Europe boycotts Israel out of fear and hypocrisy

The Boycott Divest and Sanction movement (which has vigorously fought for the total boycott of Israel since 2005) and the new European boycott have one thing in common: They were built on the reflexive practice of blaming Israel for the misbehavior of Palestinians. Both boycott movements face something worse than failure: failure with reprisals. 

The boycott that has already failed is a case in point: The BDS Movement began in 2005, when the first crowd brainwashed college kids and paid protesters took to the streets marching around with giant BDS banners and waving the flag of “Palestine.” 

Linda Sarsour became the face and driving force of BDS – punishing Jews for the misdeeds of Hamas and Gazans -- as a platform for her stump speech, aimed at convincing oppressed Muslim women to be proud of the country that’s oppressing them. And, in fact, Muslim women are victims because they are at the mercy of Palestinian men. 

BDS is dead, whether its members and contributors know it or not. One of the reasons can only be explained with a question which has an obvious answer. The world has always recognized Hamas as a terrorist group, but did college kids waving the Palestinian flag know they were marching for. Would they also march for Al Qaeda?

European countries should read this 2013 New York Daily News, because it represents the change of thinking and the public’s enlightenment that ultimately caused the BDS organization to implode. 

In February 2013, eight years after launching his war against Israel, Barghouti published an op-ed piece for the Daily News promoting the BDS movement he founded. The Daily News editorial staff broke protocol and wrote a scathing rebuttal in an editorial saying that Barghouti is “skilled as a propagandist” and that “he piles falsehood upon falsehood to present Israel as relentlessly oppressing the Palestinians in violation of human decency, and to hold Israel exclusively responsible for the ills afflicting them.” The Daily News concluded that “Barghouti wants a secular, democratic state built on an influx of Arabs who come to dominate the population and vote an end to Israel as the Jewish nation. That, ultimately, is the nefarious truth behind his libels.”

Brilliant!

Newspapers don’t typically invite people to write an op-ed piece, then rip it to shreds with an editorial. The New York Daily News – which isn’t biased in any direction -- was simply too shocked to ignore the flagrant antisemitism and ignorance upon which the BDS movement was founded. They also confirmed what Israel has been saying all along.

Ironically, BDS’s 21-year fight to inflict damage on Israel’s economy has had the opposite effect. Twenty-one years of op-eds, marching, rallies and parades, paid protesters and squandered college educations… what did it amount to? Nothing. 

Economic indicators all point in the same direction, and the Brookings Institute summarized it well: “Economists and trade analysts note that Israel's economy—heavily driven by high-tech sectors, specialized cyber and medical tech, and differentiated goods that are hard to substitute—has largely absorbed broad boycott calls…”

BDS and all the people I’ve mentioned thus far have one thing in common. They tried turning their hatred for Jews into a campaign of fake sympathy for “Palestine.” 

On October 7, 2023, Palestinians pounded their way through the Israeli border, using heavy artillery and 3,000 Hamas-led militants. They went on to commit the most gruesome attack on innocent women and children in modern history, an attack that included setting live babies on fire while the attackers laughed and recorded the massacre. More than 1,200 people were tortured and murdered.

The world’s response? With nothing to reinforce their asinine logic (not even a lie), they blamed Jews for the slaughter of its own people; They sympathized with the terrorists, the barbarians that burned Jewish babies.

Since that horrific day three years ago, and I say this as an unbiased, non-Jewish American who was at Ground Zero on 9/11, I have never witnessed such an abomination of grotesque human behavior in the form of Jew hatred in my 60-year life. I’m referring to the wave of Jew-hating sentiment that is sweeping Across America. 

Today, three years later, it is so pervasive that, shockingly, many Jews on the left have viciously attacked Israel and even their Jewish friends for not supporting Palestine. (Read that again.) The probably KKK doesn’t know what to do with itself. If Jews are targeting their own people, what’s the point of burning crosses?  

Over the past three years, Europe has become equally naive in a nauseating, pathetic sort of way.  In the past and still today, Israel, a sliver of a country surrounded by Arab countries 10 times its size, has had to defend itself from every king and pharaoh and dictator whose countries have charters calling for the complete annihilation of Israel. The cowards of Europe have now jumped on board with those countries.  The United Kingdom, Canada, France, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway Poland and Portugal want to join hands with the monsters in solidarity in the movement to destroy Israel.

It’s Israel versus the world, although Israel has the vital support of America. What it doesn’t have in the overwhelming support of America. According to recent polling by Gallup, as many as 65% of Democrats express more sympathy or support for Palestinians than for Israelis, representing a clear majority within the party. Roughly 76% to 77% of Democrats favor an independent Palestinian state. 

Israel’s enemies, including 130 members of the United States Congress (103 in the House and 27 in the Senate) responded the way Jew-haters have always responded: by blaming Israel.  

The following numbers are unacceptable. 

Nearly half of all House Democrats—103 according to be exact—have taken clear legislative positions reflecting support for pro-Palestinian measures, such as blocking military aid to Israel. One-third of these Democrats have explicitly championed Palestinian rights and statehood have taken clear legislative positions reflecting support for pro-Palestinian measures, such as blocking military aid to Israel. One-third of these Democrats have explicitly championed Palestinian rights and statehood. 

Using the same criteria, the number of Republicans is one. Aside from that Senator, there’s not a single Republican member of the House who supports Palestine or sponsors pro-Palestinian resolutions. Republicans are solidly pro-Israel. 

Here’s something I often wonder about: With all the evil being committed in countries all around the world, why are all these boycotts aimed at Israel? Israel doesn’t execute gays like Iran and Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Qatar, Afghanistan, Somalia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and several others, nor does Israel doesn’t subjugate women like these Muslim Majority countries. Why doesn’t anyone protest these countries? Do they fear the vicious tactics that regimes like use on their accusers? Either way, the hypocrisy is astounding.

The European countries boycotting Israel are emitting an odor of cowardice that is so pronounced, I can smell it from 3,500 miles away, wafting across my backyard in Saratoga County, New York. In my opinion, they are afraid that, unless they capitulate to pressure and coercion of the world’s Arab bullies, they will wake up one day and see what I saw, while standing in the rubble of the Twin Towers, on September 11, 2001. Honestly, it’s a legitimate fear, which is why these boycotters should do the opposite of what their fearful instincts are telling them to do.

But I would encourage Europe to learn a lesson from an incident that took place in America in the summer of 2026. A Muslim man shot and killed two pro-Palestine gay men. The killer knew his victims were pro-Palestine activists. You’d think he’d be grateful for their support of his Muslim brothers. But, he also knew they were gay, and now they’re dead. 

Terrorists don’t have etiquette or scruples or loyalty or anything remote akin to a conscious. They smell fear, though, which is why they will never attack America again. So, move forward with your boycotts of Israel. But don’t think that such a mealy-mouthed exercise will prevent Buckingham Palace or the Louvre from becoming a handful of dust. I’ve stood in that dust. If it can happen in the financial center of the world, in New York City, it can happen anywhere at any minute. To boot, the boycotts will fail, just as the BDS movement failed, and Israel will still be prosperous.