A surgical strike on Israel's wallet could end the occupation

The same old attempt to S.Africanize the ME problems . The same old attempt to pressure israel into surrender to Arab terror . Futility at best . As long as Arabs are not willing to accept Israel in the ME , recognize her as a Jewish state , there is little to discuss . The whole idea of occupation was created by an Arab desire , which is still burning , to wipe Israel off the map . Now they , with a help of Berklists , devising new ways to achieve it . As soon as Arabs are ready israel is willing and able to settle differences .

first of all, there is no full economic blockade on gaza. read this: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2010/Increased_humanitarian_aid_Gaza_after_IDF_operation_Jan_2009 second: having searched the internet for the alleged bad economy in the westbank, i found -among others- this: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/3773735/israeli_arabs_now_drive_to_west_bank_to_shop/ and this: http://www.hudsonny.org/2009/08/how-to-solve-the-arab-israeli-conflict.php apropos: do you know that in the westbank there exist a lot of palestinian checkpoints manned by palestinian security officers?

Thanks so much to these people for what they are doing. I am so proud of these students for fighting for what is right. I especially commend the Jewish students for going against the grain. May you accomplish what you are striving for.

"why do these "peace activists" speak only of pressure on israel?" Because without pressure on Israel, there never will be peace. " where is the economic pressure on the palestinians so that they come to their senses..." Is can be seen in a place called Gaza where there has been actually a full economic blockade for very long now. It can be seen in the Pal WB villages isolated from economic mainland by so-called ' fence'. It can be seen at roadblocks and checkpoints and other places as well. Put on your glasses will ya? Try YouTube. Hope this answers your questions satisfactually.

and by this force the pals to negotiate with israel. btw: i dont think you can compare the situation to south africa since contrary to the pals who want israel to disappear, the blacks didnt want s.africa to disappear. they just wanted the apartheid-regime to disappear. in israel, however, there's no apartheid-regime, but no matter which government rules, whether left-wing or right-wing or center, the pals always have found an excuse not to accept peace agreements (see e.g. negotiations in 2000). m. taylor, when you study peace and conflict, you should know that for reaching peace both sides have to give up dreams for reaching a compromise and a peace settlement. israel gave up the "greater-israel"-dream (e.g. 2005). start teaching the pals to give up their dream of a "palestine from the river to the sea" and to give up their dream of the "right of return". without giving up these pal dreams there will not be peace since it cannot be demanded from israel to give up the state of israel.

When Palestinians compromise and agree to a reasonable solution things will fall into place. But that doesn't look likely.

as enough brains stay is Israel. History shows a problem here for Israel: brains like to thrive and flourish in open, peacefull, democratic, tolerant, multi-cultured societies. Where fanatics have no real say and freedom of expression is not a hollow phrase. Espescially nowadays with so many exciting human mixtures and fusions taking place all around the world brains can choose out. Are the Haaretz articles on the collapse of eduction system and on brains leaving the country just plain nonsense and

Is this what Conflict and Peace Studies students learn at Berkeley? To pressure Israel and such to give in to the Arabs? Don't they learn anything about Arab/Muslim culture and what things like "peace", "giving in", "retreat" and so on mean in Arab/Muslim culture? Well, no wonder that the US has had so many problems in Irak. Not knowing and caring for another culture but simply thinking everybody on this world thinks and acts like a US humanist is for sure the biggest mistake you can make on the way to peace since it will not lead at all to peace but just to more violence and bloodshed.

where is the economic pressure on the palestinians so that they come to their senses and accept israel as a reality in middle east instead of wishing israel to disappear? these "peace activists" who speak about pressuring always and only israel, don't have peace in their mind. they have in their mind to condemn israel and to harm her. and they are not ashamed to use the shoah as a "deposit" by mentioning again and again that they have shoah-survivors among them. actually mr. taylor and his organization do the same as there happened around 1933: singling out one group of people, and attacking and vilifying it as if this group of people is the only responsible one for all the faults and mistakes in the world (in middle east respectively). shame on you! instead of rallying, go and learn history and don't start only at 1980 but much earlier so that you understand that it's not always and only israel who is responsible for the mistakes. and then use, what you've learnt for being fair instead of biased. by this you can show that you are indeed academics. for now it looks rather as if you've lost your mind somewhere on the way.

