Singling Israel out

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

October 24, 2002

Israel's Singles Night Out:
Critics Charge that Divestment "Singles Out" Israel. They Are Right.
by WILL YOUMANS

A little more than a week ago several hundred college students from all 
over the United States met in Michigan to further the growing campaign 
to divest American universities of companies with holdings in Israel. 
The students gathered because they share recognition of the importance 
of severing the US-Israeli umbilical cord that feeds Israel's 
destructive military occupation of the Palestinian people. They argue 
that Israel's discriminatory legal and political structure vis-à-vis the 
non-citizen Palestinians of the Occupied Territories is at the very 
least a variant of Apartheid--the rights and security of Jews are 
prioritized while Israel refers to the Palestinians as a collective 
"problem"--thus, devoid of rights or the need for security.

Reactions to this nascent movement from American opinion leaders have 
been nothing short of contemptuous. The president of Harvard, and former 
Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, decried it as 
"anti-Semitic in effect, if not in intent." A New York Times columnist, 
or memoist rather, wrote that divestment's advocates were "dishonest" 
and "hypocrites" because they "single out" Israel. This past week, the 
original singling out that inspired the divestment campaign in the first 
place shined its ugly head. Ha'aretz reported that Israeli officials are 
asking for as much as $10 billion in pure aid from the United States. 
This "proposal" supposedly "stems from the United States' expected 
campaign against Iraq coupled with the American desire that Israel not 
interfere with Washington's plans or use IDF troops against Iraq."

That Israel could issue and reasonably expect such an absurd request 
shows that it already enjoys a special singled out status. Why would 
they need more money for the less costly course of action? Intervening 
or using "IDF troops against Iraq" would seem to merit the required aid, 
but Israel does the opposite and charges the United States. If the aid 
is granted, it will be time to send in the auditors to review this fishy 
financial transaction.

What bewilders me is that so many critics attack viciously the critical 
singling out of Israel by the divestment campaign, but are actively 
supportive of singling out Israel as a special ally and worthy recipient 
of disproportionately high arms, aid, and trade. This is a contradiction 
because clearly one's biggest ally and paraded model "light among 
nations" should be held to an extent of scrutiny commensurate with the 
favoritism bestowed upon it. Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz is 
one of the most avid purveyors of this contradiction. In a piece he 
published in the Harvard Crimson (9/23/2002), he charges divestment 
supporters with singling out Israel, then goes on to start three 
paragraphs with sentences that start with "Israel is the only" to 
demonstrate its benevolence.

full: http://www.counterpunch.org/

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