BDS campaigns are not built on any solid foundation. They are built on a hypothesis, hypothesis being a proposed explanation based on limited evidence, or no evidence at all. It is used by BDS as their starting point and its lack of intellectual depth and honesty is draped in a mantle of emotional claims and sloganeering. No need to elaborate or produce facts or statistics. Emotional sloganeering is more effective in rousing support.
Something hypothetic is based on an imagined situation rather than fact. Everything in the BDS toolbox is based on hypothetical arguments devoid of facts. You know the list. Israel is an apartheid state when it isn’t. Israel is conducting an intense blockage on Gaza when it isn’t. Israel is conducting ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians when the condition and the population numbers of Palestinians have improved. Israel is a racist state when it is the most multifaceted nation in the Middle East and Africa.
They try to disguise the paucity of their argument in a form of tautology. They say and write the same simplistic things under different formats. They do this by attempting to recruit people in differing fields to declare their refusal to have any contact with their Israeli counterparts as if the message is being diffused globally but their statements are so shallow that they lapse into simplistic statements such as the one made by Professor Malcolm Levitt of Southampton University that made him look ridiculous.
In 2013 he said, “Israel has a totally explicit policy of making life impossible for the non-Jewish population and I find it totally unacceptable.”
If, by Israel’s non-Jewish population, Levitt is referring to Israel’s Arab, Druze or Christians I challenge his foolish remark. These non-Jewish members of our community have it far better than their counterparts in much of the regions non-Jewish regimes.
In science and philosophy, Occam’s Razor, is the principle of accepting the simplest satisfactory explanation. Atheists sometimes use the theory of Occam’s Razor to prove that God is an unnecessary hypothesis in this physical world.
I would suggest that BDS is a perfect subject matter for Occam’s Razor. They take two sides of an argument, their own and any Israeli claim. They then chip away any Israeli fact or evidence that disproves their contrary and pre-conceived view. They then present their biased hypothesis as if the other side has no challenging argument, leaving them to present the simplest explanation for perceived Israeli action, or non-action in a deceptive manner.
They take an alternative route to their own wrong conclusion by employing an illogical argument that proposes that, as the Palestinians seem weaker and poorer than the stronger and more prosperous Israel, the Palestinian condition must be a result of Israel oppressing and exploiting them. Known as a syllogism, a deductive conclusion reached by two or more assertive propositions, their assumption matches their desired aim, namely to point the finger of blame on to their intended target, the Jewish state. They can compound their conclusion by associating other false claims against Israel to their cause.
What is lacking in their inherently false assumption is the possibility of another piece of the syllogistic puzzle, namely that the Palestinian condition is based on their repeated rejection of generous Israeli peace offers that would surely have improved their lot.
This obvious hypothesis gets in the way of their prime obsession to blame Israel for all the ills of their tunnel-vision world. To accept this notion would expose the bankruptcy of their psychotic existence in which they have reveled on the high of bringing their ill-conceived views to a wider and receptive audience.
As such, BDS is an unnecessary and dishonest hypothesis.
Author of ‘Fighting Hamas, BDS and Anti-Semitism’ available from www.barrysbooks.info and from Amazon.
I am confident that every time Hass opens her mouth to speak about Israel a Jew dies in Israel or the diaspora. folks like her and gideon levy in my opinion are the same as those in the middle ages who told lies about jews to incite mobs to pogrom and genocide. These Israel leftists have for decades painted Israel as an evil devil and now that the world has accepted their narrative it has of course set about lynching jews. I see no difference between Hass and Goebbels both in MO and in intention. I do not understand why Hass is not considered dangerous to Israel and Jews like the Hamas leaders who were targeted for assasination. Jews die as a result of lies and distortions…. and NOT as a result of a difference of opinion.
the apology was a mistake becuase now we have the same whining left coming back out of their despicable shame playing pot kettle black like this Oz grandson. I note that this grandson deals with none of the real accusations against his grandfather but instead whines about how he cried at his IDF graduation. What does that have to do with the lies and despicably evil agenda of betsalem which have resulted in dead jews in Israel and the diaspora. If Oz is on their board or a member then he is also responsible for betsalem lies which murdered Jews. Not only do their lies and distortions incite the murder of Jews but they seek to prevent jews from living in the holy land and preventing Jew aquiring land there.
this is their fairy tale hiding behind free speech and difference of opinion but the truth is that those orgs have for decades distorted the image of Israel into a terrible devil and now Jews the world over are dying from these lies and distortions. the Oz grandson does not seem concerened with those dead resulting from the leftist foreign paid mole orgs…. he is upset about his grandad.
but is im tirtzsu financed by foreigners trying to destroy Israel and zionism like betsalem? The leftists are financed by enemies of Israel who seek to keep the Jews in a euro designated ghetto. Look how this leftist BS artist tries to pretend to be a zionist when the left is in a frantic hurry to give the jewish homeland of YS to muslims. What is dangerous to Jews are the lies which have been killing Jews which have originated with the Israeli left on the pay of Israels enemies. that what I call a TRAITOR!!!!
I see no reason for an apology or for using kid gloves in describing these leftist foreign paid orgs and their membership as traitors. the whole world hates Israel becuase of the lies spread by these leftists who are paid by BDS foreign orgs.
I its simple,it matters not whether they were the ones uttering the libels… as long as they are connected they are guilty just as a member of the nazi party who did not kill jews was still guilty for their crimes. In my opinon most of the deaths of Jews in Israel and the diaspora are a direct result of statements made by those orgs. I believe that they and their membership are guilty of murder and inciting to pogrom and that they should be dragged to the gallows for their crimes of treason, incitement and murder. It is NOT a difference of opinion, it is an intentional campaign to portray Israel in a false, distorted and negative light to the world who has now responded in the most natural way to those Israeli leftists murderous decades of lies. NO apology is necessary and the apology has now distracted from the despicable agenda of those inciting leftists which needs to be corrected with indefinite detention and “vigorous questioning” of shin bet