Middle East Studies Association Boycotting Israel “Is Basically the Old Anti-Jewish Boycott”
My appearance on Breitbart News Sunday On SiriusXM Radio with Joel Pollak: “Our U.S. universities are far more radical in many ways than the people who run some of the Arab Muslim countries”
I appeared on Breitbart News Sunday on SiriusXM Patriot 125 on December 19, 2021, to talk about the pending academic boycott of Israel by the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). The audio is at the bottom of this post.
That boycott, passed by the annual business meeting on December 2, and headed for a mid-to-late January 2022 full membership vote, was the subject of the column I wrote, along with Johanna E. Markind, Esq., of Legal Insurrection Foundation, in the NY Post. Our coverage is being noticed, with mentions in several publications.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office has made clear, in light of our coverage, that MESA will not be permitted to carry out its discriminatory boycott at or through Florida State University (a MESA institutional member):
“It is our expectation that Florida State University will not permit MESA to operate a boycott of Israel through a public institution, will not accept the academic boycott of Israel, and will not allow university funds to be paid indirectly or directly to any organization that endorses BDS. The same goes for any other institution that receives state funding.”
My radio appearance also was the subject of an article at Breitbart News, Exclusive — William Jacobson: BDS Boycotting Israeli Universities ‘Is Basically the Old Anti-Jewish Boycott’, which contains some quotes from the interview. Here is an excerpt, please click over to read the whole thing:
“As many countries in the Middle East — including Muslim Arab countries — are opening relations [and] exchanges with Israel, academics in the U.S. are moving in the opposite direction,” Jacobson said on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday with host Joel Pollak.
He added, “[MESA is] fighting this dead-ender war. … These are people living in a really different world than current Middle East academics. Our U.S. universities are far more radical in many ways than the people who run some of the Arab Muslim countries.”
Pollak noted that BDS’s push for an academic boycott of Israeli universities amounts to the organization cutting off its own ideological partners given the dominance of left-wing ideology across Israeli academia….
Jacobson replied, “Because it’s not about the boycott. They actually don’t care if somebody goes to study in an Israeli university, just like they don’t care if a school dining hall or university serves Sabra hummus. They boycott that, too. The boycott is just a tactic. It’s a tactic that they used to try to delegitimize Israel.”
“This is a generational project to demonize Israel, to ostracize Israel,” he continued, “in the hope that when 30 or 40 years of students have moved through academia — being told over and over again how evil Israel is — that those people will then be in power, and some of them are in power now in the Democratic Party.”
The boycott “makes no sense,” Jacobson remarked. “They’re actually boycotting people who politically are, in many ways, aligned with them, but it’s a chance to demonize Israel. That’s the whole point of it. … This is also an outgrowth of the anti-Jewish boycotts in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine, and then the Arab League boycott of Jews. It wasn’t originally Israel. The Arab League boycott started before there was an Israel. It was a boycott of Jews, and then it was repackaged in social justice garb, and now they call it ‘Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.’” …
Jacobson emphasized, “It is an attempt to eliminate Israel and to delegitimize Israel in the United States because they recognize that that U.S. is Israel’s greatest ally, and frankly, it would be hard for Israel to survive if the U.S. were to abandon Israel, which is their project.”
Listen below (if player does not load, click here)
You can learn more about the anti-Jewish history of “pro-Palestinian” boycotts by viewing my 2016 presentation, The REAL history of the BDS movement.
[Featured Image: BDS protester, San Francisco, July 2014]
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Comments
I am well aware of the history, it is clear that for the most part Israel is in the right, and these scheming camel jockeys are wrong, very similar to the nature of people in our inner cities. Both are arrogant and dumb. I really can not see a way to salvage either group.
A few months ago my wife and I went hiking on a trail in the Santa Monica Mountains on a drizzly weekday. We only came across two people on the trail the entire 1-1/2 hours: Joel Pollak and his toddler son. Going uphill, my wife was well ahead of me and I heard her say, “Hey. Where are your parents?”
Just then a young boy came around the corner. Then I heard my wife say to me, “Oh, here comes his dad.”
I then saw Joel Pollak come around the bend and recognized him immediately. Kidded with him about being the only conservatives for miles around. Joel was very friendly. A good memory.
Thank you for fighting the good fight, Professor J. The vile Dhimmi-crats’ vilification of Israel and Israeli Jews, and their slavish obeisance to, and, propagation of, Muslim supremacist/terrorist propaganda mythologies, is plainly despicable and evil.
Thank you for being an asshole who shows up to a thread about confronting anti-Semitism and injecting genocidal hatred to try and undermine absolutely everything Professor Jacobson just said you god damned asshole and now you can’t recycle the concept of Protocols of the Elders of Zion and replace the term Jew with Muslim (what Dhimmicrat means it means a hidden cabal of Muslims controls the Democratic Party) and not have genocidal hatred (for a look at what people who believe in protocols of the elders of zion do see the Russian Civil War).
Professor Jacobson is right this is exactly the old anti-semitism Jews have been facing for hundreds of years and I being Jewish myself have zero percent sympathy for combating it by adding a new scapegoat to hate and despise.
Democrats villify Israel because they think it is bad and there is a lot of native born anti-semitism that has nothing to do with Muslims.
Provide proof Michiganders are more likely to hate Israel than every other state (considering Michigan is home to this nations Muslim population) or get out.
No, that is not what “Dhimmicrat” means. It means that the Democrat Party kowtows to Islam, lives in fear of being accused of “Islamophobia”, and steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the actual threat that Islam poses to our nation and our civilization. No actual Moslems need be involved in this process, so one would not expect it to be more advanced in Michigan than in any other state.
A Dhimmi is someone who accepts a subordinate and inferior status under control of Muslims in return for the Muslims who now run the polity he lives in allowing him to live and worship.
Being a Dhimmicrat would mean you are subordinate to Muslims.
They hate Israel because of the new leftist ideology places Israel very squarely in the camp of villains. Israel is a text book definition of success in every field from water conservation and agriculture to technology to military expertise. It’s opponents are third world and primitive. Nobody on the anti-Israel side is afraid of being called anti-Muslim they are speaking their honestly held (anti-Semitic) beliefs. If we want to get them away from it we need to be honest about what it comes from and not just point the finger at Muslims.
What Dhimmicrats says to me is what is wrong with the Democrats is they are controlled by Muslims. Sometimes I wish they were then they wouldn’t be forcing us to kill millions of babies every year. It is also reinforced by the fact that guyjones uses that term for Democrats no matter what the topic is, no matter how non-existent Islam is in the situation. It could be transgenderism (know of any pro-transgender Muslim country or community? Neither do I) and in he pops to announce the Muslims are our misfortune with his bigoted term.
It is an insult by the way that has a 100% chance of alienating any Muslim you are trying to persuade to not be anti-Israel or on a broader level be open to voting Republican and it should be. I would not be open to persuasion from someone attacking the Jewicans who uses the term Jewicans in place of Republicans.
It is a bigoted insult that has no place in conservative ideology or the Republican party and a relic of the Bush era when fear mongering got the better of us. We are better off in every one of our ideological battles without it.
And that is where you are going wrong. It doesn’t mean they are controlled by Moslems, it means they kowtow to Moslems. Being controlled by Moslems requires actual Moslems to do the controlling, and it requires them in significant numbers. Kowtowing to Moslems doesn’t require any, and certainly not a significant number, of individual Moslems to be involved in the process. It’s a commentary on the party’s attitude to Islam and to Moslems, and nothing else.
So does facing and accepting the truth about Islam, which is that it is inherently hostile to us. Individual Moslems can be productive members of our society, but only to the extent that they ignore or set aside what Islam tells them to do to us. The idea that the Islamic terrorists are somehow not good Moslems, that they represent a grotesque distortion of a Religion of Peace, is just not true. So I’m not sure we should be trying too hard to win Moslems over to our side.
“And that is where you are going wrong. It doesn’t mean they are controlled by Moslems, it means they kowtow to Moslems. Being controlled by Moslems requires actual Moslems to do the controlling, and it requires them in significant numbers. Kowtowing to Moslems doesn’t require any, and certainly not a significant number, of individual Moslems to be involved in the process. It’s a commentary on the party’s attitude to Islam and to Moslems, and nothing else.”
Problem is the kowtowing thing is a complete and utter lie. Democrats don’t kowtow to Muslims whenever we pass an abortion bill they compare us to radical Islam. What they have to say about Israel are their honest views informed by a CRT based ideology.
Another problem with that statement is it doesn’t require lots of Muslims for there to be a Muslim cabal controlling the Democratic Party. There was not a large number of French, British, German, or American Jews when protocols of the Elders of Zion claimed exactly that about Jews. A Dhimmi is someone who accepts a subordinate and inferior status to Muslims in return for being allowed to live and worship in his/her own faith. If Democrats feared being considered anti-Muslim by the way would they be pushing transgenderism? Would they be pushing homosexuality normalization for preschoolers? Would they be pushing abortion to the day of birth and in case of Ralph Northam post birth abortion? Islam is a religion and there are seriously held religious beliefs in it all of which the Democrats trample on daily.
You also seem hesitant to accept that the reason Israel is declining on the left is the ideology the left adopted has no place for Israel. It has nothing to do with kowtowing to Muslims (if it did they might find an issue besides Israel like abortion to kowtow on).
“So does facing and accepting the truth about Islam, which is that it is inherently hostile to us. Individual Moslems can be productive members of our society, but only to the extent that they ignore or set aside what Islam tells them to do to us. The idea that the Islamic terrorists are somehow not good Moslems, that they represent a grotesque distortion of a Religion of Peace, is just not true. So I’m not sure we should be trying too hard to win Moslems over to our side.”
How many Muslims have we killed or maimed since 2002 and how many terror attacks have happened without assistance from the FBI (So the Pulse Nightclub doesn’t count) and is the answer consistent with the claim of a Muslim threat to us?
NEO-RACISM
The new and improved version of racism. As long as you signal tat your racism is for a “virtuous cause” you can discriminate. Only bad discrimination is the one that does not support some woke cause.
The younger generation must be feeble-minded to buy into this B.S. or thoroughly brain-washed.
Out of curiosity what’s wrong with imposing sanctions on Israel for their illegal occupation and settlement of Palestinian territories, and for their racist ‘nation state’ law?
Attacking Jewish people because they’re Jewish is wrong. Attacking Israel because it’s a racist state engaged in illegal acts is not. I don’t understand why public funds can’t go to organisations that do the latter.
1. There is nothing illegal about the so-called “occupation”. Even if it were an actual occupation (which it isn’t), that is perfectly legal. Cf the US occupation of Okinawa which lasted into the 1970s.
2. The idea that It is illegal for Jews to live in Judaea is itself racist and antisemitic. Even more so than the idea that there is anywhere in the world where it’s illegal for Jews to live.
3. There is no such thing as “Palestinian territories”. The territories in question never belonged to “Palestinians” and the so-called “Palestinians” have no right to them.
4. There is nothing racist about Israel declaring itself a Jewish state. That is, after all, the whole point of Israel existing in the first place, so claiming that it’s racist is exactly the same as saying that zionism is racist, and that Israel should not exist.
TLDR: You admit “Attacking Jewish people because they’re Jewish is wrong.” The only reason anyone ever attacks Israel is because it’s Jewish. There is no other reason. Therefore it is wrong.
Nonsense. I attack Israel for their racist Nation State law. Any law that promotes one race above others is racist.
To pretend that it’s ok because of the race being promoted is also racist.
As for your other points
1 – Israel invaded and occupies lands that were not part of Israel when formed. That’s illegal under international law. Constant and repeated eviction of Palestinians from that land and creation of fenced off Israeli communities is illegal. It’s also claimed to be a form of genocide.
2 – Irrelevant, nobody in this discussion was making such a claim.
3 – That’s odd, 138 different countries recognise Palestine as a country, let alone a territory. If the so-called Palestinians have no right to those territories then where should those people, whose families have lived there for centuries, who are born and live there themselves, live?
4 – Israel can be a safe haven for Jewish people without giving them privileges under law that other races do not have. Israel chooses instead to be racist. Highlighting this is absolutely not the same as saying that Israel should not exist.
Zionism has multiple definitions and is also merely a label, so I’m not going to comment on that.
Recap: Jewish people can live where they want, I really don’t give a shit. Israel can adopt Judaism as a state religion if it wants, I really don’t give a shit. Israel can have lots of happy Jewish citizens, that’s fine by me. Israel can not discriminate against non-Jewish people without being racist, and it is not anti-semitic to point this out.
You are a liar and an antisemite.
There is nothing racist about Israel declaring itself to be a Jewish state, any more than it is racist for France to be a French state or Japan to be a Japanese state. That is the whole point of having Israel in the first place.
1. Judaea, Benjamin, and Samaria were not part of any country other than Israel. That is why they are not occupied territory. They are disputed territory; Israel has a legitimate claim to them, no other state does, but Israel has chosen not to annex them yet, and to leave their status open for negotiation. It could (and in my opinion should) have annexed them; if it chose not to that’s none of anyone else’s business.
1a. Even if they had belonged to some other state, Israel captured them legitimately in a defensive war. It had every right to do so, and it would have the right to occupy them now. Occupation is not illegal. And since Israel chooses to administer these territories as if they were occupied territory, you have no cause for complaint.
1b. There is no “constant and repeated eviction of Palestinians from that land”. Nor even ‘inconstant and unrepeated”. It’s a filthy lie.
1c. It’s certainly not illegal for Jews to live there. And that certainly can’t be “a form of genocide”.
