Customer Reviews

The Arab Boycott of Israel: Economic Aggression and World Reaction

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The author said the purpose of his 123-page hardback book in 1976 was to help develop a "concerted offensive by the inter-national community...against the Arab Boycott [of trade with Israel] will put an end to the Boycott"; an overly optimistic goal when looking at its continuance now in 2009. The author discusses in his book's chapters: The Boycott Structure (history, regulations, objectives); The Boycott in Practice (political, economic and psychological successes, along with its shortcomings); Reaction to the Boycott (Israel, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Massachusetts Commission, banks compliance,etc.); Law and the Boycott; Anti-Boycott Activity (Jewish organizations' responses); The Future: Dreams, Strategy & Reality (The role of Arab Oil); and the 1970 "Blacklist" itself. While most Americans thought the Arab boycott of Israel did not start until the Oil Embargo of 1973, the author pointed out that the anti-Zionist boycott was well underway by the late 1920s throughout Palestine: with the chief goal of thwarting the development of a state of Israel through the Muslim's public campaign of "no selling of land to Jews." The author provides an expansive history of the Arabs' no-trade policies throughout the Middle East during the 1950s: how Arab oil-producing nations argued that ships that had docked in Israel were to be denied re-provisioning in Arab states. It is interesting to understand how the Arab League attempted to entice various countries not to trade with Israel, by their threat of not allowing the products of those countries into the Middle East. The author discusses the impact that the Boycott had on depriving various resources or commodities to the economy of Israel - and to those countries that the Arab League were unhappy with; and how Israel responded to it. An all-to-brief review, but a fine place to start in getting a very informative historical background of this topic.