Big phonies on campus

You’ve gotta hand it to groups like Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS), Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Code Pink. For all the adjectives we’ve directed at them (misguided, hypocritical, anti-Semitic), they have brilliantly achieved their primary purpose, which was never about improving anyone’s standing in life other than their own.

Denouncing them as misguided “social warriors” is giving them more credit than they deserve. They want us to denounce them that way so we don’t denounce them for what they really are: self-centered phonies pretending to be socially conscious. Their charity is aimed squarely inward, at themselves. Every move they make is choreographed for Facebook or YouTube or wherever else they can portray themselves as fearless humanitarians fighting for a cause that the rest of us are too simpleminded to understand.

Code Pink’s website claims they are “all about taking action where it truly matters. We channel community grassroots democracy to where the power players are making awful decisions and make them listen.” They don’t mention who or what they’re fighting because it doesn’t matter. What matters is that Code Pink allows the discriminating social justice warrior to protest in fashionable pink outfits that look great on Instagram. Their website brags that, “Wherever there is injustice we’ll be there to highlight it in bold PINK!” That’s an attractive offer for trendy, image-conscious kids who want to denounce Israel without having to dress like the guys in Pearl Jam.

For the more discerning objector of all-things-unjust (aka, all-things-Israel) there’s the BDS Movement, which gets its intellectual credence from the lead singers of Pink Floyd and a millennial boy band named… whatever.  At times, it seems like BDS protesters pride themselves on not knowing what their cause is or what their signs mean. They have a knack for not getting too obsessed with facts. When asked to comment on the violence committed by Hamas, a young BDSer admitted, “I don’t know who he is.” She should have just said, “Soros is paying me to chant, not think.”

As BDS founder Omar Barghouti made clear, BDS isn’t about knowing things. When asked, “If the occupation ends, would that end your call for BDS?” He answered, “No it wouldn’t.” And, why would it? He’s giving college kids a noble excuse to hate Israel and distrust Jews. He knows that students protesting Israel to the backdrop of Ivy-covered buildings is a powerful image for his cause. His warriors don’t need a clue, just a sign.

The same goes for the hell raisers who march and scream under the misnomer, “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP), which has proven that living on a college campus doesn’t mean you’re educated. Like BDS, SJP is a predictable byproduct of the contagious anti-Semitic belief system among college professors in Europe and American… not just anti-Semitic, but anti-Israel, anti-American, anti-police, anti-everything established and/or legal.

Like the other anti-Israel movements, SJP appeals to students who want to take a stand for the oppressed without having to stand with the oppressed. They were undoubtedly horrified to hear that Black Lives Matter was endorsing the BDS effort because this is the same crowd that demands “safe spaces,” which means on the student green, among the straight white oppressors, away from all those angry minorities.

Combine the knowledge of all three movements and there won’t be enough information to find Judea and Samaria on a map. But they provide a convenient way for academia – with the support of men like Roger Waters, George Soros and Omar Barghouti — to satisfy their anti-Semitic tendencies in an arena where any information beyond chants and slogans is considered extraneous.

At times – all times, really – the movements are so silly and outrageous, it’s a wonder why any of us waste time acknowledging their existence – especially because their efforts to cripple Israel’s economy are as effective as they are smart. Since their boycott began, foreign capital flow to Israeli assets has soared.

Perhaps part of Israel’s economic development program should include rooting them on. But the fact that it’s even acceptable to boycott the Jewish State of Israel on college campuses in not okay. They may be inadvertently strengthening Israel’s economy, but they’re also normalizing and even institutionalizing anti-Semitism – and they’re doing it on the foundation of zero information and tons of bigotry. Which begs the question: Why would any parent subsidize this hate-based alternative to education?

Guys like Waters and Soros are brainwashing a new generation of young people to carry the anti-Jew agenda. If parents are turning a blind eye in the spirit of encouraging free expression, they should realize that, embedded in every protest against Israel is an underlying protest against Jews. Perhaps they’re hoping that stupidity wears off in the seven years it takes their kids to graduate. Even if it does, pictures and words on social media never will. Imagine the shame of a young person who set out to be a social warrior and wound up a bigot.

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John C. Wolfe is the former Chief Speechwriter to New York Gov. George E. Pataki and author of a new book, “A Day of Clarity.”