February 22, 2011 – Innermost Parts

Is BDS a defensible position?

There’s this guy on the Huffington Post, named Rabbi David Wolpe. He basically argued that there are two strains of thinking regarding Israel (among Jews) that are beyond the pale: Boycot/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS) on Israel, and “throw the Arabs out of Israel”.

His argument leaves me really leery of the standard journalistic trope of false equivalency: One faction (let’s call them the Right) is proposing horrible idea X, and I can only point that out if I find another opposing faction (let’s call them the Left) proposing an equally horrible idea Y. If I can’t find such an opposing faction, I’ll just pretend that the Left’s ideas are just as horrible as idea X, for the sake of “balance”

The main thrust of his anti-BDS argument is this:

These same people who anathematize Israel do not march against China for its rape of Tibet, against North Korea for its threatened obliteration of the South, against the Arab nations that have barred other religions from practice and discriminated in vicious and consistent ways against women, homosexuals and dissidents. No, they reserve their protest for a thriving, imperfect democracy that has a parliament with Arabs as well as Jews, a justice system where the chief judge in the trial condemning a former President of Israel is an Arab Israeli, where a completely unfettered press criticizes the government with vigor. Disagreeing with Israel is a time-honored tradition. Seeking to boycott it is to function as an anti-Semite. Anti-Semitism is making human faults (real and imagined) the special preserve of the Jews.

Now, that’s just ridiculous, isn’t it? The organized Jewish establishment is obsessed with creating connections between young Jews and the country of Israel. One of the Jewish community’s self-defined biggest challenges has been to give young American Jews a feeling like they have a stake in Israel. Congrats – it’s working. And now that they have a sense of identity with this country, these young women and men feel a stake in making sure that they approve of what’s being done there.

So the “why not march against China” argument is bogus for two reasons.
1. We don’t feel as much of an emotional stake with the Chinese as with our own kin/co-religionists
2. American Jews qua American Jews have much more leverage over the government and society of Israel than they do over the society of, say, Darfur.

Anti-semitism argument is wrong on it’s face, too. He sounds like someone playing dictionary games to argue that affirmative action is racist.

I still believe in the sub-argument of the article: that BDS are not only counterproductive but morally wrong. Is anyone out there making an actual, well-reasoned argument for that position? Not this guy.

What do you think of the article?

Why do Unions matter?

I’ll be asking some distinguished members of the Brandeis community to weigh in on this. For now, please read this article. It’s a magnificent look at the past, present, and future of organized labor in America. The article is four pages long, written by Kevin Drum of Mother Jones, and it’s a great primer on what’s been going on.

I can’t even excerpt it – read it now.
Continue reading “Why do Unions matter?”

Solidarity Pizza

Great story:

Solidarity, as Middle Eastern potentates are quickly discovering, is a powerful thing. And it can take some rather unusual forms.

One night last week, Ian’s Pizza in Madison, Wisconsin, received an order from some hungry protesters at the state capitol – where the Republican government is attempting to pass a bill that, among a range of harsh budget cuts, proposes to remove the collective bargaining rights of about 300,000 workers – asking if they had any leftovers. They did, and, even though it was 3.30am, obliged.

The next day they took a couple of calls from people who had heard about their gesture and wanted to order more pizzas for the protesters, who number in the tens of thousands, and have been demonstrating for nearly a week. A trickle, to coin a cliche, became a flood: by 5pm on Saturday, when they gave away 1,057 free slices at their restaurant and delivered more than 300 pizzas to the capitol, Ian’s had to suspend normal business.

On Sunday it all began again.Calls were coming in not just from the States (38 of the 50, at last count), but from all over the globe: Ian’s Facebook page (of course) carries a picture of the chalkboard on which they are keeping track – Canada, Denmark, Finland, Australia, Germany, China, the UK, the Netherlands, Korea, Turkey – and Egypt. Take on Mubarak and win, apparently, and you can take on the world.

Want to buy them a pizza yourself?
Instructions here or on their facebook page:

Oh hey! While I was typing this I got an email from the New York Working Families’ Party:

Dear Sahar,

“It’s like Cairo has moved to Madison.”

That’s the quote of the week, courtesy of a Republican Congressman in Wisconsin, observing the protests in his state capital [1].

For the past week, tens of thousands of working people and students have taken days off to protest the new Wisconsin Tea Party governor’s vicious assault on public employees and their families.

The governor and his Right-Wing allies actually manufactured a budget crisis in order to advance their pro-corporate, anti-middle class agenda. He’s a “trickle-down” governor who pushed through irresponsible tax cuts that turned a budget surplus into a deficit. And now he wants working families to pay [2].

Thankfully, the workers and their allies have said enough is enough. Democratic legislators have fled the state in order to prevent the Republican legislature from pushing through Walker’s anti-worker proposals. And the protests have continued for seven days – dubbed by some as the “Week of Rage.” [3]

Will you join us in supporting these protesters with a $15 contribution? We’re in touch with the leaders of the Wisconsin protest, and we’ll send them a contribution or a care package to keep their efforts going – whatever they need. It takes a lot of food to keep 80,000 people on the ground.

Help us send some New York pastrami sandwiches with love to the Cheese State:

http://bit.ly/WisconsinSolidarity

So if you want to send pastrami instead of Pizza here’s the way to do it: http://bit.ly/WisconsinSolidarity

Wisconsin Wisconsin Wisconsin

So Wisconsin.

Can’t keep my mind off it. Can’t stop thinking about it. The story goes something like this: New Republican Governor in office calls a special session of the R-dominated legislature to pass huge tax cuts to corporations like Wal-Mart. Then he raises a scare about the lack of tax revenue in the state, so he decides to cut pay for state workers and outlaw their unions entirely. When the minority part in the legislature decides to flee the state in a filibuster-like move to deny him a quorum, he calls in the State Police to arrest them and force them to be physically present at the state capital.

Queue the massive protests. Now he’s threatening to call in the National Guard to clear out the protests.

It’s like we’re back in the 19th century. Plutocrat Governor wants to crush unions and benefit his fellow plutocrats. Threatens to use the military to sweep away the opposition.

Here’s a video I’ve been watching over and over again. Can’t stop crying.

Innermost Parts Alum Rivka Maizlish is on the scene: She’s pursuing a PhD in the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I’m going to try and get a hold of her and see what’s up.