YOU MAY HAVE SEEN THE EMAIL about San Francisco’s Rainbow Food Cooperative boycotting Israel. The Rainbow Food Cooperative sure has, and it’s an interesting lesson about the power of the Internet to spread the word:

Yes, the store has a right to wage a boycott, just as consumers have a right to boycott the store.

Zimmerman noted that the Rainbow brigade is now learning “that it’s not a free ride, and I think that’s a good thing.”

The odd thing is, for one year, there was a free ride. The boycotters heaped scorn on a small democracy fighting for its life, and no one said peep. No one asked if they were outraged at suicide bombers who deliberately kill Israeli children. No one challenged them to explain how they could say they are boycotting for freedom, without boycotting the oppressive financiers of violent Palestinians.

They had a free ride. They could feel superior and pure, hyping “freedom for the Palestinians and all people.” Except they didn’t really mean that part about “all people.”

The Internet ended that free ride, as it’s ending a lot of others. Which is why so many people are nostalgic for the days before it existed.