The big picture

How could this newspaper feature on its front cover a handwringing and unnecessarily lengthy editorial about the cost of turning back the BDS (boycott, divest and sanction) resolution at the University of Washington student senate (“How much have we lost?” May 30)? Rather than simply reporting the news on its cover or issuing a congratulatory editorial praising the University of Washington students and others who defeated this insidious resolution, this newspaper ceded its editorial role to Hillel director Oren Hayon to deliver a highly ambiguous message.
BDS is not a struggle for social justice, but part of a sophisticated political agenda which poses an existential threat to the State of Israel. Not only do many BDS advocates outwardly misrepresent the facts about Israel, but BDS focuses singularly on the tiny Jewish nation while ignoring the political turmoil, murder and oppression in Arab countries such as Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. The fact that some of its proponents are Jewish does not make BDS any less anti-Semitic or injurious to the Jewish State.
Universities, first and foremost, are institutions with the responsibility of educating their students. Part of the educational process includes teaching young men and women the values of accepting communal responsibility and making sacrifices for one’s values. While it is regrettable that Hillel was distracted from conducting other projects and some students suffered from indigestion, insomnia and anxiety, many thousands of young men and women serving in the Israel Defense Forces sacrifice so much more to assure that Israel and its population exists in peace and freedom. Ignoring or minimizing the BDS threat to Israel would betray the very values that Hillel should and must uphold.
Had this been 1934 instead of 2014, would anyone have lamented the cost of fighting a battle against an anti-Semitic Fascist resolution brought before the University of Washington student senate? I certainly hope not. So too we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism parading under the guise of “social justice” now and in the future — whether at the University of Washington or elsewhere.
Steven A. Hemmat
Seattle