Friday, March 10, 2006
Dubai Ports Turndown
What no one seems to be paying attention to is that the deal violates our agreement with Israel not to do business with companies that are owned by states which embargo trade with Israel..
The UAE has been doing just that for a long time: Israel is not on their list of trade buddies
It seems to me this merits some due diligence, in two vectors: 1) is the core claim true - that we committed to Israel that we wouldn't do business with states that embargo Israel?; and 2) is this a commitment that we have historically lived up to? On the second point, I have my doubts, since we do a lot of business with Saudi Arabia, and they are no buddy to Israel either.
It's the only claim I've seen thus far that isn't the product of that toxic mixture of fear, bias and, oh yes, politics.
4 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Mar 10, 06:08:00 PM:
This smacks of the "CIA cannot work with unsavory characters" argument.
We made pacts with the devil to win WWII and the cold war.
You can work with bad people and try to use that work to influence their behavior elsewhere.
By 
John B. Chilton, at
Sat Mar 11, 01:14:00 AM:
CardinalPark:
I offer this as a countervailing argument:
The Emirates Economist:
Dubai port company says it works with Israeli firms :: USAToday
CNN reported Thursday that a prominent Israeli shipping company, ZIM Integrated Shipping Services Ltd., wrote to a U.S. senator noting it does business with DP World and supports the U.S. deal.
Of course they do. They agree with Milton Friedman.
TAGS: Milton Friedman, ZIM, Dubai ports
By , at
Sat Mar 11, 04:37:00 AM:
John:
The problem I see with the no foreign (especially Arab) involvement in security is that the only way to counter the argument is to do excatly what the CNN article did - disclose the nuances to the other party's policies.
This has more potential to harm the other party than a rejection of the deal outright.
I bet the Israelis knew what was going on. I bet they preffered an arrangement where they could take advantage of the trading opportunities offered.
The opponents of the deal, some of whom are pure political opportunists, and others who may have an ideological motive, will lose us badly needed allies.
Losing a war bit by bit. It has to stop.
By Gordon Smith, at
Sat Mar 11, 09:20:00 AM:
CP,
Hilarious that you've just noticed the Israel angle after the furor is over.
You're a piece of work.
