The BDS movement’s failure to derail Israel’s international relations or economy

[King_David]

The press is full of dire warnings that Israel is isolated and growing more so, and that the boycott, divestment, sanctions (BDS) movement is having a devastating impact on the Israeli economy. It’s no mystery that Israel is politically at loggerheads with much of the world over the disastrous Iran deal, settlements and inaction on the peace process; nevertheless, diplomatic ties remain intact. Moreover, despite the desperate hopes of the BDS campaign, economic ties are flourishing.

Overall, Israeli exports have grown from around $5 million in 1948, to more than $47 billion in 2014. Israel’s largest single trade partner remains the United States, despite political tensions between the political leaders. The total volume of trade in 2014 was $36 billion. In addition, each of the 50 states benefit from their ties with Israel. In 2014 alone, 21 states exported more than $100 million worth of goods to Israel, led by New York with exports of more than $5 billion.

Israel’s relations are even more strained with the European Union and yet trade with the EU exceeds that of the U.S. Roughly one-third of Israel’s imports and exports are a result of trade with the EU. Moreover, total trade with the EU has grown from approximately $21 billion in 2003 to $34 billion in 2013.

Countries outside of the EU, the EFTA-bloc countries such as Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, have taken, or seriously considered economic sanctions against Israel. Still, Israel enjoys a free trade agreement with EFTA-bloc countries and business with these nations remains robust.

The central hub of the BDS movement is in England, but the various votes by academic and trade associations for boycotts have had virtually no tangible impact. In fact, total bilateral trade amounted to a record $6 billion in 2014, an increase of more than 7 per cent from the previous year.

The biggest economic story is the exponential expansion of Israel’s trade with Asia, which will overtake the U.S. as Israel’s second biggest export destination this year. China is already Israel's third-largest trading partner; in fact, since formally establishing diplomatic relations with China in 1992, trade has increased 220-fold from $50 million in 1992 to $11 billion in 2014. In addition, total trade between Israel and Japan reached $2.3 billion in 2014.


http://www.jpost.com/Blogs/Classroom-Battlegrounds/The-BDS-movements-failure-to-derail-Israels-international-relations-or-economy-411918

[King_David]

1. .

[Little Tich]

2. Yet another dumb article by someone who's unable to understand the difference between Israel and the

illegal settlements.

Of course Israel isn't affected by BDS, simply because BDS is directed against the illegal settlements. There are many examples of companies and goverments supporting BDS, but I don't know a single instance of them BDS'ing anything outside of the illegal settlements. A simple Google search can give me plenty of examples of BDS of the settlements, but not a single instance of BDS against Israel.

Please show me at least one instance of actual BDS against a company that isn't involved with the illegal settlements, or else I will consider the OP bogus...

[King_David]

4. The BDS bigots target only the settlements you say?

Oh please , the BDS bigots now days target American Jews...

The BDS bigots recently suffered a humiliation in Spain... After they tried discrimination against a Jew.

Hopefully it sent the bigoted antisemitic and also homophobic ( we learned) movement a fatal blow.

[Little Tich]

5. The Op is obviously bogus, and you can't prove otherwise...

[King_David]

8. Huh ?

What does that mean ?

[Little Tich]

9. Veolia, Mekorot, Soda Stream, Caterpillar etc all have dealings with the illegal settlements.

More recently, an EU think tank has proposed BDS of Israeli banks that have dealings with the illegal settlements. OTOH, there is no problem for Israeli businesses to thrive abroad if they have no dealings with the illegal settlements.

There is a very definite difference between the settlements and Israel - one is subject to BDS and the other not at all. The author of the OP is knowingly just trying to muddy the waters and present a bogus version of BDS.

I think this guy is dangerous in a way, because I buy Israeli products regularly without thinking twice, but I never buy anything from the settlements. If this idiot gets his way, there will be no difference between Israel and the settlements, and therefore I would have to stop buying Blue and White.

[King_David]

10. BDS has made no difference economically

Is his point.

The BDS movement have on the other hand been exposed as a petty bigoted Antisemitic and apparently homophobic movement that cares little for the occupation and more for hate against Jews.

Recently in Spain they tried to stop an American Jew from performing at a festival because he was Jewish. In South Africa they severed a pigs head and placed the bloody dripping head in a Jewish Kosher supermarket.

The BDS movement is more a racist thuggish group obsessed more with Jews than they are with any type of occupation or settlements.

[Little Tich]

13. We seem to disagree slightly on the whole subject of BDS.

We're approaching the subject from completely different angles, and while I'd like to refute your arguments, I don't want to refute you.

If you believe in the values in the Democratic Party we can't really be that far apart, anyway.

[oberliner]

11. The BDS Movement does not differentiate between the settlements and Israel in terms of its campaign

This is the BDS Movement:

http://www.bdsmovement.net

It's not about settlements.

