|
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.
|
|
|
|
|