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How Jews On The Left And The Right Are Empowering BDS
T
Sadly, Jewish Voice for Peace
he BDS debacle at the
(JVP) has become an integral
University of Michigan
part of nearly every campus-
proved once again that
based attack on Israel, and
Jews can be their own worst
Michigan was no exception.
enemies.
Jarring, though unsurprising, was
Since 2002, the University
the op-ed from the University of
of Michigan’s Central Student
Michigan chapter of JVP, pub-
Government (CSG) has, on 10
lished the day before the divest-
occasions, rejected resolutions Seffi Kogen
ment vote, entitled “To fight
to support the movement to
white supremacy, support divest-
boycott, divest from and sanc-
ment.”
tion the State of Israel.
This, of course, is a blatant lie:
This month, however, for
The creation of the State of Israel was
the first time, the resolution passed, to
much hand-wringing in the Jewish com- itself a historic triumph over a white
supremacist regime that sought to
munity.
destroy a people it considered racially
The students who fought the resolu-
tion — sacrificing sleep, schoolwork and inferior.
What is JVP’s evidence that Israel
social lives — did absolutely everything
represents white supremacy? First,
they could and are to be commended.
they charge that Jewish organizations
And, after the resolution passed, the
(including my own, the American Jewish
university’s administration immedi-
Committee) issued congratulations to
ately announced that, despite the vote,
President Trump after his November
Michigan would not become the first
2016 victory — which, as nonpartisan
school in the country to divest from
entities, they surely were right to do,
Israel.
whatever they thought of the new presi-
Just why did the resolution pass this
dent. Next, they cite the odious Richard
time? Contributing factors included
Spencer, the disreputable doyen of the
strong bonds forged between various
alt-right, who, true to his trollish nature,
“progressive” coalitions and anti-Israel
heaps praise upon Israel despite his
students; a stacked CSG (the vice presi-
well-known disregard for Jews. Finally,
dent and several other members were
they offer a litany of disputed racial inci-
staunch supporters of divestment); and
dents in Israeli history, as if Israel must
a pervasive know-nothingness that saw
be perfect to deserve to exist.
the anti-Israel crowd raucously cheer
This rhetoric isn’t limited to
the decision to prevent Professor Victor
Lieberman — a recognized expert in the Michigan. At schools across the country,
and off-campus as well, JVP’s outspo-
history of the Israeli-Palestinian con-
ken anti-Zionism gives cover to non-
flict — from speaking at the debate on
Jewish Israel-bashers and renders them
divestment from Israel.
immune to the charge of anti-Semitism,
But what sealed the deal in favor of
no matter how deserving of the label
BDS were Jews — in two different fla-
they might be.
vors of radicalism.
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The second type of radical Jew that
helped ensure the BDS victory is the
far-right group behind the McCarthyite
blacklist at Canary Mission. The website,
launched in early 2015, announced itself
with a video featuring the tagline “It is
your duty to make sure that today’s radi-
cals are NOT tomorrow’s employees.” The
site has documented the names, affilia-
tions and activities of a number of young
anti-Israel activists at campuses across
the country, holding them accountable,
in perpetuity, for the ill-advised tweets
from their youth, their membership in
political organizations and their campus
activism.
Some of those exposed by
the site are undoubtedly Israel-
haters. But by creating the spec-
ter of a blacklist, Canary Mission
handed powerful ammunition to
the anti-Israel crowd at Michigan.
Using Canary Mission as a bogey-
man, BDS proponents so scared
the members of the CSG that
they would end up on a shadowy
website intended to make them
unemployable that they took the
extraordinary measure of voting
by secret ballot.
As the Washington Post’s memo-
rable slogan puts it, “Democracy
Dies in Darkness.” This deeply
undemocratic decision to vote in
secret left the members of CSG
completely unaccountable to the
voters who had elected them. Thus
unburdened, they voted, narrowly,
to divest.
Now Canary Mission, in a
preposterous partnership with
its ideological opposites at JVP,
has forced the Jewish and pro-
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Israel community at the University of
Michigan to deal with the fallout of a
successful BDS resolution.
Is all lost for the pro-Israel commu-
nity on campus? Have we entered an era
when these two oddest of Jewish bedfel-
lows open the floodgates to widespread
divestment? Hardly. The very next night,
with no Jewish Voice for Peace op-ed
and an open, roll-call vote, the University
of Maryland student government heartily
rejected BDS. •
Seffi Kogen is the American Jewish Committee’s
director of campus affairs.
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