Are you guys asleep? The Arabs/Palestinians rejected the 1947 partition plan, promising to destroy israel. they rejected the call of peace and return of the lands conquered in 1967 made by israeli PM, levy Eshkol. They promptly launched a suicide bombing campaign in Israel after promising to stop all violence when signing the Oslo accords. They lodged an intifada against israel, after Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton offered them virtually all the west bank & gaza in 2000. They launched 8000 rockets into Southern Israel after Israel left the Gaza strip completely in 2005. They refused Ehud Olmert's offer of a state which was even better than the Barak/Clintom offer. The difference between Israel and South africa is that Israel is not an apartheid state. There is universal democracy in Israel. thats why you have Arab Judges. members of parliament and Arab government ministers. Further, the amount of arab university students in Israel exceed their proportion of the Israeli population.

Ugly, Orwellian babble from Taylor, who clearly shows he's an anti-Israel activist and not a "human rights" activist. Is he fed up with the Palestinian violation of Israeli human rights? Well, it doesn't appear so from this article. No mention at all of in this piece of pseudo-human-rights garbage. He does take time to mention Israel's "aggressive campaign in Gaza last year," but fails to say anything about why that campaign took place. Of course nobody from Berkeley wants to talk about Palestinian war crimes, it simply would get you kicked out of a cocktail party! Hey Matt...wadya say about Goldstone? "... the report contains the clearest finding that Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups committed serious war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity. The acceptance of those findings by the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly has been ignored completely..." Richard Goldstone, Interviewed by Ha'aretz, Nov 13 2009

"what was the PLO established to LIBERATE in 1964? " Territories of the non-state entity of Palestine, illegally acquired by war by Israel between Declaration and 1949/50. Territories outside of Israel's declared boundaries and never legally annexed to Israel. http://wp.me/pDB7k-tM Territories NOT recognized as Israeli by the British for example, when they recognized Israel. http://wp.me/pDB7k-sa

Israel takes foreign aid from the USA but shows disdain for USA strategies. Israel uses tax-free tax private contributions from the USA but uses those monies to fund more settlements. Israel markets products world-wide products that are manufactured in the West Bank Jewish settlements while suppressing Palestinians and taking their land. It is time for the USA to eliminate $5.8 billion in annual aid to Israel. It is time to make private contributions to Israel taxable. It is time to boycott all products made in the settlements. It is time for the responsible nations of the world to initiate action to force Israel to act responsibly.

Israel isn't going to sacrifice its national security over a few pieces of silver. As a non-commodity based, brain based first world economy Israel is immune to such boycotts.

I mean it is a bit odd to say Iran is enemy no. 1 when the US is fighting and loosing lifes against Pashtun Afghani and Pakistani Taliban. Would you declare an outsider enemy no. 1 when you are still at war with someone else? Israeli policians have no eye for effect of their policies on these wars, including the efforts for good outcome of Iraq after US leave. It is not a positive effect to use an understatement. Look up the costs of all this for US besides the loss of human life. Start understanding why US is pissed at Israel.

but I don't read this article as you did. In fact, the author said, "Although the Berkeley student president subsequently vetoed the divestment bill, and AIPAC's lobbying of student senators successfully prevented an override vote by the narrowest of margins, the proposal's eventual passage seems inevitable." I see no 'cherry picking' there regarding your allegations.

the PLO as you may know was established in 1964, 3 years PRIOR to any so called "occupied territories". The acronym PLO stands for, as you may know, palestine LIBERATION organization. So tell me Matthew, what was the PLO established to LIBERATE in 1964? As I am sure you know, only in 1967 did the territories known as west bank and gaza fall under israeli control following arab armies massed on israels borders in yet another attempt to annihilate israel. Israel never wanted or took these territories before this...only when they were invaded did they occupy this land..and have always offered to trade it back in return for full recognition of israels legitimate right to exist. So Matthew? why was the PLO established in 1964? you liberals are all the same...couched in academia, conveniently naive and ill informed of facts which don't line up with your world view...are you really an academic or not?! Israel is not even close to an apartheid state..even jimmy carter now admits this.

In your mind, everything boils down to what Israel and America do. What if Palestinians don't accept your solution? They didn't accept it in 2000, and Hamas, which controls Gaza and maintains popularity in the West Bank, does not accept it now. What should be done about that?

l rather phrase your last question: why lsrael? however thank you for the reminder to the level of hypocrisy as well as the myopic state of much of the "academia".

