Adalah-New York was understandably upset that Susan Sarandon went shopping at the grand opening of Leviev, the jewelry store owned by a Russian/Israeli Jew who has backed the settlements in the West Bank. Adalah wrote her a letter, asking her to cut her ties with the store. Sarandon’s people emailed them back. “We received the information you sent. Ms. Sarandon will do her own exploration on this topic before drawing any conclusions.” Adalah is saying happily that Sarandon is "exploring" the character of the store. This is absurd. No one needs to do an "exploration"; support for the settlements is patently offensive, as offensive as support for Jim Crow in the ’60s. Sarandon, a leftwinger, should join the outcry, and try to redeem the New York liberal establishment on this question.
Something else. Why do we call them settlements? The writer Dan Swanson points out that this is an Orwellian phrase. They are "colonies." "If these aren’t colonies, what are? Any construction across the Green Line, in direct violation of Res. 242…" Yet to call them colonies is to place oneself out of the mainstream discourse. That’s what makes it Orwellian. Yet we have accepted the innocent euphemism, a linguistic victory for the other side…
