--- title: Why Boycotting Israel Is a Bad Idea description: Boycotts are a blunt tool dropped into a delicate and ongoing struggle canonical: https://time.com/3896437/why-boycotting-israel-is-a-bad-idea/ author: Rabbi David Wolpe article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-27T16:31:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T07:37:41.917Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Boycotting Israel Is a Bad Idea og:description: Boycotts are a blunt tool dropped into a delicate and ongoing struggle og:url: https://time.com/3896437/why-boycotting-israel-is-a-bad-idea/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68873301510986c7/698851bfe20a87b7aaa8b88f/obama-immigration2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a spatial meeting with his new cabinet in honor of Jerusalem Day, at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem on May 19, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Boycotting Israel Is a Bad Idea twitter:description: Boycotts are a blunt tool dropped into a delicate and ongoing struggle twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68873301510986c7/698851bfe20a87b7aaa8b88f/obama-immigration2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Boycotting Israel Is a Bad Idea ## Video: TIME Covers: 47 Years of War and Hope in the Middle East [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Covers: 47 Years of War and Hope in the Middle East](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/r3PKM6pC.m3u8) (1:20)  _Published 2014-08-07. TIME Covers: 47 Years of War and Hope in the Middle East_ by [Rabbi David Wolpe](https://time.com/author/rabbi-david-wolpe/) ## Rabbi David Wolpe May 27, 2015 4:31 PM UTC  Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a spatial meeting with his new cabinet in honor of Jerusalem Day, at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem on May 19, 2015. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a spatial meeting with his new cabinet in honor of Jerusalem Day, at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem on May 19, 2015.Atef Safadi—AP by [Rabbi David Wolpe](https://time.com/author/rabbi-david-wolpe/) ## Rabbi David Wolpe May 27, 2015 4:31 PM UTC There is growing [debate](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/us/campus-debates-on-israel-drive-a-wedge-between-jews-and-minorities.html) about the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel on college campuses and beyond. With reports of [anti-Semitism](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abraham-h-foxman/anti-semitism-on-campus-o%5Fb%5F7172986.html) on campuses, the need to address this issue is urgent. Here are three critical points that are often lost. **1.** **Criticism of Israel doesn’t mean anti-Semitism.** In decades of public life and Jewish and Israel activism, I have never heard anyone say that criticism of Israel is [itself anti-Semitic](http://www.salon.com/2015/05/20/is%5Fbeing%5Fa%5Fcritic%5Fof%5Fisraeli%5Fstate%5Fpolicies%5Fthe%5Fsame%5Fas%5Fbeing%5Fan%5Fanti%5Fsemite/). I have written and spoken critically of Israel, and I have invited critics of Israel’s policies—including Reza Aslan and Hussein Ibish—to speak at my synagogue, without receiving accusations of anti-Semitism. Accusations of anti-Semitism are sometimes used by flamethrowers to quiet opposition, but no responsible spokesperson in the Jewish world uses the epithet this way. **2\. But anti-Semitic motivations are part of the movement**. In a world in which there are few protests on campuses about Russia’s treatment of Ukraine, the Taliban’s treatment of women, or ISIS’s history of beheadings, the nation-wide focus on Israel raises some suspicions. According to a Pew Research Center, there are [49 countries](http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/future-of-the-global-muslim-population-muslim-majority/) where Muslims are the majority, [158 countries and territories](http://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/) where Christians are the majority, and [one](http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-jew/) country where Jews are. Yet Israel is routinely condemned, and the court of common sense offers a strong verdict that anti-Semitism has something to do with it. This does not mean that all those who advocate BDS are anti-Semitic. But it does mean that anti-Semitic motivations are beneath the surface of some protests, and it is unsurprising that anti-Semitic symbols and tropes are often found in pro-BDS events. **3\. The arguments for BDS don’t make sense.** If you say it is because the U.S. gives Israel foreign aid, then what of Egypt, to which the U.S. gives about [$1.3 billion](http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-administration-releases-1-3-billion-in-aid-to-egypt-1427829788) a year in aid? Why no big campaigns when about 1,000 people are [killed](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/14/world/middleeast/memory-egypt-mass-killing.html) in Rabaa in a single day? If you say it’s to help the Palestinians, then BDS is a bad tactic because it could [hurt](http://www.forbes.com/sites/carriesheffield/2015/02/22/boycott-israel-movement-stunts-the-palestinian-economy/) the Palestine economy. If you say it’s for [democratic reasons](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/opinion/to-save-israel-boycott-the-settlements.html?pagewanted=all&%5Fr=1&), then it’s by working within the democratic process, not by seeking to coerce it, that one gets results. The BDS campaigns will not and cannot work. When a nation’s security is at stake, making the citizens feel less secure is not a recipe for compromise. A nation surrounded by hostile powers is not moved to negotiate by threats from friends. Boycotts are a blunt tool dropped into a delicate and ongoing struggle. I am heartbroken over the decades of pain on both sides of the conflict. But the proliferation of anti-Semitic imagery along with one-sided evaluations of both the country and the conflict do not advance solutions; they polarize. Groups on campuses far away debating the issue doesn’t help those people in the region who must learn, together, how to live in peace. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3896437/why-boycotting-israel-is-a-bad-idea/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3896437/why-boycotting-israel-is-a-bad-idea/"},"headline":"Why Boycotting Israel Is a Bad Idea","datePublished":"2015-05-27T16:31:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T07:37:41.917Z","description":"Boycotts are a blunt tool dropped into a delicate and ongoing struggle","url":"https://time.com/3896437/why-boycotting-israel-is-a-bad-idea/","keywords":["world affairs"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68873301510986c7/698851bfe20a87b7aaa8b88f/obama-immigration2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rabbi David Wolpe","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rabbi-david-wolpe/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt68873301510986c7/698851bfe20a87b7aaa8b88f/obama-immigration2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a spatial meeting with his new cabinet in honor of Jerusalem Day, at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem on May 19, 2015.","caption":"Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs a spatial meeting with his new cabinet in honor of Jerusalem Day, at the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem on May 19, 2015.","creditText":"Atef Safadi—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/world-affairs/","name":"world affairs"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3896437/why-boycotting-israel-is-a-bad-idea/","name":"Why Boycotting Israel Is a Bad Idea"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Covers: 47 Years of War and Hope in the Middle East","description":"TIME Covers: 47 Years of War and Hope in the Middle East","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/r3PKM6pC/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-07T12:48:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/r3PKM6pC.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3896437/why-boycotting-israel-is-a-bad-idea/","duration":"PT1M20S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3896437/why-boycotting-israel-is-a-bad-idea/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```