One more story has just appeared of hysterical overreaction by thin-skinned Muslims, this time in Turkey, where the hysteric-in-chief, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sets the tone. More on this farcical tale can be found here: “Turkey: TV anchor fired for displaying ‘pro-Israel’ Starbucks cup,” Israel National News, December 27, 2023:
An award-winning TV news anchor in Turkey was fired for appearing on camera with a Starbucks cup on her desk, The New York Post reported.
Displaying a Starbucks cup is perceived as a provocative act in Turkey as the company is considered to be pro-Israel.
Meltem Günay, a 45-year-old veteran newscaster with TGRT Haber, and the director of the program were fired immediately after the Sunday broadcast, according to the Turkish television conglomerate.
The Istanbul-based media company said it “has an understanding that knows the sensitivities of the Turkish people regarding Gaza and defends them to the end.”
“We do not approve of this action of the presenter and director, whose employment contracts were terminated, and we strongly condemn it,” it added.
According to the statement, the anchor and the director of the newscast were “terminated for just cause” after they were found to have “acted contrary to this principle.”
The New York Post noted that coffee drinkers in Turkey have waged a nationwide boycott of Starbucks in recent weeks due to what pro-Palestinian Arab sympathizers allege is the company’s bias toward Israel.
Social media users have circulated viral videos showing them protesting outside Starbucks locations and demanding that customers shun the coffee giant, according to the report.
In what way is Starbucks biased toward Israel? Does it display Israeli flags, or disseminate pro-Israeli propaganda, in its stores? It does neither. Neither the company, nor its major stockholder, Howard Schultz, donate money to the Israeli government or its military. It is enough, apparently, that Schultz is Jewish, to make pro-Palestinians urge a boycott of the company.
But isn’t causing an award-winning journalist to be fired (and what other Turkish company will risk Erdogan’s wrath by hiring her?) an overreaction? Is a mere coffee cup, possibly grabbed on the run, unthinkingly, just before she went on the air, enough to trigger such an outcome? Perhaps it was not even her choice. The coffee might have been brought to her by a factotum on the set who knew she needed to be caffeinated. She certainly could not have intended to break the boycott of Starbucks so publicly, knowing full well what the consequences would be. Instead of being fired, she could have been given a dressing-down by the media company’s owner, and warned not to do it again. That would have been more than enough to remind people in the public eye not to unwittingly give a boost to Starbucks.
This newscaster’s firing took place in the context of Erdogan’s ferocious attacks on Israel for its war of self-defense against Hamas.
Israel and Turkey formally announced last year that they would normalize relations by returning the ambassadors and consuls, after years of tensions.
Those tentative steps taken in 2022 to improve relations between Israel and Turkey have now stopped completely, and instead they are now as bad as they have ever been. Erdogan has upped his attacks on Israel since the start of the war against Hamas on October 7.
In late November, Erdogan referred to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “the butcher of Gaza.” Several weeks earlier, the Turkish President said during a rally, “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but you, Israel, are the occupier.”
It is not hard to imagine how ferociously Erdogan would have responded to some terror group that had done to Turkish citizens what Hamas did to Israelis. But he lacks the empathetic imagination.
And now Erdogan has gone still further in his anti-Israel statements. Not only is Netanyahu, in his view, the “butcher of Gaza,” but in late December, Erdogan told a crowd in Istanbul that the Israeli prime minister is “worse than Hitler.” As he is president, no one in the media has dared to suggest that this might be a tad exaggerated. After all, no Gazans have been asked to take “showers” that turn out to be sealed rooms where not hot water, but Zyklon-B, is emitted. The IDF has not put Gazans into mobile killing wagons, nor squeezed them into sealed cattle cars without food or water, where most of them suffocated during the journey. It hasn’t gathered Palestinians at the edge of huge pits, then shot them, one after another in the back of the neck, with each one falling into the pit, to be covered by the next to topple in, and so on till they were all dead, as the Nazis did to the Jews. At Babiy Yar, just outside Kiev, almost 40,000 Jews were murdered in such a manner. Has that happened to the Palestinians in Gaza? Have Palestinians been subject to fiendish “medical” experiments by Israeli doctors, as Jewish children were by Dr. Josef Mengele and his assistants? Have Israeli soldiers thrown Palestinian babies up in the air in order to catch them on their bayonets, as Germany soldiers did with Jewish babies, in order to amuse themselves? Has the IDF conducted “aktions,” where they rounded up, and shot, men, women, and children on sight, as the Nazis did with Jews when entering the ghettos of Europe? Erdogan needs a history lesson. And a cup of coffee, to clear his brain fog, bought from Peet’s or Caffè Nero.
clive roach says
And Turkey is a big holiday destination for brits
TAKE IT OFF YOUR HOLIDAY LIST AND GO ELSEWHERE
Hugh Fitzgerald says
Why do any non-Muslims provide their tourist dollars to Muslim countries? For god’s sake, there are so many other places to go.
