Israel – The Selective Outrage of Those Boycotting: Today we have a special guest on to talk about the way Israel is being misrepresented today – especially on college campuses. We”€™re talking about an informative article, the BDS movement, and more!

Air Date: 11/19/2018

Guest: Mitch Danzig

On-air Personalities: David Barton, Rick Green, and Tim Barton

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Transcription note:  As a courtesy for our listeners’ enjoyment, we are providing a transcription of this podcast. Transcription will be released shortly. However, as this is transcribed from a live talk show, words and sentence structure were not altered to fit grammatical, written norms in order to preserve the integrity of the actual dialogue between the speakers. Additionally, names may be misspelled or we might use an asterisk to indicate a missing word because of the difficulty in understanding the speaker at times. We apologize in advance.

Faith And The Culture

Rick:

Welcome to the intersection of faith and the culture. This is WallBuilders Live! Where we”€™re talking about today”€™s hottest topics on policy, faith, and the culture. Always from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.

You can help keep this program on the air and make it more available across the country by going to WallBuilders.com today and making a one time contribution or a monthly contribution. We are a listener supported program, so the great interviews that we have, the great constitutional knowledge that is dispersed through this program, the answers to your questions on Foundations of Freedom Thursday’s, The Good News Friday’s, all the uplifting programs – all of that made available by you. So, we really encourage you to go to the website. It greatly helps us in making the program grow and add stations across the country as well.

So, check out WallBuilders.com today and make your one time contribution or become a monthly donor. Give up that one cup of coffee a month and make that donation to WallBuilders Live. We greatly appreciate it.

David, Tim– David Barton is America’s premier historian with us today. Tim Barton, national speaker and pastor with us today. And my name is Rick Green. David, Tim, later in the program Mitch Danzig will be with us to talk about the wonderful article he had on Ivory Tower Anti-Semites talking about the boycott and divestiture movement against Israel that continues especially on college campuses across the country.

David:

Yeah, and Rick, before we get there let me just add my appreciation. We appreciate all of the folks who listen to us who have come alongside as partners and help us present all this information.

Rick:

Yeah.

So,mething Wrong in Academia?

David:

Help us bring these kind of guests and deal with these type of topics. We really are unprecedented as a show in being able to give a biblical, and historical, and a constitutional, perspective on so many issues in the news. And Israel is one of them. And as you look at Israel today and where we are and our relationship with America it’s really pretty good. You mentioned the BDS which is boycott, divestiture, sanction, but where the relationship is not very good in academia.

Tim:

That’s shocking that something is wrong in academics.

David:

I know. Nothing else is wrong in academics.

Rick:

And different from the rest of the country.

Tim:

Yeah, when I saw his article I thought, “€œI am so shocked that there are professors saying something that is inaccurate. Oh my goodness. This is such a surprise.”€ Actually, no. I didn’t think any of those thoughts. Right. You kind of feel like, yeah, this is kind of the culture and environment, right, where you go through a myriad, this long list of things where professors are spouting nonsense.

But this is one where, certainly, we’ve seen an increased hostility with a lot of the positions that universities have taken, a lot of the marches, a lot of the movements, a lot of the campaigns going on. And BDS, as, dad, you”€™re about to explain–

David:

Yeah.

Tim:

–BDS is one of those.

David:

Well,, it’s one of those and BDS is boycott, divestiture, and sanction. And it’s a way of trying to punish Israel economically for being Israel and fighting terrorism. And quite frankly, the way academia presents it is Israel is the terrorists, they”€™re the bad guys.

All Throughout History

David:

Tim and I were recently at a very conservative meeting and I had some folks approach me, really good folks, and they said, “€œYou know, Israel– our church, our denomination, is presenting this thing called Christ at the checkpoint and Israel is just not a very good nation. And mainstream denominations have taken a very hostile position toward Israel and really, anything that’s not really biblically grounded takes a bad position toward Israel and always has throughout history.

