Why is Heinz Ketchup Called "Tomato Seasoning" in Israel—and How Trump's Tariffs could end up being great for Israelis.
The victims might be the monopolies, Netanyahu and the public might be the victors. This presents huge opportunities for the savvy. Here’s how: (1/8)
When Israel announced a few days ago that it was cancelling all tariffs on American goods, it was essentially bluffing.
There have been virtually no tariffs on American goods for over 30 years. The total amount collected annually was around $40 million — about 0.02% of the Israeli government’s budget. (2/8)
One of the major issues with Israel’s otherwise thriving economy is the high cost of goods, especially groceries, which are on average 50% more expensive than in other OECD countries.
So why hasn't anyone taken advantage of the obvious arbitrage opportunity? If there are no tariffs on American goods, wouldn’t enterprising individuals flood the Israeli market with American products, bringing prices down to U.S. levels (plus shipping and local distribution)? (3/8)
Because the problem was never tariffs it’s the myriad other trade barriers, implemented by a government heavily lobbied by local conglomerates (who also happen to be the biggest advertisers in Israeli media).
Two examples: (4/8)
Imagine you're a local ketchup producer — say, Osem. Your ketchup doesn’t taste great, and you can’t compete with Heinz, which benefits from global economies of scale. Then Heinz lands in the market. What do you do? Compete on price? Improve your formula?
Of course not. Instead, you use lobbyists and friendly bureaucrats (some of whom wouldn’t mind a future seat on your board) to create a new legal definition of "ketchup" — one that only your product fits. Heinz, suddenly, is no longer allowed to market itself as ketchup. If they want to stay in the game, they have to relabel as “Tomato Seasoning.” And so it was. (5/8)
Now imagine you're one of only two small farms in Israel growing pineapples. The climate is poor for growing pineapples, and pineapples are labor-intensive, so your costs are high. But then how come big, juicy pineapples in the UK (with higher labor costs and worse weather) sell for $3, while scrawny, sad pineapples in Israel cost $12?
You guessed it: you’re not in the pineapple business. You’re in the lobbying and bureaucracy business. For 30 years, you’ve fought to make pineapple imports as complicated and expensive as possible — and you've succeeded.
(After much public pressure, the pineapple market was opened up partially, leading to an instant halving in the price of pineapples.)
And these are just two examples out of thousands. In each case, the result is the same: a quiet, steady transfer of wealth from consumers to producers, bureaucrats, and conglomerates. (6/8)
Often, it doesn’t even protect local jobs. In many cases, the beneficiaries are merely exclusive importers.
Tariffs were never the issue. The real barriers are the bogus certification requirements and restrictive import licensing, which vested interests use to block foreign competition. Simply allowing American or European certified goods (whose standards are generally higher anyway) to enter Israel freely and without limit would revolutionize the Israeli market — to the enormous benefit of consumers.
The Israeli Standards Institute replicates the work of EU and US standards bodies, but for the tiny Israeli market. This is great for its well paid employees, but bad for Israel. (7/8)
The government could eliminate most of this nonsense tomorrow, and over 90% of the public would support it. The only reason it doesn’t happen is because a huge share of Israeli lobbying power — and media ad revenue — is tied to keeping things exactly the way they are.
Netanyahu is, at heart, a free-marketeer. Interestingly, the major conglomerates are mostly aligned with his political opponents. Passing a law that would let Walmart, for example, open 100 stores and sell its full range of products at 30% of what Israelis currently pay would make him wildly popular.
The Trump tariffs might just be the excuse needed to finally make this happen. Vested interests that have blocked this for decades could be told: “Sorry, Trump forced our hand.”
As a bonus, here is a hilariously prescient article from @rntamir in 2021... (8/8)
One option to butter up the Ameircan admin might be to cut the duties and luxury tax on American imported cars—perhaps specifically or especially on ELECTRIC CARS 😉—this would please all the right people in all the right places without any major shock to Israeli producers...
Not a bad summary from Grok.
