Ben & Jerry on Israel: Ignorance & More Ignorance
I explain in Unf*ckology that "confirmation bias" is "our tendency to favor information that confirms what we already believe and ignore evidence that says we're wrong."
Met Ben and Jerry of Ben & Jerry's.
David Suissa writes at the Jewish Journal:
In a joint op-ed this week in The New York Times, the founders of Ben & Jerry's, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, gave their "unequivocal support" to their company's recent announcement to end business in "Occupied Palestinian Territory.""While we no longer have any operational control of the company we founded in 1978," they wrote, "we're proud of its action and believe it is on the right side of history. In our view, ending the sales of ice cream in the occupied territories is one of the most important decisions the company has made in its 43-year history."
Why do they feel so strongly about this move, given that they call themselves "supporters of the State of Israel?" Because it "aligns its business and operations with its progressive values" and advances "the concepts of justice and human rights, core tenets of Judaism."
Well, one core tenet of Judaism it does not advance is the seeking of knowledge.
Had Ben and Jerry gone beyond the one-sided clichés of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, they would have learned, for example, that the biggest enemy of the Palestinian people is their own corrupt leadership. For decades, these despots have marinated their society in Jew-hatred, while funding and glorifying terrorism and using international aid to fatten their bank accounts. It's not a coincidence that these failed leaders have rejected three Israeli peace offers that would have ended the occupation.
It makes one wonder: What incentive do Palestinian leaders have to end the occupation when they see what a useful weapon it has become? As long as they keep saying no, the international money keeps rolling in and they get to enjoy op-eds of Jews bashing the Jewish state based on "Jewish values." And they've learned through the years that as long as they refuse to end the conflict, the global anti-Israel movement will march on.
Why did Ben and Jerry not show a desire to go deeper and better understand a complicated conflict? Maybe because the messy truth didn't fit their easy narrative.
Regardless of how one feels about Israeli policies, the messy truth is that chronic Palestinian rejectionism, more than any other factor, has defined the conflict. Had Ben and Jerry done just a little homework, they would have learned that the intent to eliminate the Jewish state predates any Jewish settlements. It's a fact that when the PLO was founded in 1964 as a militant anti-Israel movement, there was not one Jewish settlement.
Let's be clear: this is about the desire to eliminate the Jews. Period.
Non-Jews in Israel like the Druze and Christian Arabs who do not seek to kill the Jews have a full place in Israeli society.
As someone once said: If the Palestinians put down their arms, there will be peace. If the Israelis do, there will be mass slaughter.
Israel trying to settle the West Bank and Palestinian officials being incompetent are not mutually exclusive.
NicoleK at August 2, 2021 5:20 AM
True enough Nic, but that still doesn't mean we have to accept moral instruction from our favorite confectioners.
Twitter crossed a new level of verification obnoxiousness a couple weeks ago, so I've decided to burn some of that same social-media energy on Reddit, specifically the Formula One forum.
Race cars! Loud fast zoomy-zoom, right? It's a subreddit for guys who like to watch traffic on teevee. You'd think that there'd be no room for pretentious moralizing and woke posturing.
But it's become a colorful, beflowered playground of BLM & gay rights groupthink, with wounded, self-righteous provincials squealing in self-regard.
On the one had it's kind of cool, because F1 travels to some not-great places for social awareness, places like China, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and (this year) Saudi Arabia.
But it would be so nice to have some refuge beyond books published
Crid at August 2, 2021 6:46 AM
Israel trying to settle the West Bank and Palestinian officials being incompetent are not mutually exclusive.
NicoleK at August 2, 2021 5:20 AM
You forgot corrupt. Amazing how when a government respects individual property rights and the rule of law, it doesn’t have to get into collectivist ethnicity baiting about what group is entitled to what.
Isab at August 2, 2021 6:47 AM
…beyond books published pre-2015.
Fergot the the less-than sign was a protocol violation.
