Israel shrugs off boycott effort

I have written quite often that I find the boycott Israel efforts by the seriously brain damaged morons in the unions and other places in western society completely stupid. I mean, it doesnt do anything, doesnt change public policy, does not impact the actual facts on the ground and worst of all, actually screws up the principles of the bodies themselves (so when are these unions going to talk about China, for example? and when they dont, they clearly show that they are anti Semitic). Here’s another story on this. I quote:

…..But she concedes that the movement has few concrete results to show for its efforts so far.

That perception is shared on the Israeli side, where economists and business leaders say they have yet to register an impact on exports, growth and investment. Even Israel’s fruit growers and exporters, by far the most visible target for consumers outside the country, say they have not noticed any drop in demand for political reasons.

“In my experience, this is a marginal phenomenon at best,” says Ilan Eshel, the chief executive of the Israeli Fruit Growers’ Association. “It is simply a question of supply and demand: if avocados and mangos are missing in Europe, they take our avocados and mangos.”

Activists such as Ms Hunter stress that applying economic pressure to Israel was never expected to yield results in the short term. “Our model is [the campaign against apartheid-era] South Africa. But people forget that the boycott campaign didn’t happen overnight. It took time.”

On the face of it, the make-up of the Israeli economy should indeed render it acutely vulnerable to boycotts and divestment campaigns. More than most other countries, Israel relies on exports – which account for about 40 per cent of gross domestic product – to fuel economic growth and jobs. The country’s much-admired technology and software industry, meanwhile, is heavily dependent on venture capital funding from abroad, in particular the US.

Yet experts argue that looking at Israel’s reliance on foreign buyers, suppliers and financiers alone is not enough. “Yes, you can boycott Israeli oranges and dates. But what Israel is really good at is providing inputs into other products. That means if you want to boycott Israeli goods, you have to boycott computers and cellphones altogether,” says Dan Catarivas, the director of foreign trade at the Israeli Manufacturers’ Association.

Frankly a stupid exercise but then, nobody said that these chaps were smart. Oh! did I forget that they are hypocrites that they dont go after the China’s of this world ? not to mention being pig ignorant and actually what I would call as lazy idiots. Lets go after dates because that’s easy and I can go speak to Tesco. All this while, i am happy to be treated using Israeli medical technology, I am happy to coordinate my campaign using Israeli technology such as computers, mobiles and software.

HT: Ram Narayan: Here’s a great book of how Israel does this. And check out this article. Bit of an Israeli head banging article, but fascinating to read.