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Home , Ahmad Shukeiri, Alan Baker (diplomat), Mossi Raz, Yair Lapid

בס״ד concerned. Thanks to עש"ק פרשת שפטים 4 Elul 5781 NEWS the spread of the  Aug 13, 2021 A collection of the week’s news from Israel COVID-19 Delta Issue number 1358 variant and a return to all kinds From the Bet El Twinning / Israel Action Committee of 6:45 of previously lifted restrictions, Toronto 8:06 Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation most Israelis—other than those living along the northern and southern borders—have been Commentary… otherwise preoccupied. Indeed, their criticism of the government has centered more on its handling of Iranian Aggression and Israel’s Fragile Coalition By Ruthie Blum the pandemic than on . At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, Israeli This distraction from armed enemies in favor of microscopic Prime Minister addressed the country’s security ones makes sense on a practical level. People’s lives are directly situation. affected by the question of whether the fast-approaching school year Referring to the attack on Hamas targets in is going to commence on time, for instance. And excessive Gaza following the latest wave of incendiary balloons, he warned the coronavirus coverage in the media has only served to magnify the terrorist organization that it will be held accountable for any such dread. flareups, no matter which group is behind them. Yet every now and then, a reminder of why the self-dubbed “We’re not interested if they’re dissidents, or bored or whether “change coalition” is so problematic pops up in the press. Take a they have any other excuse,” he said. “Hamas is responsible.” radio interview on Sunday with member Ghaida Referring to —without specifying the missile attacks on Rinawie-Zoabi, for example. northern Israel on Saturday or Israel’s retaliatory strikes—Bennett Rinawie-Zoabi told Kan news that according to the coalition pointed to the “very important awakening by many citizens [there] agreements, the government is only supposed to deal with economic against Hezbollah and Iranian involvement.” and civil matters. He added that “even during the severe economic and political “Bennett knows that if the government enters into a military crisis in Lebanon, Iran and Hezbollah are entangling [its] citizens in a confrontation, the coalition will fall,” she said, “because Meretz and front against Israel.” Ra’am will not agree to such a thing.” The Israeli premier went on to caution “Lebanon and its army” Referring to Hezbollah’s rocket barrage on Friday, she said that if that they “must take responsibility for what is happening in their Netanyahu were still holding the reins, Israel would have reacted far backyard,” even if the perpetrators of the recent rocket launches hailed more forcefully. from a Palestinian organization, belonged to a dissident group or acted “Bennett understands today … that his right-wing voters have left independently. him and will not return, and therefore he needs to understand that he “The State of Israel will not accept firing at its territory,” he is getting closer to the left,” she concluded. stressed. Her honesty, which is ironic considering that Netanyahu and his Turning to Iran’s deadly suicide-drone assault on the Israeli- supporters have been saying that about Bennett all along, caused managed Mercer Street tanker on July 29, he commended the G-7 fellow Meretz members to flinch. countries for having condemned the attack, which was proven by the “[Rinawie-Zoabi] may be speaking for herself, but I don’t accept United States Central Command (CENTCOM) to have been carried what she said,” claimed MK in a radio interview on out by the Islamic Republic. While on that topic, he invoked Iran’s Monday. “We want to strengthen the government, not topple it.” new president, Ebrahim Raisi, the “‘hangman of Tehran,’ a brutal Twisted in knots, he clarified, “In general, military decisions are extremist even for the Iranian regime,” and cited “Iranian aggression made by the Cabinet, and neither I nor MK Rinawie-Zoabi has a say throughout the Middle East—on land, at sea and in the air.” in the matter. As an aside, I believe that it is the government’s Iran, he said—reiterating the mantra of his predecessor— responsibility to do everything it can to avoid a military conflict, God “constitutes a clear danger to the stability of the region and the peace forbid.” of the world, and the world must not accept this. The Iranians need to He hastened to add, “Even though we should avoid military understand that it is impossible to continue running amok without conflict, when it is necessary, the government must respond. We did paying a price.” so [following the recent Hezbollah attack], and it was a proper Here’s the rub, however: Members of his coalition aren’t exactly response to an unnecessary