Crid at August 2, 2021 6:48 AM
No, but Israel is a growing nation with growing affluence. People in such nations tend to want space. The Palestinians are not an affluent people - by their own choice.
While a hard-working people, this is not a culture that has embraced modernity. No Israeli sanctions or violent reaction to attack has condemned the Palestinians to live in squalor. Their own embrace of a backward-looking religion and a terrorist group worldview has left them behind as the world advances.
I would bet that, like the West Germans in the '90s and the South Koreans, hopefully a few years from now, the Palestinian Arabs living in Israel will find themselves more advanced and better educated than their countrymen who lived across the border, the Israeli Arabs having had access to democracy, education, and a modern technological infrastructure.
Can the Palestinians pull themselves up from the gutter? Yes. The South Koreans did. In 1950, both Korea and "Palestine" were split after emerging from long periods of foreign occupation and poverty. Both regarded the split as hostile. Both went through long periods of brutal dictatorship and violence. South Korea today is a democratic mainstay of the global economy, boasting such international business conglomerates as Hyundai, LG, Hanwha, Samsung, and Kia.
In the same period of time in which the Koreans were learning to make electronics, appliances, and automobiles - while building a nation - the Palestinians concentrated on learning to make pipe bombs. The Israelis, on the other side of the border and with the same natural resources, built a nation, along with global companies in banking, pharmaceuticals, and computer software.
Palestinian poverty is not Israel's fault, but the fault of the Palestinian culture and political leadership. The solution for the Palestinians is not to blow up Israel, but to build a nation by and for themselves. Their political leadership is receiving billions in foreign aid. The money for nation-building is there. The will is not.
"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings"
Conan the Grammarian at August 2, 2021 7:11 AM
Linked this from Chua last week for Coney, paraphrase: Americans are weirdly blind (and willfully arrogant) to the implications of ethnicity.
Israelis can't afford such delusion. While many Israelis mumble annoyance for Ashkenazi dominance of politics and culture, it 'just so happens' that that's where the brains are.
Crid at August 2, 2021 7:30 AM
It's funny, Conan. You lay out such a clear case for the advantages of democratic governance and capitalism with two excellent examples. This information is out there for everyone to see and we continue to have these ridiculous debates about how to lift countries out of poverty and despotism.
causticf at August 2, 2021 7:39 AM
Yes, causticf, but putting aside centuries of cultural influence is not easily done. Embracing the unknown does not come readily to most people, especially when to do so means crossing one's own cultural and ethnic norms.
Also, Crid brings up a great point with the Amy Chua interview. When a small segment of the population prospers from its embrace of modernity and change, it can create resentment and hostility in the majority.
I had a discussion with my uncle recently about the movie The Corn is Green wherein Bette Davis plays a woman who sets up a school to educate the benighted Welsh. Wales was a poor segment of the United Kingdom and the Welsh were dominated by the more numerous, industrious, and prosperous English. Every developing country has a segment of the population that has not embraced modernity. When that segment is a minority, its condition can be ameliorated with welfare and government programs. When it constitutes a majority or significant percentage, hostilities can erupt.
As Chua points out, the US was accustomed to the white, northern-European majority being the prosperous tribe, so animosities were kept under a cover of the country being prosperous overall. As these less-prosperous minorities grew in size and proportion to the majority, the economic differential became more pronounced and divisive, exaggerating resentments and hostility. The ones that could readily fit their way into the majority did so - i.e., the Italians, the Irish, the Jewish, etc. The ones that could not had a harder time of it.
We like to point out that the opportunity to prosper in the US is there for all; and it is. However, moving from the less-properous tribal mindset to the more-prosperous tribal mindset is difficult enough. When you include racial and ethnic differences, the journey becomes an arduous one.
Anyone making that journey will find himself a stranger in a strange land, an obvious outsider to both his new tribe and his old one. Sometimes it's easier to blend in with the group you're already in than to stand out and make a target of one's self.
