Response to Pastor Ludwig
Richard Rosen

I found the Presbyterian statement and the letter from Drew Ludwig appropriate and I am glad they took this step. Rabbi Jacobs really was responding to other Presbyterians: the unfair label of apartheid and underlying antisemitism. While I deplore accusations that are not well founded and do indeed suggest an anti-Semitic agenda, I support their actual action: divestment of stock in the US corporations that trade with Israel

for the specific purposes of using their products in the execution of West Bank actions against Palestinians, which I believe to be impediments to progress toward a negotiated two-state solution. Although the label of apartheid is unfair, (if we accept South African apartheid as the definition of that word), it cannot be denied that tools such as divestment and boycott were effective in persuading the South African government to peaceably work toward a democratic pluralistic state, however flawed the end product may be.