While I’m a big supporter of Israel and most of their actions, this is unacceptable to me. If private people want to do private counter boycotts against organizations that divest from Israel, that’s fine, but governments shouldn’t be taking sides in such a hamfisted way.
More details from Reason:
Reason questions whether it’s even legal for him to do this by executive order and I have to concur. What law empowers Gov. Cuomo to take this action?
Isn’t it justified by the same rationale used by those government entities that boycott certain US states for their politics?
Well, the Governor is allowed to give instructions to executive branch agencies, and I’d assume the agencies are able to make their own standards about purchases so long as they don’t violate state or federal law. This doesn’t ban organizations from divesting in Israel; it just says that state executive branch agencies can’t enter into contracts with them. There are other restrictions on New York State contractors…the state can’t enter into contracts to buy tropical hardwoods, can’t contract with business in Northern Ireland that don’t commit to employment nondiscrimination, can’t enter into contracts with companies in states or countries that discriminate against New York State companies, gives preferential treatment to businesses owned by minorities, women, and those who employ the disabled and so on.
AIPAC (The American Israel Public Affairs Committee) is running the United States and has bought and paid for most politicians.
Any politician who goes against the wishes of AIPAC will quickly find himself out of office!
Sounds like Cuomo is doing what is in HIS best interest!
No. When government entities boycott other city or state governments, they aren’t refusing to do business with any organization that disagrees with them about the boycott.
But Cuomo is saying that not only is New York itself not boycotting Israel, but it won’t do business with any entity that disagrees with them about not boycotting Israel. That’s really restrictive and punitive.
While I have my doubts about the usefulness of boycotts in general and of boycotting Israel in particular, trying to paint a boycott of Israel as some kind of antisemitic persecution just reeks of desperation. People are boycotting Israel because they’re really pissed off about Israel’s continuing and expanding occupation of Palestinian territories, and nothing else seems to be working to stop it. Boycotting may not work either, but it doesn’t automatically make the boycotters antisemites.
(And yes, I’m nonetheless quite sure that some people in the BDS movement are antisemites, because it’s impossible to do anything that criticizes any Jews without bringing some antisemites out of the woodwork to endorse it. But just because antisemites approve of boycotting Israel doesn’t mean that anyone who boycotts Israel must be an antisemite.)
You would’t happen to have any kind of credible proof of that assertion, would you?
It’s just a counter-boycott. Within certain limits, government entities are allowed to express political positions on their own behalf.
Funny – they seem to have missed my Congressman, Keith Ellison. A Muslim from Minnesota, who’s been elected & re-elected a half-dozen times now.