Why Christians are finding it hard to boycott Israel (and 10 helpful rebuttals to their critics)

My new post is published at Patheos

Here's an extract:

BDS is going to be the battleground in the West where the rights and wrongs of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict will be fought out.

As Gandhi once said: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” We have certainly reached the “fight you stage”.

But if you are a Christian and you support boycotts against Israel, then you are in particular trouble. The opposition that will line up against you will be especially formidable. There’s a long way to go before you come anywhere near winning this By supporting BDS you will straight away place yourself well beyond what your local community and establishment hierarchy considers an acceptable form of protest.

Friends and relations will think you have become extreme in your outlook.

Vicars, priests and Bishops, who may be sympathetic to the cause of the Palestinians and even voice criticism of Israel from time to time, will decide that you have gone too far.

Very quickly you will be accused of being divisive, one-sided, morally inconsistent, naïve, anti-dialogue, anti-negotiations, and of course, anti-Semitic.

You will also be told that you are undermining decades of interfaith dialogue that has sought to repair and atone for centuries of anti-Jewish Church teaching that incited murder and mayhem across Christian Europe and paved the way for the Holocaust.

And there you were, thinking you were just standing up for someone else’s human and civil rights and applying the very ethical teaching you had been taught in Church since you were a child.

Read the full article

Micah meets...Jeff Halper

Palestinian pacification, Franz Kafka, the global arms trade and why the Boycott movement needs to change its strategy - my interview with leading Jewish Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper is now available at my Patheos page.


Here's a couple of quotes from the piece:

“It seemed to me there was an elephant in the room that we’re not seeing. And, casting around, I think that it’s the military security connection.”

“You can’t explain why Israel would be close to Saudi Arabia. They’re very close, in all kinds of ways; politically, and militarily; and they co-operate. It seems counter-intuitive if you take normal international relations. There’s nothing in common, and they’d be enemies if you talk about the Arab/Israeli conflict.”

Read more at Writing from the Edge at Patheos. 

What's wrong with this picture?

Nazi boycotts of Jewish businesses 1933

Well, nothing is wrong with the picture itself. It's real. It wasn't faked. It is a true artifact of 20th century European history. The poster on the shop window reads: "Germans beware. Don't buy from Jews".

What started as boycotts against Jewish shops and businesses eventually led to the gas chambers and incinerators of Auschwitz and Treblinka. All of this is irrefutable.

What's wrong is how this picture, and others taken at the same time in the early 1930's, are now being used to suppress free speech and non-violent protest and brand a movement for civil and political rights as racist and illegitimate.

It's an ironic and depressing state of affairs.

What we are seeing is a deliberate attempt to make a direct link between those that follow the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and those that perpetrated the Holocaust.

[It] is poor deduction, sloppy history, and appalling ethics. It also looks desperate and hysterical.

Read the full post at Writing from the Edge my new blog at Patheos.

Boycotting from Within - a letter to the President of the Board of Deputies

Dear Vivian Wineman

I'm writing as a British Jew wanting to bring a dissenting Jewish perspective to the Board's fifty page denouncement of peaceful protest in support of human rights.

I very much doubt I will change your mind but I would like others reading this to understand the historical, political and moral flaws in your arguments. I also believe it is vital for the wider Jewish community, and the British public, to see that the Board's position does not reflect the considered viewpoint of all Jews in this country.

Just before Passover, our annual celebration of freedom and liberation, you published 'A Better Way than Boycotts' in which you set out the case against using boycotts, divestments or sanctions as a way to bring a resolution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.

While attempting to sound reasonable and balanced, your document frames the debate in a way that deliberately obscures some very basic facts that the British Jewish establishment would do better to acknowledge.

You also take the memory of the Holocaust and perversely use it to delegitimise entirely legal, democratic and peaceful protest.

Meanwhile, your presentation of Israel's 'painful compromises' and 'generous offers' in pursuit of peace does not ring true to anyone who cares to read the historical record from both sides.

Your alternative actions to BDS, while worthwhile in themselves, will never sway an Israeli government content to manage rather than resolve the issue. Why should it, while the price it pays for its behaviour, politically and economically, is so minimal?

As a Jew I now feel that the best way to demonstrate my understanding of our Jewish religious heritage and our historical experience is by standing alongside the Palestinian people in their dispute with the State of Israel and in their call for boycott, sanctions and divestment.

In short - and borrowing a description used by Israeli Jews who share my understanding - I am boycotting from within.

In what follows I will explain why.

The missing truth

There is one fundamental fact that you fail to mention anywhere in your document. And without that  your claim to bring a balanced, rational and pro-peace viewpoint to the debate becomes highly questionable.

Nowhere across the fifty pages of 'A Better Way than Boycotts' do you once acknowledge that Israel continues to perpetrate an illegal occupation of the West Bank (now in its 48th year) or an illegal blockade of Gaza. It's an omission that demonstrates a bias you are quick to accuse others of holding. But without talking about this simple fact you cannot hope to make sense of the motivations that underpin the BDS campaign. 

Pointing out the illegality of Israel's position is not a leftist or jihadist or antisemitic act. The current status quo is viewed as breaking international law by the British government, the EU, the United States and just about every other country in the world. Is it really unworthy of mention?

You are right that Israel should not take sole blame for all that has happened, but your document paints a picture in which Israel has no blame whatsoever.

Instead you frame the debate as a dispute between Israel and a hostile neighbour.

