REBELS FOR THE WRONG CAUSE

One of the encouraging signs for those who dream of social justice in this nation in the past few years was the reemergence of campus activism. Campaigns against sweatshop labor and for a living wage for campus employees were focused, effective and avoided the narcissism of what passed for student activism before. In a disturbing trend however, the campus left has now gathered behind a new initiative - divestment from Israel. The model is the successfull campaign against South Africa's apartheid regime in the 1980s. Despite the evils of a woefully underfunded urban education system, disturbing new findings about racial disparity in health care, and an administration that lets energy companies design conservation policy, these lost souls have been duped into lobbying for the twenty-third Arab despotism. It seems that myopia on the left is just getting worse. First, they can't tell the difference between Gore and Bush. Now, they can't tell the difference between Mandela and Arafat.

The American Prospect's take on divestment.