Starbucks Boycott Turns Violent
The plight of Howard Schultz, who has in the 2009 slump seen the star and bucks fading from his legendary enterprise, is multifaceted. The reason why I am watching his case at close quarters is that the hatred of him by Muslims turned to ruthless violence in London only a few weeks ago. As Passover came to an end we were hearing that the supermarket chain Tesco had opened a customer hotline to deal with a deluge of complaints about the store selling Israeli goods. (Unfortunately there are no British matzah-makers so the Jew-haters were seething that the small, 260,000-in-number Anglo-Jewish community dared to want to buy Israeli matzot.) The anger about Israeli produce and products for sale in Britain has to be taken seriously. I have seen the rage that a request for “Israeli” or “kosher” inspires in shop assistants — and I am genuinely beginning to fear for the safety of stores. In Edgware, a leafy suburb of London, an Israeli family living in a not-so-affluent part of the area suffers constant harassment.
This takes us to the violence against Starbucks, which miraculously did not result in any fatalities but to me is a harbinger of things to come. The Zionist-hating websites have been fiercely blogging since the Operation Cast Lead campaign in Gaza and on MPACUK bloggers were urging one another to come out in force to the demonstrations outside the Israeli embassy. Sadly, the Kensington neighborhood suffered damage and fear.
The firebombing of a Starbucks in Whitechapel came just after the trashing of a Starbucks opposite the Israeli embassy and then two more were smashed to bits in London’s crowded West End. Brendan O’Neill, at Spiked, on the whole “Starbucks-as-funders-of-Zionist-aggression” theme as it spreads through the world of apoplectic anti-Zionists:
Many of the claims about “Zionist coffee” and a link between Starbucks and the Israeli military spring from a letter allegedly written by CEO Howard Schultz. Dated 11 July 2006, and titled “A Thank You to All Starbucks Customers,” Schultz apparently said that “with every cup you drink at Starbucks you are helping with a noble cause: ensuring the continued viability and prospering of the Jewish state.” …
However, the “Schultz letter” is a hoax. … The letter was written by Andrew Winkler, an Australian-based anti-Zionist media activist of German origin. It was published as a parody of Schultz on the anti-Zionist website ZioPedia on 11 July 2006. Winkler later wrote: “The Howard Schultz spoof letter has caused quite a bit of a stir. … Howard Schultz never wrote that letter; I did.”
O’Neill continues:
Yet now it has become something like a modern, internet-shared version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: a hoax document supposedly written by a Jew which is cited by some people as evidence of Zionist wickedness.
So, as Howard Schultz deals with the Muslim world attempting a boycott because they see Queen Esther in his logo and the real-life violence against his shops, I suggest he close down the chain and sell it to an enterprising Arab who will put King Faisal in the logo and then there will be peace. Joking aside, the violence that ensued in the recent anti-Israel demonstrations in London was a serious manifestation of the way blogging and the ensuing hate-mongering can transform into destruction. Jewish entrepreneurs beware.
I think I am in the mood for a Starbucks coffee, right about now.
It takes backbone to stand up to this antisemitism. Good luck finding that in the UK. This is the tyranny of the majority in practice – democracy in action. It’s too easy to scapegoat a few million Jews for all the world’s problems. The UK and other European countries are only a few years from having their own Ahmadinejads.
TomF,
Kol ha kavod, as they say in Israel…!
I’ve only recently begun to drink Starbucks, but I think I’ll drink it more often now.
I’ll keep in mind that “it’s always the Jew’s fault” as I’m drinking my Venti this morning. Ah, yes, it’s a great day to be a Jew!
Even if Schultz is a liberal and a hard-core Democrat, I drink his coffee every day
We MUST support Israel!
If they actually sold coffee instead of charcoal water, I would be there in a flash.
I am not a huge fan of Starbucks, but I think I will start drinking it more often. Are there any sane people left in Europe??