provocation.” on the same page, to put it mildly. That the Muslim Brotherhood- Another Meretz member, Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi affiliated Ra’am Party opposes expanding military actions in Gaza and Frej, was similarly ill at ease when probed on Rinawie-Zoabi’s Lebanon beyond the minor ones, aimed more at muscle-flexing than remarks. beating the drums of war, is neither new nor a surprise. Calling the framing of her comments “unfortunate,” he told In fact, it was the advent of “Operation Guardian of the Walls” in Channel 13’s Amnon Levy that his party has no intention of toppling May that caused Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas to back out of coalition the coalition. He conveniently skirted the question of whether what negotiations with Bennett and chairman . she had asserted about Meretz and Ra’am was true, preferring to Abbas was already in hot water with many Arab citizens for mumble something about differences of opinion and interpretation. breaking with tradition and even considering becoming part of a That’s all well and good for internal consumption, perhaps. But Zionist government. Had he not halted talks to this end while the Iran and its proxies within and surrounding the Jewish state are Israeli military was bombing Palestinian terrorists and their paying attention—not to Bennett’s admonitions, but to Israel’s deeds. infrastructure in Gaza, he knew that he’d be toast. And not only So far, the former have outweighed the latter by miles. electorally. If his acting in this manner were based solely on military He also realized, however, that he’d have to become a member of assessments and preparedness, it would be justified. In this case, the government once the fighting was over. Otherwise, the risk he took sadly, the calculations and considerations appear to be political. It’s by splitting from the Joint Arab List and running on a platform geared not only Ra’am, Meretz and other coalition parties that are bent on towards procuring a place at the table—and a budget to go along with preventing the fall of the nascent government, after all. Bennett has it—would have been for naught. even more of a reason than his partners to cling to his seat and status. His precarious position, along with the desperation of the disparate Holding on to power for dear life is what politicians do. We collection of parties who banded together for the sole purpose of know and accept this, on the condition that they protect our dear lives ousting then-Prime Minister , made him a key in the process; it’s what kept Netanyahu at the helm for so many player without whom Israelis would have been sent back to the polls years. for a fifth round of elections. The trouble with Bennett is that he cannot pull off both tasks Since June, when the anti-Netanyahu government became a done simultaneously, regardless of his pronouncements to the Cabinet. deal, Iran hasn’t been too prominent where the public interest is (JNS Aug 10) The Bombing of Sbarro’s and Why Oslo Failed Barak sweetened the offer in talks at the Egyptian border town of By Jonathan S. Tobin Taba. Contrary to the expectations of many Israelis and most foreign Next month, Americans will mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 observers, the goal of the Palestinian nationalist movement he led attacks. The trauma lingers in the memory of everyone who was then wasn’t an independent state alongside Israel, but a Palestinian state alive. But while that day of terror will never be forgotten, as an event instead of the one Jewish one on the planet. that informs foreign and defense policy, it is fast becoming as But by the time Arafat had turned down Barak for the second irrelevant as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The last American time, he had given a more definitive answer to Israeli peace offers by troops are withdrawing from Afghanistan as Washington is reacting launching the orgy of terrorist murder that was sanitized by the with indifference to the evidence that the Taliban—the group that neutral-sounding term “Second Intifada.” hosted and enabled the 9/11 attackers—will soon be back in charge in In the years that followed, subsequent U.S. administrations tried Kabul, two decades after U.S. troops routed them as part of a response the same “land for peace” formula again with similar lack of success to the terrorist attack. because —Arafat’s supposedly more “moderate” But a little more than a month before 9/11, Israel suffered a successor—was no more capable of making peace even if he was terrorist attack that, while smaller in scale than the assault on New inclined to do so. York and Washington, was also traumatic. And, in contrast, to the The same sort of incitement to murder of Jews on the part of American reaction to the efforts of Al-Qaeda, what happened on Aug. official Palestinian media and educational institutions that led to 9, 2001 is still crucial to understanding not only Israeli attitudes massacres like Sbarro’s continues. And in a touch of cruel irony, toward the notion of a peace process with the , but the Tamimi now sits free as a bird in as a result of former Prime Jewish state’s need for defensive measures to ensure that the events of Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2011 decision to release more than that day won’t be repeated. 