A (Small) Victory for Capitalism – and Israel

David Halper
The Weekly Standard
06 December '10

Mark this down as another win for capitalism – and Israel, too. Recently, on the Princeton University campus, a student-led referendum sought to urge “Dining Services to provide an alternative brand to Sabra hummus in retail locations on campus,” according to the Daily Princetonian. The measure failed by a vote of 1,014 to 699.

The student daily reports:

Yoel Bitran ’11, president of the Princeton Committee on Palestine, which sponsored the referendum, said in an e-mail that he was excited by the high amount of student support despite the referendum’s defeat. “The main goal of this initiative was to raise awareness about Sabra and its association to Israel’s human rights violations,” he said. “In that sense we have been extremely successful.” Bitran added that PCP still hopes to convince the University to provide an alternative hummus.

PCP had sponsored the referendum as part of a larger boycott campaign against The Strauss Group, which owns 50 percent of Sabra Dipping Company and has financially and publicly supported the Golani Brigade of the Israeli Defense Forces. Members of the brigade have been accused of human rights abuses against Palestinians.

It’s a victory for capitalism because, well, there just aren’t too many other brands of mass-produced hummus as tasty as Sabra’s. A vote against Sabra would’ve been a vote, most likely, for an inferior brand of hummus.

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Rundown on the Silencing of Darwish at Princeton

"Under God's power she flourishes."

AS
CAMERA/Snapshots
30 December 09

A few weeks after Nonie Darwish, Egyptian, former Muslim and founder of Arabs for Israel, was prevented from speaking at Princeton University, Princeton's Conservative paper, The Princeton Tory, published a piece detailing what caused the last minute cancellation of Darwish's lecture.

Imam Sohaib Sultan, Muslim Life Coordinator and Chaplain at Princeton University, took offense at quotes he attributed to Nonie Darwish and felt she attacked all of Islam in her presentations. Comparing Darwish to a "neo-Nazi," Sultan called on the sponsors to reexamine the invitation, and they did.

Writing in the Tory, Aaron Smargon ’11 observed:

Sadly, if only [those opposed to Darwish's appearance at Princeton] had listened to even twenty seconds of Nonie Darwish's prepared speech, they may have learned something: "I want to stress that I am not here to offend the good and peace-loving Muslims; but I am speaking out and trying to expose horrific human rights violations in Muslim countries, allowed under Sharia law. How can we ignore suppression of freedoms of speech and religion, and the demonizing of whole groups of people such as Jews and Christians in the Middle East?"

A Nov. 23, 2009 letter to the Daily Princetonian, co-authored by CAMERA's Aviva Slomich, defended Nonie Darwish's right to speak on campus:

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