Conan the Grammarian at August 2, 2021 8:07 AM
There is truth to your point but I think that it may be less than we sometimes think. I live in South Texas in a community that is 65% hispanic. Yes, there are cultural differences but for the most part people work together and believe in the American system. I'm not saying there is no ethnic strife but it is not nearly as prevalent as I have observed in African or South American countries. It has worsened in recent years due mainly in my opinion to the media highlighting certain eventts over others and pushing the narrative of strife.
causticf at August 2, 2021 8:28 AM
"Wales was a poor segment of the United Kingdom and the Welsh were dominated by the more numerous, industrious, and prosperous English."
Thus explaining my (Irish) great-grandpa's take on this. He used to tell me, "Lynnie, it goes like this: the Irish hate the English. The English hate the Scots. The Scots hate the Welsh, and the Welsh hate 'em all!"
That said, Conan, there are some who have made that journey, and they're doing just fine. The media has been bought and paid for by people who are foaming at the mouth in anticipation of a race war here in the US. I just hope there are enough of us who can cut through the bullshit and set a good example of people who just want to live in peace.
Flynne at August 2, 2021 9:22 AM
Kinda like the old saying:
The British Isles is made up of four nations:
The Scots, who kept the Sabbath and everything else they could lay their hands on.
The Welsh, who prayed on their knees; and their neighbors.
The Irish, who did not know what the they wanted, but were willing to fight anyone for it.
And the English, who considered themselves to be a self-made race – thereby relieving the Almighty of a terrible responsibility.
Conan the Grammarian at August 2, 2021 9:36 AM
That's about right, I guess!
Flynne at August 2, 2021 9:53 AM
She LIVES!
Crid at August 2, 2021 1:19 PM
Diaspora Jews have spent a long time preaching to white Americans and Europeans about the evils of racism and colonialism. Anyone who actually believes in these values will see Israel as a white supremacist colonial state conquered from an oppressed population of indigenous brown people. I agree with Amy that Ben and Jerry's and other BDS supporters are ultimately calling for the destruction of the Jewish people (even if they don't know it). But then again why should anyone care? After all my guess is that Amy does not have much sympathy for British people who want to keep Britain British or white Americans who want America to stay the 90% white country it has been for most of it's history.
GuyJewish at August 2, 2021 1:22 PM
Two weird guys who were good at making and selling ice cream ... and we think they have a worthwhile viewpoint about a complex international conflict? Of course they are entitled to it, but why should anyone pay attention?
Real Vermonters aren't that fond of Ben and Jerry, but they do like ice cream. The invading trust fund flatlanders worship them of course.
ruralcounsel at August 2, 2021 3:18 PM
Things are a little more interesting when you look at the wider picture. Ben & Jerry's isn't an independent company. They are owned by Proctor & Gamble. Now that one part of P&G is taking concrete action against Israel the other brands P&G own are open to legal action by the state of Israel (and possibly other nations). So Tide, Crest, Dove, etc. are all part of this too.
Ben at August 3, 2021 5:21 AM
"She LIVES!"
I do indeed, Cridmeister! How've you been? I had a job for a while but now I'm semi-retired. And I have a grandbaby, courtesy of my younger daughter! Autumn Genevieve. She was born Sept 14th last year, the day after my mom passed. It's been a hell of a time. Lost my nephew in January to an accidental fentanyl overdose. And my older daughter is getting married in October. Busy, busy, busy! Life goes on, doesn't it?
Missed y'all!
Flynne at August 3, 2021 5:31 AM
Think B&J was bought by Unilever.
Much to the chagrin of the granola crunchy crowd.
ruralcounsel at August 3, 2021 8:01 PM
Appears to be rural. Either way for the owner this is a legal problem that can go beyond B&J.
https://nypost.com/2021/07/23/ny-pension-fund-puts-unilever-on-notice-for-ben-jerrys-sales-ban/
Ben at August 4, 2021 7:27 AM
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