BDS could cost Israel $4.7 billion a year

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/06/could-israel-billion

Do you wonder why Benjamin Netanyahu is declaring war on BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), and Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban are holding a secret Las Vegas conference to fight it, and Yair Lapid is saying that the people behind BDS plotted 9/11, and Ari Shavit is calling the movement “evil and sophisticated”?

Well, here’s why. The Financial Times has published a big, and somewhat balanced, article on the rapid rise of BDS that includes two stunning financial numbers showing how powerful the nonviolent movement for justice in Israel/Palestine is becoming.

The most important information is deep inside the FT article:

However, there are signs that Israel’s disquiet over BDS is genuine. This week an Israeli financial newspaper covered a leaked government report estimating that BDS could cost Israel’s economy $1.4bn a year. The estimate included lower exports from the settlements in keeping with the EU’s plans to begin labelling goods made there — not part of the BDS movement, although many Israelis lump the two things together. The Rand Corporation, the US think-tank, says the costs could be more than three times higher: $47bn over 10 years.

And that is why hasbarist central is having fits; attempting to throw everything it can at BDS from 'they're anti-Semites' to 'they don't matter.'

Israel is in an end game of its own choosing.


BDS.

[Scootaloo]

1. "Yair Lapid is saying that the people behind BDS plotted 9/11"

Lolwhut?

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

5. Yep. It's comedy gold.

[Jefferson23]

2. They're a total embarrassment. n/t

[BillZBubb]

3. They way they go from squealing about BDS to dismissing it is telling.

They are frightened and they should be.

[azurnoir]

4. ...........

and again

[oberliner]

6. The Financial Times again channels its inner Electronic Intifada

Reed’s article continues with a claim regarding the estimated cost of BDS:

However, there are signs that Israel’s disquiet over BDS is genuine. This week an Israeli financial newspaper covered a leaked government report estimating that BDS could cost Israel’s economy $1.4bn a year. The estimate included lower exports from the settlements in keeping with the EU’s plans to begin labelling goods made there — not part of the BDS movement, although many Israelis lump the two things together.
The leaked Israeli government report Reed is referring to was reported by Calcalist (a financial paper owned by the Yedioth Ahronoth Group).

However, the government report in question continually notes that BDS has so far had very little, if any, negative impact on Israel’s economy. It then, however, speculates on different possible future scenarios and their possible effects. One of those scenarios imagines what would happen if the EU cancelled the Free Trade Agreement with Israel. The report speculates that, in that scenario, Israel’s economy would suffer losses of 1.2 billion USD. However, right next to the title of this scenario, it is stated (in the text underlined in red) that this is a “very low probability scenario“.

Reed then writes that “The Rand Corporation, the US think-tank, says the costs could be more than three times higher: $47bn over 10 years”.

However, this also is extremely misleading. The Rand Corporation report in question (page 87) cites the $47bn cost to Israel only in the context of a one out of many hypothetical scenarios – one in which Palestinians decide on a grand strategy which “eschew[s] violence” in favor of completely “nonviolent tactics”. First, it seems extremely unlikely that all Palestinian parties would ever abandon violence and adopt a such non-violent model. Additionally, Rand has acknowledged that “evidence on the effectiveness of sanctions is mixed, making an assessment of the potential economic effects of the BDS movement problematic.”

http://ukmediawatch.org/2015/06/15/the-financial-times-again-channels-its-inner-electronic-intifada/

[Little Tich]

8. I hope you were unaware that UK Media Watch is a "Camera Affiliate".

This affiliation with a group that is 100% inaccurate all the time doesn't look good.

[Scootaloo]

9. Shitty right-wing sources are okay when Oberliner uses them.

[4now]

7. Last summer (when Israel was busy murdering over 400 innocent Palestinian children)

Israeli apologists were telling anybody that would listen that BDS was no big deal and the boycott would have no effect on Israel.
Now they can't stop whining about BDS.
How quickly things are changing.