Rob Porter says
Hugh, I, too, can’t fathom this thoughtlessness and stupidity. In similar vein l can’t fathom why Westerners fly on Emirates Airline or any airline owned by Muslims. Why enrich people who hate our guts?
James Lincoln says
Rob,
Had to fly once on Egyptair in the mid-1990s while on military orders.
Couldn’t wait to land.
Wellington says
Absolutely agree. All in the West who still prize freedom should boycott visiting Turkey as long as that apologist for Islamic evil, Erdogan, is still in charge.
OLD GUY says
We should also stop purchasing oil from muslim countries.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
That one was a reality from 2017-2020 while President Trump was in office. Hopefully we can get that back again, and if Russian oil can be back on the regular market, we can get muslim oil back to where the ? they were getting for it was minimal
Shalom says
I did a big guided tour holiday there but never again since that erdogan got in.
Jim says
“In late November, Erdogan referred to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “the butcher of Gaza.” Several weeks earlier, the Turkish President said during a rally, “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, but you, Israel, are the occupier.”
“You, Israel, are the occupier” –> you mean, kind of like Turkey being the occupier of northern Cyprus? And isn’t Turkey occupying Kurdistan?
Keys says
Yes, and kind of like Turkey occupying the mostly Christian Byzantine empire.
And nothing like the Turks and the genocide/butchery of the Armenians.
FYI says
Well it could have been worse:it could have been a mug with a picture of Peppa The Pig.There was a controversy in Australia a few years ago with the muslims over that:Peppa for some reason was considered unsuitable for muslim kids.
Maybe.. Fatima the jihadi Hedgehog or Ahmed the rapist Mouse might be more appropriate then and more suited to islamic “culture”{music,art,literature,comedy?None of that infidel nonsense in islam!the cult so primitive that it does not even have the Golden Rule}
muslims like to fly into a rage over ridiculous things:cartoons…mugs…,critical evaluation of the koran..music..oh all that “islamophobia”
Mike says
I read somewhere that a Muslim comedian was doing a prank, and saying that his son had told him that he (the young boy) had told him that he wanted to be a pig when he grew up. And, that Peppa Pig had inspired this. I don’t know if this prank was in Australia, though.
Keith O says
This woman’s greatest sin was actually drinking Starbucks. That is a sin against good taste more than anything else.
How anyone can call that crap coffee is beyond me, even the stuff in MREs tasted better.
As for her and her boss getting the sack for a coffee cup? This just shows how petty and intolerant mudslime countries really can be.
Linda says
Well said. Brilliant ending in particular.
Our enemies are attacking Israel. We ARE and Should Be on Israel’s side. The last time I read the Bible, they are the children of God.
Pray for Israel.
FYI says
Halal Starbucks istanbul
Customer:Can I have a cup of halal islamic coffee please ..allahu akbar?
Employee:Trans or cis.. just kidding.Let me write your name
Customer It is Alan Akbar spelt a-l-l-a-h-u for alan
Employee Alan Akbar?allahu akbar!That’s some coincidence
Customer: Can I use the loo?
Employee; No.
Wellington says
Doesn’t take much, now does it, to irk a Buttlim?
And which is one of many reasons why no respect should be extended to Islam—a totalitarian, supremacist, intolerant and violence-prone ideology hiding behind a religious veil.
James Lincoln says
Wellington,
They actually WANT to be irked.
That way they can play the victim card.
DavidW says
I’m sure the coffee cup was actually an Israeli spy.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Peet’s is pretty good. Give Erdogan a huge cup of Horton’s coffee ?
tgusa says
Images of Juan Valdez and his donkey always triggered me. And no, I dont know why.
GreekEmpress says
Don’t forget to boycott Procter and Gamble products. They invested millions in Turkey.
Gurek says
No place for non-Muslims in Turkey.
abu taleb says
Starbuck supports the LGBTQ+ so probably it support child mutilation too. I would boycott Starbuck if I were a cofee drinker the same way I will boycott Nike etc.
Lydia says
Just where did the Starbucks coffee cup come from? Is Starbucks in Turkey??? What’s wrong with this picture??????
marc says
There are a few stores there which are tolerated, but her sin was being obvious with it on TV.
Christopher Watson says
Thank goodness Turkey have Erdogan as President. If they had an intelligent man as President, Netanyahu might be worried. Why Turkey is allowed to be a member of NATO amazes me and he must never, never be allowed into the European Union.
Porkkanalaatikko says
Starbucks has coffee shops ie. cafés in Turkey. So how come they can operate over there.
marc says
they are tolerated, same as the Jews still living there, shamelessly exposing the cup on TV in that way was the crime, all about “honour”.
Of course there is nothing Zionist about the company, they are franchises.