Methodist Divestment - This Just In!

Methodist Divestment - This Just In!

Well the votes are in from the Methodist General Conference in Tampa.  And (what’s that phrase I’m looking for?), oh yes… BDS loses again.

At the end of the day, the votes weren’t even close.  I say “votes” because there were actually a set of ballots that made up the biggest defeat for divestment this year. 

As mentioned earlier, a large number of divestment resolutions (both pro- and anti-) came before appropriate committees last week where some were kept, some jettisoned and others combined and modified with one main divestment resolution brought to the floor.  And that resolution was substantially amended to remove language targeting Israel and replace it with calls for positive investment and peacemaking.

Needless to say, positive investment (nor peacemaking for that matter) is not something on the agenda of any self-respecting BDSer.  And so they put all their eggs into getting the majority opinion (the amended resolution) voted down and their own minority opinion (their original resolution) passed from the conference floor.  These are the votes where they lost big, with their minority report rejected and the amended (non-divestment) resolution passing by margins of 2-3:1.

I’ll have more details in the coming hours/days, but before logging out I wanted to highlight how difficult it will be for TeamBDS to spin today’s failure (for them) in any positive direction, given that they’ve been spending the last week declaring the majority opinion that passed an act of cowardice and complicity that flew in the face of human rights, Methodist doctrine and the opinions of God him/herself.  Having spent so much time painting today’s vote in such stark (and dark) colors, it will be a challenging task for them to suddenly find a silver lining. 

But I wouldn’t put it past them.

More soon.

http://www.divestthis.com/2012/05/methodist-divestment-this-just-in.html