Watchdog group calls on Florida to halt dealings with anti-Israel man’s Miami booze business

A Dubai-headquartered company called International Diplomatic Supplies (IDS) has been operating out of Miami since late 2020, providing alcohol and grocery products to U.S. embassies across the globe.

The company’s founder and Chief Executive is Patrick Doyle, a self-described “philanthropist, supporting children’s charities around the world.”

He’s also an open defamer of Israel, its people, companies and supporters, according to the StopAntisemitism watchdog group, which is calling on Florida to stop all business with him.

To make its case, StopAntisemitism published some of Doyle’s objectionable communications in an X thread last month. It included screenshots of since-deleted posts in which Doyle referred to the Israel Defense Forces as the “IOF” (Israel Occupying Forces) and the war in Gaza as a “genocide.”

Doyle called for the boycott of “every Israel product (and) Israeli owned business” and wrote, “Is the power of Zionist owned media, Zionist owned banks more important to you than human life? Clearly it is.”

He also compared the war in Gaza to the Holocaust that killed some 6 million Jews, which represented about two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population at the time, and asked, “Are all Western leaders owned by (Israeli) money? What other reason? Do they want a white supremacist military in the Middle East?”

Web archives of Doyle’s LinkedIn account confirm he made those and other similar posts.

Loira Rez, the founder and Executive Director of StopAntisemitism, said the Florida state government “must halt all dealings with IDS and Patrick Doyle, an antisemite who spews blood libels, Jewish conspiracy tropes, and Holocaust inversions.”

“The tax dollars of American Jews should not fund the hatred of bigots like Doyle,” Rez said, adding that by urging boycotts of Israel and Israelis, Doyle could be running afoul of Florida’s anti-BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) law, which Gov. Ron DeSantis applauded when it passed in 2016.

The law, which attracted bipartisan support, requires Florida to maintain an online blacklist of companies and for-profit organizations that boycott Israel and prohibits public entities in Florida from entering contracts with those blacklisted companies. It also bars state pension funds from investing in them.

“This matter must be investigated by state authorities immediately,” Rez said. “Given the terror attacks in our cities and hate marches on our streets, we must take a strong stand against those who traffic in division and incitement.”

Doyle’s criticism of Israel notwithstanding, IDS appears to have done good work helping needy communities worldwide. The company’s website cites six-figure investments to help children in Sudan, food support to orphanages in Manila and Ethiopia, and scholarships for nursing students in Haiti through its Miami office, among other efforts.

Accordingly, Doyle’s social media posts frequently center on humanitarian issues.

His LinkedIn page still has a reshared UNESCO post that says in part, “𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 racism. 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 anti-semitism. 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 xenophobia. 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐏 intolerance.” Another shared post from earlier calls for a boycott of Russia at the Olympics, citing “rapes, murder, tortures, kidnapping (and) terrorism” by the country.

Doyle did say why he supported sanctioning Russia for such actions, but not Hamas, which has committed those atrocities as well.

Before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas — the internationally recognized terrorist organization that has controlled Gaza for two decades — Gaza’s population grew steadily from 1 million in 1998 to more than 2.1 million in 2021, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

The Gaza Strip abuts two nations, Israel and Egypt. Both have guarded borders.

The Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, estimated last month that about 45,000 Gazans — approximately 2% of the strip’s population — have died or been killed since Israel began its military operations.

Roughly 1,200 people in Israel were killed in the Oct. 7 attack, including 46 Americans, U.S. Department of State figures show. Hamas and Gaza attackers also kidnapped 254 people, including 12 American citizens.

As of Monday, 96 hostages remained in Gazan captivity, the Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

President-elect Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told reporters Tuesday that he will join negotiations for a ceasefire and release of hostages Wednesday.

The goal, he said, is to get a deal in place before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.