Opuscula Do “boycotts” Do any good?

ARE WE HYPOCRITES?

If I am against Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) when it comes to Israel, can I honestly be for a boycott of Chinese products?

Is there a difference?

 

WHY WOULD I BOYCOTT Chinese products?

Because, time and time again, Chinese products have proven to be

  * Shoddily made

  * Unhealthy

  * Unsafe

I’m not so concerned about shoddy workmanship, but there too many risks that the product may be unsafe.

  * Drywall as an example.

  * Tires as an example.

  * Toys with lead paint as an example.

  * Clothing that lacks fire-retardant.

Anyone who is concerned about health needs to know:

  * How farmed fish are fed (human feces).

  * How Chinese mushrooms are fertilized (human feces).

  * How the Chinese adulterate food products.

  * How Chinese pharmaceuticals are below minimal FDA standards.

Anyone who is concerned about racism and segregation based on religion should boycott China. The Chinese government has reportedly detained more than a million Muslims in re-education camps. ¹

If a person claims to be a “progressive,” that person should avoid Chinese products due to the sweatshop environments in which laborers work. (Also think about the lack of responsibility U.S. companies such as Apple show for the people who make their products.) After the Tiananmen Square massacre in April 1989, Americans began to look more closely at all things Chinese.

Between President Trump’s efforts to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. and the Chinese (Corona) virus (Covid-19) messing up the supply chain, many companies are taking some or all of their production out of China to “points elsewhere.”²

Stealing secrets

Like the Japanese shortly after WW 2, the Chinese government steals whatever it desires from wherever if desires. The U.S. is just one source. Russia also has been victimized.

Not only do the Chinese steal industrial secrets, they also steal national secrets.

It is a matter of record.

BDS against Israel

First and foremost, most of the people promoting BDS against Israel have never BEEN to Israel; their information is third or fourth hand from leftists who want to believe that, DESPITE FACTS TO THE CONTRARY,

Israel

  * Is an apartheid country

  * Oppresses minorities

  * Keeps “Palestinians” behind a fence

  * Prevents “Palestinians” from working in Israel

  * Is racist and discriminates against Christians, Muslims, people of color

Never mind that

  * There are Muslims in Knesset, on courts, including the highest court

  * There are Muslims in the army and the national police

  * There are Muslims teaching in schools from kindergarten to university

  * There are Muslims practicing medicine in all government hospitals

  * That hundreds of “Palestinians” come to work in Israel every day

  * That an Israeli Muslim may live anywhere in Israel

  * That an LGBTQ? safely parade down the streets of major cities

  * Honor killings, and misogyny, in general is illegal in Israel

Conversely, a Jew cannot live in “Palestine” nor can a “Palestinian” sell land to a Jew on pain of death; a person who is LGBTQ? must fear for this life in areas controlled by the PLO/PFLP and Hamas/Islamic Jihad. Women also must fear for their lives if a male relative even suspects they brought dishonor to their family.

BDS hurts “Palestinians.”

Companies, such as Soda Stream that had facilities close to the Israel-PLO/PFLP border, hired “Palestinians” to work alongside Israelis; equal pay for equal work. The “Palestinians” had a higher salary than they would have working under the PLO/PFLP.

Thanks to the “progressives’” BDS, Soda Stream shut down the plant, leaving the “Palestinians” unemployed. (The Israelis could, if they wished, relocate with Soda Stream to the south of the country where the company employs both Israelis and Bedouin in its plants.)

Soda Stream is not the only company that employs “Palestinians.”

True, there IS discrimination in Israel.

The Euro Jews look down on anyone who is not one of them, but over time, non-Euro Jews have made their mark. That Israel has Iron Dome is a credit to a Moroccan. Another Moroccan was deputy prime minister.

There is discrimination against “Euro-Orthodox” soldiers when they return to their old neighborhoods.

Israel is not a perfect country.

Its politics are, by U.S. standards, a kluge, a beligan, a mess.

I have no problem boycotting Chinese products. I have no problem with Chinese PEOPLE, just as I have no problem with Muslims who prefer peace and cooperation to hatred and obstinacy such as consistently shown by the PLO/PFLP, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad regarding Israel.

Boycotting Israel, especially when it hurts the people the boycotters claim they want to help, is stupid. Boycotts don’t stop people from buying products made in Israel, despite UN and EU resolutions.

Yes, I have been to Israel. In fact, I lived there, so I know of what I write.

Sources

1. Chinese Muslims: https://tinyurl.com/yxb5r8zx

2. Exiting China: https://tinyurl.com/yxh9mttf

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.

 

Comment on Boycotts

Some things to consider During Apartheid Week

As college and university campuses around the world - including Hebrew University! - enjoy the annual Israel-bashing "Apartheid Week" it seems appropriate to recap some recent news about Israel and the Arabs within Israel and within the PA.

Starting with Hebrew U.

Headline: Apartheid Week' Hits Hebrew University

Read article and view photos at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/177883#.Uw35cuNdX8g

Excerpts: Aid Golan, the head of the university's Ta Lava pro-Likud student group, told Arts Shiva that Arab students were behind the defamatory exhibit, which is located in a central hallway frequented daily by the university's regents. The Arab students put up photos depicting the IDF negatively with insightful texts, reports Golan. The texts define IDF soldiers as "hunters of freedom," call Israel "Palestine," and the IDF an "occupying army."

