The BDS threat is minuscule and there are quiet, smart ways to deal with it. Yet Israeli politicians are feeding the monster, and creating self-fulfilling prophesies about Israel’s “isolation.” Cynical and hysterical hand-wringing about the BDS “threat” lends undeserved profile to a marginal movement.

Israel is the legitimate expression of an indigenous Middle Eastern people; of Jews from Arab countries with a long history in the Middle East. In fact, 50 percent of the Jewish citizenry of today’s Israel descends from Jewish refugees from Arab countries.

Israelis don’t know what to be worried about most or first: loose chemical weapons in Syria, or our every higher tax bill; uranium-enrichment centrifuges in Iran spinning merrily away, or our mushrooming monthly expenses.

The Israeli election is over. The battle now is over the contours of the coalition, and looking even farther ahead, the makeup of the government after Netanyahu.

With the American election coming to its nail biting conclusion today, it’s time to turn attentions to the other impending election – in Israel on January 22. The short, twelve-week, Israeli election campaign currently underway is already producing multiple surprises. Dozens of colorful new personalities are entering the political arena. While Benjamin Netanyahu will almost certainly again be elected prime minister, the make-up of the Knesset and the governing coalition are likely to undergo sweeping change.