Federation Star - November 2019
Monthly newspaper of the Jewish Federation of Greater Naples
Monthly newspaper of the Jewish Federation of Greater Naples
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COMMENTARY<br />
<strong>November</strong> <strong>2019</strong> <strong>Federation</strong> <strong>Star</strong><br />
The BDS movement: sinister ramifications for Israel<br />
By Jerrold L. Sobel, ZOA of SWFL President, September 23, <strong>2019</strong><br />
Most people over the past 15 a group of 12 organizations advocating<br />
for “Palestinian refugees internally<br />
years have heard or read<br />
about the BDS movement. displaced in Palestine and in exile.” The<br />
The term itself refers to Boycott, Divestment<br />
and Sanctions movement. BDS National Committee (BNC), which<br />
GPRRC is a member of the Palestinian<br />
Founded by two virulent anti-Semites, coordinates the anti-Israel boycott,<br />
Omar Barghouti and Jamal Juma, it’s divestment and sanctions movement<br />
a propagandist campaign conducted worldwide. The central organization in<br />
against the State of Israel and the Jewish the BNC is the Palestinian National and<br />
people worldwide. However, relatively Islamic Forces (PNIF), which includes<br />
few understand its history and its ramifications<br />
for the Jewish state.<br />
tions: Hamas, the Popular Front for<br />
five U.S.-designated terrorist organiza-<br />
The roots of BDS date back to the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the<br />
the Arab League’s boycott of Israel in Popular Front - General Command, the<br />
1950, two years hence her successful Palestine Liberation Front and Palestinian<br />
Islamic Jihad.<br />
War of Independence. The purpose<br />
was to starve the Jews out of their new It’s important the uninitiated recognize<br />
that BDS does not exist in a vacuum<br />
homeland. Failing this but with varied<br />
success, other incarnations such as the or just on American campuses. It is part<br />
blacklisting of countries, organizations and parcel of an insidious movement<br />
and corporations doing business with of coordinated organizations grouped<br />
Israel were attempted throughout the together with one focused goal, the<br />
ensuing years.<br />
destruction of the State of Israel by any<br />
As an example, in 2001, under means.<br />
the tutelage and sponsorship of Yasser With tentacles spread throughout<br />
Arafat, a Jew named Adam Shapiro the world, often aided by left-wing<br />
and his Palestinian wife, Huwaida Arraf,<br />
created the International Solidarity ated themselves on campuses, in youth<br />
media and academia, they have insinu-<br />
Movement (ISM). Ostensibly created groups, board rooms, labor unions and<br />
as a pro-Palestinian peace movement, even pro-Palestinian Jewish organizations<br />
such as Jewish Voice for Peace and<br />
Shapiro and Arraf called for a combination<br />
of nonviolent and violent resistance Jews for Justice for Palestinians.<br />
to bring down the Jewish state. Arraf Most assuredly, BDS is not an innocuous<br />
movement of a bunch of rowdy<br />
admitted such in a letter to The Washington<br />
Post, stating that the group works college kids acting stupid. In reality it’s<br />
in cooperation with the Popular Front a poison replete with every anti-Semitic<br />
for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian<br />
Islamic Jihad and even Hamas. As ish people for millennia. It’s an attack<br />
trope and libel that has haunted the Jew-<br />
one of a myriad of precursors to BDS, not upon Israeli policy vis a vis the Palestinians,<br />
or settlements or statehood.<br />
Arraf and Shapiro managed to create a<br />
worldwide network to delegitimize the It’s an assailment against Israel as a<br />
Jewish national homeland throughout Jewish state and an anti-Semitic movement<br />
against Jews throughout the world.<br />
the U.S. and Canadian college systems<br />
and in Europe.<br />
What’s the answer? How do Israel<br />
Another is Al-Awda, a founding and Jews in general counter accusations<br />
member of the Global Palestinian by the UN, the E.U. and all the faux<br />
Right of Return Coalition (GPRRC), liberals in and out of government that<br />
buy into BDS propaganda? It’s a daunting<br />
task which may defy an answer. As<br />
a truly anti-Semitic movement, there<br />
is no way of convincing people of that<br />
predilection otherwise.<br />
To explain the land of Israel with<br />
Jerusalem as its capital is the ancestral<br />
homeland of the Jewish people falls<br />
upon deaf ears, as do the numerous attempts<br />
of sharing the land in peace with<br />
the Palestinians predating 1948. Would<br />
clarifying that the wall and checkpoints<br />
separating both people were put in<br />
place not to create apartheid but to stem<br />
school attacks, bus bombings and mass<br />
murdering of Jews in restaurants and<br />
25A<br />
theaters change anything? Could Israel<br />
bring about modification within BDS<br />
by explaining Gaza was abandoned in<br />
2005, leaving all infrastructure in place<br />
as a gesture of peace? The answers to<br />
these questions are quite obvious.<br />
What Israel and all those who support<br />
the Jewish state can do is remain<br />
strong and united against the onslaught<br />
of this sinister movement. They must<br />
continue building an economically<br />
strong nation of innovation and science,<br />
be open to peace but not acquiescence,<br />
and have faith in the Creator who<br />
led them back to their ancestral homeland.<br />
Jewish senior singles sponsored by Jewish <strong>Federation</strong> of Greater Naples<br />
Let’s dance!<br />
Swing dancing class & party<br />
Wednesdays, December 4 and January 29<br />
6:30 - 9:00 p.m.<br />
Who: All Jewish senior singles are invited<br />
Where: Allstar Dance Studio<br />
4910 Tamiami Trail North, Suite 118<br />
in the same plaza as Outback Steakhouse<br />
Cost: $10 per person to be paid upon arrival at Allstar Dance Studio<br />
What to wear: Casual dress, shoes – avoid flip-flop, sandal or high heel<br />
with no strap on the back<br />
RSVP: Renee’ at rbialek@jewishnaples.org<br />
No dancing experience necessary!<br />
Come to one or both classes.<br />
Founded in 1897<br />
ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA<br />
Southwest Florida Chapter<br />
<strong>2019</strong>/2020 ZOA Lecture Program<br />
Wednesday, <strong>November</strong> 20, <strong>2019</strong><br />
“Hate Speech on Campus”<br />
Wednesday, December 18, <strong>2019</strong><br />
“Instructing Congress on Israel’s<br />
Claim to Judea and Samaria”<br />
Wednesday, January 22, 2020<br />
“Israel in the Age of Terrorism”<br />
Wednesday, February 26, 2020<br />
“Radical Liberal Groups<br />
Here and in Israel”<br />
Dr. Richard Cravatts, PhD<br />
Author, Lecturer, National ZOA Board Member<br />
Dan Pollak<br />
ZOA National Director of Government Relations<br />
Elliot Resnick<br />
Chief Editor, New York Jewish Press<br />
Yechezkel Moskowitz<br />
President, Chovevei Tzion – National Council<br />
of Young Israel<br />
7:30PM start time for all events<br />
Chabad Jewish Center of Naples, 1789 Mandarin Road, Naples, FL 34103<br />
Admission for each event:<br />
$20.00 prepaid by mail<br />
$22.00 at the door<br />
$7.00 Students with valid ID<br />
To ensure faster seating,<br />
prepayment is suggested<br />
jerrysobel@aol.com • 914-329-1024<br />
Free soft refreshments served at all programs<br />
Make checks payable to:<br />
ZOA of Southwest Florida<br />
4003 Upolo Lane<br />
Naples, FL 34119