1,000 terrorists, including those with blood on their hands like her, in One year into the Palestinian war of terrorist attrition that became order to gain the freedom of Gilad Shalit, a soldier kidnapped by known as the Second Intifada, Palestinian operatives strapped a device Hamas in 2005. including explosives, nails, and nuts and bolts to a suicide bomber. Just as bad, President Joe Biden’s foreign-policy team still acts as Their objective was a branch of the Sbarro pizzeria chain in if the assumptions about “land for peace” and a two-state solution are Jerusalem’s Zion Square at the busy intersection of King George Street as valid as they were when Bill Clinton thought he was about to win a and the Jaffa Road. Nobel Peace Prize in the summer of 2000. For them, it is as if the The crime was planned by Ahmad Ahlam al-Tamimi, a then 20- Camp David peace offer and the subsequent bloodshed never year-old Palestinian who chose the site to attack and led the bomber to happened. They and the base of the Democratic Party that would the pizza parlor. She thought the restaurant was a good target because prefer an even more hostile attitude towards Israel, still act as if it was a popular spot for families feeding children lunch on Friday Israeli security control of the otherwise autonomously ruled afternoons during the pre-Shabbat rush. Palestinian areas in the is an act of oppression rather than Along with the murderer, 15 Israelis and tourists, including seven necessary self-defense. children, in the restaurant were killed by the explosion. Another 130 The Palestinians and their leaders may understand that those were wounded, including many horribly maimed by a bomb designed Israeli efforts make a return to intifada-style bombings a non-starter. to inflict not just death but gruesome injuries. But they, too, still act and speak as if recognizing the legitimacy of a In an interview broadcast on Palestinian television in 2012, Jewish state—no matter where its borders might be drawn—is Tamimi remained proud of what she had done—and, in fact, reveled in something they will never do. Israelis know that a withdrawal from the memory of being on a Jerusalem bus when the news of the the West Bank and the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Jews bombing was broadcast and hearing the other Arab passengers from their homes in Jerusalem and in the territories won’t bring celebrating as the rising death toll became known. peace. It would, like the retreat from Gaza in 2005, only make their Of course, 20 years is a long time ago. Thanks to the building of country less safe. the security barrier between much of the West Bank ruled by the Sbarro’s still matters not so much because of its horror but Palestinian Authority and Israel, events like the Sbarro’s bombing, because the foolishness that set the series of events in motion towards which had become commonplace during an intifada that focused on that bout of terrorism is still alive and well in the unrealistic demands such atrocities , are now a thing of the past. Subsequent efforts at for an end to the “occupation” and for support of BDS campaigns Palestinian “resistance” in which the slaughter of Jews is the objective inspired by anti-Semitism by those who claim to be only advocating are limited to random stabbings, as well as the largely futile firing of for peace and human rights. Decent people should not only hold the missiles and rockets into Israel by Hamas and Islamic Jihad (though memory of the victims of 8/9/01 for a blessing but also never allow most are intercepted by the Iron Dome and Arrow air-defense systems the lessons of the failure of Oslo to be forgotten either. (JNS Aug 10) with many projectiles often falling short of their targets), more Arabs than Jews may be hurt by them. Why then should we still remember the Sbarro bombing, except to Anti-Semitism has Helped Destroy Lebanon By Sean Durns honor the victims? “One of the lessons that we learn from studying Jewish history,” There’s more to this sad chapter than merely a tragedy to be the historian Paul Johnson observed, “is that anti-Semitism corrupts commemorated. There is a problem with so much of what passes for the people and societies possessed by it.” Lebanon offers a tragic case informed commentary about the conflict in the mainstream media. in point. Those who mindlessly demand Israeli concessions and territorial Aug. 4 marked the one-year anniversary of the Port of Beirut withdrawals, including in Jerusalem, have seemingly forgotten the explosion, in which a large amount of ammonium nitrate exploded, slaughter at Sbarro’s, as well as other terrorist attacks that eventually killing at least 218 people, injuring hundreds more and leaving left more than 1,000 Israelis dead. They’ve also forgotten what thousands homeless. The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that preceded the Palestinians pointless, if bloody, five-year campaign, and Hezbollah—the Iranian-backed, U.S.