BDS protests compels closure of Israeli retailer in London

P F Tinmore

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Dec 6, 2009
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LONDON, (PIC)-- The boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign (BDS) effectively closed down Israeli beauty product supplier Ahava in London after two years of bi-weekly protests.

The pro-Palestinian activists targeted Ahava based on the fact that its main headquarters are in illegal Israeli settlement Mitzpe Shalem and that its products were imported from the Dead Sea, which Israel has blockaded from Palestinians since 2000 in contravention of the Dead Sea Agreements.

Although the protests at times led to the deployment of British police officers near the shop located on the prestigious Covent Garden area of London, the store incurred heavy losses and eventually closed down.

BDS protests compels closure of Israeli retailer in London
 
Former President of Spain Jose Maria Aznar: If Israel Goes Down, We All Go Down.

We cannot forget that Israel is the West’s best ally in a turbulent region. The state of Israel was created by a decision of the UN. Its legitimacy, therefore, should not be in question. Israel is a nation with deeply rooted democratic institutions. It is a dynamic and open society that has repeatedly excelled in culture, science and technology. Owing to its roots, history, and values, Israel is a fully fledged Western nation. Indeed, it is a normal Western nation, but one confronted by abnormal circumstances.
What binds us, however, is our unyielding support for Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself. For Western countries to side with those who question Israel’s legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel’s vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values rather than robustly to stand up in defense of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude.

Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is upturned and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Whether we like it or not, our fate is inextricably intertwined. The real threats to regional stability, however, are to be found in the rise of a radical Islamism which sees Israel’s destruction as the fulfillment of its religious destiny and, simultaneously in the case of Iran, as an expression of its ambitions for regional hegemony. Both phenomena are threats that affect not only Israel, but also the wider West and the world at large.

Israel is our first line of defense in a turbulent region that is constantly at risk of descending into chaos; a region vital to our energy security owing to our overdependence on Middle Eastern oil; a region that forms the front line in the fight against extremism. If Israel goes down, we all go down. To defend Israel’s right to exist in peace, within secure borders, requires a degree of moral and strategic clarity that too often seems to have disappeared in Europe. The United States shows worrying signs of heading in the same direction.

The West is going through a period of confusion over the shape of the world’s future. To a great extent, this confusion is caused by a kind of masochistic self-doubt over our own identity; by the rule of political correctness; by a multiculturalism that forces us to our knees before others; and by a secularism which, irony of ironies, blinds us even when we are confronted by jihadis promoting the most fanatical incarnation of their faith. To abandon Israel to its fate, at this moment of all moments, would merely serve to illustrate how far we have sunk and how inexorable our decline now appears.

This cannot be allowed to happen. Motivated by the need to rebuild our own Western values, expressing deep concern about the wave of aggression against Israel, and mindful that Israel’s strength is our strength and Israel’s weakness is our weakness, I have decided to promote a new Friends of Israel initiative with the help of some prominent people, including David Trimble, Andrew Roberts, John Bolton, Alejandro Toledo (the former President of Peru), Marcello Pera (philosopher and former President of the Italian Senate), Fiamma Nirenstein (the Italian author and politician), the financier Robert Agostinelli and the Catholic intellectual George Weigel.

What binds us, however, is our unyielding support for Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself. For Western countries to side with those who question Israel’s legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel’s vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values rather than robustly to stand up in defense of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude. Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is upturned and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Whether we like it or not, our fate is inextricably intertwined.

Republicans Abroad

If Israel goes down, we all go down. If Israel is a part of the Western world, if the Western world is eliminated from the Middle East, it is a problem for all of us not only for ISrael. It would be a great victory for the enemies of democracy, for the enemies of freedom. "

What Israel and the Jewish People have meant historically to Western democracy: "I cannot explain Europe, I cannot explain my country, I cannot explain myself without referring to this heritage they share with us the same values: Freedom, democracy, tolerance and pluralism."

"Trying to isolate Israel is not a good policy. And to demonize Israel is not a good policy."

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H23kvw85tWs]Aznar on his "Friends of Israel" initiative - YouTube[/ame]
 
U.S. general: Israel-Palestinian conflict foments anti-U.S. sentiment - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
Quote:
U.S. general: Israel-Palestinian conflict foments anti-U.S. sentiment
General Petraeus: Conflict presents distinct challenges to our ability to advance U.S. interests.
and Bibi's building in East Jerusalem < 3 days after his speech for peace at the U.N.

Jerusalem is sovereign Israeli land and the capital of Israel, dummy. Are you retarded of just stupid?

Omar Osama bin Laden
My father has a religious goal. He is controlled by the rules of jihad. He only kills if he thinks there is a need.”
Osama bin Laden is 'worth more alive than dead', declares his son - Times Online


Osama bin Laden...
Those who want people to worship the lord of the people, without following that doctrine, will be following the doctrine of Muhammad, peace be upon him.

I was ordered to fight the people until they say there is no god but Allah, and his prophet Muhammad.'
washingtonpost.com
 
GM Expands R&D Presence In Israel. Making the car of tomorrow the best ever built.
While General Motors focuses most of its resources on a handful of technical and engineering centers in the U.S., Europe and Asia, it has quietly been expanding its presence in the Middle East, using its Israeli facility as a sort of technical eye on the future.

GM has steadily increased the size of the staff at its center in Herzliya, Israel and expects it to number more than 200 by 2013. That, says the facility’s chief, will let it tap into the highly advanced engineering and research base Israel has become known for..

“You need that kind of structure in the car business,” says GM Israel site director Gil Golan.

There are so many parts to a modern car that need to be engineered in order to ensure that everything works properly,” he says. “It’s far more complicated than with Internet companies, for example, where they produce a product or technology that can be ‘plugged in’ to a website or another product. We found that we’re far more successful if we put the full resources of GM at the service of the local subsidiary,” Golan said.

General Motors, one of the world's largest automakers, not only has an R&D facility in Israel, but an entire corporate structure in Herzliya. The mission of GM Israel is to develop the technologies that will make the car of tomorrow the best vehicle ever built. GM opened its Israel site in 2005 and expects about 200 people - mostly engineers - to be on board by the end of 2013.
GM Israel is developing technology in five areas: advanced sensing and vision systems; human interface systems that adapt voice and touch technology for autos; wireless enabling, allowing a vehicle's systems to use networks to ensure constant communication; infotainment; and vehicle control and robotics for driverless navigation. One of GM's venture capital funds, located in Israel, invested in Israeli startup Powermat, which makes wireless charging mats for cell phones and other electronic devices. GM plans to include the mats in vehicles as soon as 2012, allowing drivers to easily recharge their handheld devices while on the road
GM Expands R&D presence in Israel. | TheDetroitBureau.com
 

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