I LOVE Starbucks coffee. We get the whole beans from Costco and grind our own and gotta tell y’all it’s ruined me for any other coffee. We need to support Israel. And wiffs of how this administration plans on treating Israel deeply troubles me. WTF, I ask. Funny, isn’t it that the same folks who cry racist every chance they get cannot see their own hypocrisy in supporting anti semitism. Actually it’s not funny, it’s sad.
Support your local Starbuck’s!
And buy Israel, whenever you can.
I am on my way the local Starbucks as we speak.
This time I will even lead a tip.
I’m not a Jew, but I recognize that Israel is the only real friend America has in the ME. I’m all for helping our friends.
That having been said, now we come to the real nut cuttin’, American Jews helped put one of the biggest Jew haters of all times in the White house. When I see a turn away from hard core Democrat party line votes by the Jews, I’ll start supporting businesses like Starbucks. Why do Jews continue to arch the neck to help the beheader? Just amazing.
Do English Jews still enjoy the protection of English law and English policemen?
I was among those angered by Obama’s return of of Churchill’s bust to the English. Churchill was, after all, democracy’s bright beacon during during the darkest hours of the twentieth century. The symbol of the Anglo-American alliance that crushed Hitler and Tojo.
That a Kenyan-American president wouldn’t feel kindly toward the English is hardly surprising. The true record of the British campaign, overt and covert, against the Mau Mau movement was only recently uncovered and published by an American scholar. It’s grisly reading. Perfidious Albion at its ugliest.
Nonetheless, I felt that if Obama’s action was driven by personal revulsion for the British he was abusing his office. But I’m beginning to see things differently. Maybe the “special relationship” England has long enjoyed with the US needs to be reconsidered.
Revelations in the press of how we were buggered by our British “allies” in Iraq are only the latest example of British unreliability. Indeed, t’s hard to find a recent instance where the “special relationship” has benefited those of us on this side of the pond. Seems the benefit is always going in the other direction.
Nostalgia has its place but not in foreign policy. It was a Britisher named Palmerston who said that nations have interests, not friends. Maybe it’s time to take the British at their word.
If British elites despise Americans and despise Jews and British policemen refuse to prevent vandalism against American companies, maybe reciprocity is in order. John Bull needs us a whole lot more than we need him.
I have a sudden urge to buy Starbucks coffee right about now!Queen Ester you say?Cool!Tough luck radical leftists and Muslims.Ill buy Israeli goods and services anytime.
So, would it be bad for me to go get a venti JavaChip (best drink on a hot day EVER!) & slowly sip it in front of the Yale street mosque here in ABQ?
There’s a Smith’s f&d nearby, too…they sell camping grills & pork chops, and the weather here is about perfect for grillin’.
Who wants to join me?
That last post gave me an idea:
What if some collaborators & I bought 7 hibachi-style grills, mounted them on a large menora frame & kicked off the spring weather by holding a neighborhood grilling party just between the mosque & mecca?
With that many li’l grills going at once, we could feast like Solomon & still feed some of the vagrants in the area…
We all need someone to hate and to blame for our lives – instead of blaming ourselves for our problems we hate the Joos.
Start taking responsibility for your life. The world loves an underdog, unless you are a Joo. 1947, 7 vs 1 and the 7 lose, but the world still hate them.
Face the facts, you hate the Joos, just because you do, YOU HYPOCRATE.
I have to drive 45 miles to Starbucks and will keep doing it.
What? I’m confused…our problems are caused by the Jews and not Bush? I thought the Jews were responsible for the world problems before WWII and Bush was responsible for all of the world problems after.
I don’t drink Starbucks very often but I would drink it more if the owner wasn’t a self-hating Jew. Liberal Jews…I’ll never understand.
Starbucks’ biggest competitor, Caribou Coffee is majority-owned by First Islamic Bank, whose chairman patronized Palestinian causes, including the Al-Aqsa intifada. Probably at least as much, uh, grounds, for astro-turfing vis-a-vis Starbucks-torchings as there were for, say, the tea-party protests.
Tempest in a teapot, IMHO. Howard Schultz is much more widely despised for selling the Seattle Supersonics to the name who moved them to Oklahoma City than he is for any alleged Zio-nazism. Check the angry mobs for green-and-gold apparel.
