I would vote for the response of Turkey. 

Turkish President Erdogan blasted the deal, even threatening to suspend relation with the UAE over the peace deal with Israel. Turkey called it a betrayal of the Palestinian cause.

Why do I think this is the best response?

Because Turkey has diplomatic relations with Israel, despite their support for the Palestinian people. Turkey has an embassy in Israel, and Israel has one in Turkey. Turkey's strong commitment to the Palestinian cause has not forced themselves to break off relations with Israel - nor did it prevent them from recognizing the State of Israel in 1949 and upgrading the level of relations many times since then to the point of establishing an official embassy in 1980, despite some rocky moments.

So Turkey can have relations with Israel, despite its support for the Palestinians, but UAE cannot?

And Turkey threatened to suspend relations with UAE, but they didn't threaten to suspend relations with Israel...

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There was a vegan restaurant in Jerusalem that has been functioning for years without a hechsher. They have now decided to get a hechsher and become officially kosher.

When Shawarma Tzimchonit made the announcement that it is now kosher under Rabbanut supervision, it largely went by uneventfully. Several days later a secular forum against kosher restaurants took up the cause and pronounced a fight against this restaurant's move to kashrut. Many angry diners joined the opposition to the restaurant despite having enjoyed the restaurant and/or its style as a vegan restaurant. They are calling on the public to not eat in this restaurant. 

The owner of the restaurant himself explained, in an interview with Kikar, that he made the switch because it is Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv with a mostly more traditional customer base and with the ingredients all being kosher anyway, it made sense to take at least minimal kashrut supervision.

The owner also suggests that those opposing him are probably not all customers and many are likely not vegans, just people who oppose the Rabbanut and hate religion. He says people who eat kosher ate by him before, as everything was technically kosher anyway, and he just didn't get kashrut earlier because he could not afford it when he started out. he says they just target businesses and scare them away from going kosher with the Rabbanut thinking they will take a big business hit by doing so.

Just as I have said in the opposite direction, when kosher restaurants decide to forgo their hechsher, the mass movement of people banning his restaurant will last for a short while -a few weeks at most. After that, except for the hardcore anti-kashrut activists, most people will go back to their routines. Having the hechsher in Jerusalem will likely bring in a lot of business and surely it will offset the loss of the anti-Rabbanut customers. 

the difficulty in running  a successful restaurant, especially nowadays will all the CoronaVirus issues, is likely to be difficult enough so that this issue is probably among the more minor of issues affecting his business. I hope he is successful, just as I hope all business owners are successful, and that the idealistic protesters won't really affect him. If you don't like his restaurant, don't eat there. There are plenty of others. If you do, give it a try even though he went kosher. I am pretty confident he doesn't have horns, and neither does his food. 

The question it raises in my mind is the annexation plan, the extension of sovereignty, was part of the peace plan proposed by President Trump for Israel and the Palestinians.

If annexation/sovereignty is now off the table because of peace with the United Arab Emirates, does that mean the Trump deal proposed for Israel and the Palestinians is now off the table? Will that peace deal be adjusted and re-proposed? Does it matter, since little was going to come of it anyway?

It seems that the decision was that peace now with the UAE trumps potential peace with the Palestinians at some point in the future... it makes sense - as they say, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

  -- Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council

Dagan, and many others on the [extreme] right are criticizing the peace deal with the United Arab Emirates of normalized relations in exchange for a freeze on the annexation/sovereignty...

Some people really love Mountain Dew. It is one of those American drinks that is difficult to find here, but some stores sometimes have it in stock imported from the USA or Europe. Just by writing the words Mountain Dew I am sure some people's mouths are watering.

Someone sent me the following issue:

This fellow purchased this can of Mountain Dew (with Lemon), in Israel (the specific store is irrelevant). On the importer Hebrew label it is labeled as under the hechsher is from the KLBD - the London Beis Din. The drink is manufactured by Britvic Soft Drinks in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. It is imported to Israel by a company from Shchem (Nablus) called Najach. It is difficult to see on the can itself as the label covers much of the original information, as the import label often does, but the can of Mountain Dew is manufactured in Europe, maybe Poland or the Czech Republic.

The fellow was suspicious, or maybe curious, about the Arab importer with the KLBD hechsher, and sent the image of the can and label to the KLBD to verify that they actually do authorize it. 

The KLBD responded that they do not certify the product in Israel.

Now, honestly, that si a little bit vague and avoiding the question. They do not authorize it in Israel, but maybe in the UK they do. Maybe they never approved their hechsher to be used for export, but the product itself remains certified by them, though they take no authority on anything outside of hte United Kingdom. Or maybe they don't authorize it at all.

I looked on the KLBD website using their product search. I searched for Mountain Dew. The result said that Mountain Dew "Citrus", which I assume includes lemon, possibly, is authorized by KLBD. At the bottom of  the page, as on every product search, there is a disclaimer stating that KLBD only authorizes products for the UK market.

Yet KLBD says they do not authorize this product for Israel.

I suspect, and I stress that I suspect, they do authorize the product in the UK, made in Poland or wherever and imported to the UK (as the disclaimer says it only applies to products made for the UK market - not int he UK but for the UK), but do not extend their authorization to Israel. That is why they mentioned Israel in their response rather than just saying they do not certify the product.

The label on the product is clearly inaccurate and misleading, the question is if the product is actually kosher or not.

The question is, the product sold in Israel and does not bear a hechsher - does it stop being kosher once it is loaded onto the boat or plane at the UK docks, or does it remain kosher but not certified?

Interestingly, by being imported by a Palestinian operation out of Shchem instead of by an Israeli, it did not "need" the approval of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.

So is Mountain Dew with Lemon sold in Israel imported by Najach from Shchem with the KLBD on the import label kosher or not? I don't know. I will leave it to each of you to decide for yourself and to consult with your rabbi or local kashrut expert. I think we are missing some information - such as is this can imported from the UK and is the original certified as kosher by the KLBD while in the UK? If the answer to that is yes, then I think one can consider it kosher in Israel, if one chooses to, and drink the Mountain Dew with Lemon, even though it bears no certification. If not, if it is imported from elsewhere other than the UK, or if the KLBD does not certify this specific flavor or factory run from wherever, even while sold in the United Kingdom, then it might not be kosher.

If any of you out there have more information, please feel free to fill us in.

always

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