when it receives loans from the European Investment Bank?” asks EU Referendum. The post goes on to say that according to its own website the EIB is “an autonomous body set up to finance capital investment furthering European integration by promoting EU policies”
“How can the BBC be impartial
Bookmark the permalink.
Also interesting, this Ian Yes nutter has three postings on the recent HYS “How should Israel respond?”
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=1&threadID=2593&edition=1&ttl=20060714013120&#paginator
Jon wonders:
” I was just interested if anyone on this blog has done any research into the posters on the BBC HYS.”
Not as such, and it would need “interesting” resources to do it properly.
That said, certain names do seem to crop up out of proportion – and certainly do so on R4 programmes that carry listener reactions.
Whether they get the green light treatment, or whether it is just that their opinions swim through the filter is hard to say – but I am quite convinced that in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, some more-or-less professional protesters (the kind who masquerade as academics, so as to feed at our expense) were routinely getting favoured treatment on (D)NHYS.
Much the same seems to be true of Any Answers, where the Time Out brigade of polytechnic lecturers always seems to get one or two of its loonies out of the asylum and onto the airwaves.
Just for the record None of my comments have ever been accepted
Jon
Well Jon, here’s how to do it (from Bombay bombing HYS)
Added: Thursday, 13 July, 2006, 07:19 GMT 08:19 UK
The sad thing is that far more people will die because they have been put off travelling by train than were killed in the blasts. Why can’t these people target motorways rather than trains, which are safe and relatively environmentally friendly?
Sally Amis, Prague
HTF did this lunacy get past the censors? Hardly a subject where such a comment should be posted for light relief.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5177346.stm
Interesting wording contrast:
“Israel has described what happened on Wednesday, when two Israeli soldiers were captured, eight killed and two injured in a Hezbollah ambush, as an act of war.
It has retaliated with highly escalated acts of war, which are calculated to put a great deal of pressure on the civilian population.”
– BBC says Israel says Hezbollah made act of war.
– BBC says Israel made acts of war.
And that’s besides the misleading and leading supplementary propaganda.
One can’t help thinking that these long planned attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah (Syria and Iran) were made not to probe Israel’s defenses but to probe the West’s readiness to ditch her. Smart move if so, ‘cos it looks pretty ready.
.
I just read this on jihadwatch.org:
“UNITED NATIONS – The United States blocked an Arab-backed resolution Thursday that would have demanded Israel halt its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the first U.N. Security Council veto in nearly two years.
The draft, sponsored by Qatar on behalf of other Arab nations, accused Israel of a “disproportionate use of force” that endangered Palestinian civilians, and demanded Israel withdraw its troops from Gaza.
The United States was alone in voting against the resolution. Ten of the 15 Security Council nations voted in favor, while Britain, Denmark, Peru and Slovakia abstained.”
Why did Britain and Denmark abstain? Unbelievable!
Did anybody watch This Week on BBC1 last night?
Anti-Israel: Diane Abbot MP (she defended Lord Levy too, wtf!)
Pro-Israel: Andrew Neil (host), Michael Portillo, and some actress I didn’t know (the “only Blairite we could find” apparently)
Diane Abbot quickly got put down and started whining “the Israeli response is not fair!” at which point the Blairite actress woman responded “it’s not about fairness”. It was quite different from what you see on the BBC News website.
However, I’ve been a reader of the BBC News website for maybe 5+ years and all round standards have slipped. There’s typos all the time now, missing images, maps with the wrong countries highlighted, etc, etc. I think as the site has expanded they’ve started to employ nerdy students on work experience. As you can imagine, most of them would be to the left.
I’d like to add that during that show Andrew Neil also did not shy from using the “t” word, but he is considered pretty right wing anyway. I’ve seen him and his co-host on the PMQ show slam Chaves, the EU human rights thing and the “liberal elite”.
Also, during some BBC headline news (probably the 10 o’clock news), they had a story from Lebanon of people leaving a town controlled by Hezbollah. They seemed to portay it more in a sense of “these people know what’s coming for their support for these terrorists”, rather than “oh poor victims.” They also had an interview with a woman who was staying and actually keeping her shop open. She said that she trusted the Israelis to try their best not to blow up innocent people. They also tried to make an effort to differentiate between militant/terrorist and civilian deaths for once, something which I had only noticed Channel 4 News doing.
Why is the actual BBC TV news different from the website news? Have they recognised areas where they are biased? Do they know that since the shit really might be hitting the fan that perhaps they can’t get away with as much subtle bias as before? Or more likely, does the TV news just pander more to the silent majority? The BBC News and Guardian websites seem to be way more popular amongst left wing American nerds than typical Brits in the pub.
