The list of companies supposedly supporting the Israeli military grows ever longer.
The latest victim of rumor gone amok in this brew-ha-ha of turgid invective is Starbucks, the overpriced, over-roasted, over-stimulating beverage of choice for 25 million people a week, worldwide.
Brendan O'Neill at Sp!ked Online has an article entitled Israel, Starbucks and the new irrationalism.
The recent demonstration in London over Israel's invasion of Gaza included the destruction of the Kensington High Street Starbucks.
It was more than just being an easy target, situated across the street from the Israeli Embassy. Starbucks had become the latest in a long line of corporations mistakenly tied to Israeli army donations.
For the past two weeks, internet discussion forums and mobile phone networks have been bombarded with the following message: ‘Starbucks and McDonald’s are donating their next two weeks of earned revenue to Israel. Please BOYCOTT them and forward this message to everyone you know.’ Other versions of the message say Starbucks and McDonald’s are ‘donating their next two weeks of earned revenue to the Israeli military’. A Facebook group set up in opposition to the war in Gaza includes other fast-food corporations in the story: ‘KFC, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Starbucks and McDonald’s are donating their next two weeks of earned revenue to Israel. Boycott them.’
Starbucks denied that it supports any political causes. To add to the sense of irony that only the internt could provide, this follows on charges from 2003 that Starbucks was closing its stores in Israel because of pro-Arab sentiment. They can't win for losing.
Maybe its karma because their coffee is teh suxorz.
In a piece of satire written 2 1/2 years ago by Andrew Winkler (clearly marked as a parody) and posted on the anti-Zionist site Ziopedia, a letter purportedly from Starbucks CEO Howard Schulz proclaimed "Thank You To All Starbucks Customers" as a portion of profit from each cup of coffee was donated to help support the state of Israel.
Speakers at the London demonstration fanned the flames by denouncing the "Zionist lobby" and alluding to Israel's collusion with a number of companies like Starbucks.
The destruction of Starbucks in Kensington had nothing to do with a principled anti-war stance; it was the violent culmination of a campaign of mythmaking, distortion and conspiracism. It was a purely irrational act, executed by the gullible and the prejudiced, and fuelled by respectable speakers condemning ‘Zionist’ coffee. This is not any kind of anti-imperialism I want to be associated with; we might call it the anti-imperialism of fools.
Mr. O'Neill sees is something new, anti-Semitism based not on racial bigotry but on western cultural disaffection.
Commenting on Brendan O'Neills story, Andy Hume gives his sardonic take at Jewcy with The Protocols of the Elders of Java.
Nor is the damage restricted to overpriced coffee shops; British supermarket chain Marks and Spencer has also been targeted by demonstrators; ostensibly that’s because it stocks Israeli produce, like every other supermarket chain in Britain, but I wonder if it’s entirely coincidental that ‘Marks’ is one of this country’s more famously Jewish-founded businesses and a long-standing bugbear of anti-Semites throughout the Middle East. Indeed, if you tune into Iranian TV - and even Iranians watch the Superbowl - you will discover that there’s barely a large multinational anywhere that doesn’t siphon off profits to support the miracle on the Med. (Pepsi stands for "Pay Each Penny to Save Israel", apparently, which I must admit sounds rather catchy.)
Lack of critical thinking skills leads to destruction and violence. No less so in the anti-war movement than in the leaders who declare war.