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Divesting From Peace
By Fred Taub
March 5,
2007
 The Divest-From-Israel campaign is
being pushed on campuses with a promise to bring peace to the Middle East; yet,
the Arab leadership of the campaign looks at it differently. In their eyes, the
real goal of the campaign is not to foster peace between Arabs and Israelis as
claimed, but rather to destroy Israel by collapsing its economy.
With roots dating back to 1921, the Arab boycott of
Israel was officially declared in 1945, almost four years before Israel was
established, to literally starve out the Jews. Hatred of Jews was the unifying
factor that resulted in the formation of the Arab League, which runs the
boycott as official government policy of its member states, plus the non-state
member - the Palestinian Authority.
During the Oslo
Accords negotiations for a proposed Palestinian state, Francis Boyle, an
American professor from Indiana, was working as a consultant to the Palestinian
Authority's negotiating team when he publicly proposed what he termed “a
divestment campaign against Israel.” As a consultant to Yasser Arafat,
Boyle furthered the Arab boycott of Israel by specifically trying to draw
students into creating a group of small campaigns on campuses to get
universities to not do business with Israel. Boyle suggested that, while a
single campus campaign would have little effect, having many campuses adopt the
campaign would increase the impact overall.
The Arab
League has set the goal of the Arab boycott of Israel to be nothing less than
the complete destruction of Israel; thus, there is no reason to expect anything
less from its subordinate Divest-From-Israel campaign, which is not scheduled
to end with the creation of a proposed Palestinian state. The
Divest-From-Israel campaign is simply designed as a way to invigorate the Arab
boycott of Israel via recruitment of non-Arab peace activists under false
pretenses. Promoting warfare, including economic warfare, is, by definition,
the antithesis of peace.
Like the 1980s campus
campaign that successfully created an adult population that accepted the notion
of a Palestinian state, the desired results of the Divest-From-Israel campaign
is the collapse of Israel’s economy. If the Arab League and their
supporters accomplish that goal, the next anti-Israel campaign will be the call
for the dismantlement of Israel.
Divestment’s
primary advocating body is the International Solidarity Movement/Palestinian
Solidarity Movement, which officially recognizes the validity of “armed
struggle,” as it appears on page 20 of the ISM book Peace Under Fire.
“Armed struggle” is what terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda, Hamas,
Hizbullah, Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority's own Fatah and Al-Asqa
Martyrs Brigades call terrorism to justify the murder of innocent men, women
and children. The Divest-From-Israel campaign cannot, therefore, be separated
from murderous terrorism - the campaign organizers openly support and advocate
terrorism.
Historically, boycotts have never
resulted in peace. Additionally, economic cooperation is fundamental to peace,
but divestment proponents will not tell you that. When the US and France had a
disagreement over Iraq, it was economic reliance that kept the two nations as
friends. The friendship between the US and Canada has only grown because of
open trade. Israel and Jordan, too, have peace also completely based on open
trade. Divestment would end the growing peace between Israel and Jordan,
something neither county can afford. Thus, if the entire Arab world had trade
with Israel, no nations in the Middle East could afford to go to war with each
other. Divestment is clearly anti-peace.
Challenging
the Arab boycott of Israel should not be undertaken just to protect Israel. The
Divest-From-Israel campaign as an element of the greater and official Arab
League boycott of Israel has the goal of imposing the policies of foreign
countries on the US. This is precisely the reason the US established
anti-boycott laws.
In creating the Export
Administration Amendments of 1777, the United States Congress stated that no
foreign nation may impose their foreign policy on the US; therefore, no US
persons may engage in official boycotts of foreign nations aimed at nations
friendly to the U.S. Yet, that is exactly what the Divest-From-Israel campaign
is - the Arab League’s foreign policy of boycotting Israel being imposed
on and in the US. This demonstrates the contempt the Arab Leagues feels toward
the Unites States and our Congress.
Foreign
countries are using Americans as pawns to dictate foreign policy in the US, in
the form of the Arab boycott of Israel and its subordinate Divest-From-Israel
campaign.
Additionally, while the Divest-From-Israel
advocates claims they will bring peace, the divestment, boycotts and sanctions
they champion will only divide. History has clearly shown that economic
cooperation is the pathway to peace; divesting from Israel is actually
divesting from peace.
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