Much has been written lately about BDS. People seem to be really concerned. It reminds me of the dread of the bogeyman in the broom cupboard. The fear is far, far, greater than the reality.
What to do about BDS? Laugh at them, and ridicule them.
The most effective piece of writing I ever did was an article I wrote about a decade ago that went viral in the social media. It was called “My letter to a BDS advocate. If You’re Going to Boycott Israel do it Properly!”
You know how it goes. These hypocrites who call on others to boycott us don’t apply their principles to themselves. They continue to use their computers, laptops, smartphones that wouldn’t operate without our Israeli technology. They use Israeli science, medical and pharmaceutical advances in their everyday life.
So here we are, a decade later, still scared of the BDS bogeyman.
This is why I chose to write my new book, BDS for IDIOTS, in the tone of my decade-old article. This book is a seriously funny humiliation of the BDS activist. Students have a lot to learn from it.
As one reader wrote, “The best way to treat BDS idiots is to laugh at them and ridicule them and their phoney message.”
There are thousands of organizations and groups determined to destroy Israel. They work tirelessly and relentlessly. They spend millions of dollars in their campaigns and activities, and what is the effect of their massed labors? Israel is economically, politically, militarily, stronger now than we were a decade ago.
BDS is not the monster many make them out to be. They are that irritating fly on a hot summer’s night. You know what I mean. It’s that little nuisance that buzzes around your ear or around your cool glass of wine as you try to relax by the pool or on the beach. It’s there to upset you, but it can’t kill you, no matter how hard it tries, and what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.
My advice to all our supporters is to ridicule them and their hypocritical message which is nothing more than lies and slander. We can challenge their false claims easily, with humor, with truth and honesty, part of which is exposing their nonsense.
BDS? That stands for Biased, Dumb and Stupid, doesn’t it?
Barry Shaw, author of ‘BDS for IDIOTS’ and the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.