Opuscula Anti-Semitism Is many things To many people

EVERYONE KNOWS WHAT CONSTITUTES “ANTI-SEMITISM.”

Yes ◻     No ◻

Perhaps the statement should be: Everyone THINKS they know what constitutes “anti-Semitism.”

IS IT “ANTI-SEMITIC” to criticize Israel? Israeli Jews do it all the time, even so-called “orthodox” Jews have issues with modern Israel and its government.

As with most criticisms, it is wise to have an answer to a situation other than “throw out the bast*rds.

Is it “anti-Semitic to criticize a Jew?

Jews criticize Jews all the time. If you consider Bernie Sanders a Jew, then politically conservative Jews almost constantly criticize the man. Politically conservative Jews are quick to criticize politically liberal Jews, i.e., Democrats. Most do NOT, however, refer to the others as “nazis” or racists, but it has been known to be said by leftists, both Jewish and non-Jewish..

Jews are not exactly xeonophobic, but sometimes . . .

Black hats look with disdain on clean-shaven and kippa-less Jews who look at bearded, kippa-wearing and tzit-tzit dangling Jews as “extremists.”

There ARE some crazies among us — the harideem who stand along a roadside on Shabat and throw rocks at passing vehicles and those who strung a chain across a major Bnai Brak thoroughfare sans warning; the chain decapitated a scooter driver on Shabat.

These are Muslim tactics and they are rare among most Jews in Israel and elsewhere.

There is much to criticize in Israel. Not all Jews are treated fairly; nor are all Israeli Arabs.

Legal immigrant integration

New legal immigrants are not as quickly integrated into society as possible; read: As quickly as leftists would like.

To be fair — but who wants to be fair? — there are new immigrant integration issues everywhere. But what other country makes as much of an effort to integrate legal immigrants as Israel? (Personal experience.)¹

Netanyahu seems, or perhaps now “seemed,” to be “King for Life,” taking cabinet positions (“portfolios”) for himself if the incumbent displeased him.

Is criticizing Netanyahu either anti-Semitic or anti-Israel or even anti-Likud? Today’s Likud is hardly Begin’s Likud.

Is it anti-American to criticize President Trump? The Democrats and other leftists have been doing that, relentlessly, since Trump took office.

Is it anti-American to criticize laws passed that impact one group’s rights in favor of another? Hardly.

Do Muslims complain of discrimination in the U.S.? Silly question. Muslims complain of discrimination everywhere that they are less than a majority.

Yet, there are many Muslims in Israel who prefer Israel to life in PLO or Hamas-controlled areas.

Two — or three — state solution

Is it anti-anything if a person is for — or against — a “two state solution?” How about a three state solution: Israel, Jordan,, and Egypt. It might work except that Egypt won’t absorb Gaza with its Hamas/Islamic Jihad crazies and Jordan has all the “Palestinians” it can suffer. Gaza once was part of Egypt and the so-called “West Bank” was controlled by Jordan, “back in the day.”

When “Palestine” was ruled from Amman, there was no talk of a state independent of Jordan. Likewise, does anyone recall the residents of Gaza seeking independence from Egypt?

That, of course, is conveniently forgotten. Likewise forgotten is that the PLO’s first leader (Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Hussein² ) was not “Palestinian” or even Jordanian, but Egyptian.

Also forgotten is the time when Lebanon “shared” Mt. Hermon and shelled Israeli civilians or the Katusha’s from Lebanon that fell on Zefat. (Personal experience.)

Critics can’t see own image

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the folks who criticize Israel is their blindness to all other countries less than ideal Human Rights practices.

One major talking point on which the anti-Israel groups harp is Israel’s so-called “occupation” of “Arab” lands.

Consider for a moment that no matter where an American lives in the U.S., he or she is on land taken — usually by force of arms — from the indigenous population, a population, incidentally, that was warehoused in ghettos, a/k/a reservations. America’s treatment of American Indians was far worse than anything Israel has done to Muslims.

The same applies for most countries. Russia recently took Crimea from the Ukraine as the world watched — and did nothing.

Ah, but Russia is not Israel.

Is it anti-Russian to remind the Russian government that it “stole” the Crimea?

Who does BDS hurt?

The anti-Israel folks who promote Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel hurt the people (residents of PLO areas) more than they hurt Israel.

