Word: boycotts
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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...
Stiffer Laws. Even before the presidential campaign, pressure had been building in the U.S. to take a more active stand against the boycott. In the last session of Congress, both the House and Senate passed antiboycott bills. The version that finally emerged from an informal conference committee would have allowed firms to continue filling out certain boycott forms, but the companies would have been barred from engaging in any discriminatory action toward other U.S. firms, or from changing their business methods to support the boycott. The bill died after extensive parliamentary maneuvering by Republican Senator John Tower of Texas...
Businessmen are afraid that hardliners in the new Congress may press for even stiffer laws against the boycott and blacklist. That, businessmen contend, would only drive Arab business to other countries, and make it increasingly difficult for the U.S. to pay for the growing amount of oil the nation imports from the Middle East. Administration officials also are concerned that a tough stand will cost the U.S. its diplomatic leverage with the Arab states. Such fears are in no way allayed by a California antiboycott law that goes into effect Jan. 1. Under it, all California corporations that cooperate...