opinion
BY MITCHELL BARD
Why Does Anyone Care About
BDS Campaigns on American
College Campuses?
O ne reason is that it makes Jewish students
uncomfortable. Some say it creates a
hostile environment that makes them feel unsafe.

An increase in antisemitism on campus often
accompanies BDS resolutions.

As snowflakey as our kids have become, they
will get over their discomfort.

The more significant concern is that Israel’s
detractors will impact non-Jewish students and
turn them against Israel, adversely affecting U.S.

policy over time.

As I’ve argued repeatedly in columns, the
current situation is no worse than the cam-
pus climate of the past. It seems more serious
because of the constant media attention and
the almost total absence of any reporting on
the positive developments on campus (e.g., the
growth of Israel studies, exemplified by the pro-
gram at Berkeley, a longtime hot spot for Israel’s
detractors). Even when you look at the worst campuses, the
anti-Israel activists are typically a minute fraction of
the student body. To give a few examples from this
year, BDS resolutions adopted by student govern-
ments at Ohio State (the president did not sign it),
the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (killed
due to irregularities), the University of California,
Riverside and Louisiana State University received
14, 17, 11 and 36 votes, respectively.

The press also uncritically reports the lat-
est antisemitism statistics and fails to distinguish
between the nearly non-existent cases of physical
attacks on Jewish students and the majority of inci-
dents, which are vandalism. You may have heard,
for example, that antisemitic incidents increased on
campus by 27% last year, but you were not informed
that the number decreased 24% from its 2017 high.

Also, consider the 155 total incidents ADL reported
in 2021 were spread over an entire school year and
thousands of schools across 50 states.

Some will argue that we are seeing the impact
of campus anti-Israel activity in polls showing that
young adults (historically, Americans become
more pro-Israel as they get older), liberals and
Democrats have become more critical of Israel
and supportive of the Palestinians. It’s one thing
to express a negative opinion about Israel to a
pollster when asked a specific question, how-
ever, and another to act on that view. Supporters
of Israel are far more passionate than critics and
more likely to engage in political activity.

So far, the adverse poll results have not trans-
14 JULY 21, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
lated into policy. On the contrary, despite some
proposed bills that are anti-Israel, legislation that is
adopted at the federal and state levels continues to
be overwhelmingly pro-Israel — from the more than
$4 billion in federal aid to the anti-BDS laws, exec-
utive orders and resolutions adopted by 35 states.

We assume that hostility toward Israel, espe-
cially on elite college campuses, could lead to
future policy changes. This has not happened to
date. Interestingly, many of the most anti-Israel
politicians did not attend these schools.

Here are the alma maters of Israel’s most
virulent critics:
• Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.): Boston
University • Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.): North Dakota State
University • Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.): Boston University/
Boston University Metropolitan College
• Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.): Wayne State
University/Western Michigan University
Cooley Law School
• Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.): University of New
Haven • Cori Bush (D-Mo.): Harris-Stowe State
University for one year and a diploma in nurs-
ing from the Lutheran School of Nursing.

• Betty McCollum (D-Minn.): College of St.

Catherine • Marie Newman (D-Ill.): Marquette University/
University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.): University of
Georgia Not an Ivy Leaguer in the bunch. If Israel’s
detractors are so influential, shouldn’t we see
graduates from the most hostile campuses
adversely affecting U.S.-Israel relations? This is
not to say they don’t exist, maybe not in Congress,
but certainly, some can be found in the U.S. State
Department, the media and non-political areas of
life such as business.

Still, think about all the state legislatures and
governors who oppose BDS. Those are also folks
likely to become members of Congress.

Many states have robust ties with Israel that
have only grown in recent years. At least 35
states and the District of Columbia have signed
cooperative agreements with Israel. Check out
the economic benefits the states derive from
trade with Israel. New York exports to Israel led
the way, totaling nearly $3.6 billion in 2021. It’s
not just the big states like New York, California
($1.4 billion) and Texas ($1.1 billion) that benefit; so
do smaller ones like Oregon ($1.5 billion), Arizona
($413 million), Georgia ($280 million), Ohio ($238
million) and South Carolina ($113 million).

Israel’s detractors also haven’t had any serious
impact on American business. Yes, Ben & Jerry’s
got a lot of publicity for its boycott, but that didn’t
turn out too well for its parent company, Unilever,
which has now reversed the policy after states
divested from it. Ironic, isn’t it, that the only
divestment is not from Israeli companies or U.S.

companies doing business with Israel but from
companies that boycott Israel.

Meanwhile, every major technology company,
from Microsoft to Google to Meta to Apple, oper-
ates in Israel. Intel has huge microchip manufactur-
ing plants in Israel. Israeli and American defense
contractors have ongoing relations thanks to U.S.

military aid and various joint programs. American
companies are constantly acquiring innovative
Israeli startups like Waze and Mobileye.

Graduates of universities also go to work for
these companies. Yes, you have the case of a
handful of employees at Google and Amazon
protesting one project in Israel, but that did not
change those companies’ commitment to it.

Being Jews, we are naturally cynical, if not pes-
simistic. Even if we believe Mitchell, some of you
are thinking, the situation will get worse. Those
liberal Democrats trending against Israel in the
polls will come to power.

Well, maybe.

At the moment, having nothing to do with
Israel, “the Squad” and other progressives are
facing a backlash, and folks like James Carville
have warned Democrats their political futures are
endangered by fealty to the woke.

In the midterms, you will not see many candi-
dates running on an anti-Israel platform. Those
who do will be opposed by candidates who will
receive massive support from the pro-Israel com-
munity. Because of the demographics of their
districts, it may not be possible to knock off the
members of “The Squad,” but its numbers are not
likely to grow.