They drove out Soda Stream, a company that employed Muslims from the so-called West Bank and paid them at the same rate as Jews. Sans Soda Stream, the former employees are financially worse off. (Arabs in southern Israel gained from the BDS effort; THEY now have jobs their kin in the north lost.)

Israel is training PLO-area residents in high tech so they can improve their communities’ economies.

BDS’ raison d'être, no less than Iran’s, is to destroy Israel.

If it did, the UN would have to close out at least two “Palestinian-specific” welfare programs: United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and United Nations Development Programme's Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People.

Gaza, incidentally, with cooperation from the Israeli government, is shipping record amounts of strawberries to England as well as to the PLO territories.

When Israel, under Ariel Sharon, forced Jewish farmers out of Gaza in 2005, the Muslims destroyed most of the greenhouses and infrastructure left by the departing Jews. It has taken more than a decade of foreign funding to restore what was destroyed in 2005.

Palestinians harvest strawberries at their farm in the northern Gaza Strip, March 5, 2007. Photo: Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Bottom line

The bottom line is that most of the people who are anti-Israel have no first hand experience with Israel, Gaza, or the PLO-controlled areas. This includes the anti-Israel representatives in the U.S. House who, despite Israel allowing them entry to the PLO areas, declined the opportunity.³

People who DO know first hand what goes on in Israel can criticize the country’s government — but not the people; they are as diverse as the people in the U.S. — after taking a look at their own history and after looking at other countries around the globe.

People also can criticize Jews for being “clannish” or a bit “xenophobic” — and why not, given the centuries of persecution for their belief or ancestry — but tarring all Jews with the same broad brush is a sign or ignorance.

The true anti-Jew — Arabs also are Semites so “anti-Semite” is not accurate unless these people also hate Arabs — DOES know a Jew is a Jew is a Jew, regardless of level of observance, where the person lives, what he or she eats (or avoids), or with what political party the person affiliates (e.g., Democrat=Good Jew, Republican=Bad Jew — or maybe it is the other way around).

Ignorance.

The hallmark of a bigot.

Sources

1. Immigration: https://tinyurl.com/t5vgtmz

2. PLO leader: https://tinyurl.com/rrk2cdh

3. Rep. Tlaib: https://tinyurl.com/y6obleb2

עינים להם ולא יראו * אזנים להם ולא יאזנו

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

Opuscula Airline ranker Partner with BDS?

 

ISRAEL HAS 15 air carriers. Most are domestic, in-country air carriers, and a few others are cargo carriers or specialized - e.g., crop dusting or helicopter tour companies.

There are at least 3 scheduled international airlines, alphabetically

* Arkia Israel Airlines

* El Al

* Israir

NONE of the Israeli international carriers is listed on the UK-based Skytrax list of "Top 100 Airlines."

North Korea's Air Koryo is ranked last (#150) in the rating company's survey - it, like Arkia, El Al, and Israir, failed to make even the "Top 100" list.

ON THE OTHER HAND, many Arab airlines made the list. There probably will be no argument that at least two of the list leaders

* Qatar Airways (1)
* Turkish Airlines (4)
* Emirates (5)
* Etihad Airways (6)

treat their passengers as passengers once expected to be treated.

Still, there ARE some Arab airlines that, like their Israeli counterparts failed to make the "Top 100" list. Missing are EgyptAir, Royal Air Maroc, and Royal Jordanian Airlines.

According to the The Star article about North Korea's airline, the "SkyTrax ratings are focused on service and not safety."

I have flown on several of the "Top 100" airlines as well as El Al. While I might not rank El Al as my favorite carrier - it's over priced and it no longer offers convenient flights from South Florida - it most assuredly would make my personal Top 20 list. (British Midland, thankfully no longer a scheduled carrier, would compete with North Korea's Air Koryo for the "World's Worst" carrier. I'm ready to explain why my Midland's flights were so bad.)

My #2 son who frequently travels to the far corners of the world, likes Lufthansa (#12 on Skytrax' list) and the Spouse favors Iberia (#56). Iberia is OK for me, but the jaunt from the arrival gate to the departure gate in Madrid always is impossibly long. (My best U.S.-Israel flight was on KLM (#28) via Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.) Because of France's De Gaulle airport I try to avoid Air France (#15) and any flights that require a change of planes at that airport. Air France service is, in my opinion, nothing to write home about.

