Mackey is a libertarian. I have a hard-time believing he’s virulently anti-Israel to this degree.
I also have trouble taking Debbie Schlussel seriously.
For now, I am buying at wholefoods. I am very, very pro Israel as well.
Part of the difficulty with olive trees is they produce good quality olives with little effort ~ and may be initially processed to extract the "first press" or Virgin oil with rather primitive, handbuilt equipment.
What I've heard from folks who grew up in olive country in Israel (including the West Bank), Lebanon, Syria and Greece is that once you have productive trees you guard them day and night while there's fruit on the them.
That's precisely the reason you find groves near national borders being frequented by military and paramilitary and militia-type folks at night ~ because there are already people under the trees.
You can build a house and raise a family on a handful of these incredibly productive trees.
So, yeah, I suppose buying one guy's olive oil rather than another guy's might well put a round into a different chamber in a different gun, but if the choices are to buy Spanish olive oil from industrially grown trees I suppose that's what I'll just have to do.
Sure not going to buy Italian or Sicilian olive oil ~ you KNOW who owns and protects those trees!
Here's a perspective from Dr. Bonner's, which makes it seem all hunky-dory:
Dr. Bronner's Response to Criticism of Fair Trade Organic Olive Oil from Palestine
Her objection seems to be that Whole Foods promotes Canaan Fair Trade, which in turn funds scholarships to Palestinian universities that are wont to have pro-terror celebrations.
She sure does not take kindly to that out of the closet Christian lady who ran with McCain. Deb is a bit intolerant and overwrought.