[Little Tich]

12. I don't care about the self appointed "BDS movement",

this is about the companies and and governments that BDS the illegal settlements and the occupation. They have nothing to do with the BDS movement at all, and if you actually believe your own arguments, could you then show for example how Horizon 2020 is connected to the BDS movement or the Dutch government, or Norwegian pension funds etc...

You are obviously holding back facts that I don't know, and without them I must consider your argument rubbish.

[oberliner]

18. No idea what you are talking about

The BDS Movement is a real organization. The website link was provided.

I have no idea what you are talking about with respect to holding back facts.

[Little Tich]

19. We are discussing two different and unrelated things.

If you can't provide linkage between the "BDS movement" and the companies and governments who actually do the BDS, then your argument is rubbish. If you're not even holding back such info, flimsy as it may be, then I find it hard to believe that you actually could believe in your own argument.

[6chars]

3. It's still annoying

What about the poor American Studies scholars in Israel. I don't want to help BDS with hints, but they would be more successful if they chose targets other than off-beat academic disciplines and on-beat American Jewish reggae singers.

[Israeli]

6. Article in Israeli Maariv, 10/08/2015..........

CONCERNS ABOUT EUROPEAN BOYCOTT:
[ISRAELI] BANKS PREPARE FOR A "FINANCIAL-NATIONAL TSUNAMI"

Article in Israeli Maariv, 10/08/2015, by Ben Caspit
Translation: Jonathan Ofir

The banks are in panic following a document produced by the research institute facilitating the EU. According to its recommendations, the union must boycott Israeli banks involved in financial activity in the occupied territories.
Tags [Hebrew] Boycott of settlements, boycott of Israel

********
Quietly and under the radar the largest banks of Israel are seeking to form a plot and to coordinate positions vis-a-vis that which is determined by senior officials in the banking system as a "financial-national tsunami" awaiting around the corner.

It concerns the same document of the research institute (Office of European Foreign Affairs) the recommendations of which facilitate the EU and which were publicised a few weeks ago. According to the recommendations, the EU must regulate its activities in the field to its own laws and boycott Israeli banks which are invovled in financial activity in the territories occupied by Israel.

"These recommendations have been publicised several weeks ago, the media dealt with it one or two days and everyone moved on to daily business", a senior official in the banking sýstem in Israel told "Maariv This Week", "under the surface we are talking about a mega-event, if this happens the financial implications upon the banks and the Israeli economy will be enormous. It's not an event of financial proportions, but of national ones. This can bring us to very hard places and the issue requires handling by the highest levels", he said.

In the past weeks, the evidences regarding the EU consideration of these recommendations positively are culminating. Continuing deterioration of the Israel-USA relationship lessens the chances that the Americans would attempt to halt this European action. Perhaps the opposite may be true. According to various diplomatic sources, it is precisely the Americans who are unleashing Europe recently and encouraging Europe to tighten its activity against the continuation of the Israeli settlement policy in the occupied territories.

"One way or another", officials in the Israeli banking system say, "it's necessary to understand what will happen here on the day that it will be decided to to 'credit mark'. When you mark products it can harm part of the market here and there, but when they mark each credit that the bank gives beyond the Green Line [1967 line] and boycott that bank, the meaning of it is a property confiscation warrant on all the banks. The European banking and credit system is inextricably connected to the Israeli economy, no European bank will accompany projects in Israel, it will not be possible to receive credit in Europe and there is nothing we would be able to do about it".

"Credit marking" means that each Israeli bank which provides mortgage for the purchasing of an Apartment in Maale Adumim, Ariel, certain places in Modi'in etc. enters the blacklist. The Europeans include also Jerusalem, Ariel, Golan heights, road 443 and parts of road 1 under the term "conquered territory". There is not a bank in Israel that is not involved in activities in these areas. Every credit given to a business, every mortgage, can mean the bank risks a European boycott. "It has an enormous implication", a senior in the banking system says, "the meaning of this is a siege upon the Israeli economy, a kind of SHUT DOWN. In such a situation we will have to organise and refer to the PM. Solutions for such an issue can only come in the national arena. It's already far more than a just a financial issue per se.

The assessment is, that soon the banking system will exit the bunker and attempt to form an organised policy vis-a-vis the government. In such a situation, it is expected that heads of the banks will meet with the Finance Minister and PM and discuss a "credit and financial safety net for the banks against the new danger". It is doubtful whether the government is able to produce such a safety net.

"We must admit that this is a national issue, we too are aware that there is no trick that can solve this affair", they say in the banking system, "but this does not lessen our concern. We are speaking about a mega-event which we must prepare towards and digest. This is what we are currently trying to do".

Source: Maariv front page .

Translation : https://www.facebook.com/jonathan.ofir/posts/10153275776134342

Also .....