“Chaves” should be “Chavez”, as in Hugo.
The not-very-well-hidden-hand of Iran – its President was urging the destruction of Israel again last weekend, just before Hisbollah upped the ante. But no hint of this from the BBC :
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/08072006/323/iran-s-ahmadinejad-calls-removal-zionist-regime.html
Nothing on the BBC gives the flavour that most Lebanese want to see the back of Hisbollah, and tacitly support the Israel actions :
http://www.free-lebanon.com/
Archduke 13.07.06 – 3:58 pm,
case in point – when was the last time you saw the BBC website or its news output showing Fatah or Hamas giving the Hitler salute?
Never?
I just watched a postage-stamp sized clip from BBC TV One News with footage of Hizbullah and Hamas from about 6 mnutes in. They show Hizbullah shaking their raised fists in what the BBC would no doubt call “defiance.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
But I didn’t see any Hitler salutes. Could be that media-savvy terrorist sympathisers have advised the terrorists not to be quite so obvious about their genocidal intentions.
Or could be that they just don’t care who knows and the media helps them by concealing the Nazi salute.
That aside, there’s the usual slick bias by omission since they don’t talk about the Hizbullah attack that started the whole thing, just the two “captured” soldiers. And they don’t talk about Hizbullah initially killing Israel soldiers or initially firing rockets into Israel, just mentioning Hizbullah “retaliation” to the Israeli strikes.
The BBC in bed with terror.
Breakfast News just now. Bill Turnbull interviewing the Deputy Israeli Ambassador. Kept gibbering about children being killed by Israeli shells but brushing aside the points made about Israeli children being killed or hiding in shelters for two days now thanks to constant rocket attacks by Hizbollah. Then had the gall to call the Israeli attacks a ‘wave of terror’ to which the Ambassador immediately pointed out that they were fighting terrorism not engaging in it. Nothing to suggest that Israel actively tries not to target kids but that they do get killed when so called brave fighters hide behind them. Turnbull claimed dozens of children had been killed by the Israelis – where DID he get that from? Absolute rubbish and so one sided of Turnbull it was unreal. No wonder I voted him off Come Dancing!
This followed a reasonable report by Kim Ghattas in Beruit who actually pointed out that Saudi Arabia had comndemned Hizbollah etc! Then again she did claim most of the traffic on the roads were journalists seeking a story…..funny how well dressed ladies and fashionable people kept walking past her – no helmets or flak jackets in sight – perhaps they knew that Israel are not targetting them but Hizbollah’s houses in the southern quarter?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5175886.stm
How interesting that they haven’t added Saudi’s and other nations’ criticism to this list of so called world reaction most of which is anti Israel for some reason….nor have they shown the latest screeds by the Syrians and Iranians – could it be because they show the mullahs and Syria’s Assad to be nuts wanting a war and to wipe out Israel??
Will
When the Chechen terrorist leader Shamil Basayev was killed, my own contribution to HYS was not published. I too came to the conclusion that there are some really sick people on the BBC HYS. It’s interesting to think that a BBC moderator had read this contribtion below and passed it without any sense of guilt or shame. Didn’t this BBC moderator think about the children of Beslan, their parents, think about someone describing an evil terrorist as heavenly bound! I would presume that the phrase “heaven awaits” is an Islamic term, so this contributor must be one of those 13% in the UK who consider the 7/7 bombers as martyrs. Let’s hope the security services have access to name & address.
Added: Monday, 10 July, 2006, 15:30 GMT 16:30 UK
Another freedom fighter and national hero killed for the so called “war on terror” this guy has fought against one of the most inhumane administrations in history – heaven awaits, god bless!
John, Bristol
The anti-Israeli bias and pro Hezbollah and Hamas sentiment in the BBC is so visible. I was astonished at the widespread omission of the fact of 8 Israeli soldiers killed, and alighting only upon the “abduction” of “kidnapping” of 2. James Naughtie on Today in Jerusalem calling for “conciliation” with terrorists. My OED has for conciliate “win over (to one’s side etc.); reconcile (discrepant theories)” Does Naughtie really believe Hezbollah can be “won over”? Listening to Emily Hurd in Jerusalem on Sky news really shows the deeply ingrained bias in the bbc as a news reporting org.
Note the emotive use of Israeli “war” planes on BBC news, and repeated use of “restraint” as if they are talking about an unleashed pit bull let loose by some chav.
