The Indiana resolution accuses the BDS movement of promoting anti-Semitism.

The Indiana legislature’s resolution was a response to a divestment resolution passed by the Student Senate at Earlham College. The Earlham statement, which explicitly condemned anti-Semitism, targeted three American military contractors – Caterpillar, Motorola, and Hewlett Packard – that profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and its periodic wars in Gaza. In its most recent assault on Gaza, Israel destroyed UN schools where it had been informed civilians were taking shelter.

Many Americans support a two-state solution that would be negotiated by both Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli settlements on the West Bank and East Jerusalem are undermining that possibility, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed there will be no Palestinian state on his watch. Israel’s new Deputy Defense Minister, Eli Ben Dahan, responsible for West Bank civil administration, said: “To me, [Palestinians] are like animals, they aren’t human.”

People of conscience must unite to combat racism and hate in all forms. The charge of anti-Semitism should be reserved for that awful reality, which is on the rise together with discrimination against Muslims. Such charges must not be devalued or used as cudgels to silence a painful but necessary debate about security and justice for Israelis and Palestinians.

Sources:

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Indiana-senate-passes-anti-BDS-resolution-400821
https://iga.in.gov/legislative/2015/resolutions/house/simple/59#
https://bdsearlham.wordpress.com/divestment-resolution/
https://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/disingenuous-and-dangerous-israel-attacks-bds-antisemitic-1126163414
https://www.democracynow.org/2015/5/6/kill_anything_israeli_soldiers_say_gaza
https://act.jstreet.org/mailings/view/3899?akid=3899.152658.g6BEas

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demands that Congress kill the agreement and increase sanctions. Mr. Netanyahu claims the alternative to this “bad” deal is not war but “a better deal.”
Republicans, and Democrats such as Indiana’s Senator Joe Donnelly, are supporting a bill that – even after revisions — recklessly endangers the agreement.

Some of the best informed Israelis, however, acknowledge that diplomacy is achieving what war cannot. Ron Ben-Yishai, the senior military analyst for Israel’s most mainstream newspaper, Yedioth Aharonot, wrote: “We could not have achieved a better outcome even if Israel, the United States, and other countries had carried out military strikes on the nuclear sites in Iran.”

If the U.S. and Israel reject the concessions that Iran has made, other powers would resume business with Iran – without the limits that the deal provides. The pressure for a U.S. or Israeli strike would grow.

Bombing could set back Iran’s program at most five years; the negotiated agreement lasts ten. Even repeated bombing would make Iran more, not less likely, to build a nuclear weapon deep underground to deter future attack.

Citizens should encourage Senators to withstand the pressures of right wing billionaires and instead support diplomacy. Senator Donnelly, as a moderate Democrat, is key.

Sources:

https://972mag.com/israel-media-survey-iran-deal-not-so-bad-after-all/105259/
https://972mag.com/netanyahu-resurrects-no-partner-excuse-for-iran-deal/105357/
https://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/irannuclear-deal32015reduced.pdf
https://www.armscontrol.org/issue-briefs/2015-02-11/Voting-Up-or-Down-on-an-Iran-Nuclear-Deal-Not-as-Easy-as-123