Great article. I agree with everything you said, especially: "And it is this intellect that you have chosen to boycott."

It has to be the most ridiculous emotion under the sun. Even if I were so inclined, I'd be ashamed to admit that such a miniscule segment of the world's population can send whatever good sense I may have into such a tailspin. Maybe just for the sake of variety, the anti-Semites should zero in on the Inuits or the last of the New Guinea Headhunters. There are even less of either of those, and I hear tell that one bunch kills whales, while the Headhunters went mostly after missionaries. Ok, forget about being anti-Headhunter. If those missionaries shook their rattles in front of the natives' huts at 7:30 on Saturday mornings, they deserved what they got.

If Israel is wrong no matter what it does - why are Israeli leaders so concerned about ingratiating themselves with the Goyim? Why are they continuously acting against Israel's best interests just because they think that by doing so it will bring them the Goyim's approval? Take a giant leap and do what is right for Israel and let the chips fall where they may. Make the right decision concerning the land that was reconquered in 1967. Keep it. Repopulate it. Make it bloom. Make the right decision concerning the traitors within. Once it's a fait accompli, neither the UN nor the Arabs will be able to do anything about it - nothing new, that is. Because what Israel fears the most: criticism, boycotts, UN censures, Arab threats of attacks, actual attacks by Palestinians, an anti-Jewish world press, condemnations right and left, all of that, dear Israel, is already happening. So what is the point of trying to be so nice to the Goyim, while being so unfair to the the Jews of Israel, if what you fear is already happening. Be bold, G-d is with you. Have faith in yourselves. Enough with the fear of offending the world. If what Jews have contributed to the world is not enough, then too bad. Israel, secure your land. Negotiate nothing. You hold the upper moral ground. Let the others grovel and ask for peace. And if they don't want peace, nothing that you do will mollify them. So arm yourself to the teeth and fight, if necessary, but never surrender anything for a worthless piece of paper.

jealousy.jealousy.jealousy I have no doubt right now and in future the Brithish academic will need Israel.

World opinion of the Jewish people is liable to get worse. Isnt it time we start saying F*** you, and turn to G-d who brought us back to our land and helped us win the war of independence and the 6 day war. Who cares about a boycott? Lets start loving each other, left to love right, eshkanazi to love safardi, white to love black, rich to love poor. If we do this we will, with G-ds grace, be the most powerfull and united nation on earth. Let Jew start loving Jew, and F*** the rest of the world.

than the Falklands...the whole thing is such BS.

This British boycott is committed by the very people who have fabricated the ongoing problem for (not of) Israel, namely, England's partition of its mandate of Palestine to create The Kingdom of Transjordan, followed by its second partition of the remaining remnant of its mandate to invent yet a second Arab Palestinian State. The British are stoking the fire, they started using Jews as fuel.

Antisemites never admit to being antisemites, Even Eichman denied it. Generally the British are antisemitic and I have lived here since 61 years and it's getting worse.

fantastic truthful piece of reading...very truthful,honest opinion and factual evidence which unfortunately shall fall onto european deaf ears, especially britains.....did you know it has been staed in a governemt finding in britain that the most popular name for a newborn male child in britain by the end of 2007 shall be mohammed...now thats frightening that mst newborns in britain are called mohammed...i thought britain was predominantly christian country and names like jack and charlie was the mainstream but again fact shows the majority of newborn males are indeed moslem and called mohammed...no wonder britain is so anti-semetic and anti-israel...

It was the Britons that created the Middle-East conflict alone. It was the British white papers that closed the only hope Jews had to escape from Europe. It was the Britons that held hundreds of thousands of Jews in prison camps for years after the Holocaust. And now this! Pure and blatant Antisemitism. And this is obviously just the beginning.

The British are currently enjoying riches built on years of colonial occupation across the world, and continue to reap the economic benefits of their foothold in their former colonies. Perhaps a call for the British to return the riches pillaged from across their former empire? Every academic must be held accountable!

I couldnt understand a word......... .......it was all in Arabic

Please don't run away with the idea that this piece of malicious nonsense is "British". Most Brits that I know, academic and otherwise, are deeply troubled by this outrage and hope at least that it will rebound firmly on its perpetrators. There is no doubt that this is a product of "British Islam" ... (contradictory term!) clearly demonstrating that both Israel and Britain are are objects of Islam's unreasoned hatred for freedom and democracy.

It's an old excuse to explain away criticism as "prejudice". If you are cooperative nobody cares what race or creed you are, but if you are selfish and insensitive then it's not prejudice that gets you criticised, it's being selfish and insensitive. The boycott is about Israel's current behaviour, nothing else. Bearing in mind that the recreation of Israel was not unlike the Romans re-occupying England, Israelis should consider the Palestinian point of view and concentrate on what they can offer the Palestinians. With Jewish talent and energy (excuse the prejudice!) you should be able to make things better for them, gain their acceptance, and eventually live happily together. Joining in would be a lot better than being so determinedly separate, and if you applied your drive to that, you could do it.

but your talkback reminds me of an old MTV commercial - Nigel, are you completely bonkers?