"One particularly colorful photo text describes the picture as being of a mother crying for her shahid (martyr) son who was killed by the "occupation army." Sections of the Arab text declare that "Palestine will be liberated."

Golan voiced surprise that Arab students, who study freely in the Israeli university and enjoy "affirmative action" in being accepted to the school and into work afterwards, dare to cry of "apartheid" and "racism."

Shocking news

Headline: PA: Israel Not Cutting Electricity, Giving More

Read article at: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/177884

Excerpts: A senior member of the Palestinian Authority (PA) electricity committee on Wednesday morning denied talk of Israel cutting off power to the PA, given the PA's 1.4 billion shekels ($400 million) in unpaid bills to the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC).

"The electric company hasn't threatened to cut off the PA from electric supply," said the senior official to Arabic news source Ma'an.

The PA acquires 95% of its electricity in Judea and Samaria and 75% of its electricity in Gaza from Israel.

The "shocking" thing is that a PA official (!) stood up for the "apartheid enemy."

Water, water, not everywhere

EU Parliament President Martin Schulz , citing PA statistics, told Israel's parliament that the amount of water available to the average Israeli unfairly overwhelms the amount of water available to the average Palestinian..

Headline: Report: PA Weaponizing Water Against Israel

Read article at: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/report-pa-weaponizing-water-against-israel/2014/02/26/

Excerpts: The Palestinian Authority is using water as a weapon against the State of Israel, states a new report titled The Truth Behind the Palestinian Water Libels (PDF), issued by Prof. Haim Gvirtzman from the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies..

What are the causes of Palestinian water supply problems? Today, the Palestinians consume some 200 million cubic meters of water per annum in Judea and Samaria, Prof. Gvirtzman reports. The Palestinians could easily raise that amount by at least 50 percent, without any additional assistance or allocation from the State of Israel. His short answer: Water shortages in the Palestinian Authority are the result of Palestinian policies that deliberately waste water and destroy the regional water ecology. The Palestinians refuse to develop their own significant underground water resources, build a seawater desalination plant, fix massive leakage from their municipal water pipes, build sewage treatment plants, irrigate land with treated sewage effluents or modern water-saving devices, or bill their own citizens for consumer water usage, leading to enormous waste.

Boycott Israeli products … made by PA Arabs

An article that tries hard to be anti-SodaStream and anti-Israel has its moment of truth and admits that Soda Stream and some other Israeli-owned businesses are proving coexistence is possible - at least in the workplace.

Headline: What SodaStream's Palestinian Employees Think About Scarlett Johansson

Read article at: http://gawker.com/what-sodastreams-palestinian-employees-think-about-sca-1513475552

Excerpts: In a Huffington Post blog post defending her association with SodaStream, Johansson said she's "proud of the...quality of their product and work environment," and said the factory places Israelis and Palestinians together side-by-side in cooperation. That frankly sounds too kumbaya to be true, but a similar sentiment was actually volunteered without prompting by the Palestinian workers here.

"Hell yeah, I'm happy. We're like family. We have fun,'' said Mohammed Yousef, 22, from the Palestinian village of Jaba. "We are Jews and Muslims here. We are here peacefully. We have no problems. Everyone is complaining about settlements here and everywhere, but SodaStream is different.''

Just a two-minute drive away from the industrial zone is a small strip of Israeli retailers featuring a discount Rami Levy supermarket chain that also employees Palestinians from the West Bank.

According to Wassim Siam, a 26-year-old quality-control employee at Soda Stream, "I talk a lot to friends abroad. They say, 'You are an Arab. How can you work there?'" he said. "Nobody knows there are 1,000 people and their lives will be turned upside down by the [boycott]. You are killing them, so stop it.''

Israeli Arabs have no voice?

Headline: Fuming Arab MKs storm out of debate on Temple Mount

Read article at: http://www.timesofisrael.com/enraged-arab-mks-storm-out-of-debate-on-temple-mount/#ixzz2uRTLZLvN

Excerpts: Discussing a proposed policy change that would allow Jews to pray on the Temple mount, Arab MK Jamal Zahalke (Balad) interjected, “There is no such thing as the Temple Mount, there is only the al-Aqsa Mosque,” setting off a shouting match between members of the Jewish and Arab parties.

MKs Zahalke, Ahmad Tibi (Ta’al), Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) and Afou Agbaria (Hadash) began shouting at committee chairwoman MK Miri Regev (Likud), with Tibi calling her a pyromaniac and “a contemptible settler.”

“What is this, you insolent person!” Tibi shouted at Regev. After Tibi refused to apologize, Regev responded, “Fortunately I don’t need to earn respect from them,” further fanning the flames.

“What do you mean ‘them’?” Tibi retorted. “Who is ‘them’ — the Arabs?”

Leaving the hall, Barakeh jabbed a finger in Regev’s direction, saying, “Anyone who comes to desecrate the al-Aqsa Mosque will find us there and not here.”

Tell me again how Israel mistreats the Muslims within its borders and within the so-called PA.

And tell me again how much better it is for an Arab, especially a PA Muslim, to live in ANY Islamic country.

I have seen an obviously Muslim family calmly stroll along a Haifa-area beach while Israel's Muslim neighbors were sending rockets into Haifa. No Jews bothered the Muslims; no harassment, no cat calls. The family was, after all, Israeli and despite the rocket attacks, there appeared no hostility to this family.

Anyone care to venture a guess how an obviously Jewish person would be treated under the same circumstances in any Islamic country?