But this is not the reality. Far from it.

Israel directly or indirectly controls the lives of more than 4 million Palestinians. This is in no way an argument between equals that can be resolved between themselves if only they were left alone to get on with it. This is an asymmetrical conflict where military power, political resources and, most glaringly, civilian casualties are not remotely even. Without this being understood, the case for boycott, divestment and sanctions will not make sense to the general reader. But I think you know this.

The democratic deficit

Contrary to the claim you make about supporters of BDS, I have no wish to deny Israel's right to exist. Nor would I deny the religious and cultural ties that Jews have to the land or their unbroken presence there.

But none of these strong connections to the land justify the denial of another people's rights, a people with equal, and in many ways stronger connections to the same land.

It is not the state itself that is illegitimate but its actions and laws certainly are.

On the West Bank Israel operates parallel and discriminatory judicial and policing systems. It applies strikingly different planning and house building regulations. It builds roads that only some people (Jewish Settlers) can use. It controls the movement of some people (Palestinians) but not others (Settlers). You may object to the use of the word 'apartheid' but what other label would you care to give it? 'Security' perhaps? That appears to be the catch-all justification for any amount of discrimination and oppression.

As for the boycott campaign wanting to force Israel's hand, you are absolutely right. And for good reason. So far no one else has succeeded in doing this. Not Obama, not Kerry, certainly not Cameron. Plenty of carrots from Western leaders, the encouragement you claim is essential for progress, but never any stick.

You present a picture of on-going peace talks and reconciliation that BDS will jeopardise by encouraging the international community to demonise Israel. But there is no peace process, there is no reconciliation happening. In fact the opposite in taking place. Israel just keeps stealing and building, building and stealing. As John Kerry discovered last year, an Israel that will not even halt Settlement construction for just a few months when establishing good will is paramount is hardly a willing partner for peace.

The two-state solution and other myths

You premise your whole position on the broad consensus among, Israelis, Palestinians, Jews in Britain and international governments that a two-state solution is the only fair way forward. I wish I could share your faith in the likelihood of this as an outcome.

After 25 years of diplomatic 'peace process' the two-state solution has failed to be delivered. Today it has become very clear to the whole world (but perhaps not to the Board of a Deputies) that the Israeli Prime Minister agrees with two states in theory but never in practice.

And what happens when Settlement building has been so rampant that no amount of 'land swaps' will compensate for it or allow the creation of a contiguous and defendable piece of land worthy of being called an autonomous state?

You quote the Israeli politician Yair Lapid, the then Finance Minister, talking in 2014 about the Kerry negotiations: “If this peace process won’t work, we should start again and again... Never, never, never give up.” I would rather cite a more impressive Jewish thinker, Albert Einstein, who said:  "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results".

You call supporters of BDS well meaning but "extremely naive". I think that description better fits your position.

There is no two-state peace process. However, there already is an emerging one-state reality. The only question is will it be democratic or, as now, will it not. 

Your faith in the two-state solution would carry more conviction if you had once in the last 25 years urged the State of Israel to recognise international law, halt settlement construction and accept that Jerusalem should and could be shared. But you did not.

(Less than) Generous offers

The truth is, we are no longer looking at two competing national liberation movements. Israel 'won' a long time ago. But the victory has always been hollow and year by year it has destroyed the ideal (perhaps contradictory from the start) of a Jewish and democratic state.

Worse still, it has led to the violent death of many thousands of Palestinian civilians, most recently more than 500 children in Gaza last summer. Yet you, the Jewish leadership of Britain, insist on emphasising the need for Israeli, not Palestinian, security. It is a topsy turvy way of seeing the world and not one that I or many other British Jews wish to endorse.

You talk about Israel's long history of making 'painful concessions' and 'generous offers' in pursuit of peace. The Palestinian's ability to negotiate has indeed been flawed but not because of a failure to make significant compromises.

The PLO gave up 78% of its historic claims 25 years ago. Ever since, the Palestinians have struggled to get a just agreement on the remaining 22%. Hamas, despite its ridiculous and antisemitic charter, also recognises the 1967 Israeli borders. All of its negotiating positions have been based on that fundamental stance. While Israel has made peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan (existing sovereign states) it is yet to recognise that the Palestinians have a legitimate right to a state that controls its own borders and airspace or that has contiguous defendable land. You know all of this but again fail to consider it relevant information.

The misuse of the Holocaust and antisemitism

You argue against BDS on the grounds of sensitivity to Jewish history and the likelihood of boycotts becoming antisemitic in nature.

The BDS campaign does not target Jews for being Jews as was the case in Nazi Germany. BDS targets trade with the State of Israel until the state changes its policies and recognises its legal obligations towards the Palestinians. There is all the difference in the world between these two situations.

But if BDS supporters find it difficult to make the distinction between Jews and the State of Israel it's hardly surprising. Every Israeli Prime Minister enjoys speaking as if they were our international leader. Our communal organisations, like the Board, refuse to offer an ounce of criticism towards Israel and our synagogues offer weekly prayers for the State of Israel and its defence forces. Why wouldn't BDS campaigners draw the conclusion that Judaism, Jews and Zionism are all one and the same?

Over the last 70 years we have merged our ancient faith with a very modern political nationalist project to the point where most Jews accept the State of Israel as a seamless continuum of all our beliefs and traditions. You have contributed greatly to this situation but have left yourself no room and no words to unscramble it.

