AIPAC REALLY WORRIED AS ISRAEL'S REPUTATION TANKS

Links, Australia - The movement to call Israel to account for its crimes against the Palestinian people is growing, it is "invading the mainstream discourse, becoming part of the constant and unrelenting drumbeat against Israel"�. It could eventually threaten the existence of the Jewish state by undermining the support it receives from its strongest backer, the US government.

That was the message of alarm delivered by the executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Howard Kohr, to the AIPAC Policy Conference on May 3. . .

Kohr's address focused on the growing power of the international movement against Israel's criminal behaviour, identifying support for boycotts, divestment and sanctions as a particularly worrisome development.

Kohr pointed to a variety of statements and actions against Israel's onslaught on Palestinians in Gaza, including demonstrations in Spain and Germany. He noted that 400 British academics had demanded that Britain's Science Museum cancel an event highlighting the work of Israeli scientists and that an Italian trade union called for a boycott of Israeli products.

"Incredibly, there now is even an Israel Apartheid Week conducted in cities across the globe"�, he added. . .

He voiced particular concern over the movement's progress in the United States "where Israel stands accused of apartheid and genocide, where Zionism equals racism, where a former president of the United States can publicly accuse Israel of apartheid."�. . .

"What we are witnessing is the attempted delegitimization of Israel; the systematic sowing of doubt that Israel is a nation that has forfeited the world's concern; a nation whose actions are, in the strict meaning of the term, indefensible. This is more than the simple spewing of hatred. This is a conscious campaign to shift policy, to transform the way Israel is treated by its friends to a state that deserves not our support, but our contempt; not our protection, but pressured to change its essential nature. . .

"I'm not saying that these allegations have become accepted. But they have become acceptable. More and more they are invading the mainstream discourse, becoming part of the constant and unrelenting drumbeat against Israel. These voices are laying the predicate for an abandonment. They're making the case for Israel's unworthiness to be allowed what is for any nation the first and most fundamental of rights: the right to self-defense... They are preparing us for a world in which Israel stands alone, isolated, and at risk. . .

"Now, there's little we can do to stop the boycotts of Israeli goods launched in London or Lisbon or Rome. There's little we can do to stop Israel Apartheid Week. But there is much we can do to stop this campaign from taking hold here. Here where it matters the most, in Washington, where United States policy is forged, we must stop the delegitimization of Israel. We must not let it penetrate the halls of Congress and the counsels of our president."