Israel Matzav

A Leftist comes out against boycotting Israel

Uri Avnery (pictured with a friend) is about as hard Left as they come in this country. In this opinion piece written for the 'Palestinian' Ma'an website, Avnery discusses and rejects Neve Gordon's call for a boycott of Israel.

The South African struggle was between a large majority and a small minority. Among a general population of almost 50 million, the whites amounted to less than 10 percent. That means that more than 90 percent of the country's inhabitants supported the boycott, in spite of the argument that it hurt them, too.

In Israel, the situation is the very opposite. The Jews amount to more than 80 percent of Israel's citizens, and constitute a majority of some 60 percent throughout the country between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. 99.9 percent of the Jews oppose a boycott on Israel.

They will not feel the "the whole world is with us," but rather that "the whole world is against us."

In South Africa, the worldwide boycott helped in strengthening the majority and steeling it for the struggle. The impact of a boycott on Israel would be the exact opposite: it would push the large majority into the arms of the extreme right and create a fortress mentality against the "anti-Semitic world."

It's been proven time and time again that much of the world - if not the whole world - is against us, but that's not why I'm showing you this piece.

When the archbishop asked what we, the Israeli peace activists, are hoping for, I told him: We hope for Barack Obama to publish a comprehensive and detailed peace plan and to use the full persuasive power of the United States to convince the parties to accept it. We hope that the entire world will rally behind this endeavor. And we hope that this will help to set the Israeli peace movement back on its feet and convince our public that it is both possible and worthwhile to follow the path of peace with Palestine.

No one who entertains this hope can support the call for boycotting Israel. Those who call for a boycott act out of despair. And that is the root of the matter.

Neve Gordon and his partners in this effort have despaired of the Israelis. They have reached the conclusion that there is no chance of changing Israeli public opinion. According to them, no salvation will come from within. One must ignore the Israeli public and concentrate on mobilizing the world against the State of Israel. (Some of them believe anyhow that the State of Israel should be dismantled and replaced by a bi-national state.)

I do not share either view - neither the despair of the Israeli people, to which I belong, nor the hope that the world will stand up and compel Israel to change its ways against its will. For this to happen, the boycott must gather worldwide momentum, the US must join it, the Israeli economy must collapse and the morale of the Israeli public must break.

How long will this take? Twenty Years? Fifty years? Forever?

Avnery is not arguing that a boycott would be bad, but that it would be ineffective, that it would eviscerate any popular support the 'peace movement' has here. That argument is similar to the empty condemnations of terror that we hear all the time from the 'Palestinian' leadership. They won't say unequivocally that terror is bad, only that it is not helpful to the cause of the 'Palestinian people.'

This is the most frightening part of the prospect of making 'peace' with the 'Palestinians.' Were they ever able to control their own bloodlust for long enough to mouth 'peace loving' words - however insincere - the world would be all over Israel to make 'peace' with them and so many Israelis who are so anxious for real peace would feel compelled to give them a chance.

That chance could kill us all.

One other point - and this is really an aside. Many of those who try to argue that White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is not a self-hating Jew point to Emanuel's father's membership in the Irgun Zvaii Leumi - the Jewish freedom fighters headed by Menachem Begin who fought as a separate fighting force for much of Israel's struggle for independence. Here's the last line of Avnery's article on Ma'an:

The author is an Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement. A member of the militant Zionist Irgun movement as a teenager, Avnery served in Israel's Knesset from 1965-74 and 1979-81.

Even having been a member of the Irgun doesn't prove very much, does it?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:07 PM