Is NY Governor’s Order a ‘Tipping Point’ in Battle vs. BDS?

Today’s Top Stories

1. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order to boycott BDS has touched a real nerve with the Israel-bashers. The big debate centers around the claim that the governor’s order bypassed the legislature and unfairly targets free speech. People on both sides of the fight told the JTA that Cuomo’s move is a game-changer.

Supporters and opponents of the measure both say it marks a tipping point in the battle over BDS in the United States. Backers say Cuomo is opening a new avenue to fight BDS in the absence of legislative approval. Opponents say the order is an unconstitutional act aimed at political pandering.

Writers like Ben Norton and Glenn Greenwald, for example, went so far as to call Cuomo’s executive order “the new McCarthyism” while staff-eds in the New York Daily News and The Observer lauded the governor for “giving BDS a taste of its own medicine” and “standing up to anti-Semitism.” See HonestReporting’s responses:

– BDS Cries McCarthyism
– Sorry BDS, Your Boycott Isn’t Free Speech

2. One of Austria’s largest banks shut down the account the pro-BDS Austrian-Arab cultural center (OKAZ). The Jerusalem Post reports that the move may have come because OKAZ blurred the line between BDS and terror:

OKAZ held an April event with the convicted Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled, who is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The EU and the US both classify the PFLP as a terrorist organization. Khaled hijacked American TWA flight 840 in 1969. A year later, she hijacked EL AL flight 219.

3. Amid judicial crackdown, BDS motions scrapped in four Spanish cities.

4. French Media Conquers Jerusalem: AFP seems to think Jewish ties to Jerusalem began in 1967.

Israel and the Palestinians

• According to Arab media reports picked up by the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli Air Force struck a Syrian weapons storage facility near the city of Homs over the weekend.

If the report is verified, it would be the first operation conducted under the newly minted Minister of Defense Avigdor Liberman . . .

• Award-winning Lebanese author Amin Maalouf is in hot water with BDSniks for a recent interview he gave on Israel’s i24 News (in French). The Jerusalem Post explains:

Speaking on i24 News on Thursday, Maalouf stressed the importance of using culture as a conduit for normalization between Israel and Arab states, touting the dialogue between the cultures in the name of art, peace and humanity.

• Israeli electric company to increase supply to Gaza for the sake of the Strip’s sewage treatment facility. YNet explains that Israel’s worried about the rising amount of pollution in the area around the Ashkelon desalinization plant.

• AP updates the latest on Benjamin Netanyahu’s talks in Moscow with Vladimir Putin.

• Worth reading: David Patrikarakos takes the pulse of Gaza and peoples’ attitudes towards war with Israel in a Foreign Policy dispatch.

Around the World

• Ahead of Monday’s student vote on BDS, Portland State U. President Wim Wiewel denounced the resolution to divest from companies doing business with the IDF. Wiewel said the resolution will have no practical effet, unfairly singles out Israel, and accused BDS of anti-Semitism.

We are responsible for respecting the rights of all members of our campus community. The tone and tenor of the BDS movement has made members of our community feel unsafe and unwelcome at PSU, and it is not acceptable to marginalize or scapegoat them. Anti-Semitism cannot and will not be tolerated on our campus.

• How California’s anti-BDS bill became ‘no longer a pro-Israel bill’

• Western Washington U. is forming a special task force to investigate a spike in anti-Semitic incidents at the Bellingham campus.

• The UK Labour party suspended another activist over anti-Semitism. In a blog post responding to the party’s suspension of ex-London mayor Ken Livingstone, Marlene Ellis wrote that Jeremy Corbyn played “right into the hands of Zionist criminals.”

• Sectarian violence in Bangladesh is spiking, and the country’s home minister blames Israel. The Washington Post picked up on the story, handling it better than the BBC. Unfortunately, the conspiracy theories are reaching headlines beyond Bangladesh.

https://twitter.com/tufailelif/status/740401928551665665

• Saudi Arabia is expanding its rivalry with Iran beyond the Mideast, competing with Tehran for influence in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, Reuters reports.

Commentary/Analysis

• Lot of op-ed chatter about the boycott, divestment and sanctions battle .

– Benjamin Weinthal: Kudos to Cuomo for leading the way on BDS
– Prof. John Traphagan: AAA boycott of Israel denied
– Jonathan Tobin: Two paths on BDS for Democrats
– Reuven Berko: BDS: Firing on our own forces
– Gil Troy: The McGill model for fighting BDS

• Which brings me to the tweet of the day:

https://twitter.com/Wonko_the_sane_/status/739901287249129472

• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .

– Clifford May: French fried peace process
– Adnan Oktar: Zionism: An irrational and misunderstood fear
– Reuters: Netanyahu frequents Russia as US influence in Mideast recedes
– Yehuda Shohat: Undivided: Jerusalem by the numbers
– Yossi Melman: Despite concern, Israel sees Jordan surviving ISIS threat

Featured image: CC BY Nick Page with additions by HonestReporting; Cuomo CC BY-NC-ND Diana Robinson;Maalouf via i24 News;

For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.

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