But that’s why– academia is so secular and these mainstream denominations that are so secular now they don’t like Israel. So, this movement called Christ at the Checkpoint is an attempt to try to convince Christians that Israel is really bad. And the problem is they just don’t present all the story.

Tim:

It’s one thing to say that there is a specific policy that they’re enacting that doesn’t seem good. We could have a conversation about policy, but when you’re looking at a nation and saying, “€œThis nation is terrible at this”€, and you really aren’t having any kind of world perspective, you haven’t opened up to think about the context of the situation, the context of history, whatever the case is.

It’s kind of like we talk about sometimes with the Founding Fathers where someone says, “€œWait a second, all the Founding Fathers were racist.”€ Now, were there are a couple of racist founding fathers? There’s no doubt. The majority of them were not racist. And there’s been a mis-portrayal because people don’t actually know the facts.

Look at the Whole Story

Tim:

When I”€™ve had arguments with professors that said, “€œWait a second, America is a terrible nation because we used to have slaves in America.”€ And I’m going, “€œWait a second. Every nation in the history of the world at some point had slaves. America actually eliminated slavery before almost every nation in the world. There is still slavery happening in the world today and yet some people seem more fixated on what America did over 150 years ago as opposed to what is happening currently today in other nations around the world.

And that’s not to excuse, right, obviously, slavery in America’s past. That’s a major stain on the story of America. However, that’s a stain on the story of every nation. And this is where we don’t often present the whole story and therefore facts get skewed. With Israel, very much, there has been a lot of skewed facts. So, even a lot of college kids that are coming onto this anti Israel movement, they’re doing it without really the whole story, without all the facts. And it’s because professors are very happy not to present the whole story.

David:

And that’s where Mitch Danzig has come up with a brilliant article that kind of exposes the ways it”€™s being presented on college campuses and the glaring omissions, if you will, of both history and reality today that are not being presented. It”€™s a great article. We thought it”€™d be fun to have Mitch to cover this and give a different perspective from what kids often get in colleges today.

Rick:

Mitch Danzig, our special guest. Stay with us. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Moment From American History

This is Tim Barton with another moment from American history. The Second Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees to every individual the right to keep and bear arms, has been targeted for years now by those who are determined to dismantle the individual right to self protection.

Opponents argue that, “€œOnly the militia, the military, and law enforcement are to have and use firearms.”€ But those who wrote the Second Amendment strenuously disagreed, including Founding Father Richard Henry Lee, a signer of the declaration, a president of the Continental Congress, and one of those who actually framed the Second Amendment.

He declared, “€œTo preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.”€

For more information about Richard Henry Lee and the history of the Second Amendment go to WallBuilders.com.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Mitch Danzig is back with us – attorney there in San Diego, good friend of the program, also very active with Stand with Us, and one of our resident Israeli experts – Mitch, always good to have you, man.

Mitch Danzig:

Good to be on. Thanks for having me.

Rick:

Great article, once again, on your blog, “€œIvory Tower Anti-Semites”€. You call them out on these boycotts and the comparison is overwhelming. Share it a little bit with our listeners what you said to these guys. Basically comparing their boycott of Israel to their non-boycott of all of these human rights abuses around the world.

Ivory Tower Anti-Semites

Mitch Danzig:

Well, we have so many people. And I say “€œIvory Tower Anti-Semites”€ and that’s the title of the article and can be found in the Times of Israel. So, if you just type in Ivory Tower Anti-Semites for your listeners out there and my name, Mitch Danzig, they could find the whole article.

But the point is there’s all these people in academia that are directly inciting discrimination against the world’s only Jewish state. They’re aggressively promoting the boycott, divestment, and sanctioning, of the world’s only Jewish state. And plainly what they’re engaging in is highly selective outrage and desire to, essentially, obliterate the world’s only Jewish state on the basis of what they claim are human rights concerns or concerns for Palestinian human rights. When they ignore all the human rights abuses throughout the world.