EU envoy warns of more steps against Israeli settlements

Associated Press
Published: 08.27.15, 14:20 / Israel News

The European Union's outgoing envoy to the Palestinian territories says the 28-nation bloc is moving forward with measures against Jewish West Bank settlements.

The envoy, John Gatt-Rutter, did not provide a timeframe. But his remarks to reporters Thursday underline European discontent with Israel's continued expansion of settlements in territory that Palestinians want for a future state.

Source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4695164,00.html

BDS not working.... huh .

NB : posted previously @ http://www.democraticunderground.com/1134110956#post29

[King_David]

7. TASE went down and up same as NYSE

Anything else happen?

[Mosby]

16. Israeli media

Publish all kinds of rumors and innuendo.

You should know that.

[geek tragedy]

14. If BDS is such a pathetic, impotent failure than why are all of the pro-Israel

cheerleaders so obsessed with it?

[King_David]

15. Because it's proven itself to be a bigoted movement

More obsessed with Jews than anything else, recently tried to ban an American Jew from performing at a festival while happy to allow a Gay hating homophobic performer free reign.

Bigots should always be challenged and never ignored.

[Mosby]

17. +1

[ericson00]

20. God Bless the Jewish State of Israel

and the only serious economy in the Middle East. No oil, just brains and human capital

[guillaumeb]

21. And the utter failure of the BDS movement is why Israel, and

backers of Israel, go to such lengths to discredit the movement and try to legislate the movement out of existence.

The same thing was said about the BDS movement that was directed against South Africa.

And then the white South African government collapsed.

Interesting attempt.

[King_David]

22. Was that South African movement bigoted?

Did they devolve into racists and
antisemetic and homophobic displays?

(BTW were you around when a poster politicman used to post here ? He is also a transplanted Québécois living in America)

[guillaumeb]

23. What is a poster politicman, and how does it relate to my post?

So Israelis are not racists and homophobes? What about the incident with the Israeli citizen slashing/stabbing attendees at an Israeli gay rights event?

[King_David]

24. Loonie fundamentalist psycho

Who is now in Jail.

The bigoted BDS movement has recurrent and numerous incidents of antisemetic Jew hatred including placing a severed bloody pigs head into a kosher Jewish supermarket and recently banning an American Jew from singing in a festival in Spain and allowing a gay hating homophobic singer to sing at the very same festival.

[guillaumeb]

25. Interesting how some people can characterize an entire movement

by the actions of a few individuals.

An equivalent tactic would be for someone to characterize ALL Israelis as murderers of Palestinian children because of the actions of some IDF members and some settlers living in the illegal settlements.

Or characterizing ALL Israelis as homophobes based on the actions of a few fundamentalist Israeli Jews.

Would you agree?

[King_David]

26. Its not one or two individuals for the BDS movement

It is incident after incident after incident after more antisemitic incident.......and then more....

[guillaumeb]

27. The same could be said about Israelis killing Palestinians.

So at what point, and what percentage, can anyone characterize a movement by the actions of a tiny percent of the individual members?

And what ranks higher on the hate scale? Hatred for Israelis or hatred for Palestinians? Or is hate just hate?

[King_David]

28. Hatred for Jews of course

Most common

[shira]

31. I challenge you to name 1-2 BDS leaders who do not call...

....for Israel's destruction, do not support or defend Hamas, & are not outright bigots.

That shouldn't pose any problem if BDS is a clean, peaceful & humanitarian movement.

Of course we both know it isn't, so you won't be able to find even 1-2 of these leaders. They simply don't exist. There are no decent BDS leaders.

Prove me wrong.

[shira]

30. Israelis are probably the least racist considering....

...the nation has been in a state of war since its birth. No other nation would restrain itself like Israel has done.

What about the incident with the Israeli citizen slashing/stabbing attendees at an Israeli gay rights event?

There are crazies everywhere in every nation. It's how that nation responds & everything points to universal condemnation within Israel for that act. Israel's one of the most gay friendly nations on the planet.

[shira]

29. Israel & its supporters dislike what's bigoted & hateful about BDS....

That's the concern.

And it's not just a few individuals either. The BDS movement - contrary to what they claim to stand for - tends to be sympathetic to Hamas & their goals, and promotes 1-state after a full RoR (Israel's destruction).

So BDS is essentially a call to war, ethnic cleansing, genocide, etc. as their position is practically the same as Hamas (a genocidal organization calling for the killing of all Jews worldwide). The recognized leader of BDS, Omar Barghouti, explicitly admits it.

There are no other "peace" or "human rights" movements based on hate & destruction of a UN state. It's absurd to view BDS as an organization supporting peace, justice, and human rights.

BDS is unlike the movement in S.Africa, which did not call for nor justify future massacres, ethnic cleansing or genocide (the Hamas agenda) which would likely happen with Hamas & the PA in power once the Jews are a minority.