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The Main Issue Is Not the Boycott of Israel but the Thinking Behind It

(JNS) Melanie Phillips - The fury and disgust among Israel-supporters at Ben & Jerry's announcement is more than justified. But suppose the boycott and lawsuits directed at Ben & Jerry's and Unilever force the company to resume ice-cream sales in the disputed territories. What then? Throughout the West, innumerable companies, universities, government bodies, professional organizations, the arts and other cultural institutions are stuffed with people who believe that Israel has no right to exist at all. They've swallowed the falsehoods and distortions about Israel that now drive not just the boycott movement but much Western opinion. They believe that the Palestinians were the indigenous people of the land of Israel who were displaced by the Jews; that there is such a thing in international law as Palestinian land; that Israel is in illegal occupation of some or all of that land; and that it is only Israel that stands in the way of the obvious "two-state" solution to the Middle East conflict. All these claims are falsehoods and distortions. The Jewish world, including the State of Israel, should be constantly hammering home the fact that the indigenous people of the land of Israel are the Jews; that the notion of Palestinian rights to any of that land is a legal and historical fiction; and that Israel liberated the disputed territories from the truly illegal occupation of those lands by Jordan between 1948 and 1967. Moreover, the Palestinians reveal by their words, actions and insignia that their aim remains the obliteration of Israel; the "two-state" solution is a convenient untruth; and it is only Israel that stands for peace, justice and the rule of law. The writer is a columnist for The Times-UK.
2021-07-26 00:00:00
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