The Trade Promotion Authority, signed into law by the president on Monday, contains an array of regulations affecting U.S. commerce with Europe, among them a provision aimed at countering boycotts and similar economic measures that might be taken by European governments and corporations against Israel. Eugene Kontorovich explains:
The law will significantly increase the legal and economic risks for the EU, and companies world-wide, should they pass discriminatory sanctions and restrictions against Israel. . . .
More broadly, the law . . . represents a major refutation of the conventional wisdom that boycott pressure on Israel is growing irreversibly and ineluctably. In this account, it is Israel’s policies, rather than the single-minded animosity of its opponents, that fuel boycott efforts, and nothing short of changing those policies will help. In short, in this view, the boycott pressure is at least in part legitimate. This view was championed by the left-wing group J Street, which opposed the [the law’s Israel-related provisions]. They did not manage to convince a single congressman. Despite the efforts of such ostensibly pro-Israel groups, Americans understand that the movement to single out Israel for economic punishment is unreasonable, discriminatory, dangerous to Israel’s security, and contrary to long-standing U.S. policy.
Read more on Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/06/30/new-federal-law-fights-european-boycotts-of-israel/