Virginia Lawyers versus Israel

The Virginia state lawyers’ organization has canceled a planned seminar in Israel, citing “legitimate concern” expressed by some members over “unacceptable discriminatory policies and practices pertaining to border security that affect travelers” to the Jewish state. David Bernstein comments:

The idea that either the state bar as an attorney organization or as a state agency has some obligation to avoid Israel is nonsense. Surely [state bar president Kevin] Martingayle and [his] colleagues can’t be so naive and out-of-touch to think that the concerns raised are not part of the broader divestment, sanctions, and boycott movement meant to delegitimize Israel. . . .

As near as I can tell, the only public discussion of all this before Martingayle’s letter was a petition circulated three days ago by anonymous “Concerned Members of the Virginia State Bar” that, as of this writing, has received a grand total of 34 signatures. It’s hard to imagine that Martingayle and colleagues canceled a planned event that already had a hotel booked, a continuing education program, and even optional tours set up based on those objections. Who are the “other individuals” mentioned by Martingayle who objected?

Read more at Washington Post

More about: Anti-Semitism, BDS, Israel & Zionism, Law, US-Israel relations

 

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF