In 1945, three years before Israel’s founding, the Arab League passed a boycott of Jewish businesses in Mandatory Palestine. It was a move that hearkened directly to German precedents of the decade before.
In 1976, the U.S. Congress passed anti-boycott legislation that made American companies’ participation in such boycotts illegal, under threat of fines up to $1 million and imprisonment of up to 20 years. The legislation and joint efforts by the United States and Europe to combat Arab League and oil state blackmail succeeded, and the anti-Israel boycott slowly collapsed.
Erdogan has long used White House visits to imply U.S. endorsement for domestic repression. He famously shuttered newspapers as he met with President Barack Obama, for example.
Not by coincidence, the boycott’s descent into oblivion coincided with peace process progress: Camp David, the Oslo Accords, and the peace treaty with Jordan. While the Abraham Accords formalized peace with Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco, they, alongside Tunisia and longtime boycott leader Saudi Arabia, established quiet, informal ties to deconflict if not coordinate. Far from advancing peace, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, supported by Iran, Turkey, and their coterie of rejectionist proxies, simply seeks to turn back the clock.
For decades, no president would countenance such boycotts, let alone give them a platform. President Joe Biden, however, now turns that on its head. Make no mistake: Biden will not readily admit supporting the anti-Israel boycott. He certainly came to Israel’s assistance when Iran attacked. He likely does not realize the sum total of his policy, the details of which are in national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s hands, is to endorse a renewed boycott.
Biden invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the White House on May 9, part of an ill-conceived reward package for Erdogan lifting his veto over Sweden’s NATO accession. It is a grave misstep for several reasons.
Erdogan has long used White House visits to imply U.S. endorsement for domestic repression. He famously shuttered newspapers as he met with President Barack Obama, for example. He has been unwilling to pay compensation to those whom his bodyguards attacked in Sheridan Circle in 2017.
In recent months, Erdogan has since been more vocal than Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in support for Hamas, most recently showing that he had Hamas leaders on speed dial. Biden should be prepared for Erdogan to use the White House as his backdrop to issue a full-throated endorsement of Hamas and condemnation of Israel and the U.S. for their war against a hostage-taking, baby-murdering terrorist group. Sullivan might think himself Henry Kissinger, but his willingness to empower terrorist sponsors makes him more akin to Carter administration Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.
There is still time to deny the White House as a forum for antisemitism and terrorist support. Complications arise, and meetings can be delayed indefinitely.
On Tuesday, however, Erdogan went further, declaring an export ban on 54 products, everything from jet fuel to fertilizer. In effect, Erdogan seeks to reimpose a 1970s-era boycott on Israel hypercharged with the rhetoric and ideology of the rejectionist BDS movement. The next step will be penalties in the Turkish market for U.S. firms that do not abide by his edicts. By welcoming Erdogan after his latest antics, Biden essentially shows the U.S. is not serious about combating the illicit boycott of the world’s only Jewish state at a time when it faces an existential threat from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran.
There is still time to deny the White House as a forum for antisemitism and terrorist support. Complications arise, and meetings can be delayed indefinitely.
If Biden will not act, Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) should. Erdogan plans a stop in Texas, a state whose legislature outlawed contracting with businesses that boycott or discriminate against Israel. Erdogan is not a U.S. citizen, but he fits the bill. His efforts to drum up Texas business should fall flat. Abbott should demonstrate what moral clarity means, even if Biden and Sullivan will not.
