Robert Adams’ letter (which argued that the Town of North Hempstead’s anti-boycott law “pandered to Likud”) is ill-informed.
In fact, every mainstream Israeli party — both right and left — opposes anti-Israel boycotts.
For instance, left-wing Labor Party/Zionist union leader Tzipi Livni is on YouTube, speaking out against “BDS” (anti-Israel boycotts, divestment and sanctions).
Livni explained that the boycott movement “is against the Jewish State and is against the Jews… It is not just criticism of Israeli government policy. It is against the existence of Israel as the Jewish State.”
(See “Tzipi Livni: Everyone Who Googles BDS Know That This Movement Is Against Jewish State,” YouTube, April 20, 2016, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxUkEmvKptA.)
This past November, representatives of both the right and left stood together with the Zionist Organization of America to pass an anti-boycott resolution initiated by the ZOA at the World Zionist Congress.
A proud leading member of the Labor Party, former Member of Knesset Masha Lubetsky, and World Likud Chairman Yaakov Hagoel, and others all urged adoption of the anti-boycott resolution and inclusion of Judea and Samaria.
And of course, Jews of all political persuasions, right and left, Israeli and non-Israeli, are the victims of anti-Semitic, anti-Israel boycotts, and have lost their livelihoods.
There are also other victims of anti-Israel boycotts, including numerous American companies who do business in Israel who are targeted by the BDS movement (including Caterpillar, Northrup-Grumman, Motorola, and many more), and Palestinian-Arab workers who lost well-paid jobs because the BDS movement put their employers out of business or forced them to move.
Taking a stand against anti-Jewish, anti-Israel discrimination is an act of courage and morality.
It’s not “pandering.”
The Town of North Hempstead supervisor and council deserve praise for their principled and courageous action.
Liz Berney
Great Neck
(Ms. Berney is the Long Island-Queens Exec. Director of the Zionist Organization of America)
