Divestment

The tents remain on many campuses, despite the hurt feelings of a few Jewish students. The demand is divestment, insisting these universities pull all investments out of Israel. The old pocket-book approach. The cynic in me wonders how much this would pressure or hurt Israel but what is more inspiring is the general shift in zeitgeist. Israel enjoyed immunity from any sort of criticism for so long that this could signal real change. The other question is whether students/ youth will link this struggle to others and begin to see the need for system change. I worry that we will see a repeat of Occupy- first the tents, then the floundering over "leadership" and what to do next. They will enter into "discussions" with those in power and be shown the reality of sausage making. Then come the compromises. Of course corporate America does not sit idly by. It takes money to go to an Ivy League school and students have to be thinking of carreers. So these are not idle threats. As Darren Woods, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, said of campus protests in an interview with CNBC this week: “If that action or those protests reflect the values of the campuses where they’re doing it, we wouldn’t be interested in recruiting students from those campuses.” Meanwhile, the world watches as Rafa is attacked and the U.S. continues to antagonize China and the global temperature continues to rise.