David Suissa

May 3, 2011

There’s something about winning

By David Suissa

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I’ll never forget sitting with a group of intellectuals several years ago, at the height of the messy war in Iraq, and discussing why President Bush and America had fallen so low in the esteem of the world. One great mind after another offered sophisticated analyses. My head was spinning.

Finally, someone piped up: “Everything would be different if Bush were winning the war.”

At which point a distinguished professor from Israel said: “This is brilliant! Bush’s real problem is that he’s not winning!” I sat there, slightly stunned, thinking: How can something so complicated lend itself to such an easy insight?

I reflected on that insight the other night when President Obama announced the killing of Osama bin Laden after a nearly 10-year pursuit. Here was a president who had suffered relentless criticism for his handling of foreign affairs. And now, as Jeffrey Goldberg wrote on his blog: “Our President, in the blink of an eye, has gone from a hyper-criticized, seemingly-swamped possibly-one-term leader to an American hero, a commander-in-chief who calmly oversaw the killing of the greatest mass murderer in American history.”

And why did he become a hero? Not because he made one of his inspiring speeches or announced a brilliant new policy.

He became a hero because he got a win. It’s as simple — and as complicated — as that.

We love to teach our kids that life is not about winning and losing but “how you play the game.” That may be true when you’re dealing with people of good faith. But when you’re dealing with people who are out for blood, it’s a good idea to know how to win.

Naturally, Jews and Israel have always been juicy targets for people out for blood. So, how should one deal with such aggression?

I found a wonderful answer last week in a shoe store, of all places, on trendy St. Denis Street in downtown Montreal. The French Canadian owner of the store, who has been there for 25 years, decided last year to carry a woman’s shoe line from Israel called Beautifeel. Well, wouldn’t you know it, within a few months, a vicious boycott campaign was under way against the store, led by a popular local politician, Amir Khadir.

To give you an idea of the tone of their campaign, one of the boycotters’ leaflets had an oversize image of a woman’s shoe stomping on a pile of buried naked bodies — reminiscent of those horror shots of emaciated bodies you see in Holocaust documentaries. Written on the shoe was “Beautifeel. Made in Apartheid Israel.” On top was the headline, in French, “Boycottons la boutique Le Marcheur” (“Let’s boycott the boutique Le Marcheur”).

Week after week, the boycotters recruited large and noisy crowds to hand out the leaflets and implore people not to enter Le Marcheur. Their mission was to pressure the owner, Yves Archambault, to stop carrying the Israeli shoe line so that the neighborhood would be “apartheid free.” But Archambault refused, out of principle. It didn’t seem right to him that he should be told how to run his business. His business suffered, but he held firm.

The story hardly ends there. The Jewish community in Montreal got wind of the boycott and went nuts. A “buycott” campaign was launched, and Jews from all over the city came to buy shoes at Le Marcheur. A woman bought a hundred pairs. Archambault became a local hero.

Meanwhile, creative minds went to work producing counter leaflets mocking the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement as “Boycott Derangement Syndrome,” explaining the discrimination and hypocrisy inherent in the movement. These leaflets gave people the Israeli side of the story. Archambault did his own research and found out that the Israeli shoe company (besides making great shoes!) hired women, minorities and Palestinians and treated their employees very well. The Quebec General Assembly drafted a unanimous resolution condemning the boycott and supporting the store.

And what happened to the initiator of the boycott, Amir Khadir? He went low-key and stopped coming to the demonstrations. Apparently, he concluded that the backlash might not be good for his political future.

I tell you this story not to remind you of the insidious global movement to demonize the Jewish state. That’s old hat by now. I’m telling you this story because it’s a tribute to the noble virtues of fighting back and winning.

Too often, we recoil at the idea of fighting. It leaves a bad taste in our mouth. We dread the thought of “lowering ourselves to the level of mudslinging.” We prefer notions like “engagement” and “bridge building.”