I'm hardly a frequent flyer, but I have been flying commercial for a number of years; from tail draggers (e.g., DC-3) with real "box" lunches to Lockheed Super Constellations and L-1011s, now Boeing and Airbus jumbos. I'm not sure "bigger is better."

I have flown on the no-longer-in-the-air Eastern, National, Pan American, and TWA, as well as several others that were "absorbed" by still-flying airlines (Northwest (Orient) merged with Delta and US Airways merged with American). I've had bad experiences with several of Skytrax' "Top 100": Alitalia (74), American (79), Delta (45), and United (60). El Al compares favorably with all of the "Top 100" on which I have hours in the air - and waiting on the ground. I have flown multiple times on each of the currently flying airlines.

Although I realize some major mid-east carriers, particularly those of Israel's neighbors Egypt and Jordan, are absent from Skytrax' "Top 100", I still find it hard to accept that El Al and Arkia failed to make the list. No one ever has spilled coffee on me on El Al (it happened to another passenger on a KLM flight), no one gave my meal - with my name clearly marked on the box - to another passenger (British Midland). El Al never lost my luggage, unlike Delta and US Air regularly did when I was a consultant. El Al never left me stranded short of my destination and sent me on my way in an over-crowded jitney as United did.

Lod, El Al's home base - much improved since my first El Al flight in 1975 - is an easy to navigate airport - with free WiFi; I think better than Madrid, Rome, London, and far, far better than Paris .

From this passenger's limited in-flight experience, I think El Al should have made the "Top 100" list; that it didn't suggests something is rotten - not in Denmark but at Skytrax' UK headquarters.

If they will let you Answering Israel bashers

 

I READ AN ARTICLE in one of the several Israel-focused epapers I get almost daily that college campuses are a rough place if you are pro-Israel.

Israel bashing is the raison d'etre du jour (and with that I have exhausted my French vocabulary) for the Liberal Left (is that redundant?).

As an American-Israeli I have no problem with criticizing either the U.S. or Israel; I view neither through rose-colored glasses.

But I lived there (in Israel) and I know how things are . . . and to some extent I know why the things are as they are.

WHICH, I SUSPECT, IS MORE THAN THE ISRAEL BASHER CAN CLAIM.

I was thinking that if I got into a debate with an Israel basher here (or a U.S. basher anywhere outside the 50 states) I would immediately ask several questions.

Question 1: Have you ever lived in the country? Have you even been to the country for more than a couple of weeks?

I know people expect to see all of Israel (or America) on a two-week guided tour, and it's true you might see the landscape as it whizzes past a bus or train window, but you are not really getting to know the country.

The country is not just the landscape, it is the people. In Israel and in the U.S., there are people of all points of view; there are racists of all colors, religious beliefs and heritages. (If you have never seen a black racist, let me introduce you to Malcolm X.) Fortunately, both here and there, racists are only a small, albeit vocal and visible, minority.

Question 2: Since I'm pretty sure the Israel bashers never have been to Israel - even to visit the place - and if they haven't been to Israel, it's pretty certain they likewise never have been to either Gaza or the PA areas (since most access to these areas are via Israel), how do they know Israel (or America) is such a terrible, racist place?

Did they read these untruths in a book? Did they learn these things from an academic? Maybe they read or heard about the murderous Israelis (that label includes not just Jews, but Christians, Muslims, and a few Oriental religions as well) in the media - print, paper, and "social."

The people who believe the Israel bashers' stories should ask their sources Question 1. They also should, especially with the media, make an effort to determine how many times their source has been caught in a lie about life in Israel, the PA areas, and Gaza. BBC has been caught. AFP has been caught. Reuters has been caught. CNN has been caught. Pictures do lie - I'm thinking in particular of the photo of the "dead" child in Gaza, allegedly shot by Israeli soldiers as he provided a shield for this father. Turns out the photo was posed.

There is no denying civilians were killed or injured during Israel's counter-attacks in Gaza. Likewise there is no denying that Hamas fired its weapons into Israeli civilian centers from the safety of mosques, hospitals, and UN buildings.

There is no denying that Israel is blockading Gaza in an effort to prevent war materials from being brought in. (Food, fuel are allowed in Zand Gaza farm products are allowed into Israel and the PA areas.)

Quick question to ask yourself. If Israel prevents goods from entering Gaza, why can't Hamas import materials from Egypt? Egyptians - who are Muslims - cannot be called "anti-Muslim racists," can they?

TRUE STORY I was visiting kin near Haifa a couple of years ago. At the time, one of our "neighbors" was sending missiles into the highly populated area. I sat on the relative's balcony and watched them fall on the area. (Fortunately, the attackers' aim had not improved since I watched katushas fall into a wadi near Zefat (Safed) where I lived at the time.)

Knowing that there really was nothing we, as civilians, could do to thwart the incoming missiles, we decided to picnic on a local beach.

Keep in mind that missiles still are coming our way.

As we enjoyed our picnic I notices an obviously Muslim family - mother in burka, adult son(in-law) and his wife, along with the couple's children, stroll amongst the Jews. No one attacked them. No one cursed them. No one treated them as Fifth Columnists in their midst. In fact, no one even paid any more attention to the family than they did any other people strolling on the sand.

I won't write that a Jew would be putting his life in jeopardy if he wore a kippa on a Lebanonese beach or even an Egyptian of Jordanian beach - and Israel is at peace with Egypt and Jordan; it might be a shaky peace, but it IS a peace - but I'll be the first to tell you that I will not volunteer for the kippa test..

Question 3: Why are third and fourth generation "Palestinians" still in UN funded camps. They left what became Israel in 1947 and '48, either because they were afraid of the Jewish army or because they believed their brothers' instructions to "get out of the way of the glorious Arab armies that will drive the Jews into the sea."

Yes, there were atrocities committed by Jews and by Muslims in '48 and in every war since.

DBS: If you want your organization to severe all ties with Israel, fine. But be prepared to severe ALL ties with Israel.

That means to forego both medicines and medical advances from Israel. (By the way, you should know that the PA's president sends his mother to Tel Aviv for medical treatment and that PA area doctors are trained at Hadassah and other Israeli hospitals, and that Muslim patients - adults and children - from the PA areas, including Gaza, are treated in Israeli hospitals with the same level of care - and caring - as are Israeli (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and "other") patients.

That means to turn in your dumb and smart cell phones.

It's OK to bash Israel for many things, and it's true that while some Israeli Muslims rise to the top in their fields - and are members of Knesset of non-Muslim-specific parties and commanders of military units, probably the majority of Muslims in Israel, like the majority of all Israelis - especially newcomers - have less than glorious jobs with bright futures.

ON THE OTHER HAND, drive from Tel Aviv to Afula via Hadera and you will see Israeli Arab villages on both sides of the road; villages with homes most Israeli Jews would envy. Granted, these are Israeli citizens (most of whom would refuse, if surveys are to be believed, to resettle in the PA area).

Israel is not perfect. Neither is the U.S. But if you are going to bash anyone, make certain you have real, not fabricated, information.

And don't forget the old saw about living in a glass house.

Wait for it How loudly will Liberals scream? SodaStream move from "West Bank" Will leave Palestinians without a job

 

Be careful for what you wish.

The BDS*ers wanted SodaStream to be blackballed for having an operation in Occupied Israel, a/k/a the west bank of the Jordan River.

Never mind that SodaStream employed both Israeli Jews and PA Muslims in equal numbers; no matter that SodaStream offered equal pay for equal work.

The BDSers wanted to punish SodaStream for daring to have an operation in Occupied Israel.

So now SodaStream is pulling out and moving to the south.

The BDSers won, but did their clients, the Muslims of the PA who soon will be unemployed?

According to an article in the Times of Israel, Ramah Kudaimi, membership and outreach coordinator for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, which represents 400 organizations said today’s news is just the latest sign that these global BDS campaigns are having an impact on changing the behavior of companies that profit from Israeli occupation and apartheid.

Apartheid? Working together for equal pay is apartheid? I think Mr. Kudaimi need to revisit a dictionary. **

The article continues: But Kudaimi’s group, as well as the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, say they will continue to boycott SodaStream because they claim its new factory abets dispossession of Bedouin land in Israel, even though the factory will be in an existing industrial park.

Instead of PA employees, SodaStream will have to hire Bedu for diversity, assuming they want to work in a factory rather than remain on the land.

Israel is at once trying to increase the Jewish population in the south and to wean the Bedu from their nomadic lifestyle. Like the Roma of Europe, this may be easier said than done, and in the end, if they Bedu don't violate Israeli law, they probably will be able to keep their old ways.

One thing is clear: no matter is Israel were to withdraw completely from its land - as it did in Gaza - the liberal, anti-Israel voices would not be stilled. It's not where Jews live, its THAT Jews live - period.

The leadership of the PA - with or without Hamas - make it abundantly clear with their frequent calls to wipe Israel off the map and all the Jews with it.

And Israel's supposed to make peace with these people? Only in Obama's dreams.

 

* BDS = Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions

** Apartheid, according to Merriam-Webster online is defined as:
racial segregation; segregation or separation
SodaStream does NOT qualify as an apartheid organization.

Opuscula Unwelcome Interference

 

Two headlines (heds) from the Jewish Press recently caught my attention:
Ethiopian-Israeli MK Slams Sterling in Letter to NBA’s Silver

and

To the Chagrin of Some Jews, Presbyterians Denounce Divestment – #BDSFail

To be honest, it was the photo and caption with the To the chagrin story that got me to read the article.

 

I HAVE A PROBLEM

I have a problem with out-of-towners putting in their two cents when no one has invited their opinions or interference.

When I lived in Israel I resented U.S. interference in Israeli politics. Although now - temporarily - back in the States, I still resent U.S. interference in Israeli politics. I suppose the U.S. feels it "owns" Israel since it sends a great deal of foreign aid to the country - in money and in goods for which Israel must pay in the dollars it just received from Washington. (In truth, Washington is using Israel to "launder" taxpayer money back to the U.S. defense establishment.)

I resent it when the U.S. government interferes in ANY country's affairs, especially countries outside what James Monroe termed the U.S.' sphere of influence - basically North and Central America and maybe parts of South America.

Cuba, to be sure, falls with Monroe's "sphere of influence," but Cuba is, and has been, controlled by Cubans, albeit often with a monetary allegiance to a distant land, yet we insist on once again (trying to) overthrow its government and pretend the island doesn't exist. The U.S. can make "peace" with Communist China with its military might and shoddy exports to the U.S., but it can't come to terms with a small, militarily weak island just miles off the Florida coast.

Back in the U.S. of A. I find myself resenting Yesh Atid MK Shimon Solomon pillorying LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling for the latter's alleged remarks.

I don't know if , MK Solomon, an olay from Ethiopia has any connection to the U.S. or to the National Basketball Association, a private organization, but he does have the chutzpah to write, from Israel using his membership in the Knesset, telling NBA Commissioner Adam Silver “The dismissal of Sterling from his position as owner of the NBA team will send a message loud and clear: ‘NBA will not tolerate racism, and racism will not be tolerated. There are more important things than the game itself.’ This message will go all over the world, and is an important step in the war against racism in our global village,” he wrote, also saying, “Now the responsibility to deliver the message, sir, is on you.”

Silver has issued an order preventing Sterling to have any contact with anyone or anything connected to the NBA - including the team franchise he owns - despite (a) no admission on Sterling's part of guilt and (b) no successful civil or criminal action against Sterling having taken place.

If Sterling did say what he is alleged to have said, and it he either admits he uttered the words or is found by a court to have uttered those words, then, perhaps Silver may have grounds for his actions.

But MK Solomon's pressure on U.S. citizens is out of line.

 

WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US

Pogo, an invention of the late Walt Kelley's mind, must have been thinking about Jews when those words appeared on the long-running comic strip.

Immediately beneath the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) article was a large photo with the caption Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb spearheaded the failed effort to boycott three U.S. companies doing business with Israel.

Later in the article, we read that " But the crown jewel of the BDS drive organizers, the Israel Palestine Mission Network, is their proud list of bone fida Jewish organizations and individuals who have made the economic strangling of Israel their highest goal.

Rebecca Vilkomerson, writing for Jewish Voice for Peace, celebrated the “biggest U.S. victory yet for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement,” as “over the objection of Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), pension giant TIAA-CREF’s Social Choice Funds have divested from Caterpillar.”

The reason TIAA-CREF, of which I am a member, divested Caterpillar has nothing to do with Cat's presence in Israel or elsewhere.

