In “Beating back the assault on Israel’s legitimacy” (WJW, March 20), Rabbi Steve Gutow and Jerry Silverman totally miss the essential issue in the BDS onslaught on Israel, by devoting most of their essay to describing the complexities of the road to peace between Israel and the Palestinian people in the disputed territories. BDSers will not be convinced of the error of their ways by opening their eyes to how hard it is to make peace. There is nothing rational about the BDS movement.
The BDS movement holds Israel to a standard that no other nation on earth is held to. Simply put, holding one to a unique standard that others are not held to is these days called discrimination. For a people with more than 2,000 years of experience being made the target of such discrimination, we simply call it anti-Semitism.
The only rational response to the BDS movement is to call it what it is – anti-Semitism. An approach that attempts to understand the BDSers’ side of things is, simply put, a unilateral suicide pact.
We live in a time when the Jewish people and Israel have been embraced by many – millions of evangelicals of all races and millions of Catholics who have heeded Pope John Paul II’s words. Let’s embrace them and welcome them to our cause.
STEVE BASHEIN
Potomac
Steve Bashein is nothing short of eloquent.