The Israeli minister spearheading a heavily funded government campaign against the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement said Tuesday that the international group poses no threat whatsoever to the local economy.
“From an economic perspective, the so-called BDS [movement] has been a failure,” Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan told a large gathering of evangelical Christians in Tel Aviv.
“Foreign direct investment in Israel continues to rise, our credit rating is at its highest level ever, we have more start-ups per capita than any other country, and just last month we had a record number of tourists,” he said.
However, in virtually the same breath, Erdan compared those supporting a boycott of Israel to those who had supported a boycott of Jewish businesses in Nazi Germany.
“Just as the Nazi Party called for a boycott of Jewish businesses as a first step in their plans to wipe out the Jewish people, so too the BDS campaign calls for the boycott of the Jewish state as a means to wipe it off the map,” he said.
Erdan then cited “Mein Kampf,” noting: “As none other than Adolf Hitler explained in his book, if you repeat a big lie long enough, people will come to believe it. The big lie that Hitler repeated was that the Jews were responsible for all of Germany’s problems. The big lie the BDS movement is repeating is that the Jewish state is responsible for all of the Middle East’s – in fact, all of the world’s – problems.”
The BDS movement defines its mission as working “to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, and pressure Israel to comply with international law.”
As part of his ministry’s ongoing campaign against the BDS movement, Erdan has ordered a number of left-wing activists critical of the Israeli occupation be detained and interrogated at the country’s borders. In some cases, they were deported after questioning. The Israeli government has allocated tens of millions of dollars to Erdan’s ministry for the purposes of fighting BDS.
Erdan was the keynote speaker at a first-of-its-kind conference targeting investors in the evangelical community. Some 500 evangelical businesspeople and church leaders from over 40 countries attended the event, organized by U.S.-based nonprofit ARISE (Alliance to Reinforce Israel’s Security and Economy). Among the sponsors were the Israeli government and the International Christian Chamber of Commerce.
The minister told the audience that the only people suffering from the boycott were Palestinians, who stood to lose their jobs in what he described as “joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial zones.” This was a reference to Israeli-owned companies in the settlements that rely heavily on Palestinian labor.
“The joint economic zones are islands of coexistence,” Erdan continued. “Thousands of Jews and Arabs work together every day there in harmony, and Palestinians manage Israelis and Israelis manage Palestinians.” With few exceptions, though, Israelis are the managers and Palestinians the laborers in these West Bank factories.
“The BDS extremists can’t stand the notion that Israelis and Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze, are working together in peace,” Erdan added, noting that Israeli-owned businesses in the West Bank have been a prime target of the BDS movement.
Last month, two Israelis were murdered in a terror attack at a factory in the Barkan industrial zone, which is located near the West Bank settlement of Ariel. The attack was carried out by a Palestinian previously employed at the factory.
By building relationships with Israeli businesses, Erdan told participants at the event, they would be “better prepared to counter misconceptions about the BDS campaign.”
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Facing New Sanctions, Iranians Vent Anger at Rich and Powerful
Babak Dehghanpisheh
Reuters • November 07, 2018
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More Iranians are using social media to vent anger at what they see as the corruption and extravagance of a privileged few, while the majority struggles to get by. People are increasingly pointing fingers at the rich and powerful, including clerics, diplomats, officials and their families.
Seyed Mahdi Sadrossadati, a cleric with 256,000 followers on Instagram, in a recent post blasted the "luxury life" of a Revolutionary Guards commander and his son, who posted a selfie online in front of a tiger lying on the balcony of a mansion. Read more.
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France Issues Arrest Warrants for Three Syrian Security Officials for War Crimes
France 24 with AFP and Reuters • November 05, 2018
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French prosecutors issued international arrest warrants on Oct. 8 for three senior Syrian intelligence and government officials for collusion in war crimes, legal sources said Monday. They include security chief Gen. Ali Mamlouk, one of Syrian President Assad's most senior advisers; Jamil Hassan, the head of Air Force Intelligence; and another senior Air Force Intelligence official, Abdel Salam Mahmoud, who heads a detention facility at Mezzeh military airport in Damascus.
The French warrants bring charges including collusion in torture, forced disappearances, crimes against humanity and war crimes. In June, the German Der Spiegel reported that German prosecutors had also issued an international arrest warrant for Hassan on charges he oversaw the torture and murder of hundreds of detainees. Read more.
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Palestinian Threats to Arab Normalisation with Israel
Khaled Abu Toameh
Gatestone Institute • November 07, 2018
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When it comes to Israel, one would be hard-pressed to distinguish between Fatah and Hamas. The daily statements condemning Israel that are issued separately by Hamas and Fatah sound almost identical. These daily attacks have radicalized Palestinians to a point where many of them would not consider any form of compromise with Israel.
In the past few days, the rival Palestinian parties have again found themselves in agreement over what they perceive as efforts to normalise relations between Israel and some Arab countries. They are opposed to normalisation between Israel and the Arab counties because they are afraid that their Arab brothers will forget about the Palestinians and focus on bringing prosperity and stability to the Arab countries.
The Palestinians seek to continue holding the Arab world hostage to their own unrealistic demands. They do not want to see the Arab countries move forward and build a better future for their people. In the world of the Palestinians, peace between Israel and the Arab countries is tantamount to treason, a conspiracy concocted by Israel and the U.S. Read more.
