Monday, January 19, 2009

Keeping Track of Israel Boycotts

This morning I was referred to a very interesting website that is keeping track of the boycotts against Israel. As I've said before, one is free to boycott anything they wish. But when a large group attempts to boycott something, it's always fascinating to find out what the real underlying reasons are. These reasons are frequently not what is publicly stated.

A lifelong mission of mine is to find out why members of the Radical Left are almost always anti-Semitic (ie. they HATE Jews). The smarter ones know that the optics of this are not good and try to explain it away with comments like "I'm actually anti-Zionist" or "Just because I don't support Israel's actions doesn't mean that I have anything against Jews". But dig down a little deeper and you quickly learn that the Jew Hatred is very much the driving motivation ... in most cases. At least in my experience it is.



Update: I changed the original title of this posting after receiving the e-mail shown below. Mr. Taub is correct, especially considering that I had no idea about this organization! But I don't have the time or interest to fight a SLAPP suit

I was reading your blog today and I found a problem. Your page title “Israel Boycott Watch” violates my Trademark of the name Boycott Watch. I understand there was probably no intent to violate my trademark, but I would still appreciate the immediate removal of my federally registered and legally protected name.

Thank you,

Fred Taub
President,
Boycott Watch (SM)
www.BoycottWatch.com

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks, but please note that I had no intention of a law suit nor was one ever mentioned in my email. I politely made a request, and I thank you for the appropriate title change. Also, a SLAPP suit is not applicable here as there was no intent to silence you. rather, I was clearly protecting the usage of my servicemark / trademark which falls under US Patent and Trademark laws.

Fred Taub
President,
Boycott Watch (SM)
www.BoycottWatch.com

Robert W. said...

Mr. Taub,

I don't think you have any case to prevent people from using the words "Boycott" and "Watch" in the same sentence. But I changed it out of respect for your request. Had I refused to, it is not at all clear to me that you would not have sued me.

Following your logic, all of the following would be illegal to use as blog headings or newspaper headlines:

"Looking Forward to the 2010 Olympics"

"George Bush: You're Fired!"

Interesting discussion here

I have now given you enough free publicity. Personally, I will not be visiting your site again.