How come we risk the lives of young soldiers and utterly destroy the image of Israel all over the world, for the sake of a tiny, tiny minority of Israelis who do not want to live in Israel and prefer to live on Palestinian land instead? This is madness.

I dont think the University of California in Berkley is invested in many companies that draw heavy profits from Zimbabwe, Iran, or North Korea... that is why it would be difficult to disinvest from these places. Thanks for your input!

Israel withdrew from Gaza but the occupation and seige continued unabated! The firecrackers "rained" on Sderot are symbolic of refusal to give up. Leave these people alone. Why enslave them, confiscate/steal their land and livelihood?

Seems that Berkley is a haven for what Stalin would have termed "USeful idiots"

Whatever the students at Berkley declare...just do the opposite and you will find yourself on the right side of the insanity line....I predict a resounding defeat of Democrats in November due to all this left wing crap that starts at Berkley. Oh...I voted for Obama...but no more.

The smart way to divert Arab hatred of Israel is to settle the Palestinian conflict once and for all. This way the Arab governments wont be able to use Israel as a diversion to cover up their rotten state of affairs.

Since I live in California let me give you some insight on that Mexican American war. Yes the Anglos did take over from the Mexicans by winning the war but I guess you missed the treaty that came after. The then Mexican citizens got to keep their land and because American citiznes. None were ethnically cleansed back into Mexico. We even have a large city on the north San Francisco bay called Vallejo, a city named after one of those Mexican citizens who became an American. To compare the experience of Mexicans citizens who lived in that area during the Mexican American war and Palestinians, who a large part of them were ethnically cleansed by white euopeans is a joke. Think you better take a coarse in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo before you give us a lesson on California history. By the way the coarse is given to fifth grade students.

the answer is simple: A Palestinian government that is willing to negotiate with out preconditions and one that will not fire 11,000 rockets if an agreement is reached. Not one word of Palestinian responsibility in this article. typical left leaning Berkley.

The problem is their adolescent delusion that evil doesn`t exist and that humans who seem evil are must be the victims of something or other, or they wouldn`t behave that way. Of course deep down this delusion is fuelled by moral narcissism, i.e. their need to feel morally superior to others. A pacifist will embrace any dictator, any jihadist, so long as he/she can stand in front of a mirror and think "there are people who like war, but I hate it, how much better then them I must be!!"

Here is how the Israel/Palestine zone could counterattack: pass a law banning ownership of land and businesses by foreign citizens, or franchises of corporations registered in foreign countries (e.g. the US). Because, one way of looking at what is going on here is that it is a lot like Admiral Perry's ``opening up of Japan'' in the 19th century. While it is good that the US would like to impose peace on the region, one can suspect that the ulterior motive is to cover the place with McDonalds, 7-11's and Starbucks (cf Japan).

I stand corrected. However, the bill failed and that's what's important. And, this reporter's claims are inaccurate and don't tell the whole truth.

Only Jordan doesn't want it back wiht all its troubles. So, should Israel just withdraw as it did in Gaza and allow yet another terrorist entity to spring up? That would not be in the US' best interest, let alone Israel's. The loonie left needs to wake up and smell the coffee. And, by the way, just where is all that Arab money to help the West Bank develop??

Accept Israel in the area the Arabs have said make peace with the Palestinians and you will have full peace with all Arab countries that proposal has been out there for 9 years what do they do nothing that is why the boycott is necessary

Tcherkessi demo in Amman demanding action against Russia because of Tchetchenya. Since then one has not heard a squeek from this minority ,planted there by Othmans after escape from the Tzar's Russia. So scream as much as you want from Londonistan ,

It was not shot down on the second vote by a majority.. it needed two thirds of the votes to pass it got one vote short, due to an abstention. The information is correct as they are going to vote yet again.

That was an interesting try on California history. But unworthy of a fourth grader (when state history is taught in California). College kids have intentions. But they don't have all the facts. That is one reason they are in school. UC Berkeley has a good staff. But not every student can take every course. You might just look up the enormous budget for investment the ASUC actually has control of.

