Israel’s Defenders Must Step Up Efforts on Behalf of the Jewish State
by Ronn Torossian
The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is heating up, with activists trying to spread the EU’s labeling initiative that singles out Israeli products from Judea and Samaria. In January 2016, President Barack Obama joined this movement, when he erroneously reinterpreted a 20-year-old proclamation by then-president Bill Clinton to intentionally label Israeli products from the “settlements.”
Israel advocates are pushing hard against the spread of BDS, and as a result, states such as Florida, Tennessee, New York, Indiana and Pennsylvania have passed legislation that opposes boycotting Israel; thirty-five other states are considering similar laws.
Although the BDS movement claims that it wants to end the Israeli “occupation,” the truth is unavoidable, as Palestinian leaders continue to praise terrorists and Hamas continues building terror tunnels. But BDS couldn’t care less about that.
Other examples of this double standard are clear. Iran, one of the largest sponsors of the terrorism against Israel, was just awarded billions of dollars under the nuclear deal. And now European nations, several of which claim to support Israel’s security concerns, are doing business with Iran. France, for example, just agreed to sell Iran more than 100 Airbus planes. This gives the illusion of Iran as a legitimate partner even while it makes no effort to hide its support for Israel’s destruction.
Israel will not be bullied into submission, and the pro-Israel community must be ever more vigilant in defending the Jewish state.