Well, the question is what you care about more: preserving political purity among a small group of people who are nowhere close to the numbers needed to effect change, or trying to expand the number of people involved, even at the cost of sacrificing political purity. Obviously, this is a question about which you and I fundamentally disagree, and I see no prospect of compromise. The good news is that neither of us needs the other's permission to proceed with what we are doing.
Meanwhile, here is a striking fact. There is an existing consumer boycott of Ahava cosmetics. This is a slam dunk whether you are a one-stater or a two-stater. Ahava's main manufacturing plant is located in an illegal settlement in the West Bank, and its practice of excavating mud from the shores of the Dead Sea in the West Bank for use in its products is against international law. http://www.stolenbeauty.org/ So, I'm wondering if PEN-Lers might be willing to help with a distributed research question: are Ahava cosmetics sold in your town? If so, where? On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 5:54 PM, Joseph Catron <[email protected]> wrote: > "[T]aking concrete action" for what? At some point political principles - > like the difference between ending ethnocratic rule and preserving it - > matter. There's nothing virtuous about action in and of itself. > > Beinart's proposal aims, in his won words, to preempt "the right of millions > of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes — an agenda that, if > fulfilled, could dismantle Israel as a Jewish state," he ominously warns. > > Those who support his strategy and its avowed goals place themselves in flat > opposition to Palestinian rights and collective aspirations and, in fact, in > open support of an objectively racist program. > > The more things change, the more they stay the same. "I love [Palestinian > refugees], as long as they don't move next door ..." > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u52Oz-54VYw > > > On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 5:12 PM, Robert Naiman <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> I'm less interested in whether Beinart passes a political purity test >> than in whether his advocacy leads more Jews to consider taking >> concrete action. If one member of one synagogue takes one action to >> put the idea of boycotting Ahava cosmetics in front of their community >> as a result of Beinart's advocacy, I would consider that a net plus. > > > -- > "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen > lytlað." > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
