Meditalia

Now that I know the Meditalia products line exists, I had to go and try some. Yesterday I purchased the Black Olive Tapenade at the Park Slope Food Coop. It is very amazing. Really, really good. I'm looking forward to trying the rest of the product line.

Go out and buy some. Especially on March 30 - the next Buy Israeli Goods day.

A True Peace Builder

Daniel Lubetzky describes himself as a serial social entrepreneur known for integrating social objectives with sustainable market-driven forces into new business models.

In English for the rest of us, it means he develops and invests in businesses that not only are profitable but also serve a greater good.  As a senior, at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, Mr. Lubetzky wrote his 268-page thesis, “The Influence of Economic Factors in Resolving the Arab-Israeli Conflict.”  He later established his company PeaceWorks.

PeaceWorks Holdings LLC has been a business that pursues both profit and peace. We pursue profit through our sales of healthful food products that are produced by neighbors on opposing sides of political or armed conflicts, whose cooperative business ventures we facilitate. We pursue peace through the support of our PeaceWorks Foundation and the One Voice Movement. We donate 5 percent of all profits to empower the moderates in the Middle East who want a peaceful end to the war through a two-state solution.

PeaceWorks imports creative healthy foods that use only the freshest ingredients. The result is delicious, all-natural products. PeaceWorks currently does business with Israelis, Palestinians, Egyptians, Turks, Indonesians, Sri Lankans and Australians.

The complete opposite of boycott activity.  PeaceWorks' flagship line Meditalia is sold at the Park Slope Food Coop.  Daniel Lubetzky weighs in with his thoughts on the BDS Movement:

PeaceWorks’ products, [are] made through cooperative ventures among neighbors striving to coexist, including Israeli Jews, Israeli Arabs, Palestinians, Turks, and until recently, Egyptians. As the founder of PeaceWorks and the OneVoice Movement, I have noticed not just the silliness of those extremist efforts by BDS, but more so, the negative impact these fights have on the very Palestinian farmers these people purport to support. Never mind that Palestinian farmers have never heard of these BDS people, who out of the comfort of their armchairs in Berkeley, can afford to advocate extremist positions. What has happened over the last few years is that anti-Israel activists have begotten anti-Palestinian activists and both of these negative groups, rather than thinking how to strengthen moderates seeking peace on both sides and join forces to achieve a solution, have instead attacked one another publicly and sought to boycott each other’s products at grocery stores across the USA.

What Would You Do With $4,000?

$4,000 is a pretty nifty chunk of cash for most people.

It could be a really nice vacation.  A decent used car.  Rent money.  A semester at CUNY with change to spare.

For a $45,000,000 business like the Park Slope Food Coop, it's pocket change.

It could be a nice donation to CHIPS.  It could be 25% of the new Coop start-up loan fund.  It could be a silent alarm system at the front desk for the entrance worker to discretely notify the office if someone is stuffing merchandise into the front lockers.  That might take a bite out of the $250,000 annual loss to theft.

$4,000 are the expenses associated with holding our meeting to vote on the vote at the Brooklyn Technical High School auditorium.  After all, BDS is so very important to the Coop and our joining it will be so beneficial  it is worth every penny - NOT.

I want to get my $4,000 worth.  Please come out and vote NO.  I want to clean their clock.

The Tweeter at the February GM

Last night's general meeting was tweeted by Reuters Opinion senior editor Chadwick Matlin.  What a hoot!  I nearly choked on my granola.

I like anyone who can make me laugh.

The Lightening Rod

Glenn Beck has chimed in on the upcoming "vote on the vote" as it is getting called.  This has brought the attention of Huffington Post, among others.  According to the original reporting in the Brooklyn Paper:

“What is happening with the food co-op where they are seriously considering a boycott of Israel?” he said, likening the suggested ban to a subtle version of drawing swastikas. “When you use words like ‘I’m just anti-Israel’ or ‘I’m just anti-Zionist’ — that’s anti-Semitic.”

In blogosphere language this has been turned into Beck calling the Park Slope Food Coop, itself, anti-Semitic.  From there writers are calling ALL the Coop members anti-Semitic for the activity of just SOME.

I discussed BDS and anti-Semitism a while ago.  For BDS to be considered not anti-Semitic, they would have to show:

1. Either BDS does not oppose the existence of Israel as a Jewish State or that opposing the right of self-determination for Jews is not anti-Semitic.
2. BDS does not deny the unique historic connection between Jews and the Land of Israel.
3. That the conditions demanded by BDS do not endanger the physical safety of Jews.
4. That there is a true commitment among the Palestinian leadership to live in peace with Jews, with full recognition of their rights.
5. That BDS demands of the Arabs an end to the conflict.

I would now have to add to that list, they would not bring the author of a vicious Jew hating book to speak at the Coop.

The denial of my fellow Coop members is meaningless.  The BDS movement is anti-Semitic.

Marching Orders from Divest This!

Our good friend at Divest This! has been part of more anti-BDS campaigns than you can count. He has documented the numerous failures and the unrestrained hubris of the movement for years. We are grateful for this pep talk from an experienced veteran. The whole thing is great, but here are two of my favorite parts.

Now keep in mind that this vote is not taking place because local BDSers convinced anyone of anything. Rather, they pushed for an Israel boycott referenda (similar to failed boycott appeals at places like Davis and Sacramento California), and when told that such a referenda would sicken and appall huge numbers of members they said, in effect, “So what?” And since the rules of most co-ops are rather loose, presuming as they do that members will act in good faith and not try to manipulate the organization for their own ends (at the expense of other members), the only way to close out a matter the BDSers will continue to push (regardless of the cost to others) was to let a vote on the referenda go forward.

And this:

Needless to say, attempts to prick the conscience of the BDSers over issues such as terrorist murders of Israelis or Arab deaths at the hands of Hamas or Assad will fall on deaf ears since the BDSers are indifferent to Israeli life and even Palestinian lives are only measured in terms of their usefulness to “the movement”. But arguments directed over the boycotters heads to the general membership can be as effective in Park Slope as they have been everywhere else.

And that message is: why the hell should a group of single-issue partisans be allowed to speak on behalf of the thousands of members of an institution that BDS had no role in building? After all, the boycotters are free as individuals to not buy all the Israeli products they like. And they’re even free to start their own co-op and build into its charter the refusal to ever let an Israeli orange or seltzer dispenser stain their shelves.

Ah, but that’s not what they want, is it? They want to be able to claim that their minority opinion represents the will of thousands of members of a respected organization, and thus give their propaganda message unearned weight.

Go read the whole thing.

A Busy Day

The day began with an article in the Wall Street Journal reporting on the upcoming vote at the General Meeting.  The news is spreading through the blogosphere and reporters are contacting me.  By afternoon I received an email from Metro asking for 150 words on why to oppose BDS.  Here is what I submitted:

The BDS movement does nothing to bring peace between Israelis and Palestinians, or improve the lives of Palestinians.  Peace will come through a negotiated settlement between the 2 parties that will include mutual recognition of rights and national aspirations.  The BDS leadership works against peace by rejecting all cooperative endeavors between Israelis and Palestinians.  By placing all blame on one party only, and by ignoring context, the BDS movement serves to bolster the most rejectionist elements of the Palestinian cause.

The 3 demands of BDS are based on a faulty understanding of the relevant international law.  The real goal of BDS is to end the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.  Thus, BDS has been rejected over and over by every institution where it has tried to get an honest endorsement.  BDS looks forward to yet another stunning defeat at the Park Slope Food Coop.