The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement has spent millions on college campuses across North America. The ostensible target of their protest are Israeli settlements, the State of Israel, and the millions of citizens who live there. But Israel is not the ultimate target of BDS. Author and Jerusalem Post columnist Caroline Glick will argue that the ultimate targets of BDS are American Jews, particularly the American Jews most sympathetic to the disgraceful claims of BDS, those who lean to the political left. Remember back in June 2017 when lesbian activists were kicked out of Chicago’s “Dyke March” for raising flags that combined symbols of gay pride with the Star of David? The rising current of anti-Zionist, progressive doctrine will force the Jewish left to choose between its support for Israel and its progressive values. You can be on the left or you be a Zionist. But according to the left, you can’t be both. The debasement of Israel by the anti-Zionist left is not merely an attack on the Middle East’s only democracy and the political refuge for history’s most persecuted people, it is also a way to establish political litmus tests that are designed to uniquely discriminate against Jewish Americans. Unless and until Jewish institutions understand the true political strategy of the BDS movement, they will not be effective in their opposition to it or in their support for the State of Israel on campuses, in the left-leaning media, or in American culture.

Caroline Glick

Caroline B. Glick is a senior columnist at Israel Hayom, Israel’s largest circulation newspaper and is syndicated to scores of Jewish newspapers and web publications worldwide. She was previously the senior contributing and chief columnist for the Jerusalem Post, and a senior columnist for Maariv and Breitbart. She is the author of The Israeli Solution: A One State Plan for Peace in the Middle East, (Crown 2014) and of Shackled Warrior: Israel and the Global Jihad (Gefen 2008). The Israeli Solution was endorsed by leading US policymakers including Vice President Mike Pence, Senator Ted Cruz and National Security Advisor John Bolton. Shackled Warrior was endorsed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former CIA director James Woolsey. Glick has received numerous awards for her commentary. Among others, she received the Ben Hecht award for Middle East reporting from the Zionist Organization of America, the Abramowitz Prize for Media Criticism by Israel Media Watch, the Guardian of Zion award by Bar Ilan University and the Courage of Zion Prize for Zionist pioneering by the Moskowitz Foundation. Glick blogs at her website www.carolineglick.com and on her Facebook author page.