The Boycott Brawl
• Foreign Ministry: We can’t fight against European boycotts
• Hmmmm. The New York state senate passed a bill that would ban state funding to academic institutions that support a boycott of Israel.
• SodaStream CEO David Birnbaum discussed the publicity with The Independent.
• Down the road from the SodaStream is another factory which the PA is targeting for boycott. Oddly enough, the Shweiki glass factory is Arab-owned, reports Haaretz.
“As Arabs, we get it from both ends,” gripes Owweida. “I want to sell my stuff in the West Bank, and nobody will buy from me there.”
• You know the boycott issue is gaining traction when AFP simply rounds up several of the above-mentioned issues in one dispatch.
• Oxfam’s snit with Scarlett Johansson will deter future celebrity charity work. The Independent on Sunday explains why:
He added: “The biggest asset that Scarlett Johansson has is her fame, and if people like her are scared of using their fame to make the world a better place, no one wins . . .
Mr Nielson thinks the charity could now struggle to recruit celebrities, saying that it is “unrealistic” for any charity to expect celebrity supporters to agree with it on everything. “It’s not as if Johansson was working with Oxfam on the West Bank issue; she was working with them on extreme poverty. Do you have to agree with an NGO on all issues in the world in order to work with it on one issue?” he added.
• Heh: The Christian Science Monitor lists 10 brands you’ll have to give up if you’re boycotting Israel, including McDonalds. Who knew?
• For more commentary/analysis, see staff-eds in the NY Daily News, NY Post, and a classic case of European myopia in the form of a Financial Times staff-ed (click via Google News). See also Jonathan Tobin, Brendan O’Neill, Robyn Urback, Michael Rosen, Eli Hazan, Brian Lilley, YNet, and uber-boycotter Roger Waters. Last but not least, the Sunday NY Times gave op-ed space to both Omar Barghouti and Hirsh Goodman to weigh in on BDS.
Arab Spring Winter
• An Al-Qaida offshoot in the Sinai claimed responsibility for a missile attack on Eilat. Saturday’s rocket fire was intercepted by an Iron Dome battery. AFP took a closer look at Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem).
• Meet “Anat,” a 46-year-old Israeli woman who has entered Syria to delivere 1,200 tons of food and aid. Why does she do do it? “Anat” told The Daily Beast:
“Nobody asks permission to kill, we don’t ask permission to save lives,” she says.
• Bashar Assad can’t be happy with the Wall St. Journal. A report (via Google News) and staff-ed (also via Google News) say Damascus is dragging its feet on dismantling chemical weapons.
• Natan Sharansky discussed a number of human rights dilemmas raised by the peace process, Arab Spring, African migrants, and the Obama administration’s foreign policy.
• Worth reading: Ehud Ya’ari on Israel’s Growing Role in Southern Syria
(Image of Bank HaPoalim via Wikimedia Commons/Djampa, Sharansky via YouTube/cyberdissidentsorg)
For more, see Thursday’s Israel Daily News Stream.
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