-designated terrorist group— why there is a broad consensus among Israelis that stretches from the may be to blame. And Lebanon’s government, which is de facto center-left to the right that rightly understands that there is no plausible controlled by Hezbollah, shows little interest in allowing a fair and partner for peace of any kind to be found among the Palestinians and impartial investigation. their leaders. Indeed, Lebanon is in dire straits. In July of 2000, then-Israeli Prime Minister went to The Associated Press reported on June 30 that the country’s Camp David where, along with host President Bill Clinton, the pair pound had taken a “nose dive,” and banks had clamped down on offered PLO leader the fulfillment of the promise of the withdrawals and transfers while hyperinflation had “flared.” Lebanon 1993 Oslo Accords formula of “land for peace.” Arafat was presented is also enduring a shortage of medical supplies and drugs. An energy with a deal that would have given the Palestinian independence in crisis has affected Internet connectivity, resulting in businesses almost all of the West Bank, Gaza and a share of the city of Jerusalem. closing their doors and reduced government services. Beirut’s In exchange, all he had to do was agree to end the conflict for all time. International Airport has ceased to function normally, and hospitals Arafat’s answer was “no.” It was still “no” a few months later when and clinics have had to close. Wages have stagnated and in many instances declined. Gunfights have erupted over gas shortages, as PLO, sought the destruction of the Jewish state. armed smugglers attempt to meet the needs of a growing black market. Hezbollah would gain in both power and popularity, launching Writing for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Jacques attacks against the West and Israel. The terrorist organization would Neriah, the former deputy head of assessment for Israeli military use its base in Lebanon to perpetuate and plan attacks, while intelligence, observed that “Lebanon’s middle class has been wiped simultaneously fighting with the Israeli Defense Forces in Southern out.” The nation, wrote Neriah, finds itself in extreme poverty with the Lebanon. “former middle class” making “up part of the 50 percent of Lebanese Other terrorist groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic who have fallen into poverty in the last year.” Jihad and Al-Qaeda, would receive training from the IRGC in It’s worth asking how the Levantine state got into such a Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. And the wreckage created by these groups predicament. would extend far beyond Lebanon’s shores and the Middle East. Constructed from the ashes of the , Lebanon was Armed, equipped and funded by the mullahs in Tehran, ruled by the French until it was given independence in 1943. The Hezbollah would, like the PLO before it, create a “state within a state’s multi-confessional structure, in which power was shared state,” helping turn Iran’s imperial dreams into the Middle East’s between Christians and Shia and Sunni Muslims, resulted in a tenuous nightmare. balance that began to show signs of decomposition a little more than a Analysts Tony Badran and Jonathan Schanzer have observed that decade after statehood. Lebanon, once a safe haven for terrorist organizations, is now “fully Nonetheless, for the first three decades of its independence, intertwined with one.” Hezbollah, Badran noted in December 2020, Lebanon enjoyed a reputation as the “Paris of the Middle East,” and “is the state.” was both a top tourist and cultural destination. During the 1960s, the Indeed, Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun is “backed by country was synonymous with five-star hotels, was home to legendary Hezbollah,” as even The Washington Post acknowledged. Aoun, who cafes and nightclubs, and was frequented by Hollywood celebrities and also serves as commander in chief of the Lebanese Armed Forces has models. declared that Hezbollah’s growing arsenal is “not in contradiction An Egyptian dictator and a Palestinian terrorist would help undo it with the state.” all. In the four decades since its rise, Hezbollah has taken a broken Arab nationalism, embodied by Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel country and managed to make things even worse. Wars, state- Nasser, was repudiated by Israel’s victory in the Six-Day War in June sponsored crime and misuse of copious amounts of international aid 1967. The forces of Fatah—a Palestinian movement formed in 1959 in have followed. While the failure of Lebanon has many causes, it can Kuwait—began to gain ground, particularly after a battle against fairly be said that anti-Semitism has played a key role in the Israeli forces on March 21, 1968. country’s deterioration. (JNS Aug 11) To regain its hold and credibility, Nasser began to boost Fatah and its leader, Yasser Arafat. Soon, Arafat gained control of the Palestine Liberation Organization, an umbrella group that Nasser had created in Terrible, Terrible Peter Beinart By Yisrael Medad 1964 to coopt for his own ends. As the new Peter Beinart, enfant terrible, is not so much a danger to young head of the PLO, Arafat proved to be vastly more devious and Jewish minds regarding the content of what he writes and speaks as ambitious than Ahmad Shukeiri, the organization’s inaugural leader. he is in the methodology he uses to express himself—or rather, the After the Six-Day War, Arafat and the PLO were given safe haven deceitful way in which he weaves his web to tangle up his audience in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which they used to plan and of young Jews who are woefully uneducated, uninformed but perpetrate attacks against Israelis. But the PLO succeeded in setting up nevertheless proud of their hollow cultural and ethical Judaism. a “state within a state,” threatening Jordan’s stability. Eventually, after He determinedly set out more than a decade ago to undermine the a bloody battle with Jordanian forces, in September 1970 the PLO was American Jewish establishment and serve as the prime catalyst for its forced out of the kingdom. desired failure, and, as was described, to sound out “an anguished call However, Arafat and his henchmen had set their sights on another to save liberal in the United States.” He bemoaned that Israel nation to use as a forward operating base: Lebanon. Nasser had “was abandoning any serious attempt to make a deal with the pressured Lebanon’s government to allow PLO operatives the use of Palestinians just as it was undermining democratic principles by Southern Lebanon. Unofficially known as the Cairo Agreement, the giving greater status and privileges to its Jewish citizens than to its accord placed more than a dozen Palestinian refugee camps in Arab ones.” Lebanon under the control of the PLO. With the PLO losing Jordan as He perceived an American Jewish leadership that continues to a primary base of operations, Arafat’s influence in Lebanon only grew. publicly defend “the Israeli government, any Israeli government, As the military historian Richard Gabriel observed, “the seeds of the rather than defending Israeli democracy, even when the former future conflict in Lebanon were sown.” menaces the latter”—one that “ignores the interconnectedness of A half-century—and more—of bloodshed would follow. Jewish and non-Jewish dignity. The influx of Palestinians and the growing power of the PLO, To do that, Beinart has refined a particularly insidious form of whose coffers were filled with money from the oil-rich Gulf States and argument. He exploits terms and themes that have been employed by the Soviet Union, were contributing factors to the outbreak of civil war Jew-haters and anti-Zionists, reworking them to be legitimately used in Lebanon. The internecine conflict began in 1975 and lasted 15 by Jewish critics of the Palestinian narrative. As in this assertion— years, devastating the country. “the same sort of settler fanatics who burn Palestinian olive groves The Palestinian terrorist groups contributed immeasurably to the also assassinated an Israeli prime minister”—he throws out destruction. Their attacks on Israel, as well as on Jews living abroad, generalizations that are simply incorrect, although his audience will prompted two Israeli incursions, beginning with the more limited miss such false charges. “Operation Litani” in March 1978 and the more extensive “Operation For example, he promotes the existence of institutionalized anti- Peace for Galilee” in June 1982. The latter achieved its objective of Palestinian bigotry in America against the Democratic “Squad”-istas. expelling the PLO from Lebanon, but failed to achieve the more He suggests that “ ‘anti-Semitism’ offers a glimpse into how this ambitious goals of some Israeli cabinet officials, like Sharon, works” and that “treating Jews as inferior didn’t require a special who wanted a peace agreement signed and ratified between the Jewish term because it was unremarkable, the normal order of things. That’s state and a Christian government in Lebanon. roughly the situation for Palestinians today.” Other