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There’s a special place in hell for the editors & journalists who took Hamas’ photos of children with congenital conditions (and parents with double chins) and broadcast them to their already radicalized audience with the message, ‘Look what the Jews did.’
Remember their names.
One of the many consolations of the demise of the newspaper industry is that this is the last generation of journalists.
This was a coordinated, Qatar-run campaign designed to help Hamas in its bargaining efforts. By spreading these libels, they not only harmed Israel and the hostages, betrayed Trump, and endangered Jews worldwide—they also guaranteed more suffering for the people of Gaza.
It incentivized further immiseration of the Gazans by Hamas.
This insane and completely baseless "Protocols of the Elders of Zion"-level conspiracy wasn’t just broadcast on LBC—the producers liked it so much, they clipped it and shared it across all their social media platforms. If any other minority were slandered like this, the UK police would be knocking on doors and making arrests.
Historically, spreading lies about how Juice crave gentile blood was always, always, a preamble to their murder. This time will be no different, and LBC and all the rest will share in the blood-guilt.
We can only assume that the originator of the conspiracy knows so little about Judaism that they assume that since Christians have "Sunday School" to learn about their faith, Jews would have "Shabbat School." Evil and stupid stuff from LBC.
Why, one might ask, would anyone believe such nonsense? Such a stupid lie so easily disproven? And then broadcast it to millions?
The 15,000,000 Jews alive today are the product of 40 generations of people who said "no," often at great cost. Evolutionary selection pressures made them countercultural contratians.
They aren't "chosen"—that's a misunderstanding of the theology. They are the "choosers." (1/3)
And this—not any extra level of innate intelligence (some Asian groups are smarter on average), nor in-group clannishness (many cultural groups are far more nepotistic)—is the reason Jews have had an outsized impact on so many fields of human endeavour. (2/3)
The many agreeable Jews willing to go along with the crowd—follow Jesus & his disciples, or Muhammad & his—are not the ancestors of modern Jews. If you're a Jew today, it's because there is a 40-generation-long chain of contrarians baked into every cell of your body. (3/3)
As Francesca Albanese tries to revive BDS—just as Arab states clamour for peace & trade with Israel—few have noticed that next week (July 9) marks 20 years since the BDS movement set out to defeat Israel by isolating & boycotting it. 🧵
So let’s review the results: (1/8)
Over that period, Israel has overtaken all the major European nations in terms of GDP per capita and now boasts the sixth highest GDP per capita in the world, of all nations with 10 million population or more. (2/8)
Far from being isolated, the Israeli passport is now one of the most powerful in the world: Israelis enjoy visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 170 countries, ranking 19th globally, and that is set to expand along with the Abraham Accords. (3/8)
There are three goals for the war. Forcing Israel to end the war prematurely means you can only pick two:
1. Bring home the last 20 hostages (and the 30 bodies being held as bargaining chips).
2. Ensure Hamas can never again pose a strategic threat to Israel.
3. Free the two million Gazans from Hamas— a prerequisite for any form of meaningful rebuilding.
Israel has already achieved point 2. Hamas is now permanently boxed in behind a large buffer zone, and even a small IDF presence with close surveillance ensures they can never rearm or threaten Israelis again.
So, from a purely cynical Israeli perspective, a deal that ends the hostage situation in return for allowing Hamas to remain in some form of power might be acceptable. True, they won't be able to claim "Total Victory" while Hamas still rules the rubble and terrorizes its own people—but Total Victory would have come with Total Responsibility, and a new set of risks. For most Israelis, “We reduced them to a harmless (to us) rabble” is victory enough.
The people who have been clamoring for a ceasefire since 2023 always supported Hamas. They never cared a jot for the Gazans, whom they saw only as useful tools. If they had even an ounce of humanity—or even common sense—they would recognize that Hamas is now only a threat to the Gazans themselves, and that a Total Israeli Victory is what they should be calling for too.
Note that this would be the same policy Israel took in Lebanon and Iran. Bringing about regime change immediately via military force is neither easy nor desirable. Better, reduce the enemy threat to you to something manageable in the long term, and let the locals fight it out.