The Israel/Palestine
Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is evidently giving
lessons on how to harass and hate people. Using other’s tweets they have linked
to an extremely hateful article about the controversy between the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement
and Scarlett Johansson’s endorsement of
SodaStream, a company that makes home soda making machines.
One of their plants is on the
outskirts of an Israeli settlement. At least five-hundred Palestinians work there,
alongside Israeli workers.* They make better wages then most in the
Palestinian territories and are treated equally well. But the BDS movement is
boycotting them and is now harassing Johansson because she was in a Super Bowl commercial
lauding their product. The article, “Scarlett Johansson controversy shows Hollywood’s fading Zionism,” written by Max Blumenthal, uses stereotyping to make points, while at the same time, referring to liberals who are pro-Israel as PEP (Progressives except for Palestine). [1]Blumenthal’s disrespect for women in general, and Jewish women in particular is shameful. Of Barbra Streisand he writes:
Of all
the stars on stage that night, it was the proudly Jewish singer and actress
Barbra Streisand who stole the show. The curly-haired Streisand belted out
schlock anthems like Tomorrow and Happy Days Are Here Again to an enchanted
crowd, before the former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir appeared on a
gigantic television screen above the stage to greet her.
Curly-haired and schlock songs—what
are the members of IPMN thinking linking to this piece. Blumenthal goes on:
Starting
with her donation to the Emergency Committee for Israel during the 1967 war,
Streisand’s unabashed Zionism propelled her career.
In other words Streisand made it
big, not because of her talent, but because she was a Zionist. (Wasn't there an earlier time in history, the 1930s, when people of questionable character, the Nazis, insisted that the Jews controlled Hollywood and all of the United States media?)In another part of the article, Blumenthal’s writes:
These
days, celebrities who shill for Israel can expect to be relentlessly harried
and forced to declare where they stand on Israel’s ongoing dispossession of
Palestinians.
For
those who have attached themselves to humanitarian do-gooder causes, the
potential for PR damage is considerable — certainly enough to give them second
thoughts. As the price tag on pro-Israel activity rises, some performers are
quietly opting out of attractive deals before the controversy shatters their
image.
But
others like Scarlett Johansson, the comely blonde starlet described by Woody
Allen as “sexually overwhelming” were not willing to let apartheid get in the
way of a sizeable profit.
Woody Allen’s description of Johansson
is totally out of place—but yes—it seems that Blumenthal will continue to harry
and harass. He is shameless and so is the IPMN of the PC (U.S.A.).
I predict that since IPMN has
published its hateful Zionism
Unsettled they will sink deeper and deeper into the dark world of bigotry
and hate. Once sin overcomes an individual or an organization it becomes easier
to commit offenses.
To
clarify: I don’t usually write postings defending movie stars simply because
too many times I don’t agree with their lifestyles, but as a Christian I
understand that everyone is created in the image of God. In our denomination,
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), we are certainly expected to respect that
image in everyone. We particularly lift up women and their rights. The IPMN has
for a long time used other’s links to harass Scarlett Johansson. Their meanness
is unacceptable. The article I am complaining about attacks persons in a way
that is far deeper than attacking their actions. Whether one agrees with Scarlett
Johansson or not, she should be treated as one who bears the image of God. And
there isn’t any reason at all for Barbra Streisand to be attacked. Hopefully it
is not a sin to be Jewish and/or a Zionist.
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