, quoting a BBC article about Sheikh Yassin that says:
“Militant groups like Hamas did initially declare a temporary truce, but that unravelled in July 2003 after Israeli forces killed two Hamas members in retaliation for the suicide bombing of a Jerusalem bus that left 21 people dead.”
Walter comments:
Note how the BBC has got this deliberately and completely a**-about.
The suicide bomb that killed 21 people was not the end of the temporary truce. It was all Israeli’s fault – they should have just copped the 21 deaths sweet and left it at that. Then we’d still have the truce.
In the BBC’s distorted world view Hamas can murder but that’s not breaking a truce – that’s just all in a day’s work.
Pardon me while I spew.
UPDATE: In the first comment to this post. La Marquise asks, “Does Ian Paisley ever get called a ‘spiritual leader’ by the BBC?”
Nausea quite pardonable in circumstances. Also emetic was – my beloved Today programme referring to the late unlamented Sheikh Yassin as a ‘spiritual leader’ – an expression with such positive, peaceful almost Ghandi-esque resonances. Poor BBC! they can’t help it you know …..
Does Ian Paisley ever get called a ‘spiritual leader’ by the BBC ?
They killed Orla’s spiritual leader . How naughty.
To be fair, it is not just the BBC that refers to Yassin as a “spiritual leader.” Plenty of American news outlets also refer to him that way.
I guess “terrorist bagman” doesn’t sound good enough for them.
Ah that bile once again Susan, careful. I think one of the problems here is the selectivity of the items being chosen.
Since I have been laballed a “pro-BBC troll” elsewhere, let’s put the hat on for a minute and see what happens.
Ah, I don’t have to look far for additional reporting:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3557451.stm
and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3556593.stm
while the World Service bulletin at 1400 GMT continuously and rightly described him as a “terrorist”.
Having looked at the coverage as a whole, I agree though that BBC have to do much more to balance individual reports, and I suspect this then comes down to individual ideologies.
Nothing though worth the kind of nauseating bloodlust that’s currently ‘de rigeur’ on some parts of this blog.
Are you capable of reading, annaliese? See my opening sentence exculpating the BBC from being the only media outlet designating Yassin as a “spiritual leader.” It begins with “To be fair…” Would you rather I was unfair and join in the chorus singling out the BBC for using the term?
My, my, it seems you’ve taken a personal interest in my posts. This does indeed seem like troll-like behavior to me. If the tin-foil hat fits, I guess you should wear it.
On the main subject of the post, it is worth remembering that this isn’t the first time the BBC has made its perverse interpretation of the end of the Hamas ‘temporary truce’.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3271411.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3170115.stm
They knew the truth then, and they know it now. It is not the BBC’s logic that is sickeningly perverse – it is their morality.
Susan you said:
“See my opening sentence exculpating the BBC from being the only media outlet designating Yassin as a “spiritual leader.”
Wrong:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1071094.htm
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/03/22/yassin.obit/
http://www.skynews.co.uk/skynews/worldnews
http://www.fox23.com/ news/world/story.aspx?content_id=057A9B58-F1BC-4906-AEE5-49FDA1370E0C
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/ afp_world/view/76556/1/.html
sg.news.yahoo.com/040322/1/3ixt3.html http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/ 1079927071004_57/?hub=CTVNewsAt11
http://www.dw-world.de/english/0,3367,4789_W_1149054,00.html
I could go on but I’m only allowed 1000 characters, and my Goole search on “Yassin spiritual leader” turned up 19,000 results.
However I agree with you that the use of the term “spiritual leader” is a loaded one, and a term I join you in despising in this context.
Sorry, Susan, I wish to withdraw the above post, as I misread your use of the word “exculpating”. My mistake and I apologise unreservedly.
You are absolutely right, and the post at least does provide the evidence you point to.
Susan – you are quite right that lots of media outlets have been referring to him as a ‘spiritual leader’? – the excuse being that Hamas refer to him thus, but if Hamas had referred to him as Lord God Almighty or the Great Leader or Ethel – would it be reasonable for the ‘objective’ unbiased BBC to do the same? ( Whilst on this morning’s (Tuesday 23rd) Today programme they did compare him once to the Pope, they did not use the S.L. expression again.)
As for personal interest in your post, don’t flatter yourself. I have been posting merely to highlight the extreme nature of some of the views, which as I (and others) have said, seem uncalled for.
You are only one of a number of people who have made such postings, and I have taken others to task in a similar way.
If we promote the suffering of others through physical violence, how can we say we’re any different to the terrorists we despise.
annelise
The evil man was given total immunity by the Palestinian Authority to preach and organise violence. He and the Hamas leadership should have been arrested by Arafat, then the Israelis would not have needed to deal with him.
Crocodile tears for a murderer don’t wash. Yassim was a murderer.
La Marquise: They actually compared Yassin to The Pope? That is truly, truly sick.
Did the Pope urge Lech Walenza and the Polish anti-Communist movement to kill innocent citizens to advance its cause?
I think not.