"z" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Jul 1, 1:12 pm, Billy Rose wrote:

A tomato (Israel's Lyc-O-Mato) was the entry point for this thread.
Since the original post, I have give two reasons for shunning this
particular tomato (1) political (I don't support fascists)

Well, just to pick on this point; that's the same kind of broadbrush
tarring of some group of people for the actions of a few that has kept
mankind up to its collective neck in blood for ten thousand years. Do
you have any reason to believe that the individuals who would profit
from your buying this tomato are in any way responsible for the plight
of the average Palestinian? How do you know the tomato was not in fact
developed and marketed by Israelis of Arabic descent? In fact, you
have no knowledge of the individuals associated with this tomato, but
since they can be denoted as "Israeli", that's enough to render them
subject to collective punishment. Wouldn't you question the strategy
of boycotting Microsoft products, solely on the grounds of the Iraqi
War?

For a nonhypothetical example, take the recent decision by British
academics to boycott Israeli university academics. Just who do they
think is the liberal wing of Israeli society? Hebrew University, for
example, extends college courses and degrees to Palestinian prisoners
in Israeli prisons. It's particularly ironic, since Israeli
universities are some of the few places on earth where a Palestinian
woman can not only receive a university degree, but can do so while
wearing a niqab (veil) if she wishes; while at the same time in
Britain:
" A lawyer dressed in a niqab was told by an immigration judge that
she could not represent a client because, he said, he could not hear
her. A teacher wearing a niqab was dismissed from her school. A
student who was barred from wearing a niqab took her case to the
courts, and lost. In reaction, the British educational authorities are
proposing a ban on the niqab in schools altogether."
Muslims' Veils Test Limits of Britain's Tolerance, New York Times,
June 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/22/wo...pe/22veil.html


Thank you for the refreshingly cogent (and polite) post. It is a nice
change.