Firstly to the author. This is a great article and puts things into perfect perspective. To 20. I understand where you are coming from, but you are perpetuating exactly what is being spoken about in this article. Don't criticise Israel here, ciriticise the 'palestinians' and the arab/muslim and european anti-semitism. Israel wants peace. Who wants to live with war? But look at who is boycotting, look at who is attacking and ask yourself why. The answer is not because Israel treats the 'palestinians' badly. The answer is because Israel exists and these people don't like it. So they wage war and the result of that war is that Israel has to treat the 'palestinians' as she does BECAUSE THEY WAGE WAR and she has to protect herself.

Dear Briton hypocrats (how many countrys does the British army occupying at moment? Falkland,Iraq,Afghanistan...) you are NOT welcome here anymore, Please stay away from the "Holy land" in the next few decades. thank you.

Perhaps it's true... perhaps this boycott does have aspects of anti-semitism. But is it so strange for a group of people to dislike another group? To me, it's not -- especially when one group adamantely believes they're 'special', with a higher responsibility in life, as a 'choosen' group of people. I think it's a natural human trait to dislike those that arrogantly think they're better than everyone else. Anti-semitism is just a natural tendendcy, just like it's natural for Jewish people to want to protect themselves from attack. Stop claiming you're 'choosen', and perhaps you'll stop being attacked.

its funy cos muslims say they are chosen and everybody else is a worthless infedel. christians say they are chosen and everyboby else is going to hell. eskimos say they are chosen and even blair said 2 weeks ago that british people are the greatest people on earth. but no no no only the jews piss you off . thats cos we are the real chosen people and you and your likes are just jealous antisemaic people. AND THATS THE TRUTH!

1) There is no boycott, it wasn't even proposed. What happened is that 158 "academics" out of 120,000 in UCU got a motion passed asking the membership to be polled on their willingness to "take into account" their Israeli colleagues views when working with them. At least two major branches immediately came back and rejected the call. 2) I don't believe these people are motivated by "anti-semiticism". It is simply that in their little cozy circle anti-Israeli views are popular and a "boycott" generates news without actually meaning anything. 3) That said Israel should be more aggresive in dealing with these people but by attacking their lies and not by simply claiming anti-semiticism.

Post 24 Andrew response: You interpret ‘Chosen’ in the way anti-Semites (anti-Jews) have misrepresented it. Except for a few deluded fools, no Jews are supremacists; on the contrary they have had to be survivalists. The ‘Chosen’ bit wasn’t a choice by the Jewish people; it is apparently the word of God as written in the Old Testament, the Torah, the Books of Moses: This book is also the basis of Islamic and Christian theology. Further, it was not ‘Chosen’ to be ‘special’. God chose the Jews (according to theology) to bring the fact of his existence and ‘intellectual light (including justice)’ to the rest of the then polytheistic un-intellectual world. So for Jewish people ‘Chosen’ is a burden. Jews have paid a heavy price for having slowly influenced the Roman Empire, Europe, then and Islamic Asia to monotheism. Note influenced not ‘forcibly converted’. Also you seem to have missed the parallel between the theological suffering of Jesus (a Jew) for humanity’s salvation (revered by Christians) and the physical suffering of the Jewish people at the hands of non-Jews. Even Jews like Marx have provided an ethical framework of Judaism, which is divorced from God, for atheists: A secular religion to drawn its adherents away from polytheistic paganism. To be ‘Chosen’ in this way is not something people queue up for.

Lets look at the reality here. Britain has been a sovereign state for at least a 1000 years. "Palestine" never existed. A closer comparison would be Sicily being ruled from Rome. As for living in peace, Israel has 20% israeli arab population. From that population we have major generals, a supreme court judge - how many muslim high court judges you got? - professors, singers and football players. People like Leiberman who suggests "transfering" is considered an extremist here, remembering that "transfer" means redrawing the border so that Arab villages in the Galilee would be in a Palestinian state and not physically moving them as is normally claimed. It is the Palestinians joined by seeming the whole world who believe it is perfectly OK for the Palestinians to demand the settlers be kicked out of Palestine. It is the Palestinians who cannot accept Jews and it was the arabs who in 1948 ensured all the land they conquered was cleansed 100% of Jews, including East Jerusalem which has had Jews for thousands of years. In 2006, Israel voted for parties whose main platform was territorial compromise, including Kadima whose SOLE platform was compromise. Almost simulataneously, the Palestinians voted for a party - Hamas - whose platform is against compromise. What amazes me about the claims of these boycotters is not they are false but they are 100% the opposite of the truth. The confusion as to why they hold these patently false views is why people here find it so easy to believe it must be anti-semiticism - as opposed to peer pressure and stupidity.

Throughout history, leaders and their people of great ancient civilizations also believed they were "special", they were "chosen" by destiny, e.g. the Chinese, the Indians, the Greeks. China means Middle Kingdom in Chinese, denoting the country's belief that it was central to the human universe. I am Chinese by race and am proud of Chinese inventions and its contributions, past and present, to world cultural heritage. Unlike Israel, I have not heard of China or its race being ruthlessly and continuously singled out for condemnation and extermination. Ditto for the Indians and the Greeks. Racial discrimination is a tendency. Anti-semitism is not. It is a deliberate, insidious hatred directed only at the Israelis. The author of the article made his case.