A rare political rant

First off, let me make something really clear. I am a lefty. Yes, that kind of lefty. The liberal kind that thinks that there should be a Two State Solution and all that jazz. I'm a Lefty and a Zionist, which may freak some of you right out, but trust me, these two things are NOT in opposition.

I don't like to talk about the whole Israel v. Palestine thing or Israel v. Arabs thing here. It's much too complex to talk about in the midst of a site about Israel in general and I don't want to give the idea that I think that there are any simple answers. Anyone who tells you that there are simple answers is full of it and has absolutely no idea what's going on here or what has gone on here in the last 100 years.

BUT... there's no REAL logic in closing down a West Bank factory because you oppose the occupation. When you pull a factory out of a place like the Barkan Industrial Park, you aren't really saying "the occupation is bad". You are really taking away jobs from the people that you claim to be standing up for.

I would not live in the West Bank. Let's make that clear. No matter HOW cheap it is in Ariel, that's not reason enough for me. However, I wouldn't think twice about taking a job in the West Bank, if the company was an equal opportunity employer, and especially if there were many Palestinians employed there.

Hell, I'd like to see a lot more (non-Jewish) Arabs employed in high tech startups in Tel Aviv. So far, I've only met one. ONE! Seriously, there's something wrong with that. It's exactly like having no black or female programmers in a startup in Oakland, California. Exactly like that.

The international boycotts around Israel and the Occupied Territories are misguided at best, absolutely anti-Jewish at worst. Hurting pro-Palestinian academics and closing down factories that hire Palestinians is NOT the way to peace in the Middle East.

Will someone please wake up and smell the coffee??!!!