Maybe this is OT – or not even applicable to B-BBC – but setting aside perceived anti-Israel bias on the BBC, at least Israel does something when 3 of its citizens are kidnapped. Our government is happy to hand over 3 British citizens on request.
If the BBC fraternity read their Guardian religiously, Spyer’s article will have them choking on their cornflakes.
This war’s real masters
Hamas and Hizbullah are doing the bidding of their backers in Damascus and Tehran
Jonathan Spyer
Friday July 14, 2006
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1820282,00.html
Caped Crusader:
How many pro-Israel people posting here are Jewish? Judging by the (D)HYS bbc forum on “when will it end” most non-Jews comments are very anti-Israel, especially those from UK and Europe. I wonder why that is?
Caped Crusader | 13.07.06 – 7:03 pm
I’m pro-Israel, but am not Jewish. The BBC suceeded in brainwashing me for a few years in my teens, but then the ‘intifada’ started and the truth was evident – Palestinian terrorists are repugnant animals. Israel has my full support.
Caped Crusader | 14.07.06 – 12:46 am
There’s some pretty nasty stuff on the Guardian comments section. I’ve never understood why non-Jewish Brits hate Jews/Israel so much? Some of the comments are only slightly off gassing all Jews (obviously they use Zionist so as not to be labelled anti-Semites). Can anyone explain this foam-at-the-mouth hatred?
How much time have you got?
Seriously, this is an ongoing question that can only be partially answered by ploughing back through centuries of anti-Semitic indoctrination, much of it based on religious and other dogma. But I doubt that your average Guardian reader would touch religion with a barge pole. He/she most probably belongs to the fascist far left, which has, to a large extent, publicly taken the anti-Semitic baton from the fascist far right.
There’s also a long traditon of anti-Semitism in English literature. It is riddled with Jew hatred – such as that which flowed from the pen of TS Eliot.
Here’s a classic Jew-hating comment from the pages of Have Your Say, disguised as anti-Israel:
Added: Thursday, 6 July, 2006, 09:23 GMT 10:23 UK
Its time people realised that you cant keep dealing with these terrorists, they must be rooted out. The Israeli terrorists have proved time and time again that they have no regard for the lives of the Palestinians. To paraphrase others on this site: The Palestinians have the right to hit hard, including the terrorist hide outs and their collaborators in Israel. The constant attacks on Palestine will only stop if the Israelis pay a price that will make it unworthy to continue their provocations.
James Savill, Norwich
I responded by pointing out that James might like to investigate his family tree. Norwich was the site of the original blood libel against the Jews back in 1144.
HYS didn’t post my comment.
Here’s another HYS comment:
Added: Thursday, 13 July, 2006, 21:26 GMT 22:26 UK
Its time people woke up to the fact that the Israeli’s are the problem. All over the world, they hold positions of power through self enrichment. They are greedy people who want more more more, no matter how much they have, they want more…thats just in their nature.
katy baynes, Western Cape
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=1&threadID=2593&start=45&tstart=0&edition=1&ttl=20060714090549&#paginator
So here we have an example all the way from the southern tip of Africa. This girl ain’t too bright. Note how she uses the term ‘Israelis’, but then talks about ‘all over the world’, making it evident that she really means Jews.
Prejudices are passed down through the generations. Perhaps that’s the best single answer to your question that I can come up with.
Strange that her stereotypical comment slipped through the BBC legal department filter
James Savill seems to be a regular:
David Cameron seems to be the Tories choice mainly because no-one knows anything about him – I assume everyone hopes he thinks like them! Really not a very good rationale to choose a leader; why not pick out of a hat?
James Savill, Norwich
“Can anyone explain this foam-at-the-mouth hatred?”
mr crusader – i would guess that , unlike say Germany, Britain has never comes to terms with the more unsavoury aspects of its past.
thus, latent anti-semitism is still around in Britain. (albeit re-badged as “anti-zionism” , whatever the hell thats supposed to mean).
I’m not Jewish.
I have simply lived through decades of Arab attempts to destroy Israel, decades of the Palestinians doing virtually nothing to improve their own lot, decades of the UN being a total fifth wheel if not actually encouraging terrorism.
I want people on the BBC to criticise Israel when criticism is required. But I also want terrorism to be called terrorism, for the recent decades of Middle East history to be properly reflected in “news” reporting.
And for the BBC to stop publishing propaganda and lies.
not just the BBC dumbcisco – channel 4 last night was a particularly disgusting twisting of the facts and downright lying about the situation.
jon snow , for example, opened by saying that the israelis were responding to the 2 soldiers being kidnapped – while neglecting to mention the hezbollah barrage of mortars and rockets.
