10 January 31 • 2019 jn views the big BDS bang Democrats are itching for anti- BDS bills on which to vote. The fact is that much of the anti-BDS legislation puts Democrats in an uncomfortable position, where they are forced into a bad choice of either being on the side of absolute support for Israel or absolute sup- port for free speech, but not both. While none of the senators support BDS, many of them would rather see the issue go away. That is not to say that the bulk of Democratic senators will ultimately vote down anti-BDS legislation on the merits, but like any wedge issue that splits elected officials from vocal parts of their base, it is not a great place for them to be politically. The Republicans know this, and they are in turn playing a deeply cynical political game with the BDS issue. By raising the BDS issue in the very first piece of leg- islation coming from a new Senate but doing so while Congress was unable to pass a spending bill that President Donald Trump would sign, the Republican majority cre- ated a campaign issue that is good for them but terrible for Israel’ s status as a bipartisan cause. It is glaringly obvious that Democrats are not going to allow legislation to proceed to debate that does not address the shutdown, but now Republicans are going to use Jan. 8’ s cloture vote — in which only four Democrats voted to advance the bill — as alleged evidence that Democrats support BDS, including those like Schumer and Cardin whose pro-Israel bonafides are unimpeachable. But Republicans did something even sneakier with the anti-BDS legislation than conflating objec- tions on procedure with support for BDS. Rather than include the anti-BDS bill sponsored by Cardin and GOP Sen. Rob Portman target- ing boycotts led by foreign govern- ments and international organiza- tion that was the result of months of negotiations and revisions in response to free speech objections from the ACLU and other groups, they used an anti-BDS bill that would affirm the right of state and local government to pass anti- BDS legislation that has in some states already been struck down by courts as unconstitutional. In other words, rather than ask Senate Democrats to pass a bill that was the result of painstaking efforts to mitigate free speech concerns, they asked them to pass a bill that protects state and local legislation to which Democrats have legitimate free speech objec- tions and that has already been successfully challenged. The fact that Democrats, including Cardin, sponsored a version of this bill before it was successfully chal- lenged in courts makes it even better for Republicans politically, since they can truthfully — but nonetheless misleadingly — claim that the bill is bipartisan, ignoring the fact that there is a heaping pile of changed circumstances. None of these facts or details will make it through to 99.99 percent of the public, who will simply hear that Democrats do not want to combat BDS and that only Republicans can be trusted to safeguard Israel from this wishing to erode its legit- imacy and destroy it as a Jewish state. This is not good for Israel, and this is not good for pro-Israel Democrats, but it is a master class in how to use procedural chicanery and wild unsupported accusations to turn support for Israel into a cudgel with which to beat your political enemies. Get used to much more of this as the 2020 presidential cam- paign season heats up. Democrats do indeed have a problem with some of their base on Israel, and Republicans are going to do all they can to make them take uncomfortable vote after uncom- fortable vote, reaping whatever political wins they can rather than try and sustain bipartisan support for Israel as a policy goal. Praise the rock-solid support for Israel in the Republican Party all you want but ask yourself how pro-Israel it truly is to accelerate a process through which Israel becomes a partisan issue rather than trying to stem the tide. ■ Dr. Michael J. Koplow is Israel Policy Forum’ s Policy Director, based in Washington, D.C. continued from page 6 With support from Metro Detroit’s Best Kept Secret Steven E. Stein, M.D. With 25 years of experience Dr. Stein has performed 1000s of face and neck lift procedures, along with blepharoplasties (eyelid surgery) and fat grafting. Because of his vast experience, Dr. Stein is the only plastic surgeon you should be choosing for your cosmetic procedures. Somerset Center for Plastic Surgery Steven E. Stein, M.D. 1579 W. Big Beaver Rd. Suite B-7, Troy, Michigan 48084 Get your KISSABLE LIPS for “VALENTINE’ S DAY”!!! Call for an appointment today 248-643-7710 MENTION THIS AD & RECEIVE 20% OFF ANY LIP FILLER TREATMENT!