Veteran Canadian journalist Robert Fulford has bad news for the thousands of college students and Muslim immigrants who enjoy hanging out at Israeli consulates, carrying largely unintelligible signs and chanting what must be the least catchy slogan in the left’s long history: “Boycott, Divest, Sanction!”
That’s a clumsy way of saying: “Don’t buy Israeli stuff,” and is usually chanted by hirsute individuals who don’t look like they have money to buy products, let alone boycott them. Amusingly, the people chanting anti-Israeli slogans have Motorola cellphones and wear Teva sandals, but are convinced that Starbucks and Fox News are owned by Jews.
Anyway, Fulford reports on the “results” of the BDS campaign:
Given the publicity BDS has received, the program should be on the way to success. And probably it has helped discourage some Israelis and their supporters. But is it working on a more practical level? Surprisingly, the clear answer seems to be No.
Jon Haber, a Boston writer who runs the website Divest This!, recently reported in The Jerusalem Post that — despite the passage of nearly a decade of BDS activism — not one college or university has sold even one share of a company the divesters identify as an immoral supporter of Israel. The divesters are good at attracting crowds, writing manifestos, passing motions and getting their opinions onto TV. But they get few results…
The Left: they’re gonna keep on failing ’til they get it right!