New Jersey Jewish News
Editorial

Andrew Silow-Carroll
NJJN Editor-in-Chief

President Bush is visiting India, and must find himself wishing that he could stay until it all blows over — and by “it” we mean the last six months or so. The “Scooter” Libby scandal. The Dick Cheney duck-hunting accident. The nationwide confusion over the drug prescription program. A blistering report on the government’s Hurricane Katrina response. And now the blowup over the Dubai ports deal.

Critics of the president — including an increasing number in his own party — say these missteps create the impression that the White House is out of touch, not only with its opposition but with its own “base.” Critics on the Right and Left are demanding to know how the president and his advisers could not have foreseen the firestorm that would erupt with the announcement that a company owned by an Arab government would operate six U.S. port terminals.

Now, the Jerusalem Post comes along to remind the nation and the president of yet one more reason why the government of Dubai is a questionable candidate for the job. The paper reported this week that the emirate supports the Arab boycott of Israel. The United States has long been opposed to this pernicious attempt to isolate Israel economically by extending the Arab countries’ own distaste for commerce with Israel to the non-Israeli companies and countries it does business with. As recently as 2005, according to the Anti-Defamation League, the Commerce Department alleged that Dubai was asking U.S. companies to certify that goods shipped to Dubai were “neither of Israeli origin, nor do they contain Israeli materials, nor are being exported from Israel.”

In response to the Post article, ADL is urging the administration to squash the deal. “Dubai should not benefit from America’s open trade policies unless it discontinues its anti-Israel activity,” wrote Abraham H. Foxman, ADL’s national director.

Before it was forced to become an international leader in the fight against terror, the United States led the fight against the Arab boycott. The Bush administration has one more reason to help find a new operator for America’s ports, and one more opportunity to show that it is in step with the American people.

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