The email came back from the owner of the “escape room” franchise. His Texas-based business was doing well and he was thrilled about the prospect of helping me open a similar venture in Israel. It was late 2014 and the escape room fad had not yet come close to peaking. Perhaps there were two rooms in Israel in the early phases of development at the time; this, compared to 300-400 rooms only three years later.
I had recently finished working as a controller at a real estate investment company. After 7.5 years in KPMG’s New York City audit practice, followed by another 7.5 as a finance division head in a prestigious orthopedic hospital, I had elected to move with my family to Israel, whereupon I obtained another controller position that I held for just under a decade. Due to, among other factors, prevailing market conditions, the office closed and I was at a crossroads.
As Billy Joel once sang, “all grown up and no place to go…. Pressure!”
I decided to take a vacation with two of my children to Dallas, Texas. A die-hard Cowboys football fan, I figured it was a good time to cross an item off my bucket list and see the stadium in which the NFL team played.
But not being otherwise familiar with the city, I searched online for things to do. Immediately, I noticed Escape the Room, something that I had never heard of previously, something that my family and I could enjoy together. As 12 people were required, though, individuals from very different backgrounds and cultures ended up participating in the activity.
We all had fun.
After returning to Israel, I faced the daunting task of finding new employment although I couldn’t help from toying with the idea of becoming an entrepreneur and starting my own escape room from scratch. But owning and operating a business was not something I had ever done. The son of two teachers and with my expertise in the fields finance and administration, the thought alone was nerve-wracking.
How would I do this?
While it appeared to be a great opportunity to get ahead of the curve on an idea with seemingly immense potential, being aware of my strengths and weaknesses I knew that it would be difficult to go it alone.
Considering my options, I realized that the best way to pull this off would be to work with someone who could guide me through the process. I therefore contacted the owner of the escape room in Texas to inform him that I was interested in spearheading a project in Israel and was hoping he could help me get it off the ground. Immediately, I was asked to call him and we spoke for over an hour. Thereafter, he promised to do everything in his power to facilitate my initiative and said he would arrange for the manager of his escape room (“Martha”) to touch base with me.
I patiently waited for a week or two and did not hear a word. I followed up a short period later and finally received an email from Martha. She told me that her boss had instructed her to be in contact and then inquired as to whom I intended to market the escape room to in Israel. Given that the activity transcends all races and religions, I explained that I would target diverse families and workgroups, the young and old, as well as perhaps even the Israel Defense Forces.
I never heard from her again.
After another short period of time, I reached out to the owner who, somewhat surprisingly, also failed to respond promptly. When he did finally get back to me his answer was to the point, albeit he was polite. Martha had made clear to him that since I could potentially market the escape room to Israeli soldiers, if he assisted in any way she would quit his company. He claimed that he could not afford this and would therefore not be helping me.
Meanwhile, this saga prevented me from getting a head-start as the escape room market in Israel was growing. At that point, there were more than 10 facilities that were either operating or in development.
And thanks to Martha, a supporter of the boycott movement against Israel who prioritized singling out and demonizing the Jewish state, a business plan that would have helped promote cooperation and coexistence between peoples was getting harder to implement.
This experience was again thrust to the forefront of my mind when Ben & Jerry’s announced that it would no longer sell its ice cream in what the company referred to as the “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” presumably a reference to the West Bank. In other words, proponents of BDS continue to attack the one and only Jewish state even as there are more than 120 other territorial disputes throughout the world.
This form of economic warfare, often cloaked in human rights sentiment and waged in the name of “social justice,” in reality has the opposite of its intended effect: namely, by perpetuating the simplistic and false “woke” narrative that Israel is an “oppressor” and the Palestinians are “victims” it serves only to reduce the probability of reconciliation and peace.
Just as my escape room (which was eventually built) provided not only employment and partnership opportunities, but also a chance for Jews, Christians and Muslims to engage with each other, so too does Ben and Jerry’s. Its product, in its own way, brings people together.
But this is apparently lost on those who go around masquerading as self-appointed high priests of social justice. It is lost on them when they apply, disseminate and defend obvious double standards when it comes to Israel, which, according to the widely accepted working definition of the IHRA, constitutes antisemitism.
Indeed, many of these people have little, if anything, to say about the far worse human rights situations in Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria.
When I opened my escape room in early 2015, it thereafter operated for 2.5 years during which there were no instances of bias, racism or any other “isms.” Accordingly, the only thing Martha succeeded in doing was to demonstrate that the BDS movement’s true goal is to challenge Israel’s right to exist, even if this risks torpedoing the chance for peace.
The hypocrisy is evident: the people most affected by BDS are those its proponents claim to want to assist. Case in point: the Palestinians alone will now be prevented from eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream while Israelis can still, if they so choose, indulge in a pint of Chocolate Fudge Brownie.
Photo by Alain Pitton/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The BDS Movement Against Israel: Harming Coexistence, Inhibiting Peace
Reading time: 6 minutes
The email came back from the owner of the “escape room” franchise. His Texas-based business was doing well and he was thrilled about the prospect of helping me open a similar venture in Israel. It was late 2014 and the escape room fad had not yet come close to peaking. Perhaps there were two rooms in Israel in the early phases of development at the time; this, compared to 300-400 rooms only three years later.