However, if BDS actions insult, bully, abuse or physically attack Jews, just because they are Jews, that must be called out, condemned and punished according to the law. But it does not change the merits of bringing pressure on the State of Israel through economic protest.

It does us no good to view our current challenges always through the prism of the Holocaust. For the first time in many centuries Jews have considerable power over another people. Around the world Jews have benefitted and thrived from open and democratic societies. We are no longer an oppressed, vulnerable people. We need to adjust to our new reality and to the responsibilities power and influence brings.

Using our own past suffering to trump the present suffering of another people gets us nowhere. Yet you are willing to use Jewish sensitivities to cancel out support for the Palestinians. It is not a good equation.

I, and a growing number of Jews worldwide, believe that the experience of the Holocaust ought to take us in a very different direction than the one you are choosing for us. And how odd that we thrive in liberal open democracies but you insist in defending the narrow and flawed democracy we have created for ourselves in Israel.

Increasing desperation

You document gathers together every possible objection to the BDS strategy and stacks up the arguments against it in ways that look increasingly desperate.

Israel brings high-tech advances to Britain

We import important medicines from Israel

Boycotts would harm the Palestinians

Are you seriously suggesting that other makers of medicines and high-tech equipment are unavailable to Britain? As for harming the Palestinians, I suggest you speak to a few to discover if they think BDS is good or bad for them in the long term. I'm confident of the answer you will receive.

You then go on to examine the academic and cultural aspects of the boycott campaign. I'm not going to attempt to counter all of your arguments here except to say that universities are complicit in the in-going occupation in multiple ways through military funded research projects. Meanwhile, Israeli artists that are happy to perform in segregated settlement venues should be shown that this is not considered acceptable.

Your championing of academic freedom might sound admirable if you had not recently expended so much effort to stop an academic conference on Israel taking place at Southampton University. Why does every discussion of Palestinian human rights have to be labeled an anti-Israel hate fest?

Your alternatives to BDS

At the end of the document you make a positive call to support charities and NGOs working to build understanding between Israeli Jews and Palestinians.

I would support this too. Groups such as The Interfaith Encounter Association (IEA) and the Parents Circle are doing excellent and important work and we should highlight them and give them financial help.

However, it is entirely disingenuous to suggest that this alone will be sufficient to change the dynamics of the conflict. While these organisations are doing good, they cannot influence the current asymmetrical conflict or the unwillingness of Western leaders to apply the same sanctions they impose on other nations that break international law.

You want to offer individuals, churches, local authorities, trade unions etc a different way of demonstrating their concern for the Palestinians, one that will do less harm to the public's perception of Israel. But the conflict has not arisen because people need to get to know each other better (although that will certainly help long-term reconciliation). The conflict has not arisen because there is insufficient bridge building between communities. The conflict has become one of human rights. Who has them and who does not.

Boycotting from within

Our relationship to the Palestinian people is the greatest issue the Jewish people and Judaism itself face in this century.  And we are currently making a spectacular mess of it. Your document is just one more example of that.

What Israel needed most from the Jewish community over the past decades was a critical voice willing to speak privately and publicly about the direction Israel was taking. But instead we provided them with apologists and cheerleaders or at very best complicit silence.

In the past, Palestinian tactics to bring attention to their cause have been rightly condemned. Murder, hijackings and suicide bombings were never legitimate routes to justice.

But BDS is very different. At last there is a movement aimed at bringing awareness and understanding of the plight of the Palestinian people that is non-violent and that can shift the perception that all Palestinians are nothing more than antisemitic terrorists. But still you insist on denying them even this legitimate tactic to bring some balance to the conflict.

The actions of the State of Israel are dividing Jewish families and Jewish communities while making all us more vulnerable to antisemitic attacks. But it is the Palestinians that are suffering far more than any of us.

I have chosen where I wish to stand and have come to my conclusions out of respect for the beliefs and traditions I was raised by and the history of the Jews that I have studied.

I find myself having to boycott from within because so many from my own community have chosen narrow tribal values over simple universal humanity. That can change if we place ourselves on the side of justice and peace that our tradition has always taught are the foundations of our true freedom.

Our own liberation is now only possible in partnership with the Palestinian people. BDS provides that partnership.

Yours sincerely

Robert Cohen

Micah's Paradigm Shift

The things I learnt this summer (about Hamas, Terror Tunnels, Charters, Rabbis, Boycotts and Tapestry)

Like children returning to school, I thought I'd write some short reflections about the things I learnt during the holidays.

1. Tapestry

I was never much good at arts and crafts. I only do words. But this summer I learnt something about cross stitch tapestry.

Around 260 women, were killed in Gaza during July and August, mostly as a result of Israeli aerial bombing and ground artillery. I know some people like to blame Hamas for all the deaths during the Gaza assault ('they started it' etc) but I don't subscribe to that twisted piece of moral sophistry. If you fire the weapons the deaths are your responsibility. The same goes for Hamas rockets.

In amongst the daily death count of the summer, one loss spoke to me and brought me close to tears on my train journey home one evening.

On July 20th Samar Al-Hallaq was killed in Gaza when an Israeli shell blew-up the residential building she and her family had fled to for shelter in the suburbs of Gaza City. Samar was 29 years old and part of the Palestinian History Tapestry Project. The Project is a charity that has set out to record Palestinian history through the creation of embroidered panels. Each panel is sewn with traditional Palestinian cross stitch and illustrates the life and times of the Palestinian people.

