When Ketchup isn't Heinz

Heinz Tomato Ketchup is one of those iconic American product brands. When isn't ketchup added to the BBQ picnic table? It is found literally everywhere in America. You are more likely to find Heinz Tomato ketchup than peanut butter in American homes. I have watched Americans put Heinz ketchup in literally anything, and nothing ruins a good steak more than drowning it in ketchup, but to each his own. But ironically, in 2015, Heinz Tomato Ketchup doesn’t have as much tomato as you would think.  Ynet News:

Osem has launched a campaign against its main ketchup competitor Heinz, claiming the latter's sauce does not meet the criteria for ketchup and instructing retailers to remove it from their shelves. After conducting lab tests on the Heinz product at its own initiative, Osem on Tuesday morning sent a letter to retailers asking them to remove the Heinz product from their ketchup section, and not place it next to Osem's own product. The letter, signed by Osem Trade CEO Nizan Goldberg, states: "We wish to bring it to your attention that we recently discovered that the product marketed as Heinz 700g ketchup only contains about 21% tomato concentrate and not the 61% tomato concentrate as advertised on the product. The product has been tested in a leading European external laboratory, which produced these findings. Israeli trading standards define ketchup as having 41 percent concentrate. "The incorrect indication of tomato concentrate in the products severely misleads the Israeli consumer public and is a violation of the provisions of the law to protect consumers," the letter states. "This information has also been sent to the Diplomat company and the authorities. Moreover, under Israeli law, the presence of lower quantities of fortified tomato concentrate prevents the product from being called ketchup and it cannot be sold as such."   

Who would have guessed that Heinz Tomato Ketchup is only 21% tomatoes? This really does explain why 15 mls of ketchup contains 4 grams of sugar. Years ago, Heinz wasn’t sweet but tart - it had a bite to it. Now it is so sweet it can literally rot your teeth. So save your money and a few drops of red food colouring to your sugar, and viola! You have a clone of Heinz ketchup!

Then there is J-Street, the American pro-Israel pro-peace lobby group.  The “J” in “J-Street” was allegedly  to stand for ‘Jewish’ and had presented itself as a new hip Jewish organization to counter balance the more traditional Jewish organizations/lobby groups.    Not only has J-Street had to struggle for basic Jew creds within the Jewish community but there are grave doubts about J-Street’s Pro-Israel credentials as well.  

Of course, the recent election ofan American Muslim woman to the presidency of its national student board - J-Street U has destroyed any pretense of J-Street being an authentic Jewish organization. .

Do not misunderstand me, I probably won't find Amna Farooqi half as annoying as leader Jeremny Ben-Ami who, unfortunately, is a bona fide member of the tribe but an organization which positions and portraits itself as an authentic Jewish voice has be be backed by Jewish leaders. 

All of which brings me to the Obama administration and the latest Iran side deal. Whose idea was it to allow Iran to inspect itself?  And why, would any rational person go along with it? 

There is something very 1984ish about 2015. Big Brother may not be watching but you can count on the NSA to be listening. We might not have yet Ministries of Peace, Plenty, Truth and Love but we really are damn close.  Nothing is what it seems to be anymore.

Veterans Against the Deal

If I was White House, I will be praying this video will not go viral. Since I am not POTUS, I am doing my bit to help make this happen.  Once of the most powerful 1 minute clips I have seen in some time.

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.

Of all the Israeli journalists currently working and writing; it’s Sarah Honig, who is the one I most admire – her grasp on history and current events is really quite unparalleled for modern journalists – even Israeli ones. Forget Avi Shavit, any book Honig writes will be worth your time, besides any publisher will be able to publish her work in Hebrew without worrying about gettingtheir ass sued from here to the world to come.   If I have one criticism of her, it is this; she needs to write more books! She does have a collection of her published columns out found in one book, but I would love to see her to tackle an in-depth biography on any of Israel’s Prime Ministers.

I always learn something new from any column Honig writes and Shamelessly raring to go is no exception:

Siemens claimed to have been obliged by old contracts which only involved sectors not covered by the sanctions. Still, the Stuxnet virus – which damaged Iranian centrifuges for enriching uranium and which was widely attributed to Israel – ended up attacking Siemens components. This fact alone should constitute ample food for thought.

Yesterday, I wrote; 

 Iranian financial gains amount to over a billion US dollars, I suspect this largess will be filling the coffers of Russian, French and Chinese military manufacturers, with enough to spread around to arm Iranian proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.  If were a betting woman, I would place a bet that  there will be a major Iranian airplane deal with any of the P5+1 nations to bring Iran’s badly degraded air force up to first world standards sometime in the next year.  Woe is Yisrael, if America wins that contract.

This AP report in theKomon News suggests Boeing and Airbus are already bidding at the trough.

 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's president has pointed to another possible windfall from the nuclear deal with world powers - his country may soon be able to buy badly needed new planes for its aging fleet, the official IRNA news agency reported. Iran's Transportation Minister Abbas Akhoundi has said there have been talks with Boeing and Airbus and that initial agreements will likely come in a few months' time.

"We will provide new aircraft for Iran," Akhoundi said.

Last month at the Paris Air Show, Akhoundi said Iran was prepared to spend about $20 billion to purchase about 400 new planes over the next decade. Iran President Hassan Rouhani said Iranian negotiators came away from the talks in Vienna with "achievements beyond the nuclear" agreement and succeeded in having "aviation sanctions removed." His remarks were carried by the official IRNA news agency late Wednesday.

So I won that bet with myself sooner than I expected. It’s probably the one bet I would have gladly eaten crow over.  More importantly, it is time for the Israelis to start the long arduous shiva process and bring about an end to all military cooperation with the United States. 

Forget Congress, the bagmen of the US economy will win, even if one scores a Pyrrhic victory in the US Congress.  It is time to face facts; the so-called special relationship has ended, even if most ordinary Americans remain senseless of the tectonic shift which has occurred beneath their feet, whereby their government is lining up to support the reign of the Mad Mullahs.  And Woe is, all the American Jews who placed their faith and trust in Obama, rather than Klal Yisrael.

Iranian Nuclear Pact or how the Scarface Rules of Drug Dealing apply to real world politics

What’s most telling to me about the P5 +1 negotiated agreement with the Iranians was the deliberate omission of those countries from a seat at the negotiation table who have the most at stake on the outcome of this agreement.

Israel, the Gulf States, Egypt, not one had a seat at the table with the Iranians, and yet, a nuclear armed Iran poses an immediate and deadly threat to all these states, and only an indirect threat, and at that, only via ‘foreign’ business interests to the P5+1 states who sat around the table with the Iranians.

P5 refers to the 5 permanent members of the UN Security council; USA, China, Russia, France, and the United Kingdom.The plus 1 is Germany.  So why Germany, and not, say Italy or Switzerland? Well, Germany is a ‘key’ trading partner with Iran, and the Iranian nuclear program relies heavily on German engineering and manufacturing. Think Siemens, Linde, BASF, Lurgi, Mercedes, Volkswagen, and MAN to name a few.

 I would suggest that all P5 nations are poised to reap a major financial windfall with an Iran no longer under sanctions.  So it is in the financial best interest of the P5+1  for a deal, any deal, to be negotiated with the Iranians.  And to hell with American hostages, the Israelis or the Sunni States of the Middle East.  By the way, the German Economic Minister et al will be shortly landing today in Tehran to discuss, well, business opportunities.

To coin a cliché, this deal is all about the benjamins and has very little to do blocking Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon.  In order to safeguard the P5+1 vested financial interests, there is a little remarked upon clause in the deal. Arutz Sheva: 

One particularly interesting detail: Tucked away near the very end of the deal's massive text is a section entitled "Nuclear Safety, Safeguards and Security," which stipulates that the West will train Iran to thwart sabotage against its nuclear facilities. According to text, Iran will learn how to secure its controversial and covert nuclear program from all threats thanks to training by the "E3/EU+3," another designation for the P5+1 countries consisting of the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China, as well as the EU.
The section seemingly begins benignly enough, with a clause saying that "E3/EU+3 parties, and possibly other states, as appropriate, are prepared to cooperate with Iran to establish a Nuclear Safety Centre in Iran, engage in workshops and training events in Iran." But then things take a turn, with the same world powers obligating to "co-operation in the form of training courses and workshops to strengthen Iran's ability to prevent, protect and respond to nuclear security threats to nuclear facilities and systems as well as to enable effective and sustainable nuclear security and physical protection systems."  Leaving no doubts about the intentions, the text then promises "co-operation through training and workshops to strengthen Iran’s ability to protect against, and respond to nuclear security threats, including sabotage."

The implications of this clause are huge. Let’s be real, the Saudis and other Gulf states do not the capacities to attack any part of the Iranian nuclear program but there is one state who does, and that state has been repeatedly threatened by the Iranians.  Conceivably, there could come a day, when United States will be actively using its nuclear and military intelligence to undermine any Israeli attempts to safeguard our people from Iranian threats.

The United States, despite the belief of a hard core group of anti-Semites, is not a proxy for Israel.  America is not Israel, and has never and will never, act in Israel’s best interest unless Israeli interests dovetails with American interests.

America has never fought in any of Israel’s wars, and will never.  In fact, the PLO owes its existenceto a beloved American President who chose to save Yasser Arafat and his menfrom the imminent Israeli death blow. America will sell Israel weapons, and will actively seek to contain Israel when Israeli interests clash with American policy.   I would suggest there is no special relationship between America and Israel except in the minds of American Jews and a cynical political class who regularly seek to exploit this myth for their own purposes and interests.  

Americans have been very cynically offering the Sunni statesand Israel the promise of increase military hardware but I would hazard a guess that any military largess offered is for ‘defensive’ rather than any offensive capacities, at best, there might be some meager offerings of ‘dual’ use military hardware – hardware which is primarily defensive but could be modified for and used in an offensive capacity in a best case scenario.

Iranian financial gains amount to over a billion US dollars, I suspect this largess will be filling the coffers of Russian, French and Chinese military manufacturers, with enough to spread around to arm Iranian proxies in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.  If were a betting woman, I would place a bet that  there will be a major Iranian airplane deal with any of the P5+1 nations to bring Iran’s badly degraded air force up to first world standards sometime in the next year.  Woe is Yisrael, if America wins that contract.

Much has been made about the snap back provisions, I won’t even go there, but I will stay I find it rather telling that only inspectors will be made up from countries who have diplomatically relations with Iran. If that isn’t stacking the deck, I don’t what is.  And bonus points are awarded if you know which of  the Scarface Rules of Drug Dealing apply here.

It's rule #3. Never underestimate the other guy's greed.