Video of the week - BDS: The Attempt to Strangle Israel - http://tinyurl.com/haxpnhr
Article by Abed Almaala - Israel Hayom 15th Feb 2017
As a Jordanian
politician, I feel obligated to speak out against the anti-Israel boycott,
divestment and sanctions movement and its effect on the Middle East and the world.
I represent the
point of view and interests of the Jordanian people.By doing so, I have freedom that many others may not. My
views onBDS are unbiased and
balanced because I am not an Israeli and nobody could accuse me of being anti-Arab.
Let me be
clear: BDS is a reckless act of hatred that threatens the security and stability of not only Israel, but also my
country, Jordan, and the entire Middle East.
BDS seeks to
attack and isolate Israel. But what is Israel's importance to Jordan, and to
the world? Why should anyone care if Israel is hurt?
This is what
the president of the Jordanian opposition, Mudar Zahran, wrote last year in Israel Hayom: "If the day were to come when Israel falls, Jordan,
Egypt and many others would fall, too, and Westerners would be begging Iran for oil.
"We can
hate Israel as much as we like, but we must realize that without it, we too would be gone."
Israel is at
the front of the war against terror in our region,and if Israel is hurt, we all will suffer, and Jordan
will suffer the most.
Therefore, BDS
is a threat to us all -- a threat to America as much as it is a threat to Israel, Jordan and our Palestinian brothers.
BDS claims to
target Israel because Israel oppresses the Palestinians. If so, why does BDS
never target Jordan's government, which oppresses and destroys the lives of the majority of Jordanians of Palestinian origins, and
where many of my own people, the Bedouin Jordanians, go hungry?
Why does BDS
never boycott Lebanon, where Palestinians are banned from working as taxi drivers? Why does it not boycott Syria, where
President Bashar Assad has killed thousands of Palestinians in Yarmouk camp?
BDS, admit it:
You are racists and anti-Semites.
Your activities
are a threat to Jordan, and it is my mission as Jordan's shadow commerce
secretary to enhance, expand, strengthen and promote trade between my country and Israel.
But BDS is not
alone. It could not survive without support, both financial and political, and we in the Jordanian
opposition have information that BDS receives support of various kinds from Arab
dictators.
From day one,
Arab rulers have been telling us that Israeli is the enemy, and that we should forget about our own hungry children and our
ruthless governments and focus exclusively on hating and killing Jews.
BDS promotes
the very same bankrupt concepts.
I say, BDS:
Shame on you.
Shame on you
for attacking the only country that offers jobs to my Palestinian brothers.
Shame on you
for attacking the country that provides free health care for Palestinian cancer patients.
Shame on you
for selling your souls to Arab regimes.
As a Muslim, I
know that since my Prophet Muhammad was welcomed in Medina by the Arabs and the Jews, he traded with and even signed
a mutual defense agreement
with the Jews.
And as a
Jordanian and a member of Jordan's opposition, it is time we stopped talking about peace and began living peace through
economic prosperity; this is our promise and our mission.
BDS is not only
hateful and shameful, but also strengthens Arab dictators who hypocritically
criticize Israel for alleged human rights violations when they, themselves, are
the world's top human rights violators.
A man is known
by the company he keeps; if the biggest supporters of BDS are Arab and Muslim
dictators,what does this say about
BDS?
We Arabs have
boycotted Israel for 70 years. Where has it gotten us? We are light-years behind Israel in technology and the economy.
We will stop this in Jordan and begin learning from our Israel friends.
This dream is
not new. It was the dream of the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who saw economic prosperity as the road to peace. That is why
I was honored to organize a memorial event for him in the U.S. Congress when he
was killed, more than 20
years ago.
Let us make his
memory live through action. Let us turn the lost hopes into a beautiful reality, and disappointment into happiness. And
let us all put BDS where it belongs, in the dust bin of history.
Someday soon,
Jordan will be free and we will build a new system that will work closely with Israel, through
partnership, not competition, and through true cooperation rather than
just a cold peace.
And we will
turn Jordan into a model for Arab countries to follow through cooperation with our Israeli brothers and sisters and the
blessings of our American friends.
Am Yisrael
Chai. Am Yarden Chai.
Abed Almaala is
a member of the Jordanian Opposition Coalition.
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