This Berkeley student (I wonder what they teach there these days!) wants to start with Israel and the Palestinians to showcase nonviolent coexistence, who actually coexist nonviolently most of the time (in the year following the Gaza conflict no Palestinian or Jewish citizens died). I wonder what Mr. Taylor can do for Kurds, Shiite Arabs, Yemenis, Egyptians, Algerians, Sudanese with respect to "nonviolent coexistence". I also wonder what he can do for gay rights and women's rights in these countries, in Saudia-Arabia (which recently bombed in Yemen), and Iran (which has thrown a filmmaker in jail whose release Spielberg, the Coen brothers, and Coppolla demand. Have I missed his voice?). I wonder why this seems so urgent to Mr. Tayler in light of the fact that Israelis and Palestinians will resume talks in 2 weeks time, and after every Israeli Prime Minister in the last 15 years has tried to get to a peace agreement including withdrawl to virtually the 67 lines?

Smart idea to disinvest in GE. They have an R&D center (I hope the college student know what this is) in Haifa (I hope the college students know where this is) which develops and tests medical imaging systems (ultrasound, and CT), to improve the care of cancer patients and heart patients, be they Jewish, Muslim, or Christian. Really smart move! It is also really nice that Matthew - after his family has lived deacades in California on occupied Mexican soil conquered (what irony!) in 1846 by a General Taylor (battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de laPalma,surrender of Monterey, dear college students ) wants to go back to the plans of the 19th century Zionists. I say end the US occupation of Mexican Berkeley!

What you propose won't affect anything. Take an Econ course, preferably a Political Econ course. Or you might consider a recent History course covering the US Budget from 2003 to 2009. See what Nation building costs and then examine how much Israel is paying towards the Nation building of the Palestinians they are occupying. Compare that to what the US paid and is continuing to pay in Iraq and in Palestine. Sorry, but ASUC Berkeley is not leading the way on this. It is not the Free Speech Movement or the anti-war movement of the 1960s. Aside from in Israel, where is the press covering your movement? Ask your Berkeley City Council about their foreign policy. Nobody is paying them attention anymore either.

Yes, Berkley's students did vote in favor of the divestment. What the reporter fails to report (accuracy in reporting, anyone??) is that the bill was then vetoed by the student body president and when a another vote was called, it was shot down by a majority vote of the the Berkley student senate. If you're going to report something, it should be the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Stop cherry picking your facts.

... a great example of the root of these problems.

...difference is that the former never recieved the hysterical support the latter does

Singling Israel out for economic punishment exonerates Israel?s enemies from any responsibility for the conflict. Furthermore, by focusing exclusively on Israel, the measure ignores the egregious human rights records of dozens of totalitarian regimes around the world. Isolating Israel economically is the wrong approach. It is far more effective to encourage the parties in the Middle East to accept Israel?s legitimacy and to foster deeper political and economic cooperation. As the book ?Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle? by Dan Senor and Saul Singer shows, investing in israel can help generate regional prosperity, promote good will and contribute to the pursuit of peace. The ASUC bill will not contribute a whit to the advancement of peace in the Middle East and will only serve to divide the Berkeley community.

Thank you for pointing out the obvious - Israel belongs in the same category alongside the human rights abusers in every part of the world: Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan, North Korea, China, Afghanistan, et al. Israel isn't being singled out, it's being included in the appropriate group. And by the way, there are in fact already severe restrictions in place on trade with every single group you just mentioned. Only Israel, it seems, is exempt from criticism and pressure to conform to international law.

Did not expect to read this in an Israeli paper. Greatly looking forward to seeing such innovative ideas in the Arab papers... regarding their own countries.

Perhaps the Berkeley student union, can spend a few months in Sderot ? Sderot withstood a six year + missile blitz, from Gaza. Israel withdrew from all of Gaza - without conditions. Israel cannot pull-out of additional areas. It is time for the Palestinians to politically reform.

Disinvest in Iran,that has a dictatorial regime that shoots protesters dead ,in Zimbawe whose Mugabe led government has caused its citizens to starve and flee by the thousands to nearby South Africa,in North Korea where hunger is rampant and the regime expolodes underground nuclear devices,in Pakistan which allows the free flow of arms to the Taliban that kills USA troops in Afganistan,to Syria thst supports Hizbolla that has de facto conquered Lebanon and forces the Lebanese Christians to live by their rule,to the Palestinians where in the areas they rule specifically the holy city of Bethlehem they force Chritian Arabs to sell their homes at minimum prices and then leave to seek refuge in Canada and the USA,disinvest in China that merciless punishes all people that ideologically does not agree to the regime and throws them out of their houses and deports their people to the countyside in order to build the world Expo,Why only Israel?