Caribou Coffee tastes like mud. I don’t recommend it.
Howard Schultz is an O-bot.
Jewish or not if you are an O-bot you are by association a freedomphobe or atleast a freedomphobe sympathizer.
I stopped frequenting Starbucks last year when I found out that Shultz was an O-bot which make him the 21st equivalent of a kapo.
LOL @ #15!
I love the imagery of someone standing doe-eyed in front of a mosque, Starbucks Javachip in hand, condensation slowly dripping down the side of Queen Esther’s green logo face. Classic!
Nothing to do with Zionism. The coffee tastes like dishwater. Give me Costa or Nero any day.
Pajamas Media should take it upon themselves to post a list of “Israeli-friendly” products and merchants, so
that we can direct our purchases in a direction opposed
to the Islamo-moonbats, and backed by cash.
How could Schultz support Israel and the freedom and liberty of Jews, and be a hard line Democrat and an Obama supporter? They are incompatible. Crazy.
When hyperinflation hits and people are out of work in the coming Obama depression, Starbucks will be a luxury product. What will Schultz do when his President Obama has ruined not only the economy, but his very company?
He can’t take back his vote, that’s for sure.
26. Bonnie_:
“How could Schultz support Israel and the freedom and liberty of Jews, and be a hard line Democrat and an Obama supporter?”
More money than common sense. It’s a common affliction amongst “those people”… no, I’m not alluding to Jews – by “those people”, I mean progressive leftards…
Just kidding! They’re not really people; more like automatons.
Just a side note. Church’s chicken in America is now Muslim owned and operated. If it is a franchise, treat them differently than if it is a corporate store.
They need to get church out of the name and call it Mosque chickens.
Starbucks here I come!
Too bad Britain will not be able to use the latest Israeli technology, since the sun rarely shines with any strength there – literally as well as figuratively.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000443532&fid=1724
on my way to the nearest 24hour starbucks to get some coffee or anything else sold there. i always thought the coffee way strong. now, i know why, and i am drinking up. cheers.
There is a clip on http://www.memritv.org which shows the Muslim preacher talk about the starbucks’ logo.
Ha ha, take all the shoes from the mosque and put it in starbucks
to view the Muslim preacher rant about starbucks and its logo, go to:
http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2048.htm
Heh…
Hey seven-
Does this mean they’re going to forbid anyone from looking at the breasts & thighs outside the home under pain of death?
Jew bashing is becoming increasingly mainstream in America too. Rather than being revolted by the recent speech of the Iranian president, liberals I know personally are saying he was telling truth to power and is being overly demonized by the media. I’ve heard tons of liberals express exactly that sentiment.
Where can an average fella just get a cup of good steamin’ hot Joe? Good grief.
I have never understood the American Jewish tradition of supporting and espousing liberal thought and policy. One of the reasons that I am so inflexible in my own Second Amendment beliefs is the idea of being made helpless in the face of a despotic government; visions from ‘Anne Frank,”Schindler’s List,’ and a childhood spent watching ‘World at War’ footage form the basis for this belief.
I am not a Jew, but were I one, I can assure you that I would be the gun-totingest, strike-first-and-ask-questions-later Jew you ever did see. I cannot comprehend how Jews living today — who may have had relatives murdered by the Nazis — can throw their support in with the anti-Second Amendment types currently ruling the Democratic party…
Starbucks is overpriced and the coffee is rubbish, just like all these coffee chains.
Support your local independent coffee shop, that’s what I say.
If anyone wishes to read a bit more about Lord Mandelson’s ‘eventful’ past here is a good piece:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3130348/The-scandals-that-brought-Peter-Mandelson-down-twice-before.html
A protestor threw green slime at him on 6th March:
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/4180094.Protester_throws_green_slime_over_Lord_Mandelson/
Enjoy.
mary Jackson, who do you think works at your local starbucks coffee shop, aliens? When you buy starbucks, you are supporting the locals and the non-muslim, pro-western, pro-USA starbucks.
