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just a quick update for folks who might not have seen this in the other comment threads.
the IDF has moved into northern gaza.
regular updates are being provided here:
http://www.vitalperspective.com/
Biased Bowen gave his own considered prognosis on what will happen in Gaza on the World at One: “it will be violent”. Wow. And then he said Israel would reoccupy Gaza. The awkward thing for biased Bowen is that he’s never said that Gaza was unoccupied. I heard him only yesterday (before the Israeli offensive) going on about ‘occupied Gaza and the West Bank’. Now I suppose it’s what? ‘very occupied’. Anyway it’s the usual BBC reporting about Israel, never admit Israel has made any concessions, until they can be blamed for reneging on them.
one soldier kidnapped – and the entire IDF swings into action to rescue the guy. now THATS what i call loyalty.
i have to admit -its extremely admirable.
meanwhile, the other side sees nothing wrong with planting bombs in their own residential areas.
i’ll give a day or two for another “massacre” report to come out.
News24 is running a HYS with Bowen at 2.30pm. Can’t wait!
“News24 is running a HYS with Bowen at 2.30pm. Can’t wait!”
here’s a game to play.
count the number of times each of these words is used
“militant”
“occupation”
“occupied”
“overcrowded”
“bulldozer”
“refugee camp”
looks like the terrorist made a baaaaaad mistake by killing those Russian hostages in Iraq recently:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RUSSIA_IRAQ?SITE=TXMID&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Pali deputy PM urges United Nations to stop a “possible genocide in Gaza”
http://www.ramattan.com/read_d.asp?newsID=2516
Pallywood at its finest.
‘looks like the terrorist made a baaaaaad mistake by killing those Russian hostages in Iraq recently:’
When the Iranian islamic nutters took the American diplomats hostage in 1979 they were also planning to do the same to the Soviet Embassy. The Soviets got wind of it and let the islamic nutters know, in no uncertain terms, that 45 minutes after they entered the embassy, Tehran would cease to exist.
Needless to say the soviet Embassy was not stormed.
In similar fashion, when a Soviet diplomat (contradiction in terms) was kidnapped by islamic nutters in Lebanon, the KGB identfied the ringleader of the kidnappers. The ringleader received through the post the dismembered body parts of his next of kin. The Soviet diplomat was released unharmed.
The moral is there for all to see.
TPO = Thoroughly Pissed Off.
Been off for a little while and only just come back, anyone help me out with john reith. Is he still about?
pali terrorists claim they’ve kidnapped a third israeli. unconfirmed report
http://www.vitalperspective.com/
Radio 4 has just had a half hour discussion chaired by Laurie Taylor, a leftie sociology professor who gets his own slot every week, with another leftie sociology professor. Chatting away about how the principle of the market does NOT fit social services such as health etc. Yammering on about discredited passe gurus like Peter Titmuss – discredited in the REAL world.
Plus a eulogy for the BBC itself – how essential it is.
Thanks for the balance, BBC.
When do we get a right-wing economist given a permanent half-hour slot each week and a completely free agenda ?
ok, we got confirmation of the 3rd kidnapping
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150885873332&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
its the Al Aska Martyrs crowd.
god – this aint good. not good at all.
Getting the russian’s involved is not a good thing. They are merciless, and they don’t care what anyone else thinks about it.
The Russian Special Forces (RSF) have a KGB/NKVD mentality about the importance of the mission over the human cost. Remeber the theatre that Chechans took hostage?
The RSF gassed the entire theatre and killed all the terrorists, and about 1/3rd of the hostages as well(by refusing to give an antidote to the sleeping gas). Many terrorists were killed while they were knocked out.
—-
1) Has the BBC noted the Pali claims about having and using Chem/Bio weapons?
2) Has the BBC notes the importance of Pidyon Shevuyim (Redeeming captives) in Jewish thought and history? It explains much of the Israeli attitude toward hostages and kidnappings. The BBC might find such concern a bit quaint on the part of Israeli’s while emphasising its importance to the Muslim Pali’s. :
Maimonides wrote: “Pidyon Shevuyim takes precedence over feeding and clothing the destitute; there is no greater mitzvah than Pidyon Shevuyim, for the captive is counted among the hungry and the unclothed, and his very life is endangered. He who turns a blind eye from his redemption transgresses four separate negative commandments, and neglects at least four positive commandments. There is no mitzvah as exalted as Pidyon Shevuyim.”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/captives.html
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060628/481/37592ad50cb24a258b3226e1d4ffd628
Blimey, That’s alot of “crude” “home-made” rockets.
Thankfully they are mostly harmless, and only rarely cause “fatalities”.
Market Participant – thank you for the info.
You would expect our “public service” news to inform us wouldnt we.
A picture is worth 1000 words:
http://mideasttruth.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=461
Collateral Damage Waiting to Happen
http://backspin.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/kids_2.jpg
If anything happens to these kids, who do you think will be blamed?
I’d bet 10s/6d that the BBC will not show the photo of the crude home-made rockets burning. It’s a terrible blow to the palestinian aerospace industry.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060615/481/c07235a0d30842009bd59fc520ee6745
“Israeli police officers treat a man after a Qassam rocket, fired from the Gaza Strip,”
Note the police office is holding the mans legs up to prevent shock (dangeriously low blood pressure). That man is possibly serious injured, note how pale he is.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060619/481/f0e4f1d306ef486a9d1ea5af7790d2bb
A collection of Rockets.
update
http://www.israellycool.com/
———————
7:15PM: Consistent with my last update, Israel television reports that the IDF has called on northern Gaza residents to leave their homes
7:12PM: Defense Minister Amir Peretz has approved widening the operation, which will enable the IDF to go into northern Gaza.
————————-
Rachel:
If anything happens to these kids, who do you think will be blamed?
Sometimes stuff just happens:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060628/wl_mideast_afp/mideastunrestgaza
shahab ratansi of cnn must be thinking of moving on to al jazeera.
today he outdid himself in his rudeness to an idf spokesperson.
his dislike of israel is palpable.
Well, that’s just retarded, grenades are not toys. I think we are seeing the invisible hand of natural selection at work.
BTW: Are my 10s/6d safe? Has the BBC shown the burning rockets?
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060628/481/37592ad50cb24a258b3226e1d4ffd628
The burning rockets:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5124152.stm
Back on the BBC Analysis: Violence before diplomacy.
Did anyone notice the use of photograph of Olmert that was taken while speaking? That’s an old trick to getting a very unflattering photograph of the subject.
The photograph makes him look like he is struggling with constipation.
—-
“Israeli pressure always produces a reaction on the Palestinian side.
It will strengthen the resolve of the Hamas military wing and other militant groups to fight”
What about the possibility that IDF attack will weaken the resolve of the “militant” groups to fight?
It did work on the huns, till by the end of WWI and WWII they lost alot of the resolve to fight.
“Because of what they did not say, it can be interpreted as an implicit recognition of Israel. Hamas people moved quickly to challenge that.
One of the Hamas MPs, Salah al-Bardaweel, told the Reuters news agency that “We said we accept a state (in territory occupied) in 1967 – but we did not say we accept two states.”
Hmm, always try to give it the best spin possible. Even when the source says your interpretation is wrong.
“Since there have been no peace negotiations worth talking about between Israel and the Palestinians for more than five years, and there is no immediate chance of them restarting, the discussion, for now, is theoretical.”
F*cking A. What about the Roadmap plan in April 2003? Geneva Accords? Disengagement from Gaza? etc etc etc.
The bias here is thick enough to choke a horse.
“They have established three tests that the Hamas government must pass before the money tap is turned on again – recognising Israel, giving up violence and accepting past agreements.
The Palestinian deal falls well short of that.”
NO recognising Israel,
NO giving up violence
NO accepting past agreements,
What kind of deal is this?
“If there were Israelis and Palestinians and strong outside powers who wanted to create something bigger, it could conceivably lead somewhere.
Perhaps it is a seed for the future.”
And who are these “strong outside powers” that will save the day? The UN? The EU? The Aquateen Hunger Force?
It’s only fair to report that I think BBC TV six o’clock news actually managed to give the closest thing to unbiased coverage on Gaza in a package showing lots of photos of Gilat and distress of his family. They covered Pali infiltration across the border and even showed the tunnels (admittedly used by ‘militants’ and avoiding the t word). Still it was the closest thing to balanced I’ve seen for a long while, and they kept out biased Bowen, staying with a fairer James Reynolds.
I said earlier today – Biased-Bowen gets worse.
The starker the legal and realpolitik facts are, the clearer his bias and spin.
From a review of Melanie Phillips’ book, Londonistan, by Michael Gove:
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary-new/
Phillips explores the ideology that motivated the terrorists who struck last year, and those who targeted America in 2001, showing that they were driven by a murderous belief system which perverts religious faith just as Nazis perverted nationalism, rather than by specific injustices or grievances. She shows up the foolishness of believing that the violence of Islamist terrorists can be bought off by territorial concessions. They will no more be satisfied with control of, say, Gaza, than the Nazis were satisfied with the Sudetenland. Islamist terrorists are fired by a radical programme to establish totalitarian rule across every land in which Muslims have ever lived, so their demands are, literally, nonnegotiable.
Apropos of nothing, could I just put in a request to certain commenters to tone down the bad language – even when anagramised? I’m putting this request here because nobody will notice if I put it in the earlier thread.
Yes, this is not a children’s site, and we don’t jump on every bad word. But please try not to push the envelope. Thanks.
Just in case it’s not clear, I was not referring to Biodegradable’s comment just above mine, nor to any comment in this thread. Just a general announcement.
The BBC keeps mentioning the deaths of two Brit soldiers in Afghanistan, wringing its hands, but never says WHY and HOW they died.
Of course the deaths of any of our troops are deeply regrettable. But there is a damn war going on – deaths happen in war, don’t the BBC ever realise that ? Are they so far removed from the reality that our troops face that they don’t recognise that with conflict comes risk, and our serving forces recognise that some of their number will be killed, that many will be injured.
The BBC so seldom mentions the purpose, the achievements of our forces. The near-effective imposition of peace on southern Iraq, and all the community and reconstruction work they have carried out, their vital role in [protecting Iraq’s oil and thus its main source of revenue.
In the latest Afghanistan case, it appears that the two deaths occurred in what sounds to be a signal victory against the local Taliban :
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2247784,00.html
BBC Rejects Terror Recommendation
I’m pretty sure I didn’t see the BBC cover this story either.
Car explodes in Gaza City, one dead
Has anybody else noticed how they tend to ignore “work accidents”? If it can’t be blamed on Israel its not news.
I saw the Beeb was running an interview with Peres for 3pm today (chat to him, ask questions etc.) I missed it, but can’t find any link to the archive now. Anyone know where to look?
Has anybody else noticed how they tend to ignore “work accidents”?
Absolutely. That particular incident came very soon after the announcement of the Hamas ‘deal’ on the prisoners document. The BBC were full of this great ‘breakthrough’ and the “work” accident didn’t fit the agenda at all. So it just dropped (or rather got pushed) off.
Brussels in push for new powers
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5126074.stm
“…The President of the Commission Jose Manuel Barroso has told the BBC that this is not a power grab but an attempt to make Europe a safer place…”
Oh, I’m already feeling a lot safer now. Thanks for reassuring me, Jose!
It is worth watching the BBC and Hamas whenever they talk about ‘Occupied Territories’.
The BBC means the West Bank (and from Oscar’s post, Bowen still includes the Gaza Strip).
Hamas means the whole of the region, from the Jordan to the sea (this has been stated explicitly by Hamas spokesmen).
The BBC never makes this difference in meaning clear and carries on as if the BBC interpretation is the only one.
As Hamas is the elected governing party for the palestinians, I would think that their views must carry some weight.
Now the BBC might merely be delinquent in their reporting – but on the other hand they could be indulging in their usual practice of ‘nuancing’ the truth.
Goose, I dunno. I heard a fragment today on radio of Peres being interviewed on Sky. So maybe you could check that out.
The BBC has such a useless search engine that I doubt you’ll find info there.
Has anyone noticed that the BBC has not shown the photograph of the burning rockets nor have they made any mention of the pali’s Chemical/Biological weapons threats?
My 10s/6d are safe, methinks.
MP -> on channel 4 news they referred to a “warehouse” being bombed. yeah right – as if the Israeli airforce would waste its time bombing just a warehouse.
and yes – no mention of the Hamas WMD threat yet.
http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson062806.html
What I like about America.
hard talk , starting now, is interviewing Google.
well – it makes a nice change. should be interesting.
“I just put in a request to certain commenters to tone down the bad language”
point noted Natalie. apologies.
I just read the headline Musician ‘willing to face prison’ on the news frontpage and thought “What? A musician as a martyr? What’s going on here?”
I should have guessed: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5126152.stm
“…Fun-Da-Mental frontman Aki Nawaz could face prosecution under glorification of terrorism laws for the content of All Is War (The Benefits of G-Had).”
Here’s how I first came across the story: http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/012019.php
A great piece by Daniel Pipes called “Londonistan Follies” – recommended reading: http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/298
(Note: you may have seen it before – it’s from 2003)
Are you listening Andrew Marx?
http://www.friendsofscience.org/index.php?ide=4
The BBC’s Middle East staff might have excelled themselves with this one – a long sob story about an imprisoned Palestinian woman who actually may well be a well-known Islamic Jihad terrorist who attempted a suicide bombing :
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21277_BBC_Prisoner_Sob_Story_Hides_Terrorist_Facts#comments
And the sob-story is taken from her husband – whom the story admits had served a long prison term himself. So he is a reliable witness, someone whose story the BBC should be lapping up without proper checking ?
If this really is a monumental BBC cock-up, heads should roll.
“Greater editorial oversight” my Aunt Fanny.
Another odd use by the BBC of quotation marks – the headline is :
Militants ‘kill’ Israeli settler
Leaving aside the fact that the organisation that claimed to have killed the young civilian are TERRORISTS, not militants, how absurd to use quotation marks in this instance.
Is there any doubt that he is dead? His body has been found.
Is there any doubt that he was killed by the Palestinians ? They had admitted they were holding him – and he was alive before they kidnapped him.
Is the BBC suggesting he might have died suddenly in their custody of natural causes ?
So far the BBC have not said that he was executed – or ‘executed’ by these thugs. So far.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5125256.stm
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/731937.html
An example of how the BBC and a fairly hostile programme host lets listeners’ spleen loose on Melanie Phillips and her thesis that the concept of Islamophobia is a load of nonsense – and that denial of the involvement such as 9/11 in terrorism helps fuel anti-British and anti-West feelings.
Click on Monday’s programme and fast-forward 2 hours and 10 minutes :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/asiannetwork/anita_rani/
.
BBC to Indoctrinate the world:
THE BBC’S commercial arm is planning an expansion of its international activities, which could lead to it starting as many as six channels in countries such as the United States and India.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2248439,00.html
An American classical historian castigates the European (and BBC) view of Guantanamo – its a copout for their failure to discern the real threats :
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/06/scapegoating_guantanamo.html