Spread Hummus, not Hate

Bad news for those who enjoy made in America Sabra Hummus.  30,000 cases of the classic style hummus have been recalled because of possible listeria contamination. To see if your hummus has been subject to recall, you can check the SKU code at the US Food and Drug Administration website, here.

Sabra joins Blue Bell creameries,  Wegmans Organic Frozen Spinach,  and Carnival brand and Kitchen Cravings brand caramel apples all of which have experienced listeria recalls this year.

Anti-Israel activists are taking advantage of the recall to spread their special brand of hate on the Government's Food Safety Facebook page. Its just more of the same petty, small-minded activity we see on social media whenever anything peripherally related to Israel comes up.

Disgraced academician Steven Salaita also got in the act.

Imagine how much nicer the world would be if these "activists" spread hummus instead of hate.

Israel: More than just falafel

Last year international food and restaurant consultants Baum and Whiteman made some predictions about the rise of Mid Eastern Foods, writing

Forget Spain and Greece ... the south side of the Mediterranean and the Levant are where new tastes and dishes are coming from: Turkey, Israel, Morocco, Iraq, Iran

Israel exports not just high tech but its innovative “New Israeli”cross-cultural cuisine, absorbing ideas and techniques from all over the region.  Families fleeing turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt, Iran and Iraq are bringing their splendid food here. Syria’s displaced people may provide another wave of culinary excitement. Explore Turkish street food for ideas. The cookbook “Jerusalem” is flying out of books stores and you need to read it. 

 

Zaatar and pomegranate molasses already have made it to kitchens here and shakshuka

will appear on America’s breakfast and brunch menus. Global riffs being added to falafel and hummus.

 

A few more drone attacks and shug or shuk,  an incendiary Yemenite dip spiked with coriander, cumin and red or green chilies could be the next harissa as people emigrate

.

Muhammara... a fiery-sweet dip from Aleppo, Syria, with tahina, peppers, walnuts and tomato paste

deserves a look. Freekeh, toasted green wheat, is catching on with trendinistas looking to stay ahead of the quinoa curve. Lior Lev Sercarz, an Israeli spice monger running New York’s La Boîte à Epice sells secret custom spice blends with Middle Eastern flavors to chefs like Eric Ripert, Daniel Boulud, Michael Solomonov , Marc Forgione, who swear by them

 

This year, the trend towards mid-eastern tastes is picking up speed, with Baum and Whiteman declaring hummus one of the top 2015 trends

 

You've watched the rise of Greek yogurt, yes?  Now hummus ... once a niche product here eaten

primarily by Arab and Israeli immigrants is following the same trajectory. Google

says that hummus has out- trended salsa, no small thing since salsa dethroned ketchup. The chick pea dip has become so Americanized  which means piled with flavorings that the Subway is

testing it as a no-meat option for its sandwiches. Hummus is high in protein and fiber and low

in fat, so it touches lots of dietary bases.Eight years ago perhaps 12% of US households had it in

the fridge; today 20% and rising largely because the Sabra brand (co-owned by Pepsi)

did enormous missionary work, even running a popup store in Georgetown. 

 

Hummus sales reached $800 million in 2012, an enormous increase from $16 million in 2006. Sabra hummus, that spreadable object of the BDS'ers  ire remains the best selling hummus in the country.  From high tech to bio-tech to spreadable chickpea paste, Israel continues to innovate, and to create products that people crave. Thats why BDS is and will always be irrelevant.

BDS fails of the Week

 In BDS fail news of the week:

According to the International monetary fund, the Israeli economy is expected to grow by 3.8 percent in 2013 and 3.3% in 2014. Israel's economy may very well outpace other Western economies.  IMF economists indicate that Israel's economy was strong, stable and diverse. 

Thats after 12 years of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions. 

And in other recent BDS fails:

Since March, anti-Israel activists have been collecting signatures on a petition to ban Sabra hummus from the George Mason University Dining Services. In 7 months, this crusade against healthy eating has reached the milestone of 445 supporters, the vast majority of who are not GMU students, and have no affiliation with GMU.

Glancing at the petition, some signators may not be real human beings, either.

BDS fail, GMU.


This week also brought us two sold out Tel Aviv appearances by Tom Jones.   Check out his version of My Yiddishe Mama.


Paula Adbdul is loving Israel, and is letting the 2 million who follow her twitter feed know all about it.

Cultural boycott, fail.

Rather makes me think that organizers of last weekends Students for Justice in Palestine conference should have brought in grief counselors as they collectively mourned their 12 years of abject failure.

