With the Tennis Channel deciding against broadcasting the action from the upcoming Dubai Tennis Championships, the question now must be posed to Barclay’s, the sponsor, of why they are continuing to sponsor an event that smacks of racism?
According to a Jpost report: “The Tennis Channel has refused to broadcast the Barclays Dubai
Tennis Championships, in protest of the United Arab Emirates’ refusal to grant an entry visa to top Israeli player Shahar Pe’er, The New York Times reported Tuesday. The television channel’s chairman and chief executive, Ken Solomon, was quoted in the report as saying, “This is an easy decision to come by, based on what is right and wrong.”
If it’s a basic question of right versus wrong for the Tennis channel, than what about for Barclays? Do they sanction these steps? Do they believe that an Israeli tennis player, should be discriminated against because of her religion? Why are they continuing on with their corporate sponsorship?
How did you become a leading analyst on ETFs? Dave Fry, Founder of ETF Digest: I think being early in coverage of these fast growing investment vehicles is the easy answer. Beyond that we have tried to be more honest and blunt in our coverage of new products. We haven’t been “yes men” or suck ups for issuers and sponsors for example. Where we’ve been critical some ETF sponsors won’t talk to us any more for example which isn’t a bother since we don’t use their products anyway. Further where there are problems we’ve been out front in pointing these out. That occurred with shorting problems for retail investors where the promised benefit didn’t meet reality. (Continue »)
U.S. investors have tried for the past few years to access the growth in the Israeli market without a true index vehicle for doing so. The Amidex35 is probably the most accurate vehicle for those looking to get exposure to Israel as a whole. It’s an interesting index, splitting total market cap between Tel Aviv and the U.S (around 60/40). So, you get local Israel exposure with some growth-y tech companies layered in. Kudos to Amidex’s Cliff Goldstein who shared some time with us on CNBC recently talking about Israeli companies and the market opportunity as a whole. We interviewed Cliff a couple of months ago and it’s worth reading that interview again here. (Continue »)