SOME CLARITY:
Israel’s Existence at Stake
By Charles Krauthammer
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/07/israels_existence_at_stake.html
AND MORE-iSRAELI PERSPECTIVE (NEVER ON THE BBC):
“We Israelis, with our hatred and fear of war, understand that unless we defeat the terrorists, we – and they – are going to keep paying a heavy price for their barbarism for years to come. We do still have a choice, and that is to ignore the double-talk of the foreign populists and the superficial, ignorant reporting of the media analysts – and to act decisively, to do what it takes. That’s what Israelis from every part of the political spectrum are saying tonight. Hezbollah and Hamas are not our rivals in some sort of argument about the shape of future borders. They are terrorist thugs, committed to nothing constructive for their own people and massively obsessed with hurting us”.
READ IT ALL HERE:
http://thisongoingwar.blogspot.com/
live blogging:
http://www.israellycool.com/
katusha rockets are still raining down on northern israel.
Caped Crusader | 14.07.06 – 12:46 am
There’s some pretty nasty stuff on the Guardian comments section. I’ve never understood why non-Jewish Brits hate Jews/Israel so much? Some of the comments are only slightly off gassing all Jews (obviously they use Zionist so as not to be labelled anti-Semites). Can anyone explain this foam-at-the-mouth hatred?
It is going to be a bit of a shock for some readers but much of the hatred for Israel voiced in this country emanates from Jews in the media. Amongst others, there are Will Self (author) and Prof. Steven Rose (features on The Moral Maze).
I am non-Jewish but pro-Israel.
As Melanie Phillips points out in her latest post, the BBC continue to push the lie that Israeli soldiers were ‘captured’ in Lebanon or in Gaza, not from Israeli sovereign territory in both cases.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5178774.stm
The Israeli offensive follows a day of heavy fighting on Wednesday in which the Israelis suffered their worst losses on the border for several years.
Not ‘on the border’ – within Israel proper!
Israel is also continuing a separate offensive in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli soldier was captured there last month.
“there”?
Where exactly is ‘there’?
He was kidnapped by a group of terrorists who tunnelled under the border into Israel.
First Time Poster:
This Week on BBC1 … some actress I didn’t know (the “only Blairite we could find” apparently)
The actress was Maureen Lipman. Well known as a Jewish woman, which may well have some influence on her views on the ME. However I have been impressed with her previous appearances on BBC political programmes. I remember her taking the Beeboids to task for their interest in Whitehall gossip to the exclusion of the matters that affected normal lives.
bbc gets it wrong, again
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5178058.stm
“The operation comes as Israel continues a separate offensive in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli soldier was captured there last month.”
err.. no he wasnt. the terrorists went over the border into Israel itself and kidnapped him there.
oops – just noticed BioD posting on the same thing above.
Euro-idiots
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2006/07/eu-is-disproportionately-idiotic.html
two day conference last week, where the Iranian president again called for Israel to be wiped out
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21441_Ahmadinejad-_Muslims_Must_Act_to_Eliminate_Israel
connected to Hizbollah actions this week?
On antisemitism, George Orwell, Antisemitism in Britain.
http://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/antisemitism/english/e_antib
Jon | 14.07.06 – 1:32 am
I was just interested if anyone on this blog has done any research into the posters on the BBC HYS.
will | 14.07.06 – 2:03 am
HTF did this lunacy get past the censors? Hardly a subject where such a comment should be posted for light relief.
First Time Poster | 14.07.06 – 4:47 am
I’ve been a reader of the BBC News website for maybe 5+ years and all round standards have slipped. There’s typos all the time now, missing images, maps with the wrong countries highlighted, etc, etc. I think as the site has expanded they’ve started to employ nerdy students on work experience. As you can imagine, most of them would be to the left.
There’s little doubt that the moderators have their favourite contributors. Time and time again I’ve seen multiple posts from favourites like ‘Mohammed’ or ‘Ali’ on any one topic while my comment, obedient to the ‘House Rules’, and posted at roughly the same time, doesn’t make it through.
In such cases, the excuse that they can’t post all comments, since they get flooded by them, rings very hollow indeed.
All evidence points to the fact that HYS moderators are young, inexperienced, left wing, PC and university-‘educated’ in the humanities. I’ve also seen basic grammatical errors in their introductory blurbs to the topics, so it looks like they are left to do their own thing without much editorial supervision. Unless, of course, the rot is so deep that the editors themselves can’t write.
Jon,
I