So I have a slightly different but related question to ask of some folks here.
What do you think about the international boycotts of places like Starbucks (their CEO is a Zionist, IMO), Nestlé (not actually American nor Israeli, but???), Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson... etc.? e.g.:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...t-for-its-growing-links-to-israel-749289.html
http://www.eirigi.org/latest/latest180109.html
On the one hand, I totally respect people trying to get involved in whatever way they can. But on the other, having some way -- no matter how much it grasps at straws -- isn't necessarily better than no way at all.
Focused boycotts work in some ways (e.g, divestiture from Apartheid South Africa). But this is far from the first time someone boycotted a multi-national corporate conglomerate a la McDonald's. And in the end, it often hurts local economies at least as much as the overseas headquarters and any big-shot policymakers. This is not even boycotting Israel directly, as Andy's avatar suggests.
I say this because I took a lot of flack on other discussion groups for dismissing some of these boycotts as being completely symbolic but effectively pointless. Zionism isn't going to go away because people in Dublin decide to stop drinking coffee from a Seattle-based multinational.
Examples like that make me think some people just want to make themselves feel better by giving themselves the illusion that they have some level of control or influence in something they pretty much have very, very little control or influence over. And telling people that going through these motions probably does more to make the boycotter feel better than anything else constructive drew me lots of, well, outrage from some folks.
To me, it's b.s. that one would go, "So I have some good news and bad news for you, Mrs. Habbash. The bad news is that the IDF killed your family with rockets. The good news is that a bunch of bleeding hearts in Dublin now feel better about themselves because they stopped drinking coffee from a Seattle-based multinational in support of your cause."
:wth:
I know it sounds very cynical, and is. But there are few things that annoy me more than people who are doing something largely to make themselves feel better -- rather than their stated altruistic reasons -- and they are in violent denial about that intention. Because they're not even honest with themselves.