viciously anti-Semitic terrorist groups would soon take the On the issue of the supposed “right of return,” Beinart works in PLO’s place. the Jewish concept of teshuvah (or “repentance”), writing “the return As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and of —far from necessitating Jewish exile—could Analysis (CAMERA) documented in both The National Interest and be a kind of return for us as well, a return to traditions of memory and , in the 1970s the PLO helped train the nucleus of justice that the Nakba has evicted from organized Jewish life.” He what was to become Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ seeks to place an onus on Jews, adding “the longer the Nakba (IRGC) Quds Force. This entity would soon birth Hezbollah, a continues, the deeper this Jewish moral exile becomes.” genocidal, anti-Semitic terror group that, like the Quds Force and the He corrupts the history of the conflict, during which thousands of Jews were ethnically cleansed from Jerusalem, Hebron, Gaza and An Open Letter to the Board of Directors of Ben & Jerry’s Shechem by quoting Mahmoud Darwish, again using a Jewish- By Alan Baker identified term: “Darwish noted another crucial difference between the Dear board members, Jewish and Palestinian dispersions: ‘You created our exile, we didn’t In today’s ruthless global business environment, your company’s create your exile.’ ” In refusing to accept a territorial compromise in accentuation of social justice causes is impressive. However, your 1937 and 1947, and waging a terror campaign and outright war, the product and branding have now been tainted. The taste of your Arabs of the British Mandate, even with Beinart’s assistance, cannot product becomes sour, its brand integrity flawed and its quality escape their own responsibility for their fate. polluted. He further ignores the conflict’s complexity and fatuously, even To claim that your company and its founders are based on incredulously, states “a democratic binational Israel/Palestine would principle and integrity is regrettably misleading. Your decision to end be no more bigoted against Jews than binational Belgium is bigoted business in “Occupied Palestinian Territory” is based on what you against Walloons or binational Canada is bigoted against Quebecers … perceive to be the notion that “a majority of the international a binational Israel/Palestine would be far less bigoted than the status community, including the , deems to be an illegal quo.” Are the two examples comparable? occupation.” But this premise is patently inaccurate and misleading In that piece, he also displays extreme views such as “most since it relies on non-obligatory U.N. General Assembly resolutions political theorists insist that national self-determination cannot mean adopted by an automatic and political majority that cannot claim to the right to your own state.” How can you argue with such inanities? determine the legality or illegality of Israel’s presence in the territory. Moreover, he negates Israel by blurring the difference between On the contrary, your decision ignores the legally acknowledged sovereign Israel and the area of the administered territories as here: fact that Israel and the Palestinians themselves have agreed, in the “Israeli Jews enjoy maximum self-determination—a state that internationally sanctioned Oslo Accords, to divide the governance of privileges them—in a territory where a roughly equal share of the the territories between them, pending completion of their mutual population is Palestinian. As a result, Jewish self-determination negotiation on the permanent status of the territories. Your violates Palestinian rights on a massive scale.” Since the population of determination that the territories are “illegally occupied” and Jordan is more than 50 percent “Palestinian,” is not the Hashemite “Palestinian” is simply wrong, and presumes to prejudge the outcome regime no less (and more) violating their rights? of the agreed-upon negotiation process and predetermine their legal The solution he pushes there—“the only way to respect both the status. As such, your reasoning for ending business in these areas is Jewish and Palestinian rights to national self-determination is to define based on a false premise and runs counter to the Palestinians’ own that right as autonomy, not sovereignty”—simply punishes Israel for wishes and legal obligations in the Oslo Accords. Arab rejectionism since 1937 (or 1923 if one includes their refusal to Your additional reason for ending business in the territories, that accept the Legislative Council idea) and grants yet another privilege to Israel’s policies “violate basic human rights of the Palestinian the Arabs to refuse a logical resolution of the conflict yet still portray people,” is also based on wildly biased and misleading propaganda themselves as the injured party. pushed