Friday, January 31, 2014

Scarlett, Sodastream and Superbowl the PERFECT STORM to bring BDS to a head

UPDATE AT BOTTOM:
BDS= Boycott Divest Sanction
One of Sodastream’s facilities sits in Male Aduumim in the near Jerusalem West Bank. It is in an area which in the spring of 1967 as it became OBVIOUS Nasser was going wage a ‘war of annihilation’, which Israel HOPED along with all of East Jerusalem would REMAIN with Jordan. In fact Abba Eban the Foreign Minister of Israel, repeatedly used the USA to tell Jordan’s King Hussein if HE would restrain himself from attacking Israel, then Israel would take NO ACTION against Jordan in Jordan or in the West Bank. 
Of course, he attacked Israel, and then the West Bank, rather become part of an Arab ruled (and presumably settled) Palestine sitting on an annihilated Israel, became instead conquered Israeli territory.
But this facility as Johannson states .. well …from JTA:
The Israeli company, which sells a popular kitchen gadget that turns tap water into carbonated drinks, has a large factory in a West Bank settlement. When SodaStream announced that it would run an ad during the Super Bowl, the pro-Palestinian boycott campaign against the company reached a fever pitch.
But for hundreds of Palestinians, SodaStream isn’t a target; it’s their employer.
On a recent afternoon, women wearing hijabs hurried to their shifts at the plant located in Ma’ale Adumin, a suburban settlement about 15 minutes west of Jerusalem. Some 500 West Bank Palestinians work at the site, in addition to 400 Arabs from eastern Jerusalem and a mix of 200 Israeli Jews and foreign workers, including refugees from Africa.
The Maale Adumim factory has an on-site mosque and a synagogue, and Jewish and Arab employees share the same dining hall. SodaStream has two other facilities in Israel, in Ashkelon and the Galilee town of Mount Tabor. The Galilee factory employs several hundred Israeli Arabs.
“Everyone works together: Palestinians, Russians, Jews,” a Palestinian employee named Rasim at the Maale Adumim site told JTA. Rasim has worked at the plant for four months and asked that his last name not be published. “Everything is OK. I always work with Jews. Everyone works together, so of course we’re friends.”
For SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum, treating Arabs and Jews equally is a doctrine, not a convenience.
“We practice equality and full cooperation both on the job and off it,” Birnbaum told the Arab publication Al Monitor in a recent interview.
Israel HAS MULTIPLE times in it’s history abandoned conquered lands for peace. Sinai in 1956 and upon peace with Egypt after 1973. This required REMOVING settlers.
Southern Lebanon after 2000.
Gaza in 2005. This required REMOVING settlers. By force.
Israel now administers lands which it retains, because recent (and all) history indicates Arabs are not prepared to accept Israel’s existence as a Jewish homeland AND PEACE in return for Arab rule in the West Bank. Thus Israel’s existence in any form as a Jewish homeland is maintained by FORCE OF ARMS. Because no Arab in power will make this peace, this continues. Because no Arab in power will make this peace, others with delusional ideas about Israel and the Arabs, some of whom want to liken Jews to Nazis, believe Israel occupies this land illegally.
Others such as Oxfam. Others such as the American Studies Association.
So let this Sodastream plant and the firm Ms. Johannson serve as the icon for this struggle.
Sodastream and Ms Johannson are examples of the way Israeli people want peace to be. No difference between Arabs and Jews. A dream.  Really a dream. As we can see.
Oxfam and too many others want to destroy that small achievement because no Arab in power will accept a Jewish state ON OTHER LANDS, and want to render those employees JOBLESS in the West Bank.
Those are the sides.
Sodastream can just tear down the plant and rebuild in any other part of Israel. Problem solved.
Why don’t they?
When he was invited to the Israeli president’s residence recently to receive an award, Birnbaum brought with him a few Palestinian employees and insisted on undergoing the same rigorous security checks to which they were subjected, Birnbaum told Al Monitor. When it came time for Birnbaum’s speech, he broke with protocol and publicly upbraided his host, President Shimon Peres, for the unequal treatment that his Palestinian workers had received, including strip searches down to their underwear.
“We are committed to continue serving as a bridge and to sowing hope,” Birnbaum said in his speech. “Who knows as well as you, Mr. Peres, how important it is to remain optimistic that one day there will be peace?”
SodaStream’s case, some say, is one example of how boycotting an Israeli company doing business in the West Bank can end up hurting the very goals that boycott proponents say they are trying to achieve: Palestinian rights and Israel-Palestinian peace.
Barring Arab abandonment of Right of Return (= no Israel), all this will go on FOREVER.
Because of this it’s hard to envision a future without multiple other wars. Each one is a war Israel must win or die. Each victory will bring more conquered territory.
How STUPID is BDS?
How STUPID is Oxfam?
How strong and smart is Scarlett Johannson?

Coke Backs BDS Group Trying to Cripple Israeli Soda Competitor

Coca Cola has donated millions to the anti-Israel group Oxfam International, which is currently backing a campaign to boycott an Israeli soda company that competes directly with Coke.
Oxfam has taken the lead in recent days in a campaign to boycott SodaStream, an Israeli-based beverage manufacturer that is under fire from supporters of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The battle between SodaStream and BDS supporters has heated up in recent days after actress Scarlett Johansson severed her ties with Oxfam over its anti-Israel activism.
BDS supporters have also gone after Johansson, who is currently serving as SodaStream’s spokesperson.
One of SodaStream’s most prominent competitors—the Coca Cola company—has donated more than $2.5 million to Oxfam over the past several years, leading some to wonder if Coke is supporting Oxfam as a means to defeat the competition.
“In 2011, Coca Cola contributed $400,000 to a research project ‘analyzing the poverty footprint of beverage giant Coca Cola and multinational bottling company SABMiller in Zambia and El Salvador’ and, in addition, $2.5 million in 2008-2010 for humanitarian work,” the website Israellycool.com reported on Friday.
“The question remains: Is Oxfam’s opposition to SodaStream and Scarlett Johansson’s role as brand ambassador due to their anti-Israel bias or pro-Coke bias?” the website asks.
Neither Coca-Cola nor Oxfam responded to requests for comment.
PepsiCo spokesperson Jeff Dahncke declined to comment when reached by theWashington Free Beacon.