http://www.dailycal.org
In "UC Must Divest From Israel's Apartheid" Matthew Taylor spins and has misunderstood the realities in Israel and in the Palestinian Territories. It is far from clear that "normal life is impossible" within the Palestinian Territories because of aggressive Israeli policy. Fiscal and social collapse have largely been issues of failed self-governance within the PA and Hamas, and framing this anti-Israel campaign as exclusively one of human rights for Palestinians without once mentioning the terrorist onslaught against Israel in the last five years simply fans the flames of antisemitism (Jewish self hatred yet again) and anti-Zionism without sharing the burden of blame with gravity and balance.
No nation is immune to critique. No nation is perfect. But Israel's global prominence (due perhaps to the mystifying eternal Middle East/Jewish fetish so present in campus activism) makes Jerusalem an easier mark that her neighbors. It is targeted hate that brands Israel a racist society while implicitly condoning Palestinian violence against Israelis. The double standard ends when we hold everyone accountable. Progress is much more complicated than Taylor's portrait.
Rabbi Menachem Creditor
Congregation Netivot Shalom
Berkeley, CA