A protestor threw green slime at him on 6th March:
Generally throwing green slime – strictly speaking “green custard” – is not a way to conduct politics in a democracy. But where Mandy’s concerned anything goes. Slime is to good for him.
Well, I’ve never been a fan of Starbucks coffee (I’m a Dunkin’ Donuts coffee man myself), but if it will piss off a few Islamofascists and some Commie scumbags, I’ll patronize Starbucks a little more.
just one more reason to keep stopping at starbucks on my way to work every morning and ordering my decaf-venti-extrahot-nonfat-nowhip-nofoam mocha (or as my friendly neighborhood barista calls it: the naked mocha)
I only drink coffee about once a year, and haven’t had any this year, so I guess it’s time for a cup.
Question for anyone who can answer it for me: Why are Jews so hated throughout the world? I know it’s an ignorant question, but I really would like to know the answer. I absolutely love kosher foods, btw.
Confused in Virginia:
I attended Palm Sunday services in London and the eloquent vicar, Revd Anders Bergqvist, reminded the congregation that until very recently Eastertide was the time across the world to smash the windows of Jewish homes, most particutlarly in Eastern Europe. Of course the eternal crime of which Jews are accused is allowing Jesus to be crucified and asking the Roman authorities for Barabbas to be released. I remember my grandmother describing the Polish pogroms. In the Middle Ages the Jews were accused of drinking the blood of Christian children and this resulted in the Expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290 after 100 years of persecution and the horrific York Minster massacre (The Jews were not allowed back into England until the 1650s by Cromwell.) There were the huge Chmielnicki massacres of 300,000 Jews and the Inquisition in the 1400-1500-1600s. During the Nazi era the Jews were blamed for the worldwide Depression and for taking jobs away from Germans. There was no Israel to blame for so-called ‘apartheid and genocide’ in the Nazi era but now this is used to accuse Israel (I do think many anti-Semites use this as an excuse to attack Jews) of, ironically, behaving ‘like the Nazis.’ There have been rogues like Roger Levitt, Robert Maxwell and Bernie Madoff who of course inspire huge hate blogs but for every one of them there are millions of law-abiding and hard-working Jews around the world.
Re Kosher food: I have lived in the UK for 33 years but still miss knishes!
Carol,
Thank you for the wonderful explanation. Do people not understand that Jesus dying on the cross was pre-ordained? How else could he have paid for all of humanities’s sins and be resurrected to take his place at God’s right hand to intervene for us sinners? I realize that it was the Jews that called for his crucifixion, but if it wasn’t meant to happen, God could have and would have stopped it. I guess that is lost on some people.
It’s sad to think that a whole group of people is demonized, rather than thanked for bringing about Christianity.
That was the detailed version from Carol. Here’s a contemporary view:
Let’s say you’re a leftist progressive dipshit, like a Hollywood celebutard, a university campus “activist” or some other whacko. Anytime something goes wrong in the world, it must be someone’s else’s fault. And it surely couldn’t be you or your ilk; you’re socially & politically moral! But someone is to blame, so-
Credit card debt?
It’s the Jewish run financial institutions.
Upside down on a mortgage you knew you couldn’t realisticly handle?
Again, Jews in finance.
Recession?
Jews. Or Bush. Or Bush being controlled by Jews.
9/11?
Jews & Bush again.
Mid-East strife?
Jews.
Islamic rage? Intifada? Jihad?
Jews. Jews. Jews.
There have been some, I kid you not, that believe that Islam never would have come to exist but for Jews. After all, had Jews never made it past the Roman empire, then there would never have been a need for Moe Hammed to pen the koran. It’s cause & effect…Make sense?
By that “logic”, I like A. Bierce’s explanation:
EFFECT, n. The second of two phenomena which always occur together in the same order. The first, called a Cause, is said to generate the other — which is no more sensible than it would be for one who has never seen a dog except in the pursuit of a rabbit to declare the rabbit the cause of a dog.
