American Red Cross co-sponsors hate speech

A friend with a remarkably pink blog kindly alerts me to an utterly odious situation.

QUOTE:
The Stanford Department of Drama and the Stanford Theatre Activist Mobilization Project (STAMP) are proud to announce a staged reading - the San Francisco Bay Area premiere - of the thought-provoking play, My Name is Rachel Corrie.The performances feature an impressive line-up of post-show discussion speakers including Rabbi Michael Lerner, Professor Joel Beinin, and Professor Tom Sheehan.

This event is Free & Open to the public. Please email stanfordrachelcorrie@gmail.com to reserve tickets.

My Name is Rachel Corrie is Co-Sponsored by: American Red Cross, Amnesty International, Coalition for Justice in the Middle East, Emma Goldman Society for Queer Liberation, Jewish Voice for Peace, Muslim Student Awareness Network, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, Physicians for Human Rights, Stanford Says No to War, Stanford University Students for UNICEF, and Students Confronting Apartheid by Israel.
END QUOTE.


The American Red Cross? Aren't they supposed to be 'apolitical'? Surely their sponsorship is a horrible mistake? Perhaps an agent from the other side infests a local branch of an otherwise sometimes commendable organization? And that suspicion is not entirely unfounded - the Red Cross was notorious for several decades for refusing linkage with Magen David Adom, on the spurious grounds that the Seal of Solomon, symbol of Magen David Adom (literal translation: Red Shield of David) was a religious symbol, quite unlike the cross or the crescent.

Often otherwise excellent groupss will find themselves subverted by those who would make of them mere front-organizations.

Pro-Palestinism is as much a religion as any other, and has quite as many strictures which to the skeptic seem irrational. The Red Cross may have fanatics among its ranks.I shall henceforth not contribute even one paise to their cause.

For shame, bloodsuckers, for shame.