Today, by any measure — military, economic,
political — U.S.-Israel relations are as strong if not
more robust than they have ever been despite six
decades of anti-Israel campus activity.

Friends of Israel, take the win. JE
Mitchell Bard is a foreign-policy analyst and an
authority on U.S.-Israel relations who has written
and edited 22 books.




opinion
BY GALL SIGLER
Repairing Israel’s Ailing
Relationship with American Jewry
Requires Political Stability
Oleksii Liskonih / iStock / Getty Images Plus
S ince the national elections in April 2019, political
stability eluded Israel. The numerous elections
that followed, largely viewed as referenda on
Netanyahu’s domination of Israeli politics for the past
decade, failed to produce sturdy coalitions. On Nov.

1, Israelis will head to the polls once again, for the
fifth time in 3½ years.

The political chaos that plagues Israel bolstered
political apathy and exacerbated social divisions
within the Israeli Jewish community. Most signifi-
cantly, the Israeli government appears paralyzed
and unable to pass necessary reforms. Notable are
the widely-reported budget delays, transportation
reforms and the US Visa Waiver program.

Ultimately, the fragile coalitions and repeated
elections made a coherent government strategy,
necessary to tackle politically complex issues,
impossible. Israeli politicians appear somewhat
willing to cooperate on obvious national security
issues, such as Iran and Hamas. Yet the preoccupa-
tion with short-term issues and election campaign-
ing left festering wounds untreated. Among those
wounds is the aching relationship between Israel
and American Jewry.

Recent polls reveal how profound the chasm
between American and Israeli Jews became.

In 2021, Pew Research Center found that 71%
of American Jews identify with the Democratic
Party. Meanwhile, only 8% of Israel Jews identify
their political ideology as leftist. During the Trump
administration, the ideological disconnect between
Israeli and American Jews reached a new high.

While American Jews balked at Trump’s politics,
Israelis revered his blatant pro-Israeli policy. At the
end of his tenure, Trump had an overwhelming
71% approval rating in Israel, whereas only 27% of
American Jews viewed Trump in a favorable light
before the 2020 presidential elections.

The differing political postures of Israeli and
American Jews are often contextualized by the dif-
ferent political environments the two states inhabit.

American Jews have long accepted Israeli security
needs in the region and the exceptional nature of
its political predicament. Yet the rightward shift
in Israeli politics has left many American Jews,
most of whom are liberal, unable to reconcile their
attachment to Israel and their political ideology.

The absence of peace negotiations in years, cou-
pled with the destruction wrecked in Gaza in 2014,
2018 and 2021, left American Jews questioning
Israel’s intentions. Strikingly, only 33% of American
Jews believe Israel is making a genuine attempt to
reach a peace resolution with the Palestinians.

The differing political postures between Israeli
and American Jews are understandable; diversity
of political opinion within the Jewish world is argu-
ably desirable. Nevertheless, the fact that American
Jewry, the majority of which believes Israel and an
independent Palestinian state can coexist, ques-
tion the integrity of Israeli policy, must raise alarm
in the Knesset corridors. Meanwhile, in light of the
political turmoil, Israeli-Palestinian peace has been
marginalized from the political discourse.

Beyond the political alienation of American Jews,
Israel has made few efforts to promote inclusive
Jewish institutions that welcome the diversity of
American Jews. The vast majority of Jews in the US
either identify as Reform or do not affiliate with any
particular branch; only 9% of American Jews are
Orthodox. In Israel, however, the Orthodox tradition
reigns exclusively.

At the nascence of Israel, a compromise between
the largely secular Labor movement and the
Orthodox minority was reached. The “status quo,”
as it came to be known, anointed the Rabbinate
as a quasi-governmental entity. The elected gov-
ernment relinquished sovereignty over family law
and personal status, such as marriage, divorce and
conversions, to the Orthodox institution.

American Jews have long lamented the exclu-
sionary nature of the Orthodox Rabbinate, which
refuses to accept the Reform and Conservative
traditions. Recognizing inclusive policies as a
focal point to revamping Israel’s relationship with
American Jews, numerous governments pursued
legislation that would ease Orthodox restrictions.

Nonetheless, the reforms were quickly pushed
aside to protect precarious coalitions.

In 2016, the Israeli government approved a plan
to open a praying section at the Western Wall, to
welcome Jews of non-Orthodox denominations.

Under the Orthodox tradition, men and women are
separated at the Western Wall, and women are not
allowed to read from the Torah.

However, the plan, welcomed by American Jews
as a significant move toward a pluralistic accep-
tance of Jewish diversity, was never applied due to
the objection of Orthodox coalition members. While
Bennett wished to reinvigorate the non-Orthodox
praying plan, fears that drastic policy changes
would hinder the unity of Bennett’s razor-thin coali-
tion convinced him to forgo the plan.

The relationship between American Jews and
Israel is not beyond repair. Most American Jews
feel deeply connected to Israel, with only 16% of
American Jews claiming that Israel is not important
to them. Neither did most American Jews give up
on the notion that Judaism and democracy can
cohabitate in Israel. The critical question is whether
the Israeli government is willing to accept that
meaningful reform cannot be overlooked if the rela-
tionship is to be improved.

The upcoming elections in Israel must be more
than another referendum on Benjamin Netanyahu;
the elections must recognize the heavy price of
reactionary politics. In the absence of a strategic
approach to the myriad challenges facing Israel,
among them the aching relationship with American
Jews, Israel will continue to alienate American
Jews. If Israel is to repair its relationship with
American Jewry, it must advance political and reli-
gious reforms that indeed signal Israel’s devotion
to its claim to be an inclusive home to all Jews. JE
Gall Sigler is a rising senior at Yale University, a
native of Israel and a Jewish Exponent intern.

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