Word: arab
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Cooked Spaghetti. The flap has obscured two issues raised by the boycott: the boycott itself and the mysterious Arab "blacklist" of American firms. The boycott bans from Arab trade any company whose business substantially helps Israel. Complying with it, as the candidates have failed to note, is not illegal; no U.S. law forces a company that sells to Arabs to sell to Israelis also...
...whole, U.S. businessmen have not found the boycott a serious obstacle. One reason: when Arab states find it in their interest to do business with U.S. firms, their boycott rules become as bendable as cooked spaghetti. Trans World Airlines, for example, flies to both Israel and Egypt in open violation of the ban. The Egyptian government explains that TWA's flights do nothing to "strengthen" the Jewish state...
Generally, the boycott is taken most seriously by Arab states relatively close to Israel. Saudi Arabia is one of the strictest enforcers of the ban. Without the boycott, U.S. officials estimate, American business in Saudi Arabia would increase by 25%. On the other hand, Morocco and Algeria virtually ignore the boycott. In all, despite the boycott, sales by U.S. firms to Arab countries have soared from $820 million in 1970 to an estimated $7 billion this year. At the same time, American sales to Israel have climbed from $594 million in 1970 to an estimated $1.5 billion this year...
...biggest headache for American businessmen and politicians is the Arab blacklist of firms or individuals that supposedly have helped Israel in one way or another. Often, Arab buyers will ask an American company to certify that it does not do business, even in the U.S., with any blacklisted firm. In that way, American companies are pressured to discriminate against other American companies. Compliance with such requests may be morally reprehensible, but its legal status is murky. No U.S. law specifically forbids it, but the Government contends that complying with the blacklist may violate the Sherman Antitrust Act by restricting competition...
...American businessman who wanted to comply with the blacklist would have trouble finding out whom he was supposed to discriminate against. The list is constantly changing as firms are added-sometimes for unfathomable reasons-and others are dropped, often after paying the right fixer or offering lucrative investments in Arab lands. The only copy of the list that Washington has is dated 1970. Among those on the list: Motorola, CBS, Republic Steel, Kaiser Aluminum, RCA, Xerox, Lord & Taylor, Owens-Illinois, Ford, Coca Cola, Zenith...