G-d bless Israel.

God bless unions!

Your first sub post-er has it wrong. UE doesn't wire houses, the IBEW does. That poster would probably go non-union, anyhow.

But not terrorists.

I back J Street, NIF, the 2 State solution. Rabin was right, and Amir 'the lone nut' was intimately involved with Israel's far right, and Netanyahu and Likud can go pound sand.

The NLRB decision is correct. Foreign governments have no standing to try to enforce their will on American workers and American unions, even a close ally that is temporarily being run by scumbags.

UE wires electronic equipment, radios, machines, not homes. That's IBEW, or non-union electricians. My union rarely gets into wiring individual houses, we're less able to cut rates than non-union outfits are. There are plenty of good non-union inside wire people, though.

The IBEW hasn't weighed in on BDS, but as a rank and file member, I back it. Good call from the NLRB. I'm glad the repugs weren't able to torpedo it for Prez Obama's entire 2 terms in office. And it was really nice of Netanyahu to try to interfere in our '12 prez election, on behalf of the repugs. Much appreciated.

jstreet and nif don't support bds

http://jstreet.org/policy/pages/boycott-divestment-and-sanctions-bds

http://www.nif.org/about/selected-policies/#14

Rabin's political heirs don't support BDS.

Unions are critically important for helping people who work have decent lives in our economy. Otherwise, owners (who are basically unions of capitalists) have an unfair advantage and take everything. But that doesn't mean I would support unions desire to keep certain minorities out, for example.

It would be a mistake for you to claim that I mischaracterized their position on BDS. And I back the 2 State solution, like they do. How to get there is the issue, but no solution will come from the current hard right junta. I'd like to see Ben-Ami, Beinert, Blumenthal, and Krugman have a free-wheeling forum on Pro-Israel, Pro-Peace, BDS, and the 2 State solution. (Not trying to be sexist in my choice of those 4 guys, I've just seen interactions between all of those people who I find to be admirable thinkers in sets of two on the issues, where they disagreed tactically with each other.)

With more illegal settlement building by the current 'zealous' Israeli leaders, I definitely will refuse to buy products from those settlements, because I'm not helping subsidize this crazy exercise in making more enemies who have legit gripes. A boycott is a good union move, a good civil rights move, and is effective. And I'll lobby for divestment and sanctions to help make the rock headed hard liners see the error of their ways because, as an ally that wants our equipment and logistical backing, they sure do seem to have gone broken arrow on us.

And I would never wish harm to Rabin's political heirs, but I'll do what I think is right, as I know they do. There is no litmus test for correct thought on our side, there just is one on the right wing's side. J Street and NIF are a welcome answer to AIPAC for me, AIPAC has disgusted me with their support for crazy apocalyptic fundy 'christian' US pols. But I never signed on to agree lockstep with them on tactics and advocacy.

And there is racism in US unions, some rank and file, some institutional. You're right, there. Their membership should be reflective of the population demographics of the labor markets they represent, and more should be done to include women equally, as well.

On edit, I do appreciate your 2 links. Point 3 of J Street's amplifies the kind of BDS they do support. And so does NIF in the 4th sentence of their #14 policy position statement. It's the difference between global(general) BDS with some anti-semitic elements who I don't want to be involved with, and BDS against the illegal settlements.

The CWAs and their associated IBEWs (not my local) were wearing red shirts, collar instead of Ts and Verizon management sent this big beefy guy wearing a red collar shirt into the crowd. Due to his camoflage I didn't know he wasn't some rank and filer at first, then he started talking to me, and he was pushing right wing crap on every issue we discussed. Finally we got around to Israel and he started badmouthing the country. I already knew where he was coming from by then, but I tested my theory out by saying 'You mean you're mad about what's happening to the Palestinians', which momentarily confused him, but he then said he didn't give a s**t about them. He just hated Israel. He hated Jews. He was a bircher, and was working for management to threaten the unions. So I just said to him 'Oh, you're anti-semitic. Well, this is America, you're free to talk about your beliefs if you want.' He started gibbering, gesticulating and yelling, not saying that he was upset about being called anti semitic, or saying he wasn't against Jewish people,just yelling that it WAS his right to say what he wanted. He wandered off yelling into the demonstrators, just trying to sew some fear into the union people, who had quite a large number of physically fit rank and filers among them, and weren't afraid at all. I just went back to facing the traffic with my sign, helping chant when the CWAs started chanting, cheering when pro-union people gave frequent horn honks of support.

Too bad for him that his corporate masters just recently lost their fight.

I think you can like Israel, Palestinians, and unions. None of them are mutually exclusive.

The anti-BDS laws that have been passed in several states won't stand up to a legal challenge. Besides, the only function of these laws is to protect the settlements from criticism. All these anti-BDS laws define the territories occupied by Israel as part of Israel.

If some people don't want to promote the settlements or the treatment of the occupied population, they should be allowed to do so.