The recent decision by renowned physicist Stephen Hawking to boycott the fifth Israeli Presidential Conference, co-sponsored by Shimon Peres and Jerusalem's Hebrew University, is being touted by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement as a great victory. Yet...
Shi’ite-Led Govt. Still Targeting Rivals, Even As Cabinet Drops Boycott
It Can Happen Here!
Years ago I said that there are but two miracles in Israel: the Hebrew language and democracy. Hebrew had been a dead language for many generations, more or less like Latin, when it was still used in the Catholic church. Then, suddenly, concurrent with the emergence...
Israel’s Crackdown Grows with Boycott Bill
Political change is slow. One doesn't go to sleep in a democracy and wake up in a fascist regime. The citizens of Egypt and Tunisia can attest to the fact that the opposite is also true: dictatorship does not become democracy overnight. Any political change of such...
Things You Can Say, Things You Cannot
The anti-boycott law passed Monday night. Much has been said about what the American administration — blind as always to Middle East realities — tagged "an internal issue." Let me just add that my readers should remember, from now on, that there are things I am not...
Who Is Annexing Whom?
In a rare late-night session, the Knesset has finally adopted two obnoxious, racist laws. Both are clearly directed against Israel’s Arab citizens, a fifth of the population. The first makes it possible to annul the citizenship of persons found guilty of offenses...
The Boycott Israel Movement Needs to Rethink Tactics
Channel 10, one of Israel's three TV channels, aired a report this week that surely frightened a lot of viewers. Its title was "Who Is Organizing the Worldwide Hatred of Israel Movement?" and its subject was the dozens of groups in various countries which are...
Israeli Education Minister to Punish Supporters of Academic Boycott
Hundreds of Israeli college professors have signed a petition accusing the education minister of endangering academic freedoms after he threatened to “punish” any lecturer or institution that supports a boycott of Israel. The backlash against Gideon Saar, a member of...
The Boycott Revisited
The people of Sodom, the Bible tells us, were very wicked indeed. They had a nasty habit of putting every passing stranger into one particular bed. If the stranger was too tall, his legs were shortened. If he was too short, his body was stretched to the required...
Against the Israel Boycott
How much did the boycott of South Africa actually contribute to the fall of the racist regime? This week I talked with Desmond Tutu about this question, which has been on my mind for a long time. No one is better qualified to answer this question than he. Tutu, the...