Is Israel headed for reformation as boycotts and sanctions take their toll?

Back in 1997, in an address at the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Nelson Mandela said this: “We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” Many people considered Mandela a champion of the Palestinians and a key ally in their fight for statehood.

The death of South Africa’s first black president has turned media attention back to the final days of apartheid and the dramatic shift that took place as the white government fell.

Palestinian protesters are using the media’s attention on Nelson Mandela to strengthen their push for complete independence from Israel. The strategy is to portray Israel’s “occupation” of the West Bank as a form of apartheid.

The proposition that apartheid is taking place in the West Bank was a view Mandela held, and that today is receiving more international clout than ever. The Palestinians are using Mandela—a vocal advocate of the Palestinian plight—to bolster their cries for change, even after his death. Their mindset is that Israel is guilty of the same sins as were committed in South Africa, and must experience the same international response to be defeated. The reason for their rationale is obvious: Just look at what happened in the African nation as a result of sanctions.

Apartheid officially became law in South Africa in 1948. Unrest flared up in the 1950s, but the idea of sanctions hadn’t started to take hold. In 1962, the UN called on members to “separately or collectively” break diplomatic relations with South Africa and begin trade embargoes. Multiple trade and arms embargoes ensued, including Resolution 181, which saw—with U.S. approval—the cessation of arms shipments to South Africa from Europe. This law became mandatory in 1977, largely as a result of the heavy-handed crackdown on protesters by police.

It wasn’t long before most Western nations had severed relations with South Africa and had isolated the nation completely. Cut off by the punitive measures taken by the international community, the South African government yielded to the increasing pressure.

On Feb. 11, 1990, Mandela was released from prison without conditions. In 1991, he threatened to “unleash a wave of mass action” such as street demonstrations and rallies if sanctions against the apartheid government were lifted. He clearly saw the importance of keeping these sanctions in place.

By 1998, when the last sanctions were removed, the political and social landscape in South Africa had been upended: The white rulers were gone; the nation was now controlled by the black majority.

When the Palestinians look at the outcome of sanctions on South Africa, it is no wonder they call for the same restrictions to be placed on Israel. The sanctions were effective in bringing about change and toppling a government that beforehand was in complete control.

The idea of sanctioning Israel is catching on.

In apartheid South Africa, the earliest sanctions were not put in place by other nations. The sanctioning and boycotting began small. Musicians canceled tours; sports teams stopped competing in the nation. Then the sanctions started to pick up. Condemnation started coming out of American academia. University students held protests. The clamor grew louder. Next came the businesses: Industries closed factories and left. Coca-Cola Co. sold its operations to a multiracial group of investors as a “statement of [Coca-Cola Co.’s] opposition to apartheid.”

Finally national condemnation turned into action, and sanctions were established on a nationwide level. The UN became the staging ground of most punitive measures against South Africa.

Now consider the anti-Israel movement taking place around the globe.

The drive to maintain a cultural boycott of Israel is in full swing. Protesters impede high-profile Israeli performances, including most of Betsheva’s dance performances in the United States. Famed artists sent letters to Carnegie Hall in an attempt to prevent the Israeli Philharmonic from performing there.

More and more artists are canceling tours in Israel in an act of defiance against what they call “crimes against humanity,” or because they fear the backlash from anti-Israel lobby groups.

While lead singers from bygone rock bands seem to be the least of Israel’s concerns, they represent growing anti-Israel sentiment sweeping the globe.

Just like in South Africa, sanctions came first through the culture, then through academia. That educational attack on Israel is also coming to bear on Israel. This year two more large academic organizations, The Association for American Asian Studies and the American Studies Association, called for a boycott of Israeli universities.

The University of Toronto approved “Israeli Apartheid Week.” It follows similar anti-Semitic actions taken by other university campuses in Regina, York, Toronto and Carlton.

Academic prejudice against Israel is growing rapidly. As more colleges and universities take up torches and pitchforks against Israel, the pressure to conform grows and the problem spreads. As Michael Curtis questions in American Thinker: “Will those academics at colleges throughout the United States, usually uninformed about the realities and complexities of the Middle East, ever learn enough to resist the relentless pressure of Palestinian groups or ‘Palestinian civil society’ and their fallacious Palestinian narrative of victimhood?”

As industries once turned their backs on South Africa, so are they now turning on Israel. Israeli companies such as SodaStream have been boycotted overseas. In Israel, companies are packing up and leaving. The Netherlands’ largest drinking water supplier, Vitens, announced that it was cutting ties with Israel’s national water corporation because of operations in the West Bank. The boycotts are largely being funded and pushed by the leftist Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. These lobby groups also exert a great deal of pressure on foreign companies investing in Israel.

After all these small-scale boycotts and sanctions and the industrial flight from the country, national governments start getting involved.

On December 10, the British Department of Trade and Investment issued an advisory to British citizens and companies, warning them against pursuing business ventures with Israeli companies or communities located beyond the Green Line. Romania also stopped sending construction workers to Israel due to Israel’s continued construction in the West Bank. The decision will hurt because of Israel’s worker shortage in the construction sector.

These types of government actions chip away at the Israeli economy, but more deadly is the anti-Israel mentality they breed.

Israel is in tough straits. Surrounded by enemy nations, with the Mediterranean Sea at its back, Israel needs allies. For years, its most important ally has been the United States; however, that relationship is on the rocks as the U.S. seeks to strengthen ties with Israel’s mortal enemy, Iran.

As anti-Semitism proliferates, Israel will edge closer and closer to the tipping point that South Africa crossed back in the dying moments of apartheid. If Israel is to maintain its national security and sovereignty, it will need a strong ally.

Bible prophecy tells us exactly where Israel will look. As Trumpet columnist Brad Macdonald wrote, “When it comes to leading the Middle East—in particular, supporting and arming Israel and opposing Iran and its radical Islamist allies—Germany is the new America.”

While the German government might be officially pro-Israel, the vast majority of its population is not. Anti-Semitism is rife. However, this will not prevent Israel from turning to Germany for help.

“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound” (Hosea 5:13). Trumpet readers will recognize these names. Judah, Ephraim and Assyria are Israel, Britain and Germany respectively. This is explained in our book The United States and Britain in Prophecy. The scripture above is talking about a specific alliance that will lead to a double-cross.

History proves that Germany is no friend to Israel, yet today we see the Jewish people looking to Europe for aid. Anti-Semitism and sanctioning is forcing Israel to a decision: Trust God, or trust an age-old enemy. Sadly, Israel isn’t about to trust in God. So the little Middle East nation is pushed closer and closer to a South Africa-style fall. If only the Israelis would remember their long history with God, turn to Him for aid, and be spared the terrible times ahead. The nation of Israel won’t turn, but you, individually, can.