(Chicago Sun-Times) Steve Huntley - The BDS movement is based on two fallacies. First, Israel doesn't do enough to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Second, all Israeli "settlements" in the West Bank are illegal and should be abandoned in any negotiated peace agreement. Yet it is the Palestinians who have been the obstacle to ending the conflict and establishing a Palestinian state. Israel offered a comprehensive two-state proposal in 2000 and again in 2008. In 2000 Yassir Arafat responded with a terror war that killed, maimed and traumatized thousands of Israeli civilians. In 2008, the president of the Palestinian Authority was Mahmoud Abbas, labeled in the media as a "moderate." Yet he never responded to the peace offering. There are towns on the West Bank - the Jerusalem suburb Ma'ale Adumim and the Gush Etzion communities are just a couple of examples - that everyone acknowledges would be part of Israel under any conceivable peace deal. To target these communities for an economic boycott is unreasonable, unjust and counter-productive to reaching a peace agreement.
2015-07-03 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive