The BBC report this story about a widow on the campaign trail for Hamas, but not this story of a suicide matron, also on the campaign trail for the terror group. Typical James Reynolds, I have to say. Typical BBC selectivity.
Meanwhile the Beeb are agog with liberal ambition for the post-Sharon era.
From your ABC link:
In Gaza, Farahat is known as Um Nidal, or Mother of the Struggle — a mother who sent three of her six sons on Hamas suicide missions against Israeli targets.
Hmm. I’m assuming this is the same woman who was just on the 10:30 ITV news kitted out in this years Hamas away strip and who was described has “having had three of her sons killed by the Israelis”. I thought it sounded more than a bit suspicious at the time. I thought Julian Manyon was better than that – but then I’m assuming and as they don’t seem to have a watch latest news video link on their website I can’t be certain.
That Hamas Mount Rushmore in the BBC article looks like I Photoshopped it (and that’s not a good thing).
Naivety. Naivety. Naivety. It comes in bucket loads from the BBC when Hamas is discussed.
Hey, the Today team told us this morning, Hamas may be regarded as terrorists by the Great and Small Satans, but they provide water and electricity and medical aid for Palestinians let down by the corrupt Palestinian Authoruty.
However, the BBC failed to ask all the crucial questions when featuring Hamas on Today this morning, such as:-
Do you still want to destroy Israel?
Do you support the blowing up of evil Zionists, particularly those in prams?
Would you introduce Sharia law in Palestinian territories?
What would be the fate of Christian Arabs or homosexuals?
What about women’s rights?
If you got into power, would you allow free and fair elections?
Of course the BBC did not ask any of these questions of the Hamas people, but rather they were presented as some sort of misunderstood welfare organisation.
http://www.pmw.org.il/Latest%20bulletins%20new.htm#b220106
“Olmert is the beginning of the end of the state of Israel,” said right-wing lawmaker Aryeh Eldad.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4644950.stm
“This article is shoddy and has been lifted from a piece of agency copy,” said TAoL.
How so? Well, the term ‘lawmaker’ is not used by British broadcasters or political hacks. It is frequently used by Reuter’s though, and is a catch-all expression for MPs, senators, parliamentarians, whatever. Its use in a BBC article is odd: there is a smelly rat around.
And, lo and behold!, it turns out that the BBC article is mostly lifted from a piece of Reuter’s copy (link at the bottom).
So who is this ‘right-wing lawmaker’, Aryeh Eldad? Well, he’s a ‘lawmaker’ and he’s ‘right-wing’; he also has a great line in doom-laden sound-bites and the BBC quotes him. Feck knows who he is, what he stands for, what makes him ‘right-wing’ or what he hopes to gain from the Israeli elections.
The Reuters article, which actually provides some context and background (i.e. Hamas’s desire to destroy Israel), continues:
“In order to ensure the existence of a Jewish national home, we will not be able to continue ruling over the territories in which the majority of the Palestinian population lives,” he said on Tuesday.
The BBC quotes these words but adds its own take in the second para:
“In his first policy speech as interim leader, he said the main challenge ahead was to shape Israel’s borders for good to ensure a Jewish majority.”
It’s not really bias as such but an interesting spin. Note how the “existence of a Jewish national home” has turned into the faintly sinister “Jewish majority” “for good”. Nice touch!
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-01-24T204051Z_01_L24543133_RTRUKOC_0_UK-MIDEAST-OLMERT.xml
They did ask the Hamas guy on Radio 5 this morning if he wanted to see the destruction of Israel. Nicky Campbell, to his credit, didn’t give up.
Did he answer? Did he hell.
You want to know about Aryeh Eldad, who is, notwithstanding his superb medical background,not exactly mainstream? His father was Dr Israel Eldad, the chief propagandist and ideologue of the infamous Stern Gang of British Mandate times — a nasty little cabal utterly hated and rejected by most in pre-state days. After 1948, in spite of living in Jerusalem, Eldad senior was not allowed to teach at the university there. He had to travel to other parts of Israel to do so. Eldad continued with his satirical and political writings and played the role of gadfly to the governments of the day. He believed in Israel “from the Euphrates to the Nile”, and his son has carried on in the same vein.
Ignorance is the watching brief of the BBC. Eldad is laughed at and/or reviled by mainstream Israelis. By giving him over-publicity, they are portraying him as accepted. The fanatical settler cause, as often reflected in the behaviour of religious extremists, is not supported by most Israelis.
Adolf Hitler assured Neville Chamberlain inter alia that he “had no more territorial claims in Europe”……………bit of a surprise in March 1939 for the Czechs to find he’s changed his mind
now this is interesting
Aon insurance to pull out of Iran:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0601250257jan25,1,1378238.story?coll=chi-business-hed
lets see if the Beeboids can put two and two together… last week it was UBS Bank
hmmm.. insurance guys. hmmm – dont they do forward projected risk analysis? like the ,err, risk that a friggin’ war is about to break out?
i wait with baited breath to see if this even makes the radar of the bbc.
more british troops going to afghanistan, increasing the deployment from 850 to 4,000 :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4646646.stm
what’s patently obvious big elephant in the room?
hint: have a look at a map.
OT – If you fancy a chuckle….
Should Google censor its search services in China?
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=824&edition=1&ttl=20060125150222&#paginator
First 3 ‘recommended’ posts berating the BBC for censorship! But then the BBC operates like China in several ways….monopolistic state run, subsidised, censorship, communist…. I could go on, and on……
Added: Wednesday, 25 January, 2006, 12:48 GMT 12:48 UK
My god. Seeing the speed with which the BBC is removing perfectly reasonable postings is quite frightening. People have the right to politely criticise the BBC and they have no right to remove such postings. The hypocrisy is unbelievable. Just imagine what they are doing on the debates that are Fully Moderated!
Ahmed Khan, Paris, France
Recommended by 28 people
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Added: Wednesday, 25 January, 2006, 13:34 GMT 13:34 UK
What happened to my posting? I come back after a sandwich and the BBC has removed it. China could learn a thing or two from the BBC! Here it is again. Catch it while you can!
“I think the BBC should rename this forum “Post Something and Watch How Fast We Can Remove It”. I remember that they used to claim that they couldn’t read all of the messages, so some wouldn’t make it through. Clearly they have enough staff to engage in censorship on an industrial scale. Perhaps China would like to make the “Have You Say” team some job offers.”
Esteban Mendoza, Bilbao, Spain
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Added: Wednesday, 25 January, 2006, 12:45 GMT 12:45 UK
Thankyou [terrybyatt] for noticing the rampant BBC censorship. My posting below was just censored!
“Earlier I criticized the BBC for censoring Have Your Say postings. I have now seen that they have pulled my posting. How do you all feel about that? Do you like being censored?”
Steven Martin, United Kingdom
Recommended by 19 people
———————————–
Yes, and when you register to write a comment on the bbc DHYS board and happen to live in Taiwan you’ll find out that the BBC label Taiwan as Taiwan, province of China. Why’s that I wonder?
Max,
I wouldn’t read too much into that – the “official” name of Taiwan is “Republic of China” (though as that tends to confuse it isn’t used often)
The BBC formulation is similar to that used by other international orgs and e.g. UN bodies, and, IIRC, governments which (like the British one) have some kind of low-level contact with the authorities in Taipei.
they’ve updated the “troops going to afghanistan” report and included a MAP.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4646646.stm
archduke,
Are they looking for Afghanistans most succesful cross-dresser (ObL)?
A belated thank you to Big Mouth for the additional information re our “right-wing lawmaker”.
Nothing new here;
Just your standard case of the disappearing ‘T’ word.
Simon Mayo’s afternoon program on R5, c 2:30
Simon has a breathless discussion of Palestinian Elections.
With James Reynolds.
According to Mr Reynolds, Hamas is an ‘armed Islamic Political Movement’.
But according to Simon Mayo, Hamas is an ‘Islamist Organisation’.
Come on guys, which is it?
But seriously, what are these words actually worth?
The BBC is using words to hide the truth; do they expect to use the same adjectives again without suspicion?
What price a ‘suicide militant’ now?
One thing is for certain, every mealy-mouthed euphemism that the BBC employs in its attempts to avoid inconvenient facts, just serve to highlight one clear idea:
Islam = Terrorism
Two for the price of one.
Simon Mayo was also involved with a ‘Puff Piece’ for Al Jazeera, with Sir David Frost (helping out a friend with some not so subtle advertising. ‘Friend’? Al Jazeera, not Sir David)
BTW.
Al Jazeera’s address:
1, Knightsbridge – very nice, highly salubrious.
‘armed Islamic Political Movement’.
What about the “armed National Socialist Movement” which was known to the world as the Waffen-SS being a party-adjunct and not part of the Wehrmacht.
