Susannah Levin Quit her Job at Ben and Jerry: Is She Making a Mistake?

I fear this nice woman may have made a terrible mistake. Ben and Jerry is CONTINUING to sell ice cream in Israel. The only inconvenience for Jews is that those living in settlements will now need to drive a few minutes into Israel to purchase their ice cream. This is something to quit about?

What is really bothering her?

As the great Joshua Shanes tell us a boycott of the West Bank IS NOT the same as a boycott of Israel itself, and we should not equate the two.

Because if you do equate the two, you're putting yourself in a bit of a moral predicament. Here's why:

When people accuse Israel of being an apartheid state, the correct and popular reply is this: The West Bank is the problem, and the West Bank is not part of Israel; however...

When you sit shiva over boycotts of the West Bank, such as this one, you're confessing that you do not actually believe that the West Bank is not part of Israel. And if you say the West Bank is really and truly part of Israel you're also saying the the detractors are correct when they accuse Israel of apartheid.

If you think the Ben and Jerry boycott is something to cry about, by necessity, you also must think that Israel is not a democracy. If you think this boycott of the West Bank alone, constitutes a boycotts of Israel itself you make it impossible to defend Israel against accusations of apartheid. 

So which is it true believers?