Vote No on 5 and 6

[philipjmoss.livejournal.com]

I wanted to briefly share with you all my top 4 reasons for voting no on ballot questions 5 and 6 pertaining to refugee return and divestment from Israel.

1.) Its bad for Somerville, particularly the city’s elderly-

The city of Somerville doesn’t actually own any Israel bonds or stock in the companies that are targeted by the ballot questions. Rather, the investments in question are in the retirement fund of former city employees. The chairman of the retirement board has spoken out against the measures saying that they will prevent the city from making the best investments to insure the fiscal safety of the retirees’ pensions. His letter can be found here

http://www.townonline.com/somerville/opinion/view.bg?articleid=602304

2.) SDP are mostly out of town extremists, not local peace advocates-

The Somerville Divestment Project (SDP) which has put the questions on the ballot are primarily a group of extremist who don’t care about peace. Their own website contains an article by SDP leader Ron Francis which defends Hamas, a terrorist organization which has intentionally killed over 500 civilians including 27 Americans, as being unfairly maligned by the media. At last Saturday’s SDP event, I received a handout from senior SDP member David Rolde which stated that the atrocities in Darfur were not a genocide but were a plot by America and Zionists to distract attention from Israel. During the last divestment campaign, Joachim Martillo- a prominent SDP organizer- distributed fliers in Davis Square that stated, “the Jews want to send your children to Iraq to die for Israel”. In short, the list of extremist and bigoted remarks and activities that SDP has engaged in goes on and on.


3.) The resolutions reek of hypocrisy-

In question 5, SDP demands that Israel allow all Palestinian refugees to return, but they disregard the larger population of Arab Jews who were violently displaced from their homes during the same period. Likewise, rather than write a resolution that calls for responsible or ethical investment across the board, they choose to single out Israel. Granted, Israel does not have a perfect human rights record, but for all its faults, it remains a multi-racial, multi-religious, democracy that upholds rights to free speech, religion, gender and sexuality. To single out Israel whose human rights record is more comparable to the United States or France, while allowing investment in companies that do business in Darfur or Burma is incredibly hypocritical.

4.) All local officials oppose questions 5 and 6-
Even if you have a “throw the bums out” attitude when it comes to our government. There is something to be said that Deval Patrick, Rep. Capuano, Mayor Curtatone, Kerry Healy, and a former Green Party candidate for governor of Massachusetts all endorse voting no on 5 and 6.\

Thank you for reading my thoughts on the matter. If anyone has questions or wants to talk more about the questions I'll try to be available by email up until the election (as time permits).

(philipjmoss at hotmail.com)

Comments

Counterpoints, and you have no sources

[elve12.livejournal.com]

You have not mentioned your sources. It appears you are referring to http://www.divestmentproject.org/media_bias.shtml (http://www.divestmentproject.org/media_bias.shtml) for Ron Francis's bit on Hamas and http://www.somervilleantidivestment.com/spotts/speaks.html (http://www.somervilleantidivestment.com/spotts/speaks.html) for the "No" endorsements. You make it very difficult to argue against your claims when there are no sources by which to verify them. ... Even the Somerville Coalition for Middle East Peace site that you vaguely reference does a lousy job of citing sources (and if they are the primary source, they do a lousy job of mentioning that).

I can't find any primary sources for Deval Patrick, Kerry Healey, or Capuano going one way or another on the issues of Palestine or the "Right to Return." This is largely because this isn't a local issue, but one would still expect more than one source to carry such information. In fact, the only support I can find for that site's claims is in Mayor Curtatone's views a year ago [Jewish Advocate (http://www.thejewishadvocate.com/this_weeks_issue/news/?content_id=366)]. For those of you that know about Google's advanced search options, here's a search for all of that at once (http://news.google.com/news?q=Healey+%7C+Deval+%7C+Capuano+right-to-return+%7C+Palestine).

Counterpoints from somebody who has yet to decide on the issue:

1.) The Somerville Divestment Project states "Somerville currently invests $1.2 million dollars in companies that supply military equipment and arms to Israel and an additional $250,000 in Israel Bonds through the city Retirement Board ... Israel is the only country that Somerville invests in through national bonds." in its Investing 101 (http://www.divestmentproject.org/somerville_investing_101.shtml) page (I could not find other sources on this).

2.) Do you have a source on this matter? That's a very strong allegation, and there certainly IS a lot of media spin on the topic ... one can't help but notice that while Hamas performed and supported terrorist acts that killed Israelis, Israel's military also bombed the southern portion of Lebanon, causing a similarly high number of civilian casualties and leaving hundreds of live cluster bombs in city streets [BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5299938.stm)].

3.) "Israel does not have a perfect human rights record, but for all its faults, it remains a multi-racial, multi-religious, democracy that upholds rights to free speech, religion, gender and sexuality." ... that is quite debated. The whole argument is that Israel is discriminating against Muslims.

4.) Ignoring the fact that I can't verify your list, here is a short verified list of supporters for a "Yes" vote:

• Jimmy Carter (http://news.google.com/news?q=Jimmy+Carter+Palestine)
• Massachusetts Green/Rainbow Party (http://www.green-rainbow.org/Statements/palestine.html)
• National Green Party (http://www.gp.org/position/palestinian_rally.shtml)
• National Lawyers Guild (http://www.mengos.net/articles/specialdocuments/nlg-resolution.htm)

I am undecided ... I see merits in going either way, and my current thought is to abstain.

Re: Counterpoints, and you have no sources

[philipjmoss.livejournal.com]

Elve, thanks for the comments.

The endorsements from Deval Patrick etc can be found on the anti-divestment website www.somervillepeace.org

Re: Counterpoints, and you have no sources

[elve12.livejournal.com]

www.somervillepeace.org and www.somervilleantidivestment.com are the same site under different domain names (same IP, too), identifying as "Somerville Coalition for Middle East Peace." As I stated above, that site "does a lousy job of citing sources (and if they are the primary source, they do a lousy job of mentioning that)."

I was asking for an outside verification of those quotes or some bit on their site that indicates that they were in direct contact with those individuals.

Re: Counterpoints, and you have no sources

[philipjmoss.livejournal.com]

I guess you could call their respective campaign offices

Re: Counterpoints, and you have no sources

[elve12.livejournal.com]

That defeats my point. The candidates referenced on your group's site are mostly in the news a good amount, and their websites are filled with information about where they stand on dozens of issues. The fact that neither their websites nor any news sites have any mention of these endorsements means that the candidates aren't particularly proud of these decisions.

Re: Counterpoints, and you have no sources

[ron_newman]

Considering that these two issues are on the ballot only in half of one city, I would not expect Mike Capuano or Deval Patrick or Kerry Healey to devote any space on their own websites to them.

Re: Counterpoints, and you have no sources

[elve12.livejournal.com]

Divestment and Right to Return are national issues more than they are local ones, and I was under the impression other cities have similar questions on their ballots.

That aside, I was also referring to coverage in local papers like the Somerville News, The Somerville Journal, The Bridge, or perhaps a bigger paper like the Globe, Herald, or Phoenix.

questions 5 and 6 are only in (half of) Somerville

[ron_newman]

To my knowledge, these two questions are on the ballot ONLY in the half of Somerville currently represented by Denise Provost, and NOT in any of the state's other 159 legislative districts.

Any 200 voters can petition to put any non-binding advisory referendum they want on any state legislative district's ballot. Question 4, which calls for withdrawal of troops from Iraq, is on the ballot in many (but not all) districts throughout the state.