Ben Gurion University
Ben Gurion University – Even Uri Avnery comes out against Neve
Gordon’s boycott however his argument is that it would be
ineffective
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.
http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2009/09/leftist-comes-out-against-boycotting.html
A Leftist comes out against boycotting
Israel
posted by Carl in Jerusalem
September 02, 2009
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?
|
