There is a recently published book, that I'm sorry has not yet been translated into Italian, entitled “The Israel Test”. The author, George Gilder, a distinguished economist who enjoys international fame, explains that the world owes Israel an unbelievable amount of gratitude in terms of science, agriculture, medicine and software. The world would 
Some have passed the "Israel Test."
be a much worse place without the help of this small country also engaged in its daily struggle for survival.
Some understand this, and have thus passed the "Israel Test".
That said, many others, because of their obtuse ideology, are not able to pass the test: an example of this is the case of Coop – Italy's National Consortium of Consumer Cooperatives, and Conad (Italian retail brands which operate two of the largest supermarket chains in Italy). These two dutifully folded under pressure from a group of NGOs and other associations, named "Stop Agrexco", who asked them to boycott Israeli products exported to Italy by the company Agrexco (Israel's foremost agricultural exporter), because 0.4% of these products are not marked with the "seal of leprosy" dreamed up by these NGOS, and might actually come from the territories of Judea and Samaria.
This has made it necessary in the eyes of the fanatics within Coop and Conad to remove from Coop's shelves all Israeli products. It does not matter, as we would like Bersani (leader of Italy's center-left Democratic Party) to say aloud to his friends from the left-wing cooperative, that in order to grow those banned fruits and vegetables, for sixty years Israelis - all Israelis - have broken their backs to no end and that they have taught the entire world how to use drip irrigation and have given lessons on how to make essential products flourish in the third world, even in the desert. What is this monster called a "settler"? The same who in Gaza, as someone perhaps may remember, left their greenhouses full of flowers and cherry tomatoes, to be handed over to the Palestinians for their economic benefit, to be immediately destroyed by Hamas's self destructive rage.
In Coop's lexicon, the farmers of the West Bank must starve with their families like the Ukrainian peasants in the days of Stalin. Israeli products are polluted, for the cooperatives, by “human rights violations”, as declared by those “Stop Agrexco” people: but it would be interesting to know if Chinese products or those of many eastern countries, as well as those of the Middle East and of Africa have been put to the same “human rights” test. If this is not occurring, there is reason to believe that the problem isn't with Israeli products, but instead with Israel itself.
Coop's “quality director”, Dr. Mario Zucchi, professes to “having carefully considered” the request of "Stop Agrexco", which during last Palestinian Earth Day “coordinated its actions” in various Coop and Conad supermarkets: among those NGOs that took part are Attac, Pax Christi, Federazione della Sinistra (Federation of the left), Fiom-Cgil, Forum Palestina, Un Ponte Per (the one of the two Simone, the Italian aid workers kidnapped in 2004 in Iraq and released thanks to diplomacy). They don't lack the support of two Jewish anti-Israel groups, always useful, Eco (Jews against the Occupation), and Women in Black.
Without knowing anything about these Italian groups, we can confirm that the NGO's boycott and the lobbies against the relationship between the EU and Israel and for divestment, are very well funded: this is demonstrated in a report by NGO-Monitor, which tells us that “Al Haq” (a Palestinian NGO) received 461 thousand dollars in 2008 from the Netherlands, “Al Mezan” got more than 500 thousand from Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands and 
Their ultimate goal is the abolition of the Jewish State.
Denmark, “Alternatives” received 2 million from Canada, the “Coalition of Women for Peace”, a European organization, dished out 247 thousand, “Trocaire” in the UK got 640 thousand and so on.
There are activists who never sleep, full time boycotters who dedicate their time to carrying out a relentless campaign of delegitimization vis-a-vis Israel and accuse it of all the worst crimes, apartheid, crimes against humanity... their ultimate goal is the abolition of the Jewish State.
There are those who do not want to realize that the harshest Italian Left has for some time now ventured on this rocky road. That is an old story.
But that the great, historic supermarket chains are allies to the crime of symbolically and theoretically condemning Israel to starvation, is a painful novelty. What's more, to boycott Israel consistently means throwing trash on an avalanche of important and vital inventions. Who has the courage, especially after recent discoveries, to throw away that blood test that charts in order to cure multiple sclerosis, the device that restores the use of paralyzed limbs, the new invention that helps children burdened with sleep-related breathing disorders, recent cures for Alzheimer's, DNA repair or the elimination of the manifestations of Parkinson's disease.
If one wants to boycott Israel with coherency, he needs to remove the phone, whose modern advancements are the work of Motorola's Israeli offices, and also the computer, whose astonishing developments were designed by Intel in Israel...and this is only a small segment of the truth.
Therefore, come on boycotters! While Coop and Conad remain in the world of leftist lies, shamefully refusing the magnificent contribution that Israel gives to the world. I, for myself, will never buy any product of these chains and ask all my friends to do the same.
Translation by Amy K. Rosenthal