Failures Of BDS: A J Weekly Interview with Jon Haber

Boston based blogger Jon Haber from Divest this recently visited the Bay area, discussing the failure of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions(BDS) movement with local activists.

From his interview in J Weekly

Since 2001, BDS advocates have tried to persuade colleges, churches and others to buy in to their credo of boycotting Israeli goods, divesting from Israeli companies and urging governments to impose sanctions on Israel.

So far, Haber said, they have virtually nothing to show for their efforts.

Haber was in the Bay Area last week meeting with supporters. His core message: While vigilance remains necessary, the BDS movement has failed.

It has not persuaded a single institution to divest from Israel for political reasons, Haber insisted, adding that boycott efforts often backfire — especially when pro-Israel groups such as StandWithUs organizing “buycotts” of Israeli products.

Notes Haber, “When I talk to Jewish groups I say, ‘Don’t panic, but don’t be complacent.’”

He says the BDS movement is not a movement at all, but rather a tactic that has been employed by those who seek to delegitimize Israel. It launched a decade ago with the U.N.-sponsored Durban Conference, which equated Zionism with racism.

Jon concludes:

“You can only go so long without victories. America is not turning against Israel. The message of [Israeli] apartheid does not resonate at all — in fact, quite the opposite.”

Read the full interview here

"Divest this: How to Stop the Global Boycott Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) Movement Attack on Israel"

Jon, the brilliant, lucid voice behind "Divest this" has come up with a new weapon in the war against BDS. Jon's new handbook is "Divest this: How to Stop the Global Boycott Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) Movement Attack on Israel and ensure its Second Decade of Defeat".

The Handbook is a must read for any community, school or commercial institution dealing with the specter of BDS, drawing upon Jon's years of experience as a voice of light and reason in the BDS battleground

Jon's Top Ten Reasons to Defeat BDS:

1. BDS represents an attempt by narrow-interest partisans to stuff
their propaganda into the mouth of a third party.
2. BDS tries to make every civic organization a new battlefront in
the Middle East conflict.
3. BDS poisons and divides any community it enters.
4. BDS is based on falsehoods, such as the “Israel=apartheid” propaganda accusation.
5. BDS warps debate over the Middle East, making the quest for peace more difficult
6. BDS seeks to unfairly punish just one side in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
7. BDS activists frequently use manipulation or fraud to get their way with an organization.
8. BDS has been rejected by every organization where it’s been tried, including some of thenation’s most progressive communities.
9. Defeating BDS helps discredit the discreditable endeavor to de-legitimize Israel.
10. BDS is a loser.

When BDS invades a civic organization, divisiveness, hostility and chaos ensue. This new handbook gives supporters of Israel the tools we need to fight back.

Yascher Koach, Jon. May you go from strength to strength.