But the nasty boycotters of St. Denis Street who used Nazi imagery to malign an Israeli shoe company were not looking for engagement or bridge building. They were looking for blood — and a victory.

Faced with such aggression, how else to respond but to fight back?

Yes, in such cases, life is a zero sum game. One side wins, and the other side loses. The Jewish community of Montreal, with the support of a brave French Canadian shoe merchant, fought back ferociously and smartly against what it perceived as a grave injustice to the State of Israel. And, guess what — they won.

It’s not as dramatic as taking down bin Laden, but we’ll take it.

A version of this article appeared in print.

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This weeks “victory” over BDS:

From the US campaign to End the Occupation
“For six years, our member groups have been working to hold Caterpillar accountable…”

And after 6 years, what do they have to show?

Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE:CAT) The world’s largest maker of mining and construction equipment rose 3 percent Friday after its earnings increased more than five-fold.

When we fight back, we win. Never forget that.

Comment by Dusty on 5/04/11 at 1:03 pm

Obama is NOT the hero,THE HEROS ARE NAVY SEALS 6.

Comment by honey bee on 5/04/11 at 4:47 pm

David, another great article.  It’s great to see you survive the overall stench of the “Jewish"Journal.

Comment by george on 5/04/11 at 6:51 pm

Loved the article.
Yes, there is something about winning, and it is sweeter when you fight back injustice. Israel and Israelis are subjected to continuous demonization and are victim to vicious stigmas. I try to fight back in my blog titled “about us Israelis” (http://about-us-israelis.blogspot.com/) but it is a drop in the ocean. People should do more than just sit idly by. They should learn from this case that fighting back, as you put it elegantly, is sometime a necessity.
Thank you David for the beautifully written and morally sound article.
Dr. Ofer Mazar
Jerusalem, Israel

Comment by Dr. Ofer Mazar on 5/04/11 at 9:46 pm

Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestinian authority all recognize that they are in a propaganda war for the hearts and minds of Europeans and non-Jewish Americans and also for liberal Jewish Americans. They believe they’re winning. A major technique of theirs is to repeat falsehoods again and again. Unfortunately, many of the falsehoods against Israel and the IDF originate with Jewish sources having a political agenda

Comment by LT COL HOWARD on 5/05/11 at 1:54 am

B’tselem was notified of the round by round review that US Mil had made of the IDF use of phosphorus munitions in operation cast lead. However, Jessica Montell decided to modify her charges which she kept broadcasting publicly that the Israelis committed a war crime by then accusing the IDF of using them “in the proximity of civilians” which she then labeled as reckless and a war crime. She was informed that it was neither but still chooses to attack the legitimacy of the IDF in public forums.

Comment by LT COL HOWARD on 5/05/11 at 1:56 am

J St. introduced Goldstone to members of Congress thus giving him entrée for materials originated by Hamas. It should’ve been obvious to Goldstone and J St. that this would be a biased report since the panel members made their accusations about operation cast lead before they saw or heard any evidence

This panel was well recognized as being a hanging jury: Christine Chinkin of London School of Economics and Hila Jilanu, a Pakistani jurist, had already condemned Israel even before the hanging court had been formed.  Richard Falk, the Council’s designated rapporteur on Israel, has been nothing less than an enemy of the Jewish state for decades.  Google Falk and Israel.

Comment by LT COL HOWARD on 5/05/11 at 1:58 am

Just another great article by David Suissa. Thank you.

Comment by Avi Zirler, La Canada, CA on 5/05/11 at 10:42 am

Your article completely ignores the catch 22 where both the US and Israel are criticized for being “aggressors” so they limit their power and then are criticized for being weak.  Bush wasn’t hated for losing; he was hated for being himself, for being a bad communicator and failing to get the country on board with his decisions.  And Obama’s approval rating only went up one point, so he’s hardly “an American Hero.”  He didn’t do anything but allow the people to continue the work that they started under Bush—oh, and give the final go ahead. 

Other than that your article makes a good point regarding irrational boycotts.

Comment by D on 5/07/11 at 10:55 pm

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