed. Similarly by upsetting the Muslim world, Israel has demonstrated to the international community of diplomats and appeasers that it is an "extremist state" and must be disarmed as well. The same cowardly Dhimmi psychology that cost Yitzchak Imas and his wife and their unborn child their lives-- is driving Israel, and any country targeted by Muslims over the abyss.
Historic Palestine – from the Jordan River to the sea as a national homeland for Palestinians
Essential 78.2% Desirable 12.5% Acceptable 4.3 Tolerable 3.1 Unacceptable 2.0
Two state solution – two states for two peoples: Israel and Palestine according to UN resolutions
Essential 17.7 Desirable 15.7 Acceptable 13.6 Tolerable 15.2 Unacceptable 37.7
The number of refugees returning to Israel should be limited to family members and numbers agreed between Israel and Palestine
Essential 3.7 Desirable 7.8 Acceptable 11.9 Tolerable 16.9 Unacceptable 59.6
Palestine should be demilitarized, including the disbanding of militias and
the standing down of the military.
Essential 7.8 Desirable 5.5 Acceptable 4.0 Tolerable 7.6 Unacceptable 75.0
All of Jerusalem (East and West) should remain in Palestine
Essential 84.1 Desirable 10.3 Acceptable 2.2 Tolerable 1.6 Unacceptable 1.7
Do any of you ever read anything besides Tikkun and Haaretz...and MJ?
the Arab World for Research and Development (AWRAD).