Posted on 06/07/2015 5:59:36 PM PDT by xzins
JERUSALEM, Israel -- What does the Presbyterian Church USA and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters have in common? They both support boycotting Israel, a sweeping movement that's trying to delegitimize the Jewish state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says a great struggle and international campaign is being waged against his country to "blacken its name."
"It is not connected to our actions; it is connected to our very existence," Netanyahu said. "It does not matter what we do; it matters what we symbolize and what we are."
Just this week, the CEO of French mobile phone giant Orange said he'd cut ties with the Israeli operation company here, one of Israel's largest, as soon as possible.
Earlier this week, Britain's National Union of Students voted to boycott Israel and affiliate with the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) movement. The same group voted against a resolution last year condemning the terrorist actions of ISIS.
It's all part of BDS, whose goal is to punish Israel by encouraging artists, companies, academia, countries and even churches to boycott its products, divest from its companies, and impose sanctions on the Jewish state.
Proponents of the movement claim it will help end what they perceive as injustices against the Palestinians. Critics believe BDS aims to much more.
BDS expert Eran Shayshon said the clear agenda is to tarnish Israel's reputation.
"The BDS movement doesn't say out loud that it is against Israel's right to exist; however, they do mention that they support the right of return, which everyone who understands something about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict understands what it means and this is the annihilation of the State of Israel," Shayshon told CBN News.
"What the BDS is trying to do is to create an anti-Israeli spirit of the times -- namely to negatively brand Israel and so to associate it with the former regime of South Africa," he explained. "Clearly such equation is false."
Will Roth, an Austrian-born Jew and CEO of the Israel, Europe Freedom Center, said the campaign has gone beyond words.
"When you go to certain areas, unfortunately, especially in Belgium and in Sweden, if you'll just have a yarmulke, not to say have some good word about Israel, there will be slurs upon slurs and usually they will be violent at the end," he told CBN News.
Roth said it's a fight that awaits him every day.
"When I went to talk at Marseilles University in France and the pro-Palestinian spokesperson just walked inside, very easily cheerfully, safely and I had to be guarded when I entered and someone also tried to stab me during the way up to the stadium," he recalled.
But while BDS is sweeping Europe, it is slower to take hold in the United States. Roth said that's in part because Europeans become intoxicated by ideas while Americans tend to fight back.
The Presbyterian Church USA ended business connections in Israel, and the U.S. State Department boycotts cutting-edge cancer research at Israel's Ariel University because it's in Samaria -- or the West Bank.
Pink Floyd's Roger Waters openly criticizes artists who perform in Israel, but some like Eric Clapton, Dionne Warwick, and Alan Parsons performed in Israel anyway.
American actress Scarlett Johanson faced protests for her endorsement of SodaStream, an Israeli company with Jewish and Arab workers based in an Israeli settlement, and with Oxfam, a group fighting global poverty.
Her work with SodaStream was seen in a Super Bowl commercial.
"Like most actors, my real job is saving the world. Start with plain water, add bubbles, mix in the perfect flavor. Look soda that's better for you and all of us -- less sugar and less bottles," she says in the ad.
The commercial cost Johanson her relationship with Oxfam because its leaders felt her work with SodaStream furthered the poverty of the Palestinians.
According to Shayshon, Israel fights an uphill battle because the other side plays by different rules.
"While we try to explain our position and use facts, they do branding and this is a completely different field," he explained. "When they shoot from Gaza, we said, 'Well they started it ' and they shout, 'apartheid, apartheid.' There is a mismatch between our strategies and the responses and that's our problem. We don't understand the battlefield."
And in this battle, Roth said American Christians are among Israel's staunchest supporters.
The Presbyterian Church USA ended business connections in Israel, and the U.S. State Department boycotts cutting-edge cancer research at Israel's Ariel University because it's in Samaria -- or the West Bank.
But while BDS is sweeping Europe, it is slower to take hold in the United States. Roth said that's in part because Europeans become intoxicated by ideas while Americans tend to fight back.The Presbyterian Church USA ended business connections in Israel, and the U.S. State Department boycotts cutting-edge cancer research at Israel's Ariel University because it's in Samaria -- or the West Bank.
It seems to be fashionable to hate the Jews...always has been. Why? Is it envy of their close families and work ethic?
Obama promised “Hope” and “Change”, and he delivered.
Today, antisemitic bigots worldwide can Hope for the final solution to the Jewish Problem. As for the “never again” assurance on genocide, that has seen the Change Obama wanted.
boy, for such a tiny country with a minute population, there sure are a lot of people that have issues with them. geez.
THE WHOLE rest of the middle east belongs to arabs, yet they cant find room for the Palestinians, or whatever they should be called.
Today we have Obama and his accomplices, including commies in our educational system, who have programmed a generation into believing Israel is our enemy and the aggressor in the Middle East.
Give it time. There will be another Holocaust — this time in the US. And if we aren't already, we will be actively arming Israel's enemies.
It’s envy of Jewish law. Christians need to remember that Jewish law is the foundation of civilization.
Boycotts were used by the Nazis to allow the general population to engage in anti Semitic activities. It conditioned desensitized the people for the harsh laws, arrests and killings that soon followed. These boycotters claim they are only anti Zionist but not anti Semitic. Ask any of them for documentation of their condemnation of the firing of high explosive rockets into Israeli population centers by the Palestinians.
That is the frightening possibility - the United States on the side of the next group of antisemitic genocidal socialists. We have a rabid antisemitic socialist in our White House today, and we don't know how far he would go given the opportunity. My guess is that he would finish the job he wishes his socialist allies had finished in the 1940s.
Ya. And “Brazil Starts Counting Their Jews”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3297913/posts
The Presbyterian Church has become apostate by adopting gay marriage and abortion, Disgrace for which they will have to answer before God on Judgment Day.
Oh, didn’t you hear? Obama said he is the most Jewish President ever in the White House. How’s that for an absurdity?
He’s certainly the most obsessed with Jews. Bigots like Obama (and his supporters) disgust me.
If Adolf Hitler were alive today he would be very proud, people are still blaming Jews for their problems..people say that the Holocaust could never happen again, I say yes it could, its already happening, first Jews get blamed for everything, then they want to destroy their good name, next will come the ovens we live in scary times
The Jews were chosen to give God’s Word to the world.
Satan hates them. And then, there was the rejection of the Messiah at his First Coming. And the prophecy given at that time.
He will save the Remnant at His Second Coming.
The world will try to finish off Israel under the Antichrist. They will die quickly at the Second Coming. And after that, the lake of fire.
Laugh now, world. Enjoy it while you can.
Can they say “blacken”?
how could I ever forget? I lost the fireman friend to cancer from working in the pit. Another one has chronic lung trouble. I had to pass that mangled wreck on my way to work for 2 years. I worked in those great buildings twice and i still remember giving blood and watching the Jets fly overhead. and these pieces of garbage cheered. I better stop there because what else I have. to say would be much much uglier.
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