Yesterday, Seth ran down the background of that evening’s Park Slope boycott vote. The motion asked the unintentionally hilarious members of the popular Brooklyn, New York, food co-op to vote on whether they should vote on boycotting Israeli products.
In the end it wasn’t even close:
Initially discussed at a co-op member board meeting over two years ago, the proposed boycott was brought to a vote on Tuesday night, with 1,005 members voting against the boycott and 653 voting in favor. Public Advocate and Brooklyn resident Bill de Blasio said he was proud of his neighbors for doing the right thing, calling the proposal inflammatory and destructive.
The Guardian’s U.S. News blog has a darkly entertaining rundown of highlights from the debate. You have to get past the predictable headline pitting Israeli goods against “human rights,” but after that there are treats like:
“Belonging to the co-op means belonging to justice. And injustice anywhere is an attack on justice everywhere,” said one young woman, who never quite made it clear which way she was leaning. A midwife announced that she had delivered babies on both sides of this argument, and that “peace on earth begins at birth.”
There were also references to hummus-inspired music, musings about the double-valenced implications of Chomsky quotes, and an explanation of how Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) can be properly and positively analogized to uncomfortable “house cleaning” enemas (and now you can’t unknow that!) By all appearances, the debate exceeded even the expectations laid out by the preemptive NY Daily News profile of BDS co-op advocates.
In many ways and on many levels, the Park Slope BDS failure is a perfect update to the failure of BDS across the United States. First BDS pushers tried to get entire left-leaning states to boycott Israel, and they failed. Then they tried to get left-leaning university campuses to divest, at which point they failed again. Now this.
Pity Norman Finkelstein. Having spent decades trying to demonize Israel in the highest international forums, he and his ilk now have to complain bitterly from the sidelines as 21st century anti-Israel activism is reduced to some guy trotting out intestinal cleansing metaphors in a futile effort to get vegan Israeli marshmallows banned from grocery stores in Brooklyn.
Justice is finally the result of individuals taking a stand against the forces of oppression and I can no longer wait for the system. Today I begin my personal boycott of Fascist vegan marshmallows. Just as soon as I see one.
Those two groups represent the wrap-up of ALL the Issuses of Man that is taking place in this Age, this Time – and they shall never agree, though some few individuals may change sides from time to time. nAnd they shall not ever blend into one nation again on this earth. It was written of beginning 3,000 years ago – foretold – and is now happening exactly as He said it would. nJehovah said HE is using Israel as a POINT from which all men on earth will decide the issues of Life and Death, and concerning their relationship – or REFUSAL of such a relationship – WITH HIM! nSo as folks separate into those two opposing forces OVER ISRAEL, they cannot be rejoined, but this will only escalate and it will happen very quickly. Or Obama's name would NOT be in the Bible Codes of Ezekiel 38. And I am not trying to pin this down by days, weeks, months or even years. n It will happen in HIS time, and NEVER BY THE HAND of His Believers.
The Presbyterian Church USA has been trying to boycott Israel (in their investments) for years. They're especially miffed at Caterpillar, which sells tractors to Israel. The fact that Caterpillar sells tractors to China seems irrelevant to them. n nI'm still disappointed that 653 votes went in favor.
There are easily 653 nuts in Park Slope–maybe more. I've been there. n nJust wait until the co-op in Berkeley takes this on….maybe it has. n nThere are thousands and thousands of nuts in Berkeley. I've been there, too.
As a PFSC member who voted on this proposal, I'd like to point out that, as the result of my voting against the boycott, I was informed from a pro-BDS person that I am a racist and an opponent of human rights. How is it that those groundless and gratuitous charges can be made by the same folks who contantly play the martyr, claiming that they are silenced by charges that they are anti-Semites?
Welcome to the playpen of leftist activism, which I suppose is harmless if confined to Park Slope. n nI'm personally writing this while trapped underneath a fascist vegan marshmallow.