Samar, who had been taught to embroider as a child by the older women in her family, became interested and began to contribute.

Something about Samar's death broke through to me that evening and made all of the other deaths I was reading about meaningful. Samar's two sons, 6-year-old Kenan, and 4-year-old Saji, and five other members of her family were also killed. Samar was eight months pregnant. Her husband, Hussan, who recently completed a Master degree of Science in eBusiness, survived.

I wondered what the rest of Hussan's life would be like.

2. Mosques

I didn't think I would be so moved by the destruction of buildings. But the photographs of whole neighbourhoods reduced to rubble showed how disingenuous was the claim that the IDF was only targeting terrorists. It was an impossible aim to begin with and the Israeli government would have known that from the start. When I looked at the pictures from, just for example, Rafah, near the Egyptian border, I thought these are family homes, children were raised there, memories were created in those ruins. Israel (like any other state) has the right to defend itself. But how could that defence possibly look like this when Israeli civilian casualties, after 50 days, were just half a dozen people.

And then there are Mosques. Seventy-three were destroyed in Gaza over the summer. In an article in the New Statesman magazine by Donald Macintyre, I read about the Mahkamah Mosque which had stood since 1455 in a side road off a main street in the Gaza City district of Shejaiya. It was considered a jewel of Malmuk architecture and was testament to an Islamic culture and civilisation just as indigenous to the Holy Land as Judaism and Christianity. It had been in continuous use for three centuries. Three centuries of prayers and learning. Three centuries of a community gathering together to worship God. In the early morning of July 24th it was flattened by an Israeli bomb. It wasn't necessary to imagine this being a synagogue or a church to understand what this must have meant to that community. You can imagine the outcry in the West though if 73 synagogues or churches had been destroyed.

So I learnt that buildings are casualties too.

3. Soldiers

Sixty-four Israeli soldiers were killed by the time the truce was agreed at the end of August. Investigations are underway, by Israel itself, to establish if any were killed by their own side in an attempt to avoid hostages being taken by Palestinian fighters. But let's assume for the moment that they were all killed by Palestinians. These soldiers' deaths made me angry and upset too.

What was the point of their sacrifice? Was 'Protective Edge' really a necessary and unavoidable operation? Could Israel have chosen to start talking to the fledgling Fatah led Unity government, as the American's urged it to, earlier in the summer? The case for yet another assault on Gaza was never convincingly made. And after it's all over, Hamas remain a political and military force, with far greater support today, in both Gaza and in the West Bank, than they had in June. Just like the 2,100 plus Palestinian deaths, these Israeli conscripts should not have lost their lives just to make the whole situation even worse than it was before.

4. Rabbis

Some Rabbis are better than others.

I wrote a post called 'Standing on one leg for Israel-Palestine' and received strong criticism from a liberal Rabbi on Facebook for failing to mention the three murdered Israeli teenagers abducted on the West Bank in June. I pointed out that I had written about the boys in my previous post 'The true meaning of Brother's Keeper' which the new piece linked back to. In a private message via Facebook I invited the Rabbi to meet with me to talk about our different points of view since we work in the same city. I've had no reply so far. The offer is still open.

I wrote an open letter in July to Laura Janner-Klausner, Senior Rabbi to the Movement for Reform Judaism in the UK, asking that she take a bolder position than just offering prayer and empathy for the Palestinians under fire in Gaza. The letter was published on the Jews for Justice for Palestinians website where it received more than seven hundred Facebook 'Likes'. So I must have been saying something that resonated with a great many other British Jews. Rabbi Laura wrote back to me the same day that I sent her my letter and we had a respectful and warm exchange of emails. Like I said, some Rabbis are better than others.

5. Vitriol

People who don't know me from Adam are more than happy to be hateful about me personally.

Here's one email I had to my blog over the summer:

"Ho hum, another so-called Jew more moral than all the rest of us Jews that support Israel. In fact, your kind are so moral, you have to boycott Jews. You think the Jihadists care what kind of self-proclaimed good Jew you are? As an a Israeli, I piss on ghetto Jews like you. We will survive and thrive long after shit like you is maggot food."

I've learnt to be resilient about this kind of correspondence. I hope it is not typical of Israeli attitudes towards Jews critical of Israel.

In contrast, some people are very generous. In the same week as the above message I was sent this from a retired Anglican Bishop:

"I read your Micah's Paradigm Shift with great interest every time it arrives in my Inbox. Thank you for all you write. I see myself as a true friend of Israel, as indeed you are."

Should the Jewish Israeli's view or the Bishop's carry more weight? You decide.

6. Charters

Over the summer I read the Hamas charter written in 1988. It's shot full of extreme religious nationalism, blatant anti-Semitism and crack-pot history. It's a textbook exercise in how NOT to write an inspiring, uplifting tract calling for the liberation of your land and its people. The quality of the English translation probably doesn't help it much. It's definitely an embarrassment for anyone in solidarity with the Palestinians or sympathetic to their right to use armed resistance against an occupation.

The odd thing is, Hamas seem to ignore their charter while the rest of the world obsess about it. It's become a handy way to insist that there is 'no partner for peace' even though Hamas has consistently offered peace based on '67 borders and the lifting of the blockade. I suggest that Hamas negotiate their charter out of existence as part of a settlement, should Israel ever agree to talk to them.