In BDS news this week

BDS is on a roll, we hear.  Can't stop it. Such momentum.
But, er. no.  It's not.
In BDS news this week:

* Web giant Amazon.com will open an office in Tel Aviv to support Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud computing offering. The office is expected to begin operating at the start of 2014.  It will support companies from start-ups to large organizations as they move to cloud computing services.

Why Israel? Werner Hans Peter Vogel, the chief technology officer and Vice President of Amazon.com in charge of driving technology innovation within the company declared " If you start a business today you no longer buy IT (information technology). You spend your money on getting better engineers and product builders. "

* Facebook  has acquired Onavo, an Israel-based startup for well over 100 million. Facebook  will gain both talent and technology in the deal. All of Onavo employees will join FB. Onavo’s Tel Aviv headquarters  will become into Facebook’s first Israel office.

* Warren Buffet purchased a third Israeli company Ray-Q Interconnect.  Ray-Q, which helped develop Israel’s Iron Dome and Arrow military systems, will keep its operations in Israel Buffet total investment in Israel is nearly  $7 billion.

Oh, yes.  And a handful of students at George Mason University  are desperately trying to get anyone to sign their petition, banning made in America Sabra hummus from their school.

Sabra Hummus: An Epic BDS Fail

Our friend Jon at Divest this always helps us keep things in perspective. That's why we like him. Remember a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away?  Sabra hummus- a made in New York chick pea spread  was the main focus of the BDS'ers ire.   Using the entire carpetbag of BDS tactics- threats,  intimidation, and  meaningless referendums, along with the cowards way out- destruction of private property - what have they accomplished? In over 4 years of hating on hummus, where has it gotten them?

Sabra Hummus vandalized by BDS holes in Berkeley (2008)

Vandalized display in school cafeteria

Jon points out exactly what impact the BDS'ers have made on the bottom line of Sabra hummus.  

From Fast Company:

... if Ronen Zohar has his way, hummus will become a staple snack next to the peanut butter and jelly in your fridge. As CEO of Sabra Dipping Company, Zohar’s presided over sales of hummus that bounced from $16 million to $800 million in just six years. Founded in 1986 to serve a local community of predominately Jewish customers in Queens, New York, Sabra eventually grew and became a joint venture of PepsiCo and the Strauss Group in 2007. The company now boasts more than half of the hummus marketshare and about 25% of the fresh dip category that includes salsa and guacamole, ahead of competitors Tribe and Athenos (owned by Kraft). Zohar believes hummus will bring Sabra a billion dollars in annual revenue in the next five years.

One more time- just so you realize how irrelevant the BDS'ers have been to the Sabra brand:
Sales of Sabra  hummus increased from $16 million to $800 million in just six years. 

Its yet another massive, epic BDS fail.

De Paul Spreads the love. Sabra is there to stay

The latest battle in the hummus wars is over. DePaul University officials say a referendum that sought to have the Sabra hummus currently served on campus removed has failed to receive the 1500 votes needed to pass. Sabra is there to stay

The referendum was placed on the ballot by Students for Justice in Palestine.(Students for Just Us in Palestine) The organization contends the New York based Sabra, the Strauss Group, gives financial support to two Israeli military units accused of human rights abuses.

It's been over ten years since students at DePaul University in Chicago have had a referendum on their student government ballot.

From the DePaul Hillel Blog

"While this issue relates to Israel-Palestine, we trust that DePaul's leaders do not think it is legitimate to boycott a company whose charitable donations, in addition to assisting premature infants in Serbia and providing scholarships for children with cancer, also support soldiers, just as American companies do, without taking a stance on the policies which have put those soldiers into harms way. Should Hershey, Target, Goodyear, Kellogg, Best Buy and other companies who support our troops abroad also be boycotted by DePaul? "

Personally, I love my Sabra hummus( the lemon hummus is lovely- clear bright flavors) on whole wheat bread with provolone cheese and crisp fresh sprouts.

UPDATE
When is a Loss a Win? When Ali Abunimah says it is. Here's his press release:

Students at DePaul University in Chicago voted by a large margin in a referendum asking if they support ending sales of Sabra brand hummus on their campus. Due to a technicality, however, the result will not be binding. A note received by The Electronic Intifada from campus activists with Students for Justice in Palestine at the university announced today the results of voting that took place earlier this week:

Results of the referendum: 1127 voted in favor; 332 voted against ; 8 extraneous write ins. To be valid a referendum must have a turnout of no less than 1500 students. Although we had an amazing win, the referendum is not valid as we were 36 votes short. But this isn’t over. SJP will make a statement about what’s next for the campaign...


Ok, Ali. De Paul's got over 25,000 students. Less than 2,000 voted. Of those, you still didn't scrap enough to pull off a win. Thats 04% of the students at DePaul, Ali. Think your headline: DePaul students vote by large margin to ban Sabra hummus might be a trifle misleading?