Buy Israeli Wines - Don't Buy Settlement Wines (They're not the Same)
On April 6, 2011, Meretz USA
President, Dr. Moises Salinas-Fleitman, and Executive Director Ron Skolnikissued the following
statement on behalf of the organization.
Buy Israel - Don't Buy Settlements (They're not the
Same)
On February 15, 2011, Meretz USA
President, Dr. Moises Salinas-Fleitman, and chair Theodore
Bikel issued the following
statement on behalf of the organization.
Based on our love of
Israel, and our sincere, abiding and growing concern for the State of Israel's
secure and democratic future, Meretz USA for Israeli Civil Rights and Peace, a
longstanding affiliate of the American Zionist Movement, wishes to clarify our
position regarding various manifestations of the boycott/divestment/sanctions
(BDS) tactics being employed around the world, including in Israel itself.
On February 2, Meretz USA President Lawrence Lerner and Chair Theodore Bikel issued the following statement to the press:
This is an ominous hour for Israeli democracy. The recent attack on the New Israel Fund and its President, Prof. Naomi Chazan, by the Im Tirtzu organization - base and reprehensible as it is - is just the most recent in a frighteningly consistent series of events in Israel that evokes the McCarthy period in America, and worse.
May this honor strengthen the wind in the President's sails,
as he continues his mission to bring comprehensive regional peace to the Middle
East, including a just and secure two-state solution for Israelis and
Palestinians.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's June 14 speech at Bar-Ilan University might be seen as an attempt to move the Middle East an agonizingly small step forward towards peace. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister's address, by and large, was a wasted opportunity for Israel to take the initiative and reenergize the dangerously dormant peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
Netanyahu is to be congratulated for his sorely belated acceptance of the principle of Palestinian statehood. The import of this statement from a long-time supporter of Israeli control over the West Bank marks a further weakening of the annexationist doctrine and should not be underestimated.
Meretz USA is proud to take part in this gathering of "Jews
Uniting to End the War & Heal America."
The US misadventure in Iraq has not only been a bloody
disaster for the Iraqi people; it's also been bad for the US, bad for
Israel and bad for the Jews. As a progressive Zionist
organization, Meretz USA wishes to address how bad the war has been
for Israel and the American Jewish community.
The five-year US occupation of Iraq has harmed Israeli
interests - emboldening the enemies of Israeli-Arab peace and impeding the
progress of peace talks between Israel and its neighbors. With America bogged down in Iraq, the war has
expanded the influence of Iran in the region, as well as its rejectionist
allies within Lebanon and Palestine. Additionally,
the occupation has created new US-Syria antagonisms that have prevented
Washington from taking any positive role in the reemerging peace process
between Damascus and Jerusalem.
(click here to view the original Meretz USA weblog posting on the topic)
The brazen murder of eight yeshiva students, mostly teenagers, in a landmark mainstream Orthodox institution in Jerusalem, has convulsed Israel in sadness and outrage. That this has occurred within a week of the massive operation in the Gaza Strip, killing about 120 Palestinians, is no accident. About half, if not more, of this latter toll were of fighters of the terrorist factions, but dozens were non-combatant civilians, including children.
Prime Minister Netanyahu's June 14 speech at Bar-Ilan University might be seen as an attempt to move the Middle East an agonizingly small step forward towards peace. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister's address, by and large, was a wasted opportunity for Israel to take the initiative and reenergize the dangerously dormant peace process between Israel and the Palestinians.
The brazen murder of eight yeshiva students, mostly teenagers, in a landmark mainstream Orthodox institution in Jerusalem, has convulsed Israel in sadness and outrage. That this has occurred within a week of the massive operation in the Gaza Strip, killing about 120 Palestinians, is no accident. About half, if not more, of this latter toll were of fighters of the terrorist factions, but dozens were non-combatant civilians, including children.