So, even if you were to say, well, maybe they’re just academics who are concerned for some reason just with Palestinian human rights as opposed to human rights of people in Syria, Kuwait, Iran, Sudan, North Korea, China, Russia, Cuba, Myanmar, Turkey, Pakistan etc.. Right.

Rick:

If we give them that, even if we do that, even if we say, well, maybe they’re just ignoring all that. Even if they’re just focused on Palestinian. Go ahead.

Mitch Danzig:

Exactly. They’re still plainly selectively only outraged with Israel which is the one Jewish state. Because 5000 Palestinians were recently murdered in Syria, right. Palestinians living in Lebanon have a list of over 25 professions and jobs that they’re not allowed to have. They’re aggressively discriminated against in Syria.

Selective Outrage

Mitch Danzig:

Jordan is a country that is 78 percent, approximately, Arabs who identify as ethnically Palestinian. Yet its ruler is a Hashemite King who represents– Hashemites represent approximately less than 5 percent of Jordan. Yet Hashemites control Palestinian Arab lives in Jordan with a pure dictatorship. In Kuwait during the time of the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein, after the invasion was over, the Kuwaiti government engaged in collective punishment and exiled from the country, forced out of the country, thousands upon thousands of ethnically Palestinian Arabs.

And again, these academics and their acolytes didn’t say a word about it. So, if you look at all the abuse and human rights abuses, not just of other people throughout the world that they ignore and focus on Israel exclusively with their vitriol, but also even abuses of Palestinian Arabs by not only in Jordan, and in Lebanon, and in Syria, and in Kuwait, but even, by the way, by the Palestinian Arabs leaders. Human Rights Watch just detailed how badly the leaders of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas abuse and even torture their own people. And yet, again, these academics are silent.

Rick:

Yeah, talk about selective outrage. Exactly the right description. I’ve yet to hear any of those same people calling on these boycotts to say a word about the Palestinian, the PLO, paying and literally funding terrorism and paying for people to go kill Jews. They don’t say a word about that. It’s totally selective outrage.

Mitch Danzig:

Oh, again, the only time Jewish lives seem to matter for those in the ivory tower and the people who are of a mind with them are when Jewish lives are being killed by far right European– people of European ancestry. Right? So, if a far right “€œwhite person”€ of European ancestry is killing or attacking Jews, that’s when these people get outraged.

Rick:

Yeah.

Mitch Danzig:

Other than that it doesn’t fit within their mindset to be upset about it.

What About the Boycott?

Rick:

Yeah, no, that’s so true. Now, what about the boycott itself. Why is it that it has captured the attention of so many, as you say, in the ivory towers. Not only college campus world, but there’s companies, there are a lot of corporate boardrooms that have bought into this and jumped on board. How has that thing taken off and what can we do to combat it?

Mitch Danzig:

Well, on the good news side, it really hasn’t taken off in a net economic way. The fact of the matter is that even the BDS-ers themselves, the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, proponents themselves, have a hard time staying away from Israeli products.

Rick:

Yeah, yeah.

Mitch Danzig:

There’s an ironic story where SJP, Students for Justice in Palestine, their chapter I believe at the University of Minnesota, put on– was promoting the BDS campaign and it turned out they used an Israeli company, WIX, in order to make their website.

Rick:

That”€™s great. I love it.

Isn”€™t the Free Market Great?

Mitch Danzig:

So, the reality is is that unless you want to stop using your iPhone, stop using your computers, stop using cars that have the self-braking technology in case you forget to look straight ahead while you’re driving. Unless you want to stop drinking clean water if you live in a lot of countries that have clean water issues, unless you want to not have– unless you want to avoid desalinization technology, unless you want to not have many of the latest medical innovations, right, you can’t avoid Israeli products. And so–

Rick:

Isn”€™t the free market great? You”€™ve got to love it. The free market is– it’s awesome. I didn’t know the story about the whole WIX deal – that’s hilarious.

