Thank you Bruce. Obviously you and Carol have much more experience with
each other than I have with either of you. So I won't butt in to much. I
will say that from the exchange I read, she didn't appear to be
exhibiting "hatred" in my opinion. Yet you accused her of it. You might
be right about Carol, but accusing her of hatred from comments in that
email smacks of misuse much as the term "anti-Semitic" is frequently
misused in debates. I'm sure we can agree that personal attacks aren't a
part of real dialogue so they should be avoided.
Regarding Israel, my feeling is that those who want to dedicate their
time and resources to that cause should be free to do so. As an American
Libertarian who wants peace and freedom for all people, it still seems
the fate of Israel is not the concern of the United States government.
It must be the concern of those with a personal stake in Israel as I
know you have. One thing I know for sure, the more the state gets
involved in Israeli issues, the worse the problems will get.
Your description of the intentions of the hospitality suite seems
harmless. Regardless of the value of the information being provided, I
wonder if it is appropriate to represent this special advocacy at our
Libertarian convention. Would it be appropriate for me, as an example,
to setup a hospitality suite to promote Catholic Charities, an
organization that gets 65% of its funding from the US government? What
if we were only going to discuss the validity of Catholic Charities (not
discussing the public money), the good work they do (not their expensive
failures) and to correct misunderstandings people have about Catholic
Charities and Catholic Theology.
As a Libertarian, I wouldn't prohibit such a booth, but I would worry
that others might see it as out of place. I hope that's not the case for
you. Hopefully those organizing the "Support Israel" hospitality suites
are lobbying for private contributions to benefit private organizations
and not military or financial support for the Israeli government from
the US government. As someone with Jewish ancestry, I would be less
suspicious if it were the "Support Judaism" rather than "Support Israel"
hospitality suite. As Libertarians, we encourage people to support
private individuals and organizations but never states.
Best regards,
Michael Denny
Libertarian Party of San Francisco
(415) 986-7677 x123
mike@...
www.MichaelDenny.net