Daphne Anson: Starbucks: No More Smashed Windows In Londonistan?

Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East. (From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Starbucks: No More Smashed Windows In Londonistan?

Putting the pro-Hamas jackboot in: London, January 2009

Back in 2009, during Operation Cast Lead, there were disgraceful scenes of mob violence close to the Israeli Embassy in Londonistan.

Among the targets of the ferals' anger was a nearby branch of the global coffee shop chain Starbucks, a chain which has been the subject of picketing by BDSers (see here for instance), and was badly vandalised on that occasion reportedly because Starbucks' CEO in America, Howard Schultz, is Jewish.

It will be interesting to see whether Starbucks escapes the wrath next time. For, in the words of a rightly incensed informant, the company via the internet has got "into bed with Palestinian propagandists":

"So I'm at Starbucks this morning and normally pass through the opening screen after logging onto the internet... but what do I see as one of the three featured items?"

Yes, what he saw was that on its "Digital Network" the company has been helping to publicise a slanted version of the Arab-Israeli Conflict ("Palestine: A Century of Shrinking") complete with a series of maps calculated to woo the unwary into the enemy camp - click here.

'Gee,' the outraged spotter continues, with understandable sarcasm,

'So after Israel was created, "war breaks out" between Israel and Arab states? Hm. Sounds pretty equitable to me.

1967: Israel captures the Siani? Then occupies the region? With no provocation whatsoever? Wow, those bastards. No wonder everyone's against Israel.

The first Palestinian intifada consisted of "mass civil disobedience?" You mean they would like, block traffic and refuse police orders to move? They sang songs of peace, and refused to stop? Wow, now I hate those evil Zionists even more.'

Shouldn't we all be telling Schultz how we feel about his company helping to demonise the Jewish State?

Starbucks Coffee, Howard Schultz, CEO, 206-447-1575, info@starbucks.com, General comment form here

And perhaps patronising Starbucks' rivals instead?

I'm told Costas isn't that bad ...

Of course, for a caffeine-free kick there's always Max Brenner...

Update - The Simon Wiesenthal Center has issued the following Press Release:

October 12, 2011

Various members of the Simon Wiesenthal Center have alerted the SWC to this misleading posting on the history of the Land of Israel which ran on Starbucks Digital Network. The Center immediately contacted Starbucks headquarters.

The Center wrote in part, “…we'd like to hear from Starbucks about what steps you are taking to remove it and what steps… you'll be taking to assure that Starbucks won't serve as a platform for such material in the future.

The propaganda presentation called Palestine: A Century of Shrinking present maps that falsely assert that the historic Land of Israel belonged to the Arabs.

“The material presented on the Starbucks Digital Network is similar to other anti-Israel propaganda being promoted by extreme anti-Israel groups. We urge our members to join us in urging Starbucks not to allow itself to be a platform by extremists, “ said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWc Associate Dean.

Go to info@starbucks.com to let Starbucks know what you think of this, site case #7361732 in your email.

8 comments:

Juniper in the Desert12 October 2011 at 08:22
Starbucks could do with some stickers on the windows...
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Daphne Anson12 October 2011 at 08:35
Huh? :~/
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Samson13 October 2011 at 03:24
Unbelievable. What is this anti-Israel propaganda doing on a Starbucks "news" website? It is full of omissions and distortions, and no wonder - look at the "sources" quoted: The BBC, Al-Jazeera, CNN, The London Times and the UN.

I thought Starbucks were a bunch of "Zionists" - after all, Queen Esther is on the Starbucks seal, right?

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/130368#.TpW_EnOi1-A
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Daphne Anson13 October 2011 at 03:39
Indeed, Samson - I noticed the dodgy sources!
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Anonymous15 October 2011 at 06:53
My comment:

Mr. Schultz,

The purpose of this correspondence is to level a complaint regarding content on your website in your "Digital Network" arena that presents a slanted version of the Arab-Israeli Conflict ("Palestine: A Century of Shrinking"). I am outraged and disappointed that your company would succumb to revisionist history and Arab propaganda that tests the limits of libel. There is hardly a shred of verifiable or credible truth within this most cynical narrative. Rather than promoting peace, you add fuel to an already raging fire of mis-information, virulent anti-Semitism, and the morally inverse agendas of organizations intent on delegitimizing the State of Israel. Mr. Schultz, what part of the “Palestinian” rally cry: “Palestine, from the river to the sea” do you not understand.

As a corporation (Starbucks) that has included in it’s branding a strong element of social responsibility, you should be ashamed of yourself. The never ending call from virtually every sector of the Arab world calls for the destruction of Israel, and you, perhaps unwittingly, are now a facilitator of such a malevolent goal.

