Auguste Blanqui wrote:
>> I think I can understand Miller, but what's your beef with Aronowitz?
>>
>> (I have an incurable addiction to left gossip and my worse half dreams
>> of starting the US Weekly of the left someday.)
>>
Bryan wrote:
I can't speak for Doug's beef with Aronowitz, but one of mine is that he
wrote a letter in critique of the US Green Party's call for divestment from Israel.
In a particular paragraph, Aronowitz writes: "One important action - one that should have been taken before this resolution was approved - would be to contact the Israel Green Party for their views and recommendations, as well as Palestinian and Israeli peace activists."
Well, first thing, "HaYirokim", the Israeli Green Party, is a pathetic pseudo-environmentalist organization, started in 1997 and run by a wealthy Israeli industrialist named Pe'er Visner who has no background in environmental activism, and even today, my sources in some of the well known Israeli environmental organizations say, the Green Party is still extremely marginal to the environmental movement here. Visner's "Yirokim" and the US Green Party have only marginally similar agendas, they are only similar in name. If you want real Green in Israel, go to Dov Hanin in the Hadash Party...or lets just say the Hadash party in general, they are much closer in line with the type of agenda that the US Greens would align with. There is more to an organization than its name.
Secondly, why the hell didn't Aronowitz himself go and discuss his REJECTION of the divestment proposal with Palestinian and Israeli peace activists before making a decision?
I suppose, we have to ask Aronowitz which Israeli "peace activists" he has in mind. Perhaps he is thinking of "great men of peace," like Peres and Peretz? Or is he talking about actual peace activists, individual Israelis and activist organizations from the AIC, Gush Shalom, ICAHD, to the Anarchists Against the Wall. Even many of the Israeli Left that have not come out for specifically academic boycott are for consumer boycott and such, especially of settlement products.
And Palestinian peace activists....against divestment??? give me a break...one of the only people you could scrape up to come out AGAINST a boycott is Sari Nusseibeh. Does Aronowitz really think that the majority of Palestinian peace activists would come out against international divestment campaigns?
Here is the rest of the letter he wrote (with another author):
http://www.advocatesforisrael.org/GovernorResponse.html
Green Gubernatorial Candidates Respond to Resolution by Stanley Aronowitz and Markay Rogers
Dear NC members:
The adoption of resolution 190, calling for a boycott and other actions against Israel, is creating a huge stir nationwide amongst greens and nongreens as well as numerous progressive groups, Jewish organizations and the media.
The credibility of the US Green Party has been badly damaged; resignations from the party are occurring and letters are coming in to the Media Committee expressing anger and disappointment with the party. We will continue to lose prospective members and we need to take these criticisms seriously.
One of our main concerns is the fact that Green Party candidates will be running for public office next fall and will be put in a difficult position: whether to defend this resolution or publicly repudiate their party's policy. Their opponents as well as the media will find every opportunity to put green candidates on the spot and embarrass them. Our candidates cannot afford to have such adverse exposure. They need to get their message out, without diversion, on the more important concerns of their constituents. This resolution could easily smother their message and damage their campaign.
We believe that the NC needs to revisit and review this resolution quickly in order to minimize the damage and halt the backlash against the party. One important action - one that should have been taken before this resolution was approved - would be to contact the Israel Green Party for their views and recommendations, as well as Palestinian and Israeli peace activists.
We urge the NC to open a broad discussion of the present and potential impact of this resolution on the party and its candidates, and to review the substance of the resolution which, on the face of it, violates our Ten Key Values by failing to condemn violence on both sides, and by failing to observe the principle of Grassroots Democracy when it approved the resolution without a broad discussion within the state parties and without soliciting dissenting views.
We would welcome a role in this dialogue as well as in formulating a new policy that truly reflects our principles of Nonviolence and Grassroots Democracy.
Respectfully submitted,
Stanley Aronowitz, former New York State Green Party gubernatorial candidate Marakay Rogers, Pennsylvania Green Party gubernatorial candidate