Steven Salaita, a BDS leader and habitual antisemite, speaking at UW.
Stand With Us is a Jewish organization intended to combat conflation of antisemitism and hatred of Israel. Their main target is the boycott movement, BDS. Here in the Northwest the current focus is opposing the Portland Human Rights Commission’s endorsement of a BDS proposal that Portland boycott US companies simply because they do business with Israel.
BDS ought not be the real target. The target ought to be those who equate Israel with the extreme right or left. Boycotting the Netanyahu settler movement is something I … and any other fair minded person … would support. Netanyahu’s rhetoric and effort to promote the Tea Party in the US are deeply offensive to me and, more importantly, to any American devoted to Jewish traditions of support for American progressiveness. BDS has been very successful in promoting opposition to Israel’s existence as normal choice by the progressive community,
The most immediate example of the failure of SWU is in my hometown, progressive Seattle. We just 
elected Kshama Sawant, as a City Councilor. Sawant is the leader of the “Socialist Alternative” party, a Trotskyite organization that is a fanatical supporter of BDS. Sawant is now the City Councilor for District 3 and has rumored plans to run for Congress … on a ticket that is openly antipathetic to the existence of Israel.
elected Kshama Sawant, as a City Councilor. Sawant is the leader of the “Socialist Alternative” party, a Trotskyite organization that is a fanatical supporter of BDS. Sawant is now the City Councilor for District 3 and has rumored plans to run for Congress … on a ticket that is openly antipathetic to the existence of Israel. If SWU’s goal is to encourage students and young people to support Israel, Sawant’s election is a horrible failure. Her stands … the $15 minimum wage, a tax on the rich, public takeover of Comcast … are hugely popular with the young “Zonians” … the workers at Amazon, Google, Microsoft, who fill our cafes and inflate our housing prices. The small step to conflating “rich” with “rich Jews” and anti-Zionism is very, very easily taken.
So where was SWU in all this? I was told that SWU could not oppose Sawant because that would be seen as a “political” effort and violate SWU’s tax status. I tried, unsuccessfully to convince the SWU organizer, Robert Jacobs, to do what he could do .. encourage our Jewish community to vote. Nada.
There is nothing in the tax laws that prohibits an educational organization like SWU from sponsoring a debate or having an event encouraging Jewish voters to vote (we have mail-in ballots and it is fully legal to have a party where folks are encouraged to bring in their ballots)?
All I see is a memory of the Jewish community that stood back or even supported the Nazis until it was too late.