August 12, 2014
 
Huffington Post Article About Starbucks is False
 
Summary: Just another lie to get Jews to stop supporting those who support Israel
 
 
    Boycott Watch has been at the forefront of breaking false stories about boycotts as well as leading the battle exposing the Arab boycott of Israel since 2002. In fact Fred Taub, the President of Boycott Watch, wrote the definitive book about the Arab boycott of Israel / BDS called Boycotting Peace. Boycott Watch has also written 14 previous articles about boycott calls against Starbucks. What these articles have in common is they expose false claims against Starbucks, most of which are all aimed at getting Jews not to buy from Starbucks.


    That is exactly the case with the Huffington Post article by Ibrahim Balkhy whose cover photo on his Twitter page, @ibalkhy seen here on the right (click to enlarge), sums it all up - he wants to see Islam reign over Jerusalem. The fact is, this is just another attempt to discredit Starbucks because Howard Shultz, the company President, is both Jewish and support projects in Israel.


    Here are the facts:

    The article by Ibrahim Balkhy is based a posting by Starbucks that dispels the false rumors spread by Muslims who want to damage the reputation of Starbucks and Howard Shultz. The Starbucks memo states that neither the company nor the President of the company Howard Shultz gives money to the Israel government or the IDF. That is true, but it is also true that unless you are paying taxes in Israel, you are not giving money to the government of Israel nor the IDF. As such, it is a moot point.

   Also, people donate money for projects in Israel, such as schools, to buy trees, etc, but not to the government itself. People have also donated items such as bullet proof vests for IDF soldiers, as did Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik did when she donated specific items. That is not the same as donating money to the Israel government. In fact, there are neither buttons on the State of Israel website, nor on the IDF website asking for cash donations. As such, the claim by Ibrahim Balkhy is misleading at best. What Balkhy did though is take the Starbucks posting, read between the lines and then posted a fantasy that the Arab League's Central Office for the Boycott of Israel, located in Syria, undoubtedly loves.

    Meanwhile, the Muslin world has been upset at Howard Shultz since 2006 when he received an award in a ceremony for Israel's 50th anniversary, the Israel 50th Anniversary Friend of Zion Tribute Award, an award he received for the many projects he donates to. So, while Starbucks as a company does not donate to Israel itself, Howard Shultz donates to projects in Israel, and so much so that it made the Arab News. Even before that though, Starbucks has been under fire from the Arab world as a company to boycott, and there have been several attempts by Arabs to get Jews to stop buying at Starbucks in order to get Jews to hurt the projects in Israel Howard Shultz would support.

    Also in 2006, Boycott Watch busted a false letter campaign with similar content which also attempted to get Jews to not buy from Starbucks. In fact, the image on the right (click to enlarge) taken from a leading Israel boycott page very clearly shows (http://boycottisraeltoday.wordpress.com/boycott-israel/) that Starbucks is a major target of the Arab boycott of Israel, and in fact has been. Fred Taub covered that in his book Boycotting Peace.


    Now there is the question about why Starbucks is no longer in Israel. Boycott Watch wrote about that in 2003, also to dispel Arab / Muslim rumors. In our article titled Correcting a false boycott email: Starbucks pullout of Israel was simply and clearly a business decision we exposed the fact that Starbucks failed in Israel because Israeli's just didn't like it. The reason is Israeli's prefer Turkish coffee and Starbucks just didn't match up to that in the eyes of Israelis. In fact the failure was so bad that nobody has bothered to try it in Israel since. That's something Ibrahim Balkhy didn't bother mentioning because it is an inconvenient fact that ruins the premise of his articles. For that matter, everything Boycott Watch exposed here ruins the premise of Ibrahim Balkhy and the credibility of the Huffington Post in this matter. Shame on the Huffington Post for either for at the very least not fact checking the Balkhy article before posting it, or more likely, deciding to essentially not only endorse the Arab boycott if Israel, but the global extension of that boycott to include Jews who support Israel regardless of they are in Israel or not.

    So, if you support Israel and see this new claim or hear of other claims by Arabd and/or Muslims to get Jews to stop buying coffee at Starbucks, the smart thing to do is go to Starbucks and drink up because the best way to bust a false boycott claim is to become a loyal customer. You may want to avoid reading the Huffington Post too.
 
 
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Boycoting Peace
by Fred Taub
President, Boycott Watch
 
 
 

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