Initially the leftwing challengers of the AUT boycott (here's one more example) were welcomed uncritically, as it was such a relief that they existed. Now their defence of the targeted universities because they are staffed by the "right" (or rather the left) Israelis is wearing thin. For example, Imshin fisks the Stephen Howe article everyone (including me) linked to. Read the whole thing.

A long comment at On the Face addresses this:

What I think has to be borne in mind about the settlements is that to Hamas, Hizbollah, a very large proportion of the Palestinian public, the wider Arab public and much of the left intelligentsia across the world, every bit of Israel is just as much �occupied territory� full of illegitimate settlements as the West Bank or Gaza. It seems to me that the Israeli left loves to delude itself that pre-67 settlements and especially pre-48 kibbutzim are politically kosher and are regarded as such by the Palestinians and the many countries and millions who support them.

Unfortunately, this is far from being the case. When Hamas talks about bringing an end to the occupation, it means the replacement of Israel with a Palestine which is part of the Islamic caliphate, and the expulsion or worse of the Jews who emigrated there since the time of the first Zionist Congress. It�s not just these people who can safely be labelled extremists (although they are likely either to get the largest or the second largest vote in any elections in the Palestinian territories). The Guardian and the BBC here in England day after day carry letters and broadcasts from highly educated UK academics and well paid liberal columnists who declare that Israel is founded on stolen land, and should cease to exist. The AUT boycott motion that started off this thread on �On the Face� was proposed by people who believe exactly this.

I used to believe that the settlements and the occupation were the problem, and that if they could be removed, there would be peace. In fact prior to 1982, I actually believed myself that it would be better if Israel became a secular democratic state on the lines then advocated by the PLO. This belief received its first real dent in the days after the Sabra-Shatila massacre in 1982, when in Reading where I then lived, every road leading into the town was spray painted with a swastika with a star of David inside it and the words �Yids are Nazis�. It was put up by the Anarchists of Reading, one of the main activists of whom was someone at the University I was quite friendly with and had regarded as an ally.

My belief that the occupation was the real issue then received its next major blow when I saw the footage of Palestinians dancing in the streets at the time of the first Gulf War when Saddam landed missiles on Ramat Gan. And I saw that the whole of the Palestinian political machine stood with Saddam. What finally killed this belief for good was the day the two Israeli reservists were torn to pieces and lynched in Ramallah. I saw the delight of the mob when one of the murderers showed his bloody hands. And then I saw the so-called �moderate� Palestinian leader Hanan Ashrawi on television saying, �On a day like today, I am one of the people�. None of the actions of the Arafat regime or its successor have yet begun to convince me that evicting all the Jews of the settlements and retreating to the 1967 borders will bring a hunky-dory peace. There is plenty of evidence that Hamas and other sections of the Palestinian public regard the withdrawal from Gaza as a victory�even as the withdrawal from Lebanon laid part of the ground for the Intifada.

I also used to believe that if the UK gave up its nuclear weapons unilaterally, it would help to remove what then seemed like an imminent threat of nuclear war. I joined in the demonstrations by women at Greenham Common against the US nuclear missiles being sited there. Well, it turned out that that supposedly brainless bonehead President Reagan was right and I was wrong. The Soviet Union and the accompanying threat collapsed not because of peace initiatives but because its own totalitarianism dug its own grave, and the attempt to respond to the �warmongering� Star Wars initiative precipitated that process. And the whole character of the present Palestinian leadership and the campaigns which support them are still driven by totalitarian thinking and totalitarian methods of imposing their will on their own population, attempting to terrorise Israelis, as are the cheerleading boycotting, demonization and general vilification campaigns we see every day. I don�t believe these will cease if the settlements cease. Bear in mind that the whole of the territories were offered back for peace in 67 and the Arab League and their Palestinian underlings said, �not one inch�..

It may just be that that even more boneheaded and supposedly brainless religious maniac and stooge of the Jews, the current American president is right when he says that only unflinching opposition to terrorism, particularly selective justification of terrorism, and insistence on true democracy will ensure peace in the Middle East.

UPDATE: Norm has a comprehensive update that unintentionally reinforces the point I was making here. Lots of quotes from outraged leftists protesting that the universities in question are filled with good peacenik lefty Jews who disagree with their government, so why are they being targeted? ("I am a fine upstanding German citizen of the Mosaic persuasion, not to mention a highly decorated officer in The Great War! Why am I being herded into this cattle car alongside those smelly ignorant OstJuden?") We never learn, do we?