by curious fringe movements such as “Vermonters for Justice Consider here how he defends the anti-Semitism of Reps. Rashida in Palestine,” Oakland Institute and others that appear to be Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.): “… anti-Muslim, anti- manipulating your decisions. Such elements openly peddle Arab and anti-Palestinian racism has made it difficult for people from irresponsible, one-sided and misleading propaganda on the spurious those communities to gain a foothold in American politics, especially assumption that ending Israel’s occupation—or Israel’s very when they advocate for Palestinian rights. Just look at the hell Rashida existence—will, in and of itself, bring about peace. Tlaib and Ilhan Omar endure anytime they support Palestinians in any They choose to ignore the realities of the situation in the Middle way.” East and the extent and volume of Palestinian terror and violence In “any way”? Including ways in which hate and even verbal directed against Israel’s civilian population, including the violence are promoted? indiscriminate firing of rockets and launching of incendiary balloons He insists that “Ben & Jerry’s isn’t boycotting Israel as a whole. into Israeli territory. It’s only boycotting Israeli settlements.” But Jerusalem is part of Above all, one might have expected that Ben & Jerry’s would Israel, and the boycott would affect it. take into account that any progress toward peace between the For Beinart, the responses to the decision by Israeli President Isaac Palestinian and Israeli peoples can come about only as a result of Herzog and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid to protest and oppose the bona fide negotiation between them. Peace cannot be advanced boycott “are not merely intellectually and morally bankrupt; they’re through adhering to the irresponsible directives of the BDS (boycott, strategically stupid.” Worse, “lunatic.” divestment, and sanctions) movement, whose aims are the Most recently, Beinart disclosed in his newsletter that he has: undermining of Israel’s very existence. It cannot be advanced through “spoken privately to [Ben & Jerry’s] executives and encouraged their a one-sided, discriminatory commercial boycott that achieves nothing efforts” on the boycott campaign, adding that “no one has produced more than to send an encouraging message to the Palestinian any independent evidence that the company is hostile to Jews.” leadership by proffering support for their continuing hostility and Of course, any normal person reviewing the chairperson of their intransigence. board Anuradha Mittal’s tweets and decisions would reasonably arrive Your action will not advance peace by one iota by permitting at a different point of view. yourself to be manipulated. You are not only depriving a population Beinart teaches one university course, “Opinion Writing,” which is of a product, you are also threatening the livelihood of loyal and intended to teach writing skills so as “to open minds or change them devoted workers, mostly from immigrant families as well as from about local, state, national and international issues.” An example of among the Palestinian population of Israel and the territories. Beinart changing minds is when he publishes: “nothing is as likely to Despite any honest and noble intentions that you may have, and make American Jews rethink their views on Israel as listening to whether you intend it or not, you are unavoidably labeling yourselves Palestinians. The basic thrust of establishment American Jewish as an openly anti-Israel company. The actions you are taking are discourse about Palestinians is dehumanizing … and have absorbed distinctly and solely directed against Israel and as such are inherently racist stereotypes of Palestinians as violent, primitive, Jew-haters.” discriminatory. They do not represent the realization of similar values The great challenge to those taken in by Beinart is in the question: vis-à-vis other countries to which you supply your product, countries If you believe that erosion of democracy and moral standing lies at the that have serious human rights records. base of a gradually diminishing support for Israel in the West due to Through such discrimination and singling out of Israel, you are the “occupation,” especially among young Jews, given the lack of allowing yourselves, possibly unintentionally, to be perceived by the democracy in the Palestinian Authority and the immorality of its many elements in international society that harbor a strong hostility terror, coupled with its repressive actions against its own populace, towards Israel and the Jewish people, as meriting the regrettable and why do young Jews support the Palestinian cause? What makes them ugly blemish of anti-Semitism. morally superior to Israel? Sincerely, Alan Baker (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Aug 8)