Mitch Danzig:

Sure!

Rick:

But you’re right. They talk a good game, but so the economic impact hasn’t happened, they haven’t had success with that.

Mitch Danzig:

No. Where they’ve had success is in making people’s lives more difficult.

Rick:

Yeah.

Mitch Danzig:

They’ve had success in the academic front. They have had professors who’ve refused to sign recommendation letters for students to go study in Israel. They’ve had success with having organizations in academia refuse to partner with Israeli academics. And of course they’ve had success, and this is where it’s the most worrying to me, is poisoning the minds of young people on campus.

Rick:

Yeah. Yeah.

Where It Is the Most Dangerous

Mitch Danzig:

Because these are– many of them are the future leaders of tomorrow. And that’s where it’s the most dangerous.

So, BDS from an economic standpoint has had minimal, if any, impact on the state of Israel. Israel’s economy is too strong. Israel innovation is two magical for it to have had a current impact. But I do fear that when you have all these people in their ivory tower engaging in this very selective and very disingenuous outrage at the one Jewish state, right, that is going to impact, by definition, it will have an impact on the students that are going through those schools.

Because you have professors who– these are people who come in there often with a very open mind about things with very limited background and knowledge in it and the professors, they view them as subject matter experts.

Rick:

Sure. Sure.

Mitch Danzig:

And they’re going to take at face value what they’re taught by these people.

Rick:

That”€™s right.

Mitch Danzig:

And that’s what”€™s so dangerous. And we see that danger has repeated itself over and over again. The German people, for example, were not stupid, right. Germany was a nation of– a very productive, very successful, nation that had produced geniuses in almost every field of academic endeavor and commercial endeavor. And yet they got swept up by a pack of lies being told to them over and over again by charismatic people.

So, if you have charismatic professors who are repeating over and over again a pack of lies to their students about Israel, about the one Jewish state, it can’t help but have a negative debilitating impact on what those people think about Israel when they go out into the real world and start voting and being active.

Rick:

So true, so true. And you think about it – those are the leaders 10, 15, 20, years from now that then make their decisions based on what they were taught in that classroom back then. That’s why having good people stand up and say “€œno”€ to that and to respond to it the way that you are in the article, that”€™s why we want to share it on our website today as well.

If We Don”€™t Respond

Rick:

Having good legislators – a lot of the big funds in these in these universities, billions and billions of dollars, that was one of the big efforts was to not allow any investments in any Israeli companies. So, we’ve had some friends of ours, Phil King and others that are legislators, that led the charge to stop that and make sure that the BDS movement was stopped there.

But you’re a hundred percent right. Their impact could be worse long term if we don’t respond. That”€™s why we wanted to have you on. That”€™s why we want to highlight these things, show the contrast, and of course we’ll share your article today at WallBuildersLive.com. But people can go to TimesofIsrael.com and get it as well.

Always good to have you, man. Thank you for your time. Thanks for a great article. Look forward to having you again.

Mitch Danzig:

Appreciate it so much. Thank you.

Rick:

Stay with us, folks. We”€™ll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Join Us In Israel!

Hey guys what are you doing January 28th through February 7th? If you said you don’t know, let me give you an idea. We are going to Israel. Rick Green, my dad, David Barton, Tim Barton, our families are going and we would love for you to go with us. We are going to the Holy Land if you’ve ever been to Israel this is something as a Christian that will make you forever read your bible differently.

To see where Jesus walked, where He lived, where He did miracles, where so much of the Bible took place. If you’ve ever read through the Bible and you’ve given it a mental picture, the mental picture will not do justice of what happens when you’re actually on the ground. If you’ve ever thought about the story of David and Goliath and you”€™ve envisioned what it looks like, we’re going to go to the actual field where it took place.

There are so many things that you will see that literally makes the Bible come to life. In fact, that’s the name of the tour group we”€™re going with is The Bible Comes to Life. Go to CMJacksboro.com. You can click on the link, it has an Israel itinerary, all kinds of details. Hope to see you on this trip this coming year.

