Joe Gannon: Thoughts on the River Valley Co-op petition debate

A petition to deshelve products from Israel at the River Valley Co-op was overwhelmingly rejected by a poll of co-op members. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS

Published: 11-12-2024 2:52 PM

On the debate at the River Valley Co-op, a seeming tempest in a locally sourced teacup, one statement in the recent guest column, “Co-op members should reject divisive, anti-Israel petition,” stood out to me. “The petition to boycott Israeli products does not reflect these (co-op) shared values or aspirations. If we cannot see the humanity of the other, there cannot be a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”

Seeing the humanity of Israelis and Palestinians does not preclude the need for the political, diplomatic and economic action to compel Israel to make a final peace settlement with the Palestinians. In fact, these are the keys to peace, not kind words of mutual recognition.

And because of this inexplicable refusal to accept the sacrifices needed for peace, it will be 30 years before the children and grandchildren of this generation launch their own intifadas. And we now wringing our hands over what to do will be too dead or old to care or remember. Like all spent generations, we pass our failures onto the unborn.

Israel is engaged in precisely the sort of bloody revenge the U.S. waged in Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11. And for all the vengeful slaughter we the people failed to prevent, for all the political upheaval and violent chaos, what did it get U.S.?

Precisely what it will get Israel: nothing but blood, suffering and ultimate defeat. And in the face of the continuing, systematic destruction of Gaza as a place fit for human habitation, generations of enemies and an indelible stain on the history of Israel and the Jewish people.

So, I guess, yeah; who gives a damn about some tahini in an upscale food store?

Joe Gannon

Easthampton

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