Benjamin Netanyahu's party, Likud, has a charter too, from 1999, and I read that as well. It's also full of extreme religious nationalism and dodgy history but the Islamophobia is only in the sub text. It refuses to accept that 'Judea and Samaria' (aka the West Bank) can be anything other than part of Israel, it says Settlements are an unassailable right of the Jewish people, and it sees Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital city of the Jewish State. Hopefully, Bibi will ignore his charter too. The rest of the world don't seem too bothered about it.

7. 'Terror Tunnels'

In wartime people are always prepared to believe the worst about their enemy. It's a necessary part of the process of dehumanising them so when the killing starts it is easier to deal with it both politically and emotionally.

Even though the existence of 'terror tunnels' dug from Gaza into Israel for the express purpose of killing Israelis had not been a part of the initial justification for Operation Protective Edge, it soon became so. The image of Hamas fighters or suicide bombers suddenly emerging through the floor of a kibbutz kindergarten gripped the Israeli public's imagination. A rumour that there were plans to commit mass murder and kidnapping around the Jewish New Year, with 200 Hamas terrorists dressed in IDF uniforms, gained credence without the slightest credible intelligence. The possibility was enough. Who needed evidence.

So far no tunnels have been found that reached anywhere near civilian centres. The purpose of the tunnels was certainly military and aimed at getting behind IDF lines to kill or kidnap soldiers near the Gaza border. It's called asymmetric warfare. You can read a helpful article at + 972 magazine.

8. Balance

People are getting very good at creating infographics. The dead and injured become neatly lined up stick people, anonymously conveying the asymmetry of the suffering on a tidy chart in bold colours.

The latest one I've seen tells me that apart from the 2,100 plus fatalities (including more than 500 children) there were also:

• 3,438 children injured
• 10,080 homes destroyed
• 450,000 people internally displaced

This is what allegedly 'targeted precision bombing' ends up producing in a densely populated strip of land the size of the Isle of White.

I'm glad Israel's rocket defence system, the Iron Dome, exists. It meant that only a six Israeli citizens were killed during the summer. In fact Hamas may have killed more of its own people than it did Israelis, with rockets that fell short of their targets. That didn't stop Israel and its supporters presenting the conflict as though they, rather than the Palestinians, were facing a truly existential threat. But there is a big difference between sirens sounding in Tel Aviv and whole neighbourhoods disappearing in Gaza City.

Members of my family wanted me to convey 'more balance' in my writing. Which I think means putting Israel's side of the story. I keep saying there is no balance. Look at the stick people! And after all, isn't what happens to the Palestinians part of Israel's story too? Okay, I say, if the Zionist Federation and the Board of Deputies attempt some balance, then I will try harder as well.

9. Boycotts

Boycotts are the real 'terror tunnels' into the hearts of the Jewish community.

In the UK this summer the focus has been on a cosmetics shop in Kings Street in Manchester that sells products sourced from the Dead Sea, most of which is within the West Bank. So the issue has been that minerals acquired through an illegal occupation are generating profits for Israeli businesses.

The boycott Israel campaign makes most Jews in the UK feel angry, fearful, confused, personally threatened and extremely defensive. Attempting to present it as a legitimate non-violent protest against the policies of the State of Israel and in support of Palestinian rights just does not work for most of the Jewish community. 

From the mainstream Jewish perspective, BDS is simply a return to the anti-Semitism of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. And, as I was asked over the summer, why pick on Israel for such actions? Why not organise boycotts of Syria, or ISIS or Russia? "Surely this disproportionate focus on Israel is a manifestation of anti-Semitism."

I've tried to explain that BDS against Israel is a workable tactic for change against a country that relies on international trade. I've also made the point that it's the Palestinians that have called for this action. I've said that there are plenty of government led sanctions already in place against Syria and Russia and how on earth do you boycott ISIS?

But I suspect none of this cuts through. That's because the whole issue has deep emotional implications linked to religion, history and personal identity that a purely rational argument does not begin to address for most Jewish ears.

10. Big Thinking v Small Thinking

I believe there exists such a thing as Jewish values and ethics that are worth upholding and that have meaning that Jews can take pride in. Call it Jewish Big Thinking. There also exists a tradition of Jewish myopia and Small Thinking, of which Zionism, particularly in its religious nationalist vein, has done much to contribute to. Both the Big Thinking and the Small Thinking are equally part of Jewish history. By the way, the same distinctions can been seen in Christianity and Islam.

The Jewish Small Thinking was well represented over the summer. These were the people from the Jewish community who still think Israel-Palestine is just a problem of presentation ("If only people could understand what Israel is up against" etc).

More than a thousand people attended a 'Town Hall' meeting on August 13th in North London organised by the Board of Deputies of British Jews to discuss the situation in Israel and Gaza and its impact on the UK Jewish community. The media reports of the event told me a great deal about those who have the loudest voices in the Jewish community. At the meeting there were no cries for justice, no calls for reconciliation, no suggestion of establishing a friendly critique of Israel's actions. Nobody was in despair at the death of hundreds of children at the hands of the Israeli Defence Forces.

Instead, those speaking from the floor called for bigger London rallies in support of Israel, more effective lobbying of the British parliament and better PR on behalf of the Israeli government.

The need of large sections of the Jewish community to feel totally blameless and to maintain a self and public perception of victimhood is incredibly strong. So, at best, we say we are desperately longing for 'peace' while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge the slightest culpability for 'war'. And by 'peace' we do not mean 'peace and justice' but rather 'peace and quiet'.