The article continues: Meanwhile, so-called Rabbis Margaret Holub, Brant Rosen, Alissa Wise, Julie Greenberg, Michael Feinberg, Michael Davis, Rachel Barenblatt, Lynn Gottleib, Laurie Zimmerman, Rebecca Alpert, Joseph Berman, David Mivasair, Borukh Goldberg, Meryl Crean, Howard A Cohen, Mordechai Liebling, Elizabeth Bolton, Everett Gendler, Michael Lerner, and Leonard Beerman, sent an “Open Letter to the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA)”:

"As Jewish leaders, we believe the Jewish Council on Public Affairs (JCPA) stance against church divestment does not represent the broader consensus of the American Jewish community. There is in fact a growing desire within the North American Jewish community to end our silence over Israel’s oppressive occupation of Palestine…

Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, the woman in the photo at the top of the Jewish Press page, wrote in June that the reason for supporting the boycott on companies doing business in Israel is because Most Jews and Christians are not willing to go to Palestine to personally resist Israeli policies of land confiscation, home demolition, destruction of trees and property, military invasion, denial of freedom of movement, administrative detention or the arrest of children through nonviolent protest. Most Jews and Christians do not travel to Israel to work for an end to the blockade of Gaza and are not shot when they try to harvest their wheat or fish in the sea.

I would suggest that the Israeli government destroys more Jewish homes and fields that it does non-Jewish homes and fields. I would farther suggest that any military invasion comes only on the heels of repeated attacks on Jews by Moslems. As for Moslem children's "nonviolent" protests, that assumes rocks cannot injure and kill; that assumes "non-violence" includes threats to Israeli soldiers (one of which responded non-violently and was dismissed from his unit for taking too strong an action).

I'm reasonably sure that some of the Jews promoting BDS against Israel have visited Israel - probably on their way to Aza or the so-called "West Bank" - but I seriously doubt any have actually lived in Israel and faced the conditions Israelis - Jews and non-Jews alike - face in a daily basis. Live in Israel - as an Israeli for a year and see if the story stays the same.

Perhaps I should delete the sub-hed "We have met the enemy" and just continue with the "I have a problem" theme since these American anti-Israel pro-BDS Jews are trying to interfere in Israeli politics and the life of all Israelis and - to some extent - the people they pretend to support, the Arabs in Occupied Israel.

Oxfam: Politically blind Or anti-peace in Mid-East

It seems hatred of anything "Israel" blinds eyes to reality.

The whole Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel is, at best, short-sighted and, at worst, hinders any possibility of the elusive "peace in the middle east."

Case in point: Oxfam's boycott of SodaStream.

Oxfam is upset because a formerly British company, now owned by Israelis, is situated in what a BBC employee termed an area that "Under most interpretations of international law - although not Israel's - building homes and businesses on such territory is illegal." Never mind that the statement is false; it's the BBC after all.

Oxfam insists - based on input from Palestine Solidarity Campaign , that SodaStream is treating its Palestinian employees badly, that the mere fact the company is located on land (a) originally on the Israeli side of the UN partition plan and (b) captured during Jordan's war of aggression in 1967.

Apparently it was inconvenient for Oxfam and the BBC to visit the SodaStream site in Ma'ale Adumim; perhaps they couldn’t get past the stop sign (see photograph from article, below).

Guess which buildings in the picture are "pre-49" and "post-49." Click on the photo to see a larger version.

The leed paragraph of a Judy Maltz article in the left-leaning Israeli newspaper HaAretz seems to portend a balanced presentation of the Oxfam-SodaStream issue. The reporter wrote:

"SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum on Sunday accused Oxfam of providing funding to the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign against Israel and said that an invitation he recently issued to the president of the organization to visit the company’s West Bank factory had been “ignored.”"

Birnbaum suggested that the reason American actress Scarlett Johansson dumped Oxfam in favor of representing SodaStream was "perhaps because of financial motivations, they are prepared to sacrifice the jobs of 1,300 people, including 950 Palestinians and Arabs, and I cannot see, and she cannot see either, how that would advance peace and humanity in the region.”

