Sunday, December 31, 2006
The secondary boycott aimed at Israel
Long-standing readers know that I take an occasional foray into anti-American foreign blogs. One of the better ones -- defining "better" to mean that the blog is objectively well-executed -- is run by Haitham Sabbah, a Palestinian Arab living in Bahrain. I have read Sabbah much less since the Second Lebanon War, because he has gotten so angry at the United States, probably as a result of the fighting in the summer, that he is tough to read even for an open-minded fellow like me.
With that said, I thought that his recent post on the American companies that were the preferred targets of the anti-Israel boycott was quite interesting, more for what it did not say than what it did say. The allegedly "pro-Zionist" companies include the flower and the chivalry of corporate America:
- General Electric: all GE appliances
- CATerpillar: all CAT branded products
- The Home Depot: includes all Home Depot retail stores, EXPO Design Centers, Villager’s Hardware stores, Apex Supply Company, Georgia Lighting, Maintenance Warehouse, National Blinds & Wallpaper
- The Limited: all Intimate Brands such as Bath & Body Works, White Barn Candle Company, Victoria’s Secret. Express stores, The Limited stores, Lerner New York stores, Structure stores, New York and Company stores, Mast Industries - apparel manufacturer, Henri Bendel, Hollinger Publishing
- Starbucks ...: Starbucks Coffee Stores, Starbucks coffee, chocolates, biscuits & ice-cream products. Seattle Coffee Company in the United Kingdom, Pasqua Inc., Hear Music, Tazo®, Hyatt Hotels, Marriott Hotels, Starwood Hotels (Sheraton), Canadian bookstore Chapters Inc, Barnes & Noble, Inc bookstores, Albertson’s Supermarkets, Drugstore.com, eBay Inc., and last but not least DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.
- McDonald’s (need I say more?)
- Marks & Spencer (need I say more?)
- Estée Lauder : Estée Lauder cosmetics. Aramis, Clinique, DKNY, Prescriptives, Origins Natural Resources, MAC Cosmetics, La Mer, Bobbi Brown Essentials, Tommy Hilfiger Toiletries, Jane, Donna Karan Cosmetics, Aveda, Stila Cosmetics, Jo Malone, Bumble & Bumble, Kate Spade.
- L’OREAL: LaRoche – Posay Pharmaceuticals, Maybelline, Ralph Lauren, Helena Rubinstein, Redken 5th Avenue NYC, Giorgio Armani Perfumes, Lancome Paris.
- Sara Lee: Sara Lee Bakery. Meat (Hillshire Farm, Jimmy Dean, Bryan, Ball Park Aoste), Coffee and coffee systems (Superior Coffee, Douwe Egberts, Maison Café, Pilao). Tea (Pickwick). Body care (Sanex, Body Mist, Brylcreem, Aqua Velva, Radox). Shoe care (Kiwi). Air fresheners (Ambi Pur). Hanes – Intimate apparel, hosiery, socks, knitwear, work wear, casual wear. Playtex – Intimate apparel. Champion – Men’s and women’s athletic apparel and men’s underwear. L’eggs – Hosiery. Dim – Intimate apparel, hosiery. Bali – Intimate apparel. Just My Size – Intimate apparel. Lovable – Intimate apparel, men’s underwear, socks. Outer Banks – T-shirts, sport shirts. Wonder bra – Intimate apparel. Gossard – Intimate apparel.
- Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola (incl. Cherry Coke), Fanta, Fresca, Frescolita, Sprite, Tab. Bacardi Mixers, Hi-C, Fruitopia. Dasani Water. Minute Maid, Five Alive, Sun Valley. Nescafé, Nestea, Tasters Choice.
- Intel: Processors – Celeron, Pentium, Itanium, etc. Motherboards, Chipsets, Adapters, Controllers, Network Products, Wireless components, Embedded Products, Software Development Tools.