And in the meantime, the State that claims to act in our interests (mine included), has created another generation of orphaned, maimed and bereaved children who will struggle to give Israel the benefit of the doubt when they are asked to accept them as genuine partners for peace.

Still, if you live in Siderot or Ashkelon, at least it's quiet again. 

Meanwhile, in Europe, Israel is becoming a pariah state and Jews are threatened and attacked on the streets. But not because they are Jews but because our spiritual and communal leadership and a great many individual Jews too, have chosen to make no distinction between Judaism and Zionism.

So, these are the things I learnt during the summer that's just past.

As we enter the autumn and the days of annual Jewish repentance and spiritual renewal, there is a great deal to reflect upon.

Further reading from Micah's Paradigm Shift during summer 2014

The true meaning of Brother's Keeper

Standing on one leg for Israel-Palestine

Time to cross the line - A letter to Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner

Remembering COHEN A. and COHEN H. (Or the short trip from Flanders Fields to the Gaza Strip)

Why I'm on the side of Bibi's "shameful" "anti-Semites"

Well, it's good to know where you stand.

As someone who supports the tactic of BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions against the State of Israel) I now know, thanks to Benjamin Netanyahu's speech this week to America's pro-Israel lobby group, AIPAC, that I am a "shameful" "anti-Semite", "peddling a farcical, twisted picture of Israel" to the "naive and ignorant". In truth, BDS, according to Bibi, stands for "Bigotry, Dishonesty and Shame". In short, BDS is "morally wrong".

Well, if campaigning peaceably for human rights to be recognised throughout Israel/Palestine is what the Prime Minister of Israel thinks of as morally wrong, then he is certainly living in a different moral universe than the one that I hope most of us inhabit.

It was a great speech by the way - even if I don't agree with a word of it. Bibi has some top writers on his team who know how to push all the right buttons. If you want to understand the neo-Zionist mind-set that continues to present Israel as the eternal, embattled victim, vulnerable to destruction on multiple fronts, then read this. It's the perfect summation of everything that's wrong with politics in Israel today and why a just and lasting settlement with the Palestinians is so unlikely to happen despite all of the air miles that John Kerry has been clocking up since last summer.

Netanyahu is a good public speaker, especially with a warm American audience. His favourite technique is the magician's trick of misdirection. Don't look there, look over here. Don't see this, see that. It's Iran you should be worried about, stupid. And after Iran it's all those pesky anti-Jewish boycotters determined to "delegitimise" the unfairly maligned Jewish State. At which point it is time for Bibi's script writers to call up the really big gun in his oratorical arsenal: The Holocaust.

For Netanyahu, nothing concerning Israel can be understood without reference back to this cataclysmic event in Jewish history. From Bibi's mouth comes a terrible abuse of history and memory that aims to close down debate and frighten critics off with accusations of being the next generation of Hitler's willing executioners. It's just nonsense.

I'm yet to read a speech of Netanyahu's that does not conscript six million murdered Jews into the service of defending Israel's actions. In this worldview, Israel is forever the victim and another Holocaust is permanently in the making. And that paradigm of emotional blackmail, aimed primarily at Europe and America, allows the never-to-be-satisfied demands of Israeli military security to trump all other concerns and the rights of any other people who may also have (a rather convincing) claim to the land from which they were, and continue to be, forcibly evicted.

So is BDS anti-Semitic? Well, if it was truly aimed at all Jews indiscriminately, then yes, it would obviously be shameful, racist and idiotic. But it's not, as Bibi knows all too well.

BDS is a tactic, not an end in itself, and it is clearly aimed, not at Jews, but at the policies and actions of the State of Israel towards the Palestinian people. This is not the same of the Nazis boycotting Jewish shops in Germany. This is not the international version of Kristallnacht.

So will BDS mean the end of the Jewish State as we know it?

Well I certainly hope so. As long as by that you mean the end of an expansionist ethnocentric nation that by definition has to discriminate against its one million non-Jewish citizens and that sees Israeli Palestinian children as nothing more than demographic ticking time bombs.

If BDS leads to equal rights for all the people of Israel/Palestine in a land (two countries, one country or a bi-national state) that can call itself a homeland to more than one people, then count me in. This would not be the end of the world for the Jewish people in Israel or the Jewish diaspora. This is what progress would look like. And even better, it would be a closer alignment to Jewish ethics than what we have now.

So, is BDS unfair? Is it picking on Israel when other countries are surely far more deserving of our righteous anger?

As Netanyahu pointed out, Israel has a free press, is progressive on gay rights and has seen women hold the highest offices. Yes, there are other far more brutal regimes where no citizens enjoy the rule of law. But what Netanyahu fails to mention is that Israel is also responsible for a 47-year occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem and an on-going siege of the Gaza Strip. So that's coming up to four million Palestinians who have their lives effectively controlled by Israel (without a vote in Israeli elections) who may consider the constant claim that Israel is the "only democracy in the Middle East" to be a touch misleading. In the 60% of the West Bank known as 'Area C', where most of the Settlement blocks have been built, there is no doubt that a form of apartheid rule is in operation from highways to courtrooms to planning regulations to water distribution.

After 20 years of the post-Oslo 'peace process' with ever-hardening right-wing coalitions governing Israel's actions, the views of half a million Jewish settlers dominating political discourse, and the United States failing to ever be a truly honest broker, it seems reasonable to think that the time is right to change the dynamic. Which is where BDS comes in.

