The Jewish Chronicle in England has a report on a “secret” conference last week in London that wasn’t all that secret, aimed at the greatest threat to Israel these days, the movement to delegitimize the idea of an ethnocracy. Israel’s intelligence minister Yuval Steinitz was there, joining “dozens of leading politicians, campaigners and grass-roots activists… for a secret conference on tackling delegitimisation of Israel.”

I’m not sure how you have a “gala” dinner at a “secret” conference, but Ron Lauder, the American billionaire/philanthropist who heads the World Jewish Congress, spoke and described the “lawfare” methods for taking on this existential challenge:

Ronald Lauder told the 140 guests that countering the boycott movement might be the most important work they ever do. He said: “…We will send the message that a campaign against Israel is a double-edged sword. We are not powerless — far from it. We have the resources. We have the intelligence. Most important, we have unbounded determination.” Mr Lauder promised greater use of legal means to challenge boycotts. “We will draft and lobby for legislation that will withhold government funding from academic institutions that boycott Israel,” he said. “We will draft and lobby for federal anti-discrimination statutes in the United States against banks, businesses and governments that target only Israel. We will follow the money to find out just who is funding these attacks on Israel and if there is any connection to terrorism.”

Nancy Kricorian of Code Pink said that this is a refrain on the anti-BDS front: that somehow Palestinian solidarity folks are getting a lot of money to protest occupation.

My favorite moment was at a big Ahava demo outside a Ricky’s in Brooklyn, a reporter for Israel Channel Ten waved her hand at the assembled and asked me, “Who pays for all this?” I laughed and said, “For what? The poster board and felt-tipped markers? Everyone here is a volunteer, except for two part-time employees for local organizations.” They really think there is money being funneled to us via, I don’t know, Saudi Arabia or Iran or something. For a relatively small, underfunded, mostly volunteer movement, we seem to be having a big impact. Working with the Stop SodaStream media/social media team, I am struck by how smart and strategic our partners are. Ron Lauder may have the millions to throw at this problem, and the lawfare thing is going to be rough because it will suck up our resources, but we have the brains and courage.



Speaking of lawfare–if you know people who want to give money to support the BDS movement–we should be throwing checks at Palestine Solidarity Legal Support. It’s run by Dima Khalidi, and my friend Radhika Sainath is one of the staff attorneys.

Asa Winstanley at Middle East Monitor offers this analysis of the London conference, pointing out the weakness of its position: