There's no doubt that the BDS movement has generated some shift in attitudes among many Americans--particularly young Americans and liberal Democrats--in favor of Palestinians. (Americans Still Pro-Israel, Though Palestinians Gain Support (gallup.com).)
Yet, in spite of these accomplishments, the Palestine cause has made little if any progress politically or in terms of policy change at both the state and national levels. Indeed, there are now 35 states that deny state contracts to companies or individuals that participate in a boycott of Israel. (Do Americans Have the Right to Boycott Israel? | Asharq AL-awsat (aawsat.com).) There have been several successful legal challenges by individuals to anti-BDS laws in Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas and elsewhere (Anti-BDS law in Texas violates free speech rights, federal judge rules | Salon.com) but in these cases the states only doctored up their restrictions and kept the laws in place. Indeed, not one state has succeeded in repealing anti-BDS legislation. Beyond the Palestine issue, conservative groups are using the anti-BDS legislative model for challenging other kinds of progressive boycott campaigns on guns, fossil fuels, etc. (Anti-BDS law in Texas violates free speech rights, federal judge rules | Salon.com)
So, there must be some deeper reasons for this lack of progress, that is, for the inability to close the gap between increased public support for Palestine and change in US policy toward Israel. I will offer three here. I contend that the last one, "American views about America", is the most operative.
Power of the Israel lobby. This is certainly the most obvious and it has several aspects. First is the lobby's ability to directly influence or pressure policy makers to support Israel unequivocally. Another is the lobby's ability to organize pushback, as with the claim that BDS is antisemitic. Add to that the phenomenon of evangelical Christian support for Israel, which further promotes support for Israel, particularly among those Americans who are already the most conservative and responsive to the idea that the US and Israel are entitled to "exceptionalism" when it comes to how they deal with the rest of the world. All of this means that the BDS movement is always on the defensive, using time, energy and resources responding to the Israel lobby rather than educating and advocating for Palestinian rights.
Political vulnerability. Politicians who criticize Israel, publicly support Palestinians, or otherwise go against the grain of State Department Middle East "national security" propaganda will lose far more than they can gain in fundraising and votes in the next round of elections--the Holy Grail of the US version of democracy. There's no greater evidence of the power of propaganda over the US public and the vast majority of public officials than the unquestioning embrace of the US/NATO proxy war with Russia in Ukraine (The Squad nowhere to be seen as Ukraine package sails through - The Post (unherd.com)). Critics will be subject to every kind of "flack" as outlined by Chomsky and Herman in Manufacturing Consent (1988). Therefore, they overwhelmingly go along with established policy, avoid the issue, equivocate--or just lie. This is another expression of the Democratic-Republican mantra that "partisanship ends at the borders."
Allegiance to the US Empire. Israel is the linchpin of US policy and power in the Middle East and beyond (Israel is world's 10th largest arms exporter, report says - Middle East Monitor; Review: Israeli Military Assistance to Latin America on JSTOR). Undermining Israel's power would mean undermining US power because Israel can and will do things that even the US will not dare to in places like Syria, Iran, Iraq, etc. Just as US policymakers, politicians and citizens are constrained to show their unequivocal allegiance to US geopolitical goals or suffer the consequences of marginalization or worse, loyalty to Israel is a corollary to US preeminence in the world. The issue is not only or even primarily US citizens' attitudes toward Israel or Palestine per se but their attitudes toward America, the naïve belief that the US has values and can be relied on to do the right thing and thus cannot be questioned.
The Necessary Agenda for Palestine Activists
It's just too convenient for liberal US politicians to offer feigned support for Palestinians by, for example, decrying the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh (US senators refuse to let killing of Shireen Abu Akleh drop with Israel | Palestinian territories | The Guardian) but not take the necessary steps of stopping military aid to Israel or punishing it economically for killing ever more Palestinians (January was the West Bank's deadliest month in nearly a decade (972mag.com)) or relentlessly expanding settlements. Such pretense of US morality accomplishes nothing but it is tolerated or even encouraged because it does not threaten the US-Israel relationship, and most important, US ability to use Israel for US purposes.
To reaffirm the US-Israel "ironclad" relationship (Blinken urges calm, reaffirms 'ironclad' US support for Israel | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera) is to connect supposed lofty US ideals with Israel and distance it from its actual policy of apartheid and violent occupation. Thus, to further the Palestinian cause we must challenge the reality of the US empire and remove this cover.
To fully appreciate the depth of the problem of the US policy with Israel we must also consider the deplorable condition of US democracy. People in the US overwhelmingly support abortion rights, yet abortion rights have been rolled back and now even taken away at the federal level. For abortion, Palestine, gun control and many other issues it's a commentary on the dysfunctionality of US democracy. A shift in public opinion is a necessary but insufficient condition for change of policy.
The empire walks on two legs, militaristic nationalism fed by propaganda and the complicity of the established parties. But the empire has no clothes. It's naked--a juggernaut of multi-faceted naked power.
Liberating Palestine means challenging the Empire. There is no other way.
Bob Kosuth
2/12/23l