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Israeli Lawmakers From Right and Left Vow to Back Reform and Conservative Jews in Struggle for Equal Status
Judy Maltz
Haaretz • November 07, 2018
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Setting aside their political differences for a few short hours, Israeli lawmakers came out in unusually large numbers on Wednesday to express their support for the non-Orthodox Jewish movements.
The rare show of unity came a little more than a week after a Pittsburgh synagogue that housed both Conservative and Reconstructionist congregations was targeted in the deadliest attack ever carried out against Jews in the United States.
The Knesset members stopped short, however, of issuing a formal declaration calling on the government to recognize the non-Orthodox movements. Neither did they move to initiate legislation that would change the religious status quo in the country, as one opposition lawmaker in attendance proposed.
Lawmakers from parties as far right as Yisrael Beiteinu, which draws most of its support from Israel’s Russian-speaking community, and as far left as the Communist party (Hadash), which is now part of the Joint Arab list, participated in the emergency parliamentary session titled “It’s Time for Equality.”
Nearly 20 Knesset members, an impressive number for such an event, addressed the forum, among them leaders of two opposition parties: Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Tamar Zandberg (Meretz). Two members of the ruling Likud were also in attendance. No representatives, however, of the Orthodox, settler-aligned Habayit Hayehudi or the ultra-Orthodox parties showed up.
Lapid was one of several speakers to point out the irony that Israel is the one country in the Western world where Jews do not enjoy total freedom of religion. “So long as women can’t pray at the Western Wall as they see fit and so long as there is no change in the conversion law, we are doing an injustice to ourselves – not to the Conservative or Reform movements – but to us as a society,” he said. “In the name of my party, I promise that we will not rest until all the streams of Judaism are recognized for divorce, for marriage, and mainly for life.”
Israel does not recognize marriages performed by Reform and Conservative rabbis, and individuals converted by Reform or Conservative rabbis cannot marry in the country. Institutions run by the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel receive only a tiny fraction of the funding allotted to those under Orthodox control.
Amir Ohana, a member of Likud and the first openly gay lawmaker to represent the party, said that based on his experiences while living for a short period in the United States, “American Jews have had their share of disappointments with us.”
“But we need to join forces now,” he added, “so that finally we will be worthy of the title of the state of the Jews – the state of all Jews.”
The session was attended by dozens of Reform and Conservative rabbis, as well as lay leaders and members of youth movements affiliated with non-Orthodox Judaism.
Nachman Shai, chairman of the Knesset Caucus for Strengthening the Jewish People, said that the session was convened not only because a “terrible massacre” had been carried out in Pittburgh, but because of the “fundamental issues” it raised about Israel’s relations with the Diaspora, in particular its treatment of the non-Orthodox movements, which account for the majority of Jews in the United States.
Shai was one of six Knesset members signed on the invitation to the event. Michael Oren (Kulanu), a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, also signed the invitation but did not end up attending.
Rabbi Gilad Kariv, executive director of the Reform movement in Israel, said that he and his cohorts did not intend to suffice with “venting” about the systematic discrimination their movements suffer in Israel. “In the coming months, we intend to draft legislation, launch campaigns in Israel and abroad and hold parlor meeting around the country,” he said, “and we hope that members of the Knesset join us in our demand for full equality and recognition.”
Yizhar Hess, executive director of the Conservative movement in Israel, said he could not recall a gathering of this kind that had brought together so many members of both the coalition and the opposition in the Knesset. “This should be a wake-up call,” he said. “And we are tired, very tired of being treated like second-class citizens. We’re not a meaningless minority any more, and we will show the members of the Knesset that it makes political sense for them to wave our flag.”
The leaders of the non-Orthodox movements were reassured by lawmakers who attended of their full backing. “The fact that Israel doesn’t recognize half the Jewish people prevents it from being what it is meant to be – the nation-state of the Jewish people and a safe haven for Jews around the world,” said Merav Michaeli (Zionist Union). “It’ll happen though. It’ll simply happen. Earlier than you think, rest assured.”
“The awful thing that happened in Pittsburgh, it broke our hearts, but it didn’t break our spirit,” she added. “And all the fear and anger, we will now channel in our struggle for full equality for all Jews.”
A proposal by Stav Shaffir (Zionist Union) that the attending lawmakers sign a draft bill that would grant official recognition to the Reform and Conservative movements was rejected, however. It was clear that members of Likud and their political partners did not have the liberty to sign such a bill because of coalition agreements with the ultra-Orthodox parties.
Rachel Azaria (Kulanu) said she was confident the non-Orthodox movements would one day be recognized in Israel, but patience was required. “Israel will recognize the streams,” she said. “It has to. That’s the good news. The bad news is that it will take time. But ultimately, revolutions don’t happen here in the Knesset. They happen first among the people.”
Zandberg lamented the fact that the Israeli government was alienating large swaths of American Jewry because of its alliances with regimes that “flirt” with antisemitism or have “antisemitism deeply embedded in them.”
“This is unacceptable for us here in Israel and for Jews around the world,” she said. “And for what? Is moving another embassy to Jerusalem – which none of us doubts for one second is the capital of Israel – worth the price of legitimizing antisemitism?”
Image: Former Rabbi at Tree of Life Synagogue, Rabbi Chuck Diamond, second from left. (Source: Haaretz)
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