It seems to me that two things might be said that Sabbah obviously did not mention. First, it seems to me that a boycott should be fought with countervailing pressure. Supporters of Israel might want to direct their business specifically to these companies. Indeed, just thinking about it that way makes me happier about our family's massive annual Starbucks budget.
Second, I own the shares of several of these companies, and I wonder what effect the Arab boycott is having on their profitability. It raises the stark and ferociously un-PC question, would the average profit-maximizing business prefer to have the support of the world's 15,000,000 or so Jews, or its more than 400,000,000 Arabs (recognizing, of course, that a business's first choice would be to work with Arab and Jew alike)? I bet there isn't a lot of grant money available to figure out the answer to that question, or professors willing to do the work even if there were.
9 Comments:
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Sun Dec 31, 02:55:00 PM:
The Arabs and other Muslims who pay attention to such boycotts seldom have the money to buy the stuff, anyway.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sun Dec 31, 03:34:00 PM:
P.S. From McDermott Will and Emery, international law firm:
"U.S. antiboycott laws, instituted as a reaction to the Arab boycott of Israel in 1976 by the 'Ribicoff Amendment' to the Tax Reform Act (TRA) and in 1977 as amendments to the Export Administration Act, are intended to prevent the participation of U.S. citizens in other nation’s economic boycotts or embargoes that are not sanctioned by the United States. The following conduct may be penalized under the TRA and/or prohibited by the Export Administration Regulations (EAR):
"Agreements to refuse or the actual refusal to do business with or in Israel or with blacklisted companies..."
Further:
"Criminal penalties for each knowing violation may include fines of up to the greater of $50,000 or five times the value of the exports and imprisonment of up to five years."
More at http://www.mwe.com/
By TigerHawk, at
Sun Dec 31, 03:47:00 PM:
Yeah, I know about the anti-boycott laws (among other burdens I bear, I am a corporate compliance officer). I'm sure they have an impact, but what would be the impact of an Arab boycott even without them? It probably would depend on whether other major economies took up the cause.
By D.E. Cloutier, at
Sun Dec 31, 04:06:00 PM:
According to reports from a couple of my Danish business friends, the Muslim boycott over the Danish cartoons hurt a few specific companies. At the same time, other Danish companies experienced an increase in sales in other countries where consumers purchased Danish goods to show solidarity. Overall, there may have been an increase in sales for Denmark. That is what many people claim. Other people disagree. Propagandists from both sides continue to argue about the results of that boycott.
By 
, at
Sun Dec 31, 05:08:00 PM:
Uh--lets see. Given that many of the companies you listed (CAT, Home Depot, GE, even--don't laugh--Starbucks) have a major part of their business focused on helping people be PRODUCTIVE (bulding things--or heck, drinking caffiene) and/or on selling things for end-use consumers, that requires the purchasers to actually have jobs to be able to afford them (refrigerators, anyone?), I would think the choice would be easy. Trying to market tools of industry, productivity,or thrift (or products that cater mainly to people who care about and want to build a better life for their families) to the murder-cultists seems a bit like marketing cars to toddlers or trying to sell birth control to homosexuals. What's the point? Now if you're talking about a machette company or a white-flag manufacturer, on the other hand.....
By Unknown, at
Sun Dec 31, 05:24:00 PM:
Consumers and head count aren't interchangeable. Willingness to pay, ability to make a purchase decision, among other things factor in. Important to recognize WRT China as well.
By William, at
Sun Dec 31, 05:25:00 PM:
Because of their, on average, superior economic position, the Jews would be the better customer to court, but currently, owing to the massive amount of oil funds in the Middle East, the Arabs as a whole have more buying potential.
Of course, those with most the money in the Arab states (the elites) are not necessarily swayed by these boycotts.
By Purple Avenger, at
Mon Jan 01, 03:05:00 AM:
FWIW, at the software side of IBM we always considered the Arab countries to be "one license" nations. IOW - you'd sell one legit copy of a product there, then the whole country would rip it off ;->
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Mon Jan 01, 10:24:00 AM:
Why stop there, guys? Why not just boycott everything altogether? Start with food, please.
