BOYCOTT, DIVEST, AND SANCTION ISRAEL NOW ~ #ShutDownNation

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Let’s be exceedingly clear as to why Israel can obliterate Gaza from the map and why they can threaten war on multiple fronts.

From Isreal-Palestine News “The Staggering Cost of Israel to Americans: The Facts”:

Yet, there’s still much more to the story, because parts of US aid to Israel are buried in the budgets of various US agencies, mostly the Department of Defense. For example, since at least 2006, the American Defense budget has included between $202 and $729 million per year for missile defense programs in Israel.[11]

In all, direct US disbursements to Israel are higher than to any other country, even though Israelis only make up 0.1% of the world’s population. On average, Israelis receive 7,000 times more US foreign aid per capita than other people throughout the world, despite the fact that Israel is one of the world’s more affluent nations.[12] And that number rises significantly when one considers disbursements to Egypt, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority and Defense spending on behalf of Israel.

The Council on Foreign Relations updates us today.

Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid since its founding, receiving about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance. The United States has also provided large foreign aid packages to other Middle Eastern countries, particularly Egypt and Iraq, but Israel stands apart.

The United States provided Israel considerable economic assistance from 1971 to 2007, but nearly all U.S. aid today goes to support Israel’s military, the most advanced in the region. The United States has provisionally agreed via a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to provide Israel with $3.8 billion per year through 2028. 

Since the start of  Israel's war with Hamas on October 7, 2023, the United States has enacted legislation providing at least $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel, which includes $3.8 billion from a bill in March 2024 (in line with the current MOU) and $8.7 billion from a supplemental appropriations act in April 2024.

The CFR continues:

QME has been a conceptual backbone of U.S. military aid to Israel for decades, and it was formally enshrined in U.S. law in 2008 [PDF]. It requires the U.S. government to maintain Israel’s ability “to defeat any credible conventional military threat from any individual state or possible coalition of states or from non-state actors, while sustaining minimal damage and casualties.” QME is based on NATO military planning vis-a-vis a potential conflict with the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War.

Under the 2008 law, the United States must ensure that any weapons it provides to other countries in the Middle East do not compromise Israel’s QME. In several cases, this has required the United States to provide Israel with offsetting weaponry as part of larger regional arms sales. QME has also ensured that Israel is the first in the region to receive access to the most sophisticated U.S. military weapons and platforms, such as the F-35 stealth fighter, of which Israel has fifty.

Essentially, U.S. $$$ buy:

Since I’ve concluded after recent events that Israel will dominate given their superior tactical weaponry with little to no fight from those who oppose Israel in the region or the world, I warn the Middle East: I warn each country. What you see in Gaza and what you now see ongoing with a troop invasion of Lebanon will be your future. I don’t care if your name is Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, UAE, or the West Bank. You will conform or you will be invaded and bombed; your citizens killed; and your infrastructure destroyed.

Photos from recent bombings and invasion of Lebanon:

Israeli posed prior to troop invasion into Lebanon.

I’m reminded of George Orwell’s eloquence.

Yes…this is you, Middle East. This is your eternity. Bibi made himself quite clear in the UN on a number of occasions.

In his latest address, he upgraded his diagram with a really neat “Amazon” arrow.

In other words, you’ve been canceled.

Bibi told the Iranians in a three-minute video that “There is nowhere in the Middle East Israel cannot reach. There is nowhere we will not go to protect our people and protect our country.” Capice?

The average world citizen has very little leverage. I have none. I can only implore people to think how they might fight against the boot stamping on their face.

In this case, they might join the BDS movement or Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel. This site posts the many companies and brands you can eliminate from your daily existence. Another site remarks in hopeful language from July this year that “Israel’s Genocide against Palestinians Accelerating its Economic Collapse.” The cast a number of unlikely scenarios but do mention that 46,000 Israeli businesses have closed since Oct. 7 last year.

Tourism is apparently almost nonexistent. The average world citizen could definitely make a point of avoiding Israel and not spending their hard-earned cash in such a soulless society.

They do list some notable divestments with Norway topping the list.

In June 2024, tech giant Intel froze construction of a $25B factory in Israel, dealing a “severe blow” to Israel’s “already damaged economy.” In 2022, Intel Israel’s exports constituted 1.75% of Israel’s entire GDP.

In February, the world’s largest sovereign fund, Norway’s $1.6 trillion oil fund, divested entirely (approx. $500M) from Israel Bonds. More recently, two of the largest US churches, the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church USA, have also divested from Israel Bonds.

During Israel’s ongoing #GazaGenocide, more than 80% of Israeli start-ups have suffered damages, with over 50% of start-ups left with less than 6 months of cash. “Angel investors” dropped by 75% in 2023, and growth capital investing in Israeli companies was down 32% year-over-year in Q1 2024. #ShutDownNation

Norway’s largest pension company, KLP, has divested $69 million from Caterpillar due to its contributions to violations of Palestinian human rights in Gaza and the West Bank.

In April 2024, Samsung Next, the innovation arm of the Korean tech giant, announced it will shut down its Tel Aviv operations, yet another telling sign of the dramatically declining investor confidence in the Israeli economy.

Cafe chain Pret a Manger has abandoned plans to open 40 Israeli branches following news of Palestine Solidarity Campaign (UK) preparing to launch a large boycott campaign against the company….

Another notable sign is that Moody’s today downgraded Israel’s credit rating from A2 to Baa1…several steps lower. They were downgraded earlier this year, too, which has never occurred previously.

I found this paragraph quite interesting in rs21 “How to Divest from Israel.”

Another difference with South Africa is that the Israeli Shekel is in a much stronger position. As of October, the Israeli Central Bank sat on just under $200bn of foreign currency reserves which it can use to prop up the value of the Shekel. But it is worth noting that the genocide has already had an impact on the Israeli currency. In the wake of the 7 October attack, a series of short bets against the Israeli Shekel reduced the value of the Israeli currency. At the same time, major rating agencies such as Fitch and Moody’s downgraded their outlook for Israel. The Shekel has since rebounded, but only because the Israeli Central Bank used more than $7bn of its foreign currency reserves to prop up the currency.

Note that the Israeli government had prepared for this extended war by topping off their foreign currency reserves. However, if smart individuals can continue shorting their currency and perhaps other means—since I’m not financially literate—Israel’s currency reserves could become imperiled. If Moody’s lowers their credit further, they may fall into the category of credit risk for investment.

I’ve found a use for the “Axis of Resistance.” If they can continue their low-grade war in which Israel is continually threatened but little direct action is taken by them, they may help accomplish Israel’s financial ruin. Of course, with the printing presses in America and America’s cutthroat insistence that everyone use the American dinero, Israel’s financial state may be eternally protected. Kind of a crap shoot.