I am not here to brandish threats or recriminations, although you may be assured that I and my legion of family, friends, colleagues, associates, and acquaintances will be satiating our coffee cravings at alternative venues, but I do hope you reconsider this most offensive and inaccurate account by pulling it from your site.

The capitulation by your company to acquiesce at best or lend aid and comfort to anti-human, dark and evil forces at least, is a tragic commentary and I would hope in complete opposition to your carefully sculpted corporate image you so fiercely defend. Mr. Schultz, there is an unassailable and non-negotiable universal right and wrong. At this time you are on the wrong side and I implore you to remedy the situation.

Sincerely,
David S. Simpson
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Daphne Anson15 October 2011 at 22:27
A model letter, David - thanks!
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Louis Lapides18 October 2011 at 05:27
Daphne: Have you seen the latest Starbucks anti-Israel promotion? I posted it on my blog. Check it out: http://thinkingoutsidetheblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/jewish-group-urges-starbucks-to-take.html
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Daphne Anson18 October 2011 at 05:45
I'm on my way to your blog, Louis!
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'For as long as these antisemites wrap themselves up in the Palestinian flag, too many people are willing to turn a blind eye. Only against Jews is this type of racism openly tolerated. It is flourishing in schools, colleges, universities, unions and in city councils. In fact, so rampant is the disease now, in some settings you can be ostracised if you do not partake in the frenzy yourself. Bashing Jews has becomes a trendy position for the ignorant social justice warrior. "Palestinianism" is a viral "ponzi scheme" and as it spreads, it carries antisemitism in the undergrowth.' David Collier (2017)

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'Before the June 1967 Six Day War, there were no such things as "settlements". Palestinians were trying to destroy and displace Israel anyhow. The core problem is not, and never was, "settlements," but the right of Israel (or any non-Muslim nation) to exist inside any borders in that part of the world.
If you take a stand that is based on a lie, then that stand cannot succeed. If you try to oppose antisemitism but pretend it is the same thing as "Islamophobia," then the structure on which you have made your stand will totter and all your aspirations will fail. If you try to make a stand based on the idea that settlement construction rather than the intransigence of the Palestinians to the existence of a Jewish state is what is holding up a peace deal, then facts will keep on intruding.' Douglas Murray (31 December 2016)
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9685/britain-little-lies

'Islamophobia does NOT come from the same wellspring of hatred as antisemitism. Antisemitism is a true prejudice because the hatred and demonisation it promotes derive entirely from lies and a repudiation of rationality itself.
Islamophobia is a false allegation of prejudice which is deployed to silence rational criticism based on actual facts about attitudes and practices within the Islamic world.
[L]ethally compromised even-handedness is to misunderstand, and thus minimise, antisemitic attitudes and behaviour while shutting down legitimate and necessary discussion of the threat from the Islamic world – even to demonise as “Islamophobic” anyone who draws attention to the extent and consequences of Muslim antisemitism.' Melanie Phillips (14 December 2016)

Jews have re-assumed the role of the canary in the mine and are the first to be targeted, but the world would face the same threat if Jews did not exist. Israel has been at the front lines confronting Islamic extremism but has received scant support... For Jews, the writing has been on the wall for a long time. The virulence of the antisemitic hatred closing in on Jews in Europe (and elsewhere) is horrifying...
Europe is today facing a crisis as serious as the confrontation with Nazism. If Western leaders continue behaving like Chamberlain and fail to stand up to this global threat, it could usher in a new Dark Age in which the Judeo-Christian culture is subsumed by primitive barbarism. The writing is on the wall Isi Leibler (12 January 2015)

Expose The Lies!

There is a war of lies and deceit on the internet generating unbelievable hate by denigrating and delegitimising the legal rights conferred on the Jewish people by the League of Nations in 1922 and the United Nations in 1945. The idea that there are two narratives on the Arab-Jewish conflict is rubbish. There is only one – the factual truth that details the return of the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in its ancient biblical, ancestral and historic homeland after 3500 years of dispersion with the unanimous endorsement of the nation states then comprising the League of Nations.... Generals can’t fight a war without soldiers. Jews around the world need to join the fight or vacate the internet to the Jew-haters and their lies that repeated often enough eventually become accepted as truth. David Singer (2016)