Rick:

Welcome back. Thanks for staying with us here on WallBuilders Live. Thanks to Mitch Danzig for joining us today as well. Great perspective. And we’re going to have links to his article available at WallBuildersLive.com.

Back with David and Tim. And, guys, just another quick reminder to our listeners, if they would like to help us bring more interviews like that, and more constitutional education, and Good News Fridays, they can do that at WallBuilders.com. That’s what makes this show possible. And, David, you’ve been doing this almost 30 years now, right?

David:

I’m not keeping track. Why are you keeping track?

Thank You for the Impact

Rick:

You’re not keeping track. Well, I was just going to point out to our audience the impact.  I remember a lot of the good news we’ve talked about. Frankly, you won”€™t say it, Tim probably wouldn’t even say it, I don’t mind saying it – a big chunk of the culture moving back to constitutional knowledge, even the whole debate over separation of church and state, it’s because you took on this fight. And I’ll give the secret – 30 years ago – when you first did “€œMyth: The Separation of Church and State”€, when you did “€œAmerica: To Pray or Not to Pray.”€ What people can now get in original intent. That book really has had a dramatic impact on this country.

The television programs, the radio programs, I’m telling you, WallBuilders has had a tremendous impact on the American culture in a positive way. I shudder to think where we would be in our constitutional literacy, and it’s bad enough, but where we would be in the church and all of these things if it hadn’t been for the fight that you have waged for the last 30 years and what WallBuilders has done. So, I just want to bring that to our new listeners attention. They need to know that. And just challenge them to come alongside us and help us for the next 30 years, should the Lord tary, have an even greater impact on the culture. And they can do that by financially contributing at WallBuilders.com.

Alright, as Ron Swanson would say, “€œend of speech”€, but I just think that needed to be said.

Tim:

That actually sounded a little bit like Ron when you said that, by the way, so bravo to you. For the listeners that don’t know, Parks and Rec tv show, character from it, and we love him as a character on that show because he hated all things Big Government.

Rick:

You”€™re right.

Tim:

He said the government is the one that doesn’t exist. Yes, so, anyway. Bravo to you, well done, sir. We can now move on–

Rick:

Yeah.

Tim:

–and talk about what Mitch talked about, the reason we have the show – not for Ron Swanson comments. However, still, well done.

Back to the Program!

Rick:

Well, back to– so Mitch Danzig was with us, and great article by the way, people should go read the article. But what a contrast. Think about what he was describing. They go crazy over Israel and they try to boycott Israel and ignore. I didn’t realize the mistreatment of Palestinians in these other nations that are Arab nations. And you don’t hear anybody talking about boycotting them.

David:

I love the point that he points out. They’re highly selective outrage. They get mad at Israel and they call for an economic boycott, but he pointed out that it’s really not working because they don’t want to give up all the things they have from Israel. They want to enjoy all these good things they have–

Rick:

Right.

David:

–and they’re made from Israel. So, on the one hand–

Tim:

“€œI want to make a rally against this. Would you build the website for me?”€

David:

Yeah, exactly.

Tim:

That was that was such a great point to illustrate the hypocrisy. But there’s so much hypocrisy, right, where they”€™re going to be outraged at the behavior of Israel and they’re not going to be outraged at other nations that are doing worse than Israel has ever done in these situations. So, dad, you’re right – the hypocrisy that is revealed from, as Mitch would call, in these ivory towers, the celestial body of academics that have picked their favorites. So, they will ignore what their side does, or at least the people that they like, the people that they think should get a pass. “€œWell, it”€™s fine if they–“€ Right, it’s fine if they’re intolerant. It’s fine if they do bad things, but if Israel does it then that’s a problem.

And if Israel didn’t even do as bad as the other nations did they”€™re still the problem. And this is exactly what our kids are being taught. As he pointed out, it’s not just that somebody said it, it’s that so many people have said it for so long and they’ve never heard anything different that eventually you buy into something that’s not true. And this is a challenge we’re seeing on college campuses.

Rick:

Alright, quick break, guys. We’ll be right back. Stay with us, folks. You’re listening to WallBuilders Live.

Front Sight Training Course

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We’re going to have a great time out there, and if you’re a supporter of WallBuilders, we’re going to treat you. If you’re a donor of WallBuilders, you”€™ll be able to go to this Front Sight class for free. It normally cost a thousand dollars, go to FrontSight.com right now. You’ll see that it’s a thousand dollars to attend their two-day class. You are going to be able to go for free, if you’re a supporter of WallBuilders Live.

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Rick:

We”€™re back on WallBuilders Live. Thanks for staying with us. Still with David and Tim talking about the efforts to boycott Israel and sometimes the funny, as you mentioned, or as Mitch Danzig mentioned, the little college group that was talking about boycotting Israel while using products made from Israel, so not very successful there. But they have had an impact.

Look at the Hypocrisy

David:

Look at the hypocrisy, too, of the Arab nations have 25 professions that they won’t let Palestinians do. Israel is not doing that. Well, maybe Israel says, “€œYou can’t have terrorism as a profession.”€ So, maybe there are a couple of professions Israel doesn’t let Palestinians do. But there’s nothing like– he points out what’s happening with nations like Syria and Jordan and the way they treat Palestinians and you get a silence on that from the left. And he said even Human Rights Watch documents how bad Palestinians are to their own people and they’re still pointing to Israel despite even outside objections.

And nobody is going to argue that Human Rights Watch is a right wing conservative group. There’s simply not. But even they point out how bad Palestinians are to their own people. Which is why the internal polling in Israel, when Palestinians are asked, they say that they prefer to be governed by Israelis rather than Palestinians. Now, that’s their own testimony.

But kids aren’t getting that side of the story at colleges and liberal denominations whether it be– I know for sure the folks I’ve been talking to have been from the United Methodist Church. And United Methodist Church has several anti Israel positions and they’re calling for BDS and boycotting Israel. And Christ at the Checkpoint doesn’t give the other side of the story. They’ve twisted this to one side presentation and even that side is not accurate.

How Different Your Life Would Be

David:

So, this is good information for us to know. We’re going to have a video up on the website today. That’s really a fun video. It was done by some folks I know in Israel, it won second in this national contest, it’s a great video. But it shows how different your life would be if you gave up products that are made in Israel and how different your life would be as a Christian if you became anti Jewish, anti Israel, and the way that they’re teaching kids to be today. It’s a great video.

Rick:

And we’ll make it easy to watch the video be available at WallBuildersLive.com today.

David:

And by the way, Rick, you mentioned earlier that we’ve been doing this for 30 years, we have, I just kind of dismissed that. But I can attest that I was recently in Washington D.C. and I had several congressman stop me and say, “€œWe would not be here if it hadn’t been for the works that you turned out, for the videos you did, for the stuff you did. We didn’t think Christians should be involved.”€ I get that at state level, we get that from teachers who– you mentioned Original Intent, that is a college textbook in a number of both secular and religious colleges across the country. We do see consequences of that.

Israel – The Selective Outrage of Those Boycotting

David:

And the reason we’ve been able to do this for 30 years is because people have come along beside us and have helped support us economically, financially. They let us do these things, they let us work with state legislators, and train young people, and help pastors and others. So, in the same way we appreciate those who come alongside this radio program and who help support this. Because, again, this is something that does cost us. But we’re happy to do if it will change the culture and we appreciate our donors who help us do this.

Rick:

Well, folks thanks for listening. Thank you for making those donations. You can do that at WallBuilders.com today. We”€™ll bring you more great interviews throughout the week and great constitutional literacy. So, check us out at WallBuildersLive.com for past programs if you”€™ve missed those.

We appreciate you listening today to WallBuilders Live!