This story should surprise nobody in Israel. One of my favorite Israel memories comes from listening to Israel Army Radio (“Galei Tzahal”), which is much like college radio stations in the US and appealed to my then twenty-something self. An excellent program, for both entertainment and vocabulary value, was a quirky weekly economics primer, “Sha’ah Kalah al Kalkalah.” They periodically discussed the price of nuts in various locations around Israel as an example for economic analysis, and concluded that the very low price of pistachios (“fistuk halabi”) relative to other nuts in certain years didn’t make sense in the market and had to be explained by what economists call an externality. Turns out the freighters transporting weapons as part of Iran-Contra needed paying cargo for other legs of their global circuit, and often carried Iranian pistachios to certain other regional ports. A few discounts to avoid running empty ships, a few officials looking the other way, and suddenly pistachios were available at bargain prices in the Tel Aviv bus station. And this was decades ago. Our ambassador exposed himself as a newbie, while Bar-On and Barnea are posturing by feigning shock.

Seriously, I remember the days of Iranian pistachios here in USA. They were the best and I miss them mightily. Turkish are okay, Californian aren’t even pistachios – they are some tasteless, pale, abomination.

and don’t israelis get much of their oil from iran? sounds like a love-hate relationship.

Rebecca