Words take on new meanings over time. Don’t worry, in a few years, people will hear the word ‘militant’ and automatically think ‘terrorist’.
“But according to Simon Mayo, Hamas is an ‘Islamist Organisation’ ”
i tend to agree with Grimer.
sooner or later , people will associate “Islamist” with “fascist”
we’re in the 1930s stage right now – back then “fascist” just meant just another , albeit , extreme, political ideology.
its got a far worse reputation as a word nowadays.
similarly , “islamist” – well, yeah, thats extreme in most peoples eyes – the unbelievable extremity of it hasnt registered with most people – yet.
Grimer,
The BBC will then change Milly Tant to Armed Pressure group.
Rob,
You’re probably right, but it depends on the political climate at the time. Everybody knows that Hamas are scum. No matter what you call them, people immediately think of suicide bombing terrorists as soon as their name is mentioned.
Only those at the BBC seem to make a destinction between Terrorists (don’t exist), Millitants, Armed Pressure Groups, Controversial Bombers, etc.
Everybody else in society knows that the people blowing themselves up on public transport are terrorists.
Grimer,
Everyone else can’t extort 2.8 billion from the UK popultation though.
“who are hamas?”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1654510.stm
i re-read it a few times, but it gives no inkling of the Hamas ideology. i had to go to wikipedia
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Hamas_Covenant
usual islamofascist rantings – kill all the jews, impose sharia law
The bitter irony of the BBC’s homepage.
Banner showing Holocaust Memorial Day
just above the news of Hamas’ sweep to victory.
bbc:
“dramatic” victory
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4650724.stm
google news (which caches the ORIGINAL headlines):
http://news.google.ie/news?hl=en&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=hamas+bbc&btnG=Search+News
“stunning victory”
and
“driving hamas to a stunning win”
yeah, i’m stunned alright – like the way you’d be stunned if the Waffen SS turned up at your door.
dry bones cartoon from 1992:
http://drybonesproject.com/blog/D92119_3.gif
Well, at least the Hamas election victory leaves the Beeb’s favourite American with egg on his face:
Hamas win challenges US policy
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4652140.stm
Revealing quotes from that piece:
“Asked if such hopes were dead, Mr Bush tried his best to sound optimistic at a White House news conference.”
“Some Palestinians feel the US must now respect the result of the democratic elections they had demanded. Anything else, they say, would be a sign of “double standards”.”
Another thought:
“For all President George W Bush’s talk of bringing democracy to the Middle East…”
This is a negative statement. They define the presidents doctrine as talk. Therefore my questions to the author of the article,Mr. Davis, who (interesting enough is located in DC, not the Middle East) are:
Are the Beeb (like me) convinced that Islam and Democracy don’t go together?
or
Do the Beeb think the current political systems in the Middle East are better than our Western democracies and therefore these countries don’t need (our) democracy?
I’d love to hear answers to those questions.
Deutscher Freund you will never get a response to your reasonable query because the BBC is the home of windy rhetoric and verbose pomposity – they do not like being questioned because they have no answers merely sneering condescension towards all who do not belong to the BBC Sect
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4652140.stm
“There may be hope that Hamas might moderate its position in some way and become involved in the political process, perhaps following the example of Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland.”
jesus h christ – now a PLO /Sinn Fein comparision would have been valid , but please Beeboid – dont ever compare the likes of Hamas to the IRA. there is simply no comparision.
they really do not have a clue about Islamofascism, do they?
Archduke – it was only a matter of time before the BBC rolled out the Sinn Fein/Hamas comparison.
Although I can’t find a link which states Sinn Fein or the murderers of the IRA ever wished to destroy England and drive the English into the sea.
“Hamas might moderate its position in some way”
what – from kill ALL the jews and destroy Israel to expell all the jews and destroy Israel?
surprise surprise.
hamas has ruled out talks with israel
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1137605909154&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Rick: I know… but as far as I’m aware some BBC people tend to check out this Blog and therefore may read some of the stuff on here. Will it make a difference? Will it, hell.
Robert Spencer takes a closer look at Hamas’ victory: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=21076
looks like civil war is about to break out in gaza..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4655882.stm
http://reuters.myway.com/article/20060127/2006-01-27T204718Z_01_L20602990_RTRIDST_0_NEWS-MIDEAST-DC.html
there’s a very good reason why the Fatah supporters dont want a Hamas government – they dont want Sharia law. and they certainly dont want a second Iran (thereby giving the Israelis all the excuse to just invade the place)