If international terrorism like the murder of Rabbi Kogan represents an additional front in the war to destroy Israel, so too does the movement to boycott Israeli scholars and universities, argues Netta Barak-Corren:

It is hard to overstate the stakes of this front not only for Israel, but for countries all over the world who benefit from Israel’s scholarly contributions to many fields. The boycott has already scotched research collaborations in medicine, computational biology, chemistry, informatics, political science, child welfare, and more.

In America, some legal and legislative remedies have already been used against the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Such legal means, Barak-Corren explains, are also available in Europe:

Through the EU-Israel Association Agreement, Israeli researchers and institutions have access to EU grants, which constitute some of the largest sources of research funding in the world. The regulations for such funding include nondiscrimination rules as a condition for eligibility, . . . meaning that universities or researchers who terminate collaborations with Israeli collaborators will violate their contractual commitments and risk their eligibility for funding.

Although there are laws in the United States that prohibit government contracts with entities that participate in the BDS movement, these laws mainly apply to commercial activity. . . . It is perhaps timelier than ever to push similar legislation through Congress.

In October, a young Mauritanian national murdered an Orthodox Jewish man on his way to synagogue in Chicago. This alone should be sufficient sign of the rising dangers of anti-Semitism. Nathan Diament explains how the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act (AAA) can, if passed, make American Jews safer:

We were off to a promising start when the AAA sailed through the House of Representatives in the spring by a generous vote of 320 to 91, and 30 senators from both sides of the aisle jumped to sponsor the Senate version. Then the bill ground to a halt.

Fearful of antagonizing their left-wing activist base and putting vulnerable senators on the record, especially right before the November election, Democrats delayed bringing the AAA to the Senate floor for a vote. Now, the election is over, but the political games continue.

You can’t combat anti-Semitism if you can’t—or won’t—define it. Modern anti-Semites hide their hate behind virulent anti-Zionism. . . . The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act targets this loophole by codifying that the Department of Education must use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism in its application of Title VI.