Clearly it is starting to work. Otherwise Netanyahu and the whole Israeli hasbara (propaganda) machinery would not have cranked up to oppose it. Netanyahu mentioned BDS 18 times in his speech. So it's clearly rattling him, along with the entrenched formal Jewish leadership around the world.

In an interview given just ahead of Netanyahu's visit to the United States, President Obama was very clear about where he thinks responsibility lies for blocking an early resolution to this very asymmetrical conflict. It's not in Ramallah with the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, but in Jerusalem, the city that now boasts an extended name: "Jerusalem - the eternal, undivided capital of Israel and the Jewish people" [cheers and applause from the AIPAC audience]. So that's one possible compromise already taken firmly off the table.

Here's what Obama said in his interview:

"[W]hat I do believe is that if you see no peace deal and continued aggressive settlement construction — and we have seen more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we’ve seen in a very long time — if Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited."

What Obama is getting at is that if the Kerry talks hit the rocks, the call for Israel to be economically and culturally isolated will grow and not even its greatest ally, the USA, will be able to stop it.

It all reminds me of the quote from Mahatma Gandhi when describing his non-violent opposition to the British Empire in India: 

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

45 years on...The poverty of the arguments

[“Irony is an insult conveyed in the form of a compliment.”
Edwin P. Whipple 1819-1886, American essayist and critic]

To celebrate the 45th anniversary of the liberation of Judea and Samaria (June 1967), I’d like to congratulate all those who have been working tirelessly to counter the ever-growing brigade of anti-Israel campaigners and their noxious calls for boycotts, sanctions and divestments that aim to demonise the only democracy in the Middle East.

Thankfully, we have some top minds on the case able to articulate just how misguided and dangerous are these shameful theatre ‘luvvies’ Co-op members, Methodists, Quakers, obsessive food labellers, concert disrupters, left-wing trade unionists, etc. etc.

Without these excellent arguments from the leading lights of the Jewish community we would all be drowning in a sea of lies and distortions, not to mention failing to win over the, quite frankly naïve and rather gullible, general public who seem to think we have become not the victim but the bully.

I thought it would help others having to defend the just policies of the Jewish and Democratic State of Israel from outlandish attacks if I set out the ‘Top Ten’ anti-boycott lines our community luminaries have been using of late.

I’ve highlighted what makes these arguments so strong and given a few top tips to avoid falling into any traps laid by the anti-Jewish mob out there. A simple 1-10 rating may also help you arrange these points in the best way.

And remember, there’s no such thing as ‘Pro-Palestinian’ or ‘Pro-human rights’ just ‘Anti-Israel hate campaigners’.

#1 ‘It’s awfully complicated for you to understand’

I love this line and most of you are making good use of it already. It’s massively patronising but it definitely scares people off - so stick with it. The more history, religion and culture we can drag into this the better. Muddy the waters as much as possible. Nobody has time to read up on all the history or can remember who said what and when. So, you can just bulldoze them with accusations of ignorance. Anything that avoids the debate degenerating into simple human rights and human responsibilities has got to be a good thing. 9/10

#2 Judaism =Jewish peoplehood = Jewish nationalism = Zionism = anything that Israel says is in the name of security

I noticed Melanie Phillips making good use of this the other day: “Zionism is no more nor less than the self-determination of the Jewish people.” Anyone who attempts to contradict this shiny piece of iron logic that takes us smoothly from being Jewish to the right to defend all things Israel will come a cropper when we throw back the accusations of anti-Semitism. But watch out, as some people are getting wise to this and the self-hating Jewish lot are starting to undermine it (see#10). 7/10

#3 Since when did ‘consensus’ = truth?

This is one for those muddle-headed dupes that leap on all that ‘international consensus’ nonsense and seem to think that just because everyone says the Settlements are ‘illegal’ means it must be true. By the way, can we just call them ‘Jewish communities’ please.

Thanks to Noru Tsalic writing on the pages of the Board of Deputies website for pointing out this “argumentum ad populum” bunkum. As Noru points out: “At some point in the history of mankind, there was ‘broad consensus’ that the Earth is flat”. Great thinking Noru, and it draws attention away from all those United Nations reports bashing on endlessly about Israeli discrimination against Palestinians. Just watch out for anyone advocating boycotts who’s actually been to see what’s going on or mugged up on all those reports. But remember, I’m sure they had lots of reports proving the Earth was flat too. 6/10

#4 Guilt by association

So who else likes the idea of boycotting Israel? Hamas and Hezbollah of course! And what do they want? Israel’s complete annihilation. So, QED, if you support boycotts then you’re supporting terrorism. Rubbish the argument by associating it with political pariahs. This avoids all real debate about anything that may or may not being happening in Judea and Samaria and takes it straight back to terror threats, security concerns and existential threats to the Jewish people. Brilliant!! 9/10

#5 Don’t look here (look there)

This has been working well for years now. Luckily, there’ll always be some dictator somewhere doing terrible stuff to his people. Just point in that general direction (Syria anyone?) and suggest to your do-gooder detractor that they put their efforts there. The way things are going at the moment, the Palestinians should be off the international radar for years to come. This is another great way to close down the debate without having to actually talk about what’s going on in our neck of the woods. 8/10

#6 How dare you use the word ‘Apartheid’

Come down really hard on anyone who tries to use the word ‘Apartheid’ about Israel. It’s a toxic tactic and needs to be closed down immediately. Just because the Settlements are effectively Jewish only communities, the roads around them are Jewish only roads, the building regulations apply only to Jews, and Palestinians live under a different legal jurisdiction and don’t have the same access to schools, electricity, water or jobs doesn’t mean we’re not operating in a democratic way. 6/10

#7 It’s all the Palestinian Authority’s fault

It’s crucial to keep reminding everyone that it’s the Palestinians who are the real blockers to peace with their unreasonable claims over history, culture, religion, land, Jerusalem and their own version of the ‘right of return’. You don’t see our side obsessing like this. They seem to think it’s not worth talking while we insist on building new Jewish communities and expanding the existing ones. For heaven’s sake, our children have to live somewhere! The Palestinian Authority is obviously not serious about peace. President Obama seemed to think that the Settlements were the fundamental block to peace talks too, but we saw him off without too much trouble. So, a few boycotters shouldn’t be much of an issue.

The Palestinian Authority also wants half of Jerusalem as its capital. We must keep saying that the city has to remain undivided and eternally Jewish. Remember how King Solomon proved who was the baby’s real mother by threatening to cut it in half? Well, it’s the same thing with cities.

As long as you don’t get bogged down in the multi-ethnic, multi-religious history of Jerusalem or get drawn into territorial statistics this argument works nicely. Of course, the Israeli definition of East Jerusalem’s boundaries has expanded slightly since 1967 (45 square miles into Judea and Samaria to be precise) but most people won’t know that so you’ll be okay. And as Melanie Phillips likes to point out, the Settlements (I mean Jewish communities) outside of (expanded) Jerusalem only amount to 3% of Judea and Samaria. Just don’t mention the surrounding security zones, checkpoints, military zones and nature reserves which bump the figure up to more like 42%. And there’s no way we’re giving any of that lot up. 7/10

#8 Surely, we must keep talking?

I love this one. It feels so warm and reasonable and democratic. It makes the boycotters look radical and unreasonable and very anti-democratic. Just keep talking about the ‘peace process’ and people will believe such a thing actually exists. Also, mention how much better it is for sides in a dispute to keep in contact. Boycotts just create barriers and divisions and stop any meeting of minds. The only problem with this is that most of you don’t have many Palestinian contacts to start with. All the friendships and meeting of minds seem to be between the lefties and radicals. So start making some ‘friends’ or you may get caught out on this one. Maybe we should send some of those Birthright youth tours to Ramallah. 7/10

#9 Academic and cultural boycotts are unethical

The important point to remember here is that most people are happy to believe that actors, musicians, athletes and university professors should have their rights to freedom of expression and movement defended long before ordinary Palestinians are entitled to the same things. It’s a strange hierarchy of ethics but it works in our favour so let’s use it. It took ages for people to change their minds about this when it was South Africa in the frame (but don’t mention South Africa!). Also, don’t mention cultural boycotts against Soviet Russia in the 1970s and 80s when we were protesting on behalf on Soviet Jewry. That was of course completely different and perfectly justified.

By the way, the novelist Howard Jacobson has been doing some great work on this. Howard has been using some nice literary illusions that you could try out too. Kafka, that great Jewish observer of bureaucratic absurdity, can be used to ridicule boycotting a theatre company from Israel performing The Merchant of Venice just because they are willing to perform the same play to the Jews of Judea and Samaria (I doubt any Palestinians got to see those performances but that’s their choice). Kafka analogies work well as long as you don’t draw attention to how we regulate the lives of Palestinians in the territories. Franz really would have a field day if he saw what goes on in the offices of the Israeli Civil Administration! Oh, and avoid mentioning Kafka if anyone starts talking about ‘administrative detention’ of Palestinian prisoners without charge. I’m sure Kafka wrote a book about that kind of thing once. On second thoughts let’s forget Kafka. 6/10

#10 We hate ourselves better than anyone else (Jewish trouble makers)

Now this is where we sometimes get into a bit of a fix. There are increasing numbers of Jews who seem to think there’s something a little wrong with how things have turned out in Israel, especially when it comes to the Palestinians. This of course provides ethical cover for the anti-Israel haters who can joyfully point to their Jewish friends as proof that they cannot possibly be anti-Semitic. It’s best to dismiss these Jewish trouble makers out of hand as suffering from a ‘self-loathing psychosis’ that seems to afflict a few Jews in every generation. Or you can make that gag, as Howard Jacobson likes to, that we Jews are good at most things, we’re even better at hating ourselves than other people! That should do the trick. 9/10

However, a few pitfalls to look out for in case you come across such 5th columnists.

Avoid at all costs talking about religion or Hebrew scripture or Jewish ethics. Also, avoid getting into debate about the development of political Zionism from the 19th century onward and don’t let them tell you that this is any different from our connection to the land of Israel over thousands of years. Most important of all don’t engage in any actual debate about the condition of Palestinians on either side of the Green Line. Avoid discussing the route of the Security Fence, restrictions of movement, freedom of worship, home demolitions and so on. Also don’t get drawn into discussing the work of Rabbis for Human Rights, B’Tselem, Combatants for Peace, Breaking the Silence, The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and other groups of Israeli self-haters. Keep the conversation to terrorism and nuclear threats and eventually they’ll get bored of you and walk away.

So, now you have the tools to do the job and deal with those pesky BDS’ers

Get out there and deploy these lines of argument to devastating effect.

Good luck!