By Lloyd Levy
LONDON–This last week or so must rank as one of the most depressing weeks as far as Israel is concerned. This is despite the lifting of major military threats to its borders, with the collapse of Syria and Egypt in recent times.
My wife and I have an apartment in Eilat, which we frequent in the winter from time to time, to escape the English cold and damp. How depressing to find that Eilat is now the subject of almost weekly rocket attacks from Sinai. Fortunately no one has been injured, and no damage caused to date.
Yet Israel is afraid to do anything about it, relying instead on the Egyptian Army to counter the terrorists in Sinai. This may be good politics , but hardly reassuring to those of us wanting to go to Eilat for vacation and relaxation.
The European boycott of Israel is gaining rapid momentum, as indeed I warned some months ago. Now some major banks in Scandinavia have started to boycott Israeli banks with ties to the Territories, and Oxfam, a major charity, is boycotting the Israeli company Sodastream. Refusing to join Oxfam in its boycott, Scarlet Johansson has come out of the episode as a true heroine, and not just a film heroine, and is much to be commended.
So what can we as individuals do about this boycott? Essentially I suggest we boycott them in turn. The argument used against them is that it is intolerable and indeed beyond credibility, that within living memory of the Holocaust and the boycott of Jewish shops and businesses, that Europe is again boycotting Jews. The moral pit into which Europe has sunk is incredible. Note that Europe is fast becoming a Muslim continent, which may have something to do with the situation. A recent survey from the British Census, apparently shows that 10% of births in England are to Muslim families !!!
Next time I receive an appeal letter from Oxfam, I shall return it to them with a note saying how low they have sunk, and to tell them what to do with their appeal.! These people need to know that boycotting is not a one-way street.
I do also wonder if John Kerry is behind these threats against Israel. At least twice in recent weeks he has seemed to threaten Israel with boycott, and indeed with an intifada. His argument that he is trying to protect Israel from these things, rings hollow with me. However I do believe that Israel would have been better to develop the Negev and Galilee, rather than spending all that money and resources on building towns in the West Bank. The “settlements” have arguably got out of hand over the years since the Six Day War (nearly 50 years ago.)
Having said that about Kerry, the news coming out from the talks recently, does suggest the “framework” will be as good as Israel can expect. The benefit to Israel if a proper agreement can be reached, is beyond measurement, even if not all the terms are agreeable.
My own opinion is that after much huffing and puffing, Israel will reluctantly agree to the “framework” agreement. The Palestinians however are not going to agree to anything – they never have and won’t again this time.
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Lloyd Levy is a businessman who divides his time between England and Israel. He may be contacted at lloyd.levy@sdjewishworld.com
Almost weekly is a gross exaggeration. But we are prepared when it happens.
The boycott against Jewish businesses in Nazi era Germany cannot be compared to the BDS movement. It is certainly discriminatory to direct a boycott against Jews for simply being Jews. It is, however, entirely reasonable to boycott Israel because of its actions of its government. There would be no reason for the BDS movement if Israel complied with international law.
Doug, you are anti-Semite in your heart, covering under the ‘actions of the Israeli government’. You are also blind to the facts. If you consider visiting Israel and open your eyes to what is actually happening in reality, you would not say such a nonsense. In 2008, when we were in Israel, while Gaza was so hostile to Israel, we had taxi drivers taking from Gaza us around Jerusalem. We gave tips with blessings for their families and they gave us blessings in return. Israeli government does nothing wrong besides caring for the existence of the State Of Israel on G-D given land where Jews were present for over 3000 years.