Vision to Reality: The Reut Blog

In a piece published on the Huffington Post, freelance writer and self-identified liberal leftist (and two-time Ralph Nader voter) Alan Krinsky delineates “8 Reasons Leftists Should be Pro-Israel,” among these human rights, peace, and self defense.

Krinsky premises the piece in a rejection of a phenomenon of singling Israel out for criticism with a unique sense of urgency and anger, pointing out that “[o]n the Left, people became outraged and agitated over Israel more than over any other cause.”

This outrage manifests in a “… focused attempt to demonize Israel, not undertaken against any other nation… aimed at delegitimizing Israel and undermining its very existence, as if the problems of the world were the fault of the Israelis — the fault of the Jews — and if they would only go away, all would be better.”

Echoing Reut’s premise that the success of those advancing Israel’s delegitimization is based in their ability to blur the lines between criticism of Israel’s policy and its delegitimization, Krinsky claims that not all ardent anti-Israel voices on the Left aspire towards Israel’s delegitimization. Many, he believes, “are earnest, but perhaps misled.” To those, he offers a note of caution: “If my fellow Leftists or even Liberals think that the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement will help bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as peace to the Middle East and harmony to the community of nations, they are sadly mistaken.”

These themes are analyzed in a recent Reut document on the BDS Movement, which demonstrates that rather than seeking dialogue and developing ties, the BDS Movement undermines Israeli-Palestinian cooperation; and that rather than promoting both Israel and Palestinian rights to self-determination, the BDS Movement is motivated by an agenda that opposes Israel’s existence.

In addition, Reut identifies ‘driving a wedge’ between critics of Israel’s policy and its delegitimizers as key to shrinking the influence of the latter. In our conceptual framework, we focus on three ‘red flags’ that may indicate that criticism is in fact aiming at Israel’s delegitimization: Fundamentally challenging Israel’s right to exist as an embodiment of the Jewish people’s right to self-determination; employing blatant double standards, or exclusively singling out Israel for criticism; and demonizing the state, often by evoking Nazism and apartheid.

By engaging his political compatriots on the one hand, and exposing the true face of campaigns such as the BDS Movement on the other hand, Krinsky advances precisely this logic.

Click here for an effective video that exposes the BDS Movement’s delegitimization agenda.