BDS : All wet at UC Irvine

The anti- Israel cru have failed to defeat Israel militarily.
They have failed to demoralize Israel through an ongoing terror war.
BDS is the current tactic, and after 12 years, it too is failing.
Why?

In Nov, 2012 the UC Irvine student council voted to divest from companies doing business in  Israel. This is what followed from the school administrators

Such divestment is not the policy of the campus, nor is it the policy of the University of California. The UC Board of Regents’ policy requires this action only when the U.S. government deems it necessary. No such declaration has been made regarding Israel.

In the spirit and practice of active engagement with all peoples of that region, UCI has been extremely pleased with recent global collaboration between leaders and researchers here and those at top universities around the world, including Israel. The campus looks forward to continued constructive exchanges that benefit our students, faculty and community.

Why have BDS activists put so much effort into a resolution with no teeth?
One reason is the publicity-  while sabotage of Israel's economy would be a welcome outcome , publicity and  "rebranding" of Israel are also primary motivators.

BDS  at its core is a paper tiger.
How do you defeat a paper tiger?
Try water.
In spite of the BDS resolution, or perhaps because of it, UC Irvine has been strengthening its ties with Israeli institutions. Israel and California both share the challenge of managing a limited water supply.

From Parallel Worlds: Water Management in Israel and California , posted by Jay Famiglietti of University of California, Irvine in National Geographic's Water Currents 

... It is a well-known fact that this entire region faces extreme challenges to manage their scarce water resources. Drought, increasing agricultural water demand, population pressures, and competing stakeholders add to an already stressed water system. Despite these challenges, this region is at the forefront of water management. The regional efforts to collaboratively manage surface water resources from the Jordan River and groundwater aquifers, for example by Friends of the Earth Middle East, as well as Israel’s strategies to maximize and efficiently use every last drop of water, are revolutionary.

In Israel, wastewater from urban areas is used to irrigate nearly 100% of crops in a desert while desalination accounts for 60% of water supply in densely populated regions. Pricing for water accurately reflects the costs to transport and produce the water, but these prices are affordable for all. Crops that can be grown with “poor quality” water, such as brackish or reclaimed wastewater, are cultivated while water-intensive agriculture and flood irrigation is rejected. Greenhouses and drip irrigation systems dominate the irrigation landscape. Clearly, the world, and including California, could learn a thing or two from Israel.

Over the course of our two weeks in the Middle East, we will meet with the key water authorities, water utility companies, civil society members, and university researchers in Israel, Palestinian territories, and Jordan. During our “science diplomacy” trip, we hope to not only share our research, but to learn from a region that is a prototype for effective water management...

For we Californians, it was surprising and inspiring to hear about the innovative strategies in place to meet agricultural water demands and, even more so, that the farmers were completely in support of these policies. In the States, we have very little monitoring of agricultural water use, particularly of groundwater abstraction. If groundwater were as closely allocated and monitored in the U. S. as the resources are in Israel, the monitoring may be regarded as a breach of personal freedoms, since groundwater rights are tied to property rights in much of the country. Yet here in Israel, the farmers have fully supported this progressive strategy to both strictly monitor and allocate water resources and to introduce new supplies through desalination and recycled water. Much of their support appears to be the result of an ongoing communication and social outreach initiative to inform farmers about the limits to water resources and the opportunities to meet water demands through more sustainable practices. How could we drive a shift in the United States to emulate this support for innovative water management policies?

His trip left UC Irvine's Jay Famiglietti energized  about further collaboration with Israel:

This Israel-California knowledge transfer model is an exciting venture, and we hope that over the duration of our trip we will find more ideas, collaboration opportunities, and links with civil society, academic, and governmental agencies. From domestic water use strategies to effective agricultural irrigation and high-tech water system modeling to the development of innovative distribution systems, the possibilities for international learning are endless. In the next few posts, you’ll hear about our conversations with key civil society leaders, such as Friends of the Earth Middle East, and regional water managers in Israel, Palestine, and Jordan as well as our insights to the region’s water initiatives, such as the proposed Red Sea-Dead Sea conduit. With this new cross-regional network as a foundation, our water future is looking brighter.

Sure looks like BDS is all wet at UC irvine.