2. You liar, You just made exactly that claim. You claimed that it’s somehow illegal for Jews to decide to live in their native land, where they are the indigenous nation. It’s antisemitic to claim it’s illegal for Jews to live anywhere, but it’s doubly antisemitic to claim it’s illegal for them to live where they come from in the first place, in the land that is theirs by birthright.
3. I don’t give a flying duck how many Nazi countries, mostly filthy dictatorships, “recognize” a country that doesn’t exist and has never existed. It makes no difference. A country cannot be imagined into existence merely by having people “recognize” it, especially people who have nothing to do with it. The so-called “Palestinians” have no right to the territory because it has never belonged to them; most of them have not lived there for centuries, but immigrated shortly before Israel was established; they could have gone back where they came from, but they were welcome to stay and keep the law and live in peace with their Jewish neighbors. They’re still welcome to do that, but they choose not to.
4. Israel does not give Jews privileges that other people don’t have, other than the right to return home in the first place. Other people don’t have that right because it’s not their home. Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of Israel have exactly the same rights. So do Jewish and non-Jewish aliens there. Your objection is to the very fact that Israel declares itself to be a Jewish state. And that is antisemitic.
Zionism is the idea that the Jewish nation should return home and reestablish its political independence there. There are very few non-antisemitic grounds on which one could object to this.
Recap: You claim that Jewish people may not live where they want. You claim that they may not live anywhere that is beyond where the armies stopped in 1949 (which is not and never was an international border). That makes you an antisemite. Religion has nothing to do with this; but you claim Israel may not declare itself to be the state of the Jewish people. That is antisemitic. Israel does not discriminate against non-Jewish people, unless you call recognizing the country’s indigenous people’s inherent right to return home “discrimination”.
The picture of the immigrant giving the finger speaks volumes. They come here, illegally invading the country, and instead of being grateful for all the benefits, the first thing they do give us the finger.
Just guessing, but since the demonstrators were MESA, that guy is more likely an Arab who’s here legally as a “student” or refugee. Not that I disagree with your sentiment applying to a lot of illegals.
This is linked to the Democrats race/victim narrative. To deny Israel has been a success in the economic and tech and even agricultural world is to live on another planet. Israeli water conservation expertise is highly sought after. Israeli patent rates are in a class by themselves.
Militarily Israel’s strength is hugely exaggerated (as is the portion of Israelis in uniform) in the west but it punches far above its weight class.
Israel in other words looks exactly like what the CRT activists say a villain looks like. As long as that is the ideology of the left Israel will keep declining on it.
But key to this charade is painting Israelis as “white” and so-called “Palestinians” as “of color”. Which is just nonsense. Even if everything else these liars said about Israel were true, it would not fit the narrative that the left tells in the USA, where everything has to be about the “white” and “of color” “races”.
I went shopping the day before Christmas. I learned a thing or two. One, I have no ethnicity. They actually had an “ethnic” aisle at Kroger. Guess what? No Pasta.
Two, no matter how many African languages i learn it doesn’t god damn matter.
It matters to me because my adopted daughter is Herrero. So I need to speak Ojtiherrero if I want to spend time in her village. I can’t imagine heaven being any different than her village.
She goes by the nickname “God’s Pearl.” She is so much more.
But I’m the racist.
I agree 100 agree with that.
The only role Israel has to play in current leftist ideology is villain. The way we could help Israelis just by winning in the culture generally.
Furthermore I don’t bother because the people bringing race into it are generally so indoctrinated they aren’t worth talking to but unless you are racist you shouldn’t be trying to determine the race of the combatants to assign moral points.
The universities have for too long become homes for tenured radicals who hate Israel and supporters of Israel as well as any manifestation of Jewish life on campuses and elsewhere
I love Israel because Israel doesn’t give up. Never again? Yeah. right. In a heartbeat, never again.
Italians have never been consistent fighters. Hello? Switching sides, anyone? But the one thing we know is, well, switching sides. It’s tough having daggers out for everyone. Anybody read Machiavelli?
Italians fight wisely. The only example you could give of them giving up easily is WW2 which is when a narcissistic dictator took them to war without reason against a traditional ally of Italy that had more firepower and ordered Italians to go die.
You go die quickly Joe Biden said Fuck France and wants you to go blow up the Eiffel Tower. You don’t need a reason you have just been conscripted, although in this hypothetical the French Army has vastly more firepower. Go die your comrades will kill Frenchmen after your death.
When Italians take a knee, it’s only to God or the woman we love. Otherwise, don’t believe us.
I was rereading my history of Masada. Which is odd, considering it’s my people who took that hill. Which is doubly odd, as, really my people? About that time Italy had a slave population of 25%. Campania, the region where my family is from, had 40%.
As I understand it, until just a few centuries ago Campania was considered to be Greek rather than Italian.