Here in Britain the public discourse about Gaza (operation Cast Lead December-Jan) has been intense; the anti-Israeli feeling sort of converts into anti-Jewish sentiment resulting in unpredecentted violence and desecrations of Jewish gravemarkers, synagogues etc.
Here in the US, especially in liberal infested areas like Berkeley, anti-Israeli sentiment defaults to unabashed hatred of Jews faster than you can say ‘gifelte fish’. The reason is that the festering hatred is already there; the outrage towards Israel as a nation is really just the mask it wears.
Imagine the indignation these haters feel when they look back at all the atrocities the Jewish people have suffered throughout the last several hundred years, and yet they still exist & thrive despite all the adversity.
When I think about the lefties absolutely fuming with impotent rage without actually knowing why they’re so angry all the time (other than because someone told them the whole “it’s because of those dirty Joooos!” dreck & the bought it), it makes me smile.
Bitter, unskilled losers almost always provide good entertainment. Just look at Hollywood…
For the last several years I tried to warn my Jewish friends and acquaintances that antisemitism was on the rise. And, that many of the academics and political elites they followed or referenced were clearly antithetical to both Jewish and democratic interests.
However, I live in Portland, Oregon. Jewish and liberal response here has been open and obscenely hateful towards conservatives. The Sarah Palin attacks were beyond anything I’ve heard in my 53 years.
After this last election I’ve made American Jewry, contact I’d always enjoyed and valued, a stranger to me. They are the most intolerant and spiteful citizens I know. They are on their own. It’s has been made real clear to me that they (progressives) would very happy with the extermination or suppression of people like me.
I am out of patience with the spite, scorn, and superiority.
whatever! i love coffee. specially, coffee in starbucks. i love it!
Alan, I think it’s more basic than that–losers hate winners. And the leaders of losers blame the winners, too. Look at the Middle East: Israel, tiny and with no oil or other rich-nation resources, turns the Negev into a garden, builds a democratic state, and has the audacity to WIN several wars against far-larger Soviet-funded opponents for decades and decades, all starting off with a bunch of rag-tag survivors of the Holocaust in a dry, barren little strip of nothing. WHY IS THIS SO? Well, there are only two possible reasons–EITHER it is some terrible evil unholy conspiracy, the same one that’s been going on for centuries…or maybe living under crooks and kings and sheiks and secret police and haves who screw zillions of have-nots DOES NOT WORK for the betterment of human life? Hmmmm….and that would turn all this violence the mullahs and lefties stoke against WHO exactly? The very rulers of those nations that sponor and support and encourage the teaching of anti-Jew hatred, of course. In short, all the talk about conspiracies, blood-drinking, and crucifixion is not only nonsense and illogical, it is a cover-up for the POLITICAL reality that those who FAIL are envious of those who SUCCEED…and speaking of that, it explains the violent attacks and overwhelming efforts to denegrate Bush and the Republicans, too–because gosh, if the public actually gave Bush credit for PROTECTING us after 9/1l and WINNING the war in Iraq, well….who’d vote Democrat? Likewise credit for Reagan’s economic boom which MUST now be crushed and then blame the crushing on RR.
This is not about God or Faith or Scripture or even Ethnicity: This is about POWER, within the Middle East and beyond it from Europe to Asia to the USA. They hate us because we’re WINNERS and we’re WINNERS because we’re HONEST and HARD WORKING and MORAL, and they hate morality most of all because deep within their slogan-covered souls, they’re ashamed that they have none, and no faith either. Just by existing, we show them up and, tiny-ego’d children that they are, they cannot stand that without having a hissyfit–a hissyfit that KILLS.
There’s only one answer, alas: Kill them first, show them who’s REALLY opressing them, and just like those warlords and sunni’s and shiahs in Iraq, they’ll figure it out. It isn’t quick or easy or over yet. But what choice do we have–not just as Jews but as Americans and Humans–other than to surrender and die?
I don’t go to Starbucks because it’ is just too expensive. The myths are easier to sell than the truth. Mainly because the myth is more interesting. I do not mind buying Israeli, UZIs are a lot of fun.