The "Apartheid" Slur

The division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into three separate areas “A”, “B” and “C” was agreed on by Israel and the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords.
95% of the West Bank Arabs live in Areas A and B and their daily lives are under the total administration and control of the PLO since the Palestinian Authority was disbanded by Abbas in January 2013. The PLO has total security control in A and shares security control in B with Israel. Israel has total administrative and security control in C.
Israel is entitled to and will continue to take responsibility for the security of Jews living in the West Bank.
Jews were given the legal right to settle in the West Bank under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter. They did so for decades until they were driven out in 1947 and not able to return there until 1967.
There are Arab roads only in the West Bank that Jews are not allowed to use. Jews are also forbidden from entering Area “A”. Selling land to Jews is forbidden by the PLO under pain of death. The PLO runs the daily lives of 95% of the West Bank Arabs and Hamas runs the daily lives of 100% of the Gazan Arabs. They have been under occupation – and subjugation – by these two evil groups for the last ten years and given no say in their future or any opportunity to elect others to lead them following the disastrous political decisions of their leaders over the past ten years. Hamas and the PLO do not accept the continued existence of a Jewish State and call for its disappearance.
The narratives did not begin in 1948 – they began in about 1917. How do you make peace with an enemy that has been obsessed with not recognising any Jewish national rights in former Palestine for the last 100 years? David Singer (2016)

The Jews of the Holy Land ... are surrounded by hostile states 650 times their territory and sixty times their population. Yet their last, best hope of ending two millennia of international persecution - the State of Israel - has somehow survived. When, during the Second World War, the island of Malta came through three terrible years of bombardment and destruction, it was rightly awarded the George Cross for bravery. Today, Israel should be awarded a similar decoration for defending democracy, tolerance and Western values against a murderous onslaught that has lasted twenty times as long. Andrew Roberts (historian)

Israel is understandably obsessed with security, but its greatest security lies ultimately not in the Israeli Defence Forces, but in political warfare.... Most of the world is not deeply interested in what happens in Israel, and probably does not want to be deluged with legalistic defences of particular actions. What it wants is a clear, calm, repeated case. It is a case – aimed more at public opinion than at foreign ministries – about freedom, democracy, a Western way of life and the need for the whole of the free world to fight terrorism. Sometimes you hear Israelis say: “It doesn’t matter what we say. The whole world is against us.” You can see why they say it, for they are indeed unfairly treated. But when they say it, they are uttering a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they won’t say what needs saying, no one else will say it for them. Charles Moore (2010)

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Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam... In this deadly game of thrones, there’s no place for America or for Israel, no place for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone... [T]he greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We can’t let that happen...[T]he days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves....Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. But ... I know that America stands with Israel... You stand with Israel, because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to history’s horrors. Bibi Netanyahu (12 Adar 5775; 3 March 2015)

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions, of people, and there is no refugee problem.... [N]o one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees.... Other nations - when they are defeated - survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.... [A]s it goes with Israel, so it will go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us. Eric Hoffer (1968)

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January 7, 2015 has already its place in the history of infamy, but also will be the date when the defenders of freedom and democracy will rise and pay tribute to those who died for their freedom and ours. Therefore, we must not forget on which side we are and who are our allies in the defense of the West and its values. Whether we admit it or not, the West is at war with an enemy who will not stop to destroy us...
The State of Israel boasts a commandment that, in one of the darkest hours in the fight for liberty Winston Churchill taught: "Never give up". Israel has proven to be a key ally in the fight against Islamism and also an example of how a liberal democracy can resist the jihadist stake and thrive as a Western nation ... Not only France but also all the West should look to Israel to defeat Islamism...
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[I]t’s impossible to believe that an active antisemite wouldn’t – if only opportunistically – seek out somewhere to nestle in the manifold pleats of Israel-bashing, whether in generally diffuse anti-Zionism, or in more specific Boycott and Divestment Campaigns, Israeli Apartheid Weeks, End the Occupation movements and the like....[T]ell me that not a single Jew-hater finds the activity congenial, that criticising Israel can “never” be an expression of Jew-hating, not even when it takes the form of accusing Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs... Howard Jacobson (The Independent, 27 May 2013)

For Western countries to side with those who question Israel's legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel's vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values, rather than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude. Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is lost and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Jose Maria Aznar

Israel is, for us, a normal and a special country. A normal country, because it is just like any other democracy. A special country, because the Jewish culture, which eventually became the Judeo-Christian culture of the dignity of man, is the conceptual foundation of liberalism and democracy. This is why attacking Israel is tantamount to attacking Europe and the West. This is also why disputing Israel's legitimacy and its right to existence means questioning democracy. And this is why we are Friends of Israel. By defending Israel, we are defending ourselves. Marcello Pera

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I am duty-bound to defend freedom, culture, peaceful coexistence, the civic education of children, and all the principles that the Tablets of the Law have rendered universal. Principles which Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. This means that, since I am a Gentile, a journalist and a leftist, I have a triple moral commitment to Israel. Because, if Israel were to be vanquished, modernity, culture and freedom would also be crushed. Even though the world has failed to wake up to this fact, Israel's struggle is the world's struggle. Pilar Rahola

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