Public Comment

Israel has elected the most right wing government in its history. This will surely accelerate the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The decades of peace efforts have been tossed into the dustbin of history. The government, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, rejected Palestinian statehood. His key ally, Jewish Home, openly advocates creating South African style, Palestinian Bantustans, which is sure to accelerate its global isolation and put it on a collision course with the United States.  

Consider what is already happening; American star Lauryn Hill’s recent cancellation of a concert near Tel Aviv followed an earlier boycott of 1,000 artists in the U.K and a growing number of U.S. academic associations; Dutch and Norwegian pension funds have divested from Israeli banks. More significantly, a recent poll reveals a growing number of Jewish Americans favor boycotting products from Israel and oppose settlement expansions. Former Mossad chief, Shabtai Shavit, expressed grave concern that the growing BDS movement is a grave threat to Israel’s survival, a view shared by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak.