ANTI-ANTI-ISRAEL BOYCOTT ACT

Apparently there is no limit to the depths of stupidity that members of the House and the Senate will go.  The voting pubic must be well aware of the venality, stupidity and self-serving behavior of our representatives. They routinely give Congress an approval rating of less than 20%. Now that is what you call having no confidence in your elected officials.  But some times a particularly idiotic bill or proposal comes our of the Halls of Congress that still shocks one and must be commented upon.

Take for instance the latest bit of insanity from the House and Senate---the so called "Israel Anti Boycott Act" which seeks to criminalize anyone who supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).  This international movement seeks to use peaceful, economic pressures to end the sixty year Israeli occupation of disputed territories in Palestine and the West Bank and end human rights abuses against Palestinians. Whether one agrees with the purpose or validity of the BDS movement is of no consequence here.  The problem is legislation which imposes stiff fines and threat of a long prison term on the basis of how a person thinks or with whom they associate.  That is a clear violation of our First Amendment Rights of freedom of speech and association.  We must protect these rights fiercely regardless of how we may feel about the pros or cons of BDS.

This Israel Anti Boycott legislation must have been written by Bibi Netanyahu himself, it is so over the top.  The bill would levy a penalty of $1 million dollars and twenty years in jail for individuals or businesses which support or comply with the BDS movement.  When it was first proposed by Ben Cardin (D Md) a whole host of (43 of them) dummies including Rob Portman, Chuck Schumer, Marco Rubio and Maria Cantwell rushed to sign on as co-sponsors of the bill--without thinking and probably without reading the legislation.  These members of Congress in their rush to firm up their pro-Israel cred for the knee jerk voters in their states appear to have forgotten this is not Communist China, North Korea  or the old USSR where massive restrictions on FREE SPEECH, FREE ASSOCIATION AND FREE iDEAS were (and remain) common threats to the life and liberty of the citizenry.

However the US Constitution (First and Fourteenth Amendments) protects OUR rights of free speech and association as in "to associate with others for the common advancement of political beliefs and ideas."  The  Senators and Representatives who knee jerked their support of this legislation are clearly not so familiar with the US Constitution.  In their rush to be "staunch Israeli allies" they must have let this one slip by.  But WE CAN NOT LET IT SLIP BY or permit a Congress with an approval rating of 18% (or any Congress)  pass a bill which may put some of us in jail for 20 years for our speech and political beliefs.