I had recently finished working as a controller at a real estate investment company. After 7.5 years in KPMG’s New York City audit practice, followed by another 7.5 as a finance division head in a prestigious orthopedic hospital, I had elected to move with my family to Israel, whereupon I obtained another controller position that I held for just under a decade. Due to, among other factors, prevailing market conditions, the office closed and I was at a crossroads.
As Billy Joel once sang, “all grown up and no place to go…. Pressure!”
I decided to take a vacation with two of my children to Dallas, Texas. A die-hard Cowboys football fan, I figured it was a good time to cross an item off my bucket list and see the stadium in which the NFL team played.
But not being otherwise familiar with the city, I searched online for things to do. Immediately, I noticed Escape the Room, something that I had never heard of previously, something that my family and I could enjoy together. As 12 people were required, though, individuals from very different backgrounds and cultures ended up participating in the activity.
We all had fun.
After returning to Israel, I faced the daunting task of finding new employment although I couldn’t help from toying with the idea of becoming an entrepreneur and starting my own escape room from scratch. But owning and operating a business was not something I had ever done. The son of two teachers and with my expertise in the fields finance and administration, the thought alone was nerve-wracking.
How would I do this?
While it appeared to be a great opportunity to get ahead of the curve on an idea with seemingly immense potential, being aware of my strengths and weaknesses I knew that it would be difficult to go it alone.
Considering my options, I realized that the best way to pull this off would be to work with someone who could guide me through the process. I therefore contacted the owner of the escape room in Texas to inform him that I was interested in spearheading a project in Israel and was hoping he could help me get it off the ground. Immediately, I was asked to call him and we spoke for over an hour. Thereafter, he promised to do everything in his power to facilitate my initiative and said he would arrange for the manager of his escape room (“Martha”) to touch base with me.
I patiently waited for a week or two and did not hear a word. I followed up a short period later and finally received an email from Martha. She told me that her boss had instructed her to be in contact and then inquired as to whom I intended to market the escape room to in Israel. Given that the activity transcends all races and religions, I explained that I would target diverse families and workgroups, the young and old, as well as perhaps even the Israel Defense Forces.
I never heard from her again.
After another short period of time, I reached out to the owner who, somewhat surprisingly, also failed to respond promptly. When he did finally get back to me his answer was to the point, albeit he was polite. Martha had made clear to him that since I could potentially market the escape room to Israeli soldiers, if he assisted in any way she would quit his company. He claimed that he could not afford this and would therefore not be helping me.
Meanwhile, this saga prevented me from getting a head-start as the escape room market in Israel was growing. At that point, there were more than 10 facilities that were either operating or in development.
And thanks to Martha, a supporter of the boycott movement against Israel who prioritized singling out and demonizing the Jewish state, a business plan that would have helped promote cooperation and coexistence between peoples was getting harder to implement.
This experience was again thrust to the forefront of my mind when Ben & Jerry’s announced that it would no longer sell its ice cream in what the company referred to as the “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” presumably a reference to the West Bank. In other words, proponents of BDS continue to attack the one and only Jewish state even as there are more than 120 other territorial disputes throughout the world.
This form of economic warfare, often cloaked in human rights sentiment and waged in the name of “social justice,” in reality has the opposite of its intended effect: namely, by perpetuating the simplistic and false “woke” narrative that Israel is an “oppressor” and the Palestinians are “victims” it serves only to reduce the probability of reconciliation and peace.
Just as my escape room (which was eventually built) provided not only employment and partnership opportunities, but also a chance for Jews, Christians and Muslims to engage with each other, so too does Ben and Jerry’s. Its product, in its own way, brings people together.
But this is apparently lost on those who go around masquerading as self-appointed high priests of social justice. It is lost on them when they apply, disseminate and defend obvious double standards when it comes to Israel, which, according to the widely accepted working definition of the IHRA, constitutes antisemitism.
Indeed, many of these people have little, if anything, to say about the far worse human rights situations in Middle East countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria.
When I opened my escape room in early 2015, it thereafter operated for 2.5 years during which there were no instances of bias, racism or any other “isms.” Accordingly, the only thing Martha succeeded in doing was to demonstrate that the BDS movement’s true goal is to challenge Israel’s right to exist, even if this risks torpedoing the chance for peace.
The hypocrisy is evident: the people most affected by BDS are those its proponents claim to want to assist. Case in point: the Palestinians alone will now be prevented from eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream while Israelis can still, if they so choose, indulge in a pint of Chocolate Fudge Brownie.
Photo by Alain Pitton/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Related
▶ What Is the Crisis at CBS News?
▶ When Journalists Cross the Line
Shawarma, Smoothies And… Starvation? New York Times Prints Most Contradictory Gaza Claims Yet
▶ Do Women and Children Really Make Up 70% of the Gaza Death Toll?
▶ Who’s Really Blocking Aid in Gaza?