The HaAretz article continued:

" In response to this charge, the Oxfam spokesman said: “Oxfam wants to see a just and lasting agreement that allows Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace and security. We support a two-state solution, and we believe that settlements in the West Bank are an obstacle to achieving that peace. Any company located in the settlements contributes to their viability and legitimizes them. This is not about labor practices or SodaStream in particular, but the bigger issue of settlements, which continue to take land and resources from Palestinian communities that we work with. Some Palestinians in the West Bank do find work in Israeli settlements, but this is often because they are restricted from pursuing other livelihoods and have little other choice. For example, Oxfam works in Palestinian farming communities – they have lost much of their land to settlements and they are rarely allowed to build new wells or get enough water. Unable to make a living, their only option is often found in settlement factories and farms, which receive government tax breaks, support, and don’t face any of the restrictions on building and development that Palestinian communities nearby do.” "

When reporters do visit

Unlike the BBC writers working from anti-Israel handouts, a Times of Israel article led off with:

MISHOR ADUMIM, Israel — The SodaStream factory, situated just off the highway leading down from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, was abuzz on Sunday with journalists from across the globe trying to get a glimpse of the action.

"The tour of the carbonated beverage-maker plant was organized especially for curious foreign correspondents on the eve of the Super Bowl, which featured an ad starring its glamorous spokeswoman Scarlett Johansson. The factory, SodaStream’s charismatic US-born CEO Daniel Birnbaum proudly declared, used to produce munitions for the Israeli army. It was bought in 1996 by the fizzy drink start-up, seeking to better the world by doing away with polluting plastic bottles.

The article continues:

Today, the Mishor Adumim plant — the first of eight Israeli locations and 22 worldwide — employs 1,300 workers; 950 Arabs (450 Israeli and 500 Palestinian) and 350 Israeli Jews. Salaries and work benefits — management asserts and workers confirm — are equal for all workers in comparable jobs, regardless of ethnicity or citizenship. The factory secures Israeli work permits for its Palestinian employees as well as rides from their home and back, SodaStream’s Chief Operating Officer Yossi Azarzar told The Times of Israel.

Palestinians and Israelis work at the SodaStream factory in the Mishor Adumim industrial park, February 2, 2014. (Photo credit: Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Birnbaum, the CEO, was clearly cognizant of the dispute. He spoke of Jewish-Arab coexistence as he stood next to a veiled young Arab woman working on the assembly line across from an older woman with a black head covering who immigrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union in 1993.

Zooming in on Birnbaum and the two women, the camera crews and microphone-holding reporters overlooked another young Palestinian woman standing nearby, fitting plastic valves into a large metal tray. Nahida Fares, 28, graduated Nablus’s A-Najjah University in primary school education. She began working for Israeli companies two years ago, when she could find no work in her field in Ramallah, where she lives with her husband and infant child.

“There are no job opportunities in the West Bank,” Fares told The Times of Israel. “Even the jobs that do exist pay no more than NIS 1,500-2,000 ($430-570) a month.” Fares now earns triple those sums. Fares’s husband, a first lieutenant in the Palestinians’ prestigious Preventive Security Force, earns NIS 2,000 ($570) per month after 10 years of service.

According to the "unbiased" BBC

The "unbiased" BBC's Middle East correspondent, Kevin Connolly, pretending to write a news article, slants the issues at once against SodaStream and Israel, quoting selected sources such as Sarah Colborne, campaign director for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Connolly editorializes - writes sans attribution- that:

"The boycott movement is important.

"Supporters of the Palestinians have hit on a tactic that might encourage ordinary consumers to start differentiating products from the factories and farms of Israel on the one hand and Israeli settlements on the other.

"Israel is worried - especially at the prospect of the movement gathering pace if peace talks with the Palestinians collapse."

Possibly what bother's Mr. Connolly is the fact that SodaStream no longer is a English firm. In two of his editorial's opening paragraphs, he opines that:

"The company - now under Israeli ownership - likes to emphasise its green credentials, trading on the idea that making your own cola at home in a re-usable bottle saves plastic bottles and therefore, ultimately, saves the planet.

The SodaStream has always exhibited a Dr Who-style capacity for self-reinvention - it started out as a machine for producing fresh soda water in the homes of the wealthy and well-connected in Edwardian England."

Sources

Kevin Connolly/BBC editorial:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25966781

Judy Miltz/HaAretz article:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.571986

Elhanan Miller/Times of Israel article:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/at-sodastream-palestinians-hope-their-bubble-wont-burst/?utm_source=Start-Up+Daily&utm_campaign=b736272ff2-2014_02_04_SUI2_4_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fb879fad58-b736272ff2-54610173

Stand With Us YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDdH_7GjW40