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Source: http://www.forward.com/articles/13033/
American Labor Can Help Right Anti-Israel Left
[Forward] Stuart Appelbaum - Israelis living in Sderot and other towns near Gaza have been the target of choice for Hamas terrorists. Why do voices that so often cry out for social justice serve up diatribes against Israel? Why do they hold Israel to standards that no other nation in the world would ever be expected to meet? And why do so many of them claim that, in the final analysis, Israel is responsible for everything Hamas does or will do? Faced with an alarming growth of anti-Israel boycotts and divestment efforts among unions across the UK, last year the Jewish Labor Committee launched an aggressive campaign to protest moves by British labor leaders. In the space of two weeks, every major American union had endorsed the effort. In fact, the show of American labor opposition to Israel-bashing was so strong that unions in Germany followed our lead and took a similar stance. The continuing assault against Israel by the left in other countries demands that we make our voices heard. With the support of the American labor movement we can. The writer is president of the Jewish Labor Committee and of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.