A survey released in February suggested that one in five Americans approved of BDS as a way of opposing Israeli policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians. A December 2018 University of Maryland poll of a much larger sample put the support at 40%.

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In 2016, 46% of Democrats in the United States said their sympathies aligned with Israel, compared with 29% who sympathized with the Palestinians. In 2018, only 27% of Democrats supported Israel, compared with 25% for the Palestinians. That's a drop of 20 percentage points in support for Israel in just two years.

Today's European anti-Semitism comes mainly from liberals. A study conducted in 2012 by the German-based Friedrich Ebert Foundation shows that 63% of Poles and 48% of Germans think that "Israel is waging a war of extermination against the Palestinians," along with 42% in Britain, 41% in Hungary and 38% in Italy.

According to a survey by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, 48% of the European Jews interviewed have heard or read charges that "Israelis behave like Nazis toward the Palestinians."

Younger liberals, perhaps especially young people of color, are the engines of rising discontent with reflexively pro-Israel policy. They often struggle to understand, much less to embrace, the way older liberals see Israel.

Here are three reasons for the success of BDS:

First, BDS successfully allied itself with Western leftist causes by portraying Israel as a white, apartheid, racist, colonialist state engaged in the ethnic cleansing of its brown indigenous Arab population.

Second, Israel failed to recognize the large demographic, cultural and ideological shift that has taken place in the West and adjust its actions, narrative, and policies to fit the new reality.

Third, Israel is not fighting the cultural and media war of delegitimization being waged by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Meanwhile, Israel is spending its time and resources in promoting unnecessary legislation to prevent economic boycotts and sanctions that have not yet materialized.

BDS's official objective is to mobilize international economic and political pressure on Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Its campaign methods are copied from the struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa and focus on mainstreaming and popularizing its idea of Israel as a white, colonialist, apartheid, racist, and genocidal state.

Israel and its supporters have been successful in passing and obtaining laws, motion and courts decisions against economic boycotts and sanctions.

However, for BDS, boycotts and sanctions are long-term goals. In the short term, public opinion is what matters to the organization.

In the United States, 26 states have passed anti-BDS legislation. The Republican-led Senate approved a federal anti-BDS bill in February that allows state and local governments to break ties with companies that boycott Israel, and the House passed a weaker version condemning BDS.

Unfortunately, such legislation is not productive on the ground against BDS, because, for now, BDS is not spending much time lobbying governments, parliaments, companies, and universities to boycott or sanction Israel, or to sever relations.

Indeed, to some extent, the responses of the United States and Israel to BDS, such as Israel refusing entry visas to BDS activists, or the legislative initiatives in the US, serve to strengthen the BDS narrative that Israel is an oppressive state.

BDS poses a threat to Israel not because it is causing Israel political or financial damage, but because it is shifting the opinions of the next generation of leaders in America and Europe, those now studying in universities. Israel needs to update its policies and narratives accordingly.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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Jordan remains heavily dependent on foreign aid, and it is in a deep political, economic and tribal crisis.

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According to Egypt's Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, despite Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi's large investment projects, the percentage of Egyptian citizens living below the poverty line increased from 27.9% in 2015 to 32.5% in 2018. In other words, 32.5% of Egyptian earn less than $43 a month, or $519 a year.

By way of comparison, in 2016, the poverty line for a couple in Israel was 5,216 shekels per month, or $1,486. For a couple with two children, the poverty line was 8,345 shekels ($2,377).

Indeed, Israel is one of only two countries in the region to have created successful institutions – Iran being the other.

Unfortunately, however, the similarities between the two countries end there.

While Iran has been working tirelessly to destabilize the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait, by financing Shiite and Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated movements and armed groups, the Jewish state is a stabilizing force, despite violent Arab animosity.

Iran is the primary actor fanning the flames of war in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon.

The State of Israel is assisting Egypt with its fight against Islamic State in Sinai, providing political and diplomatic support; a destabilized Egypt could destabilize the whole region.

Israel has also been providing military, security, diplomatic and political support for the region's Arab states, without which these countries would be overrun by ISIS, the Muslim Brotherhood or Iran.

Indeed, without Israel, the Middle East would be in chaos, and not only because of Iran.

The Middle Eastern Muslim and Arab countries of the region are headed toward the same fate as that of the failed or dysfunctional African countries because like them the Arab countries also failed to create national economies capable of offering citizens dignity and opportunity.

These countries' only hope to create such a national economy is Israel, via the transfer of technology, science, and modern management know-how.

For example, the Arab world contains around one-third of the world's deserts. Most Arab countries have insufficient water resources, and poor water management, making the region especially vulnerable to desertification and drought. Israeli agricultural and water technology can resolve this problem.

However, the problem is that Arab hearts are full of conspiracy theories and Jew-hatred. According to the latest Pew research center study, 100% of Jordanian, 99% of Lebanese and 98% of Egyptians hate Jews.

This hatred is blinding Arabs to Israel's contribution to the security of their countries and potential contribution to their economies. But then, the rest of the world has failed to see this as well.

Although Israel certainly needs to set out its case to the world, the world also needs to recognize the contribution Israel is already making in the Middle East, and open its eyes to the much larger potential. Israel on its own cannot do much to change Arab public opinion.

In conclusion, Israeli policy should not be defined by the narrow Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but mainly by the economic and security future of the wider Middle East, particularly Jordan, Syria, and Egypt.

What would the situation be today if the Golan Heights were under Syrian control? What would have happened to the security of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, etc., if Iran had established proxy militias in the Syrian Golan Heights? Would we see the rise of another terrorist group like Hamas and Hezbollah?

Above all Israel needs to see and think, remain strong and make sure that the Jordan Valley remains part and parcel of the Jewish state, indeed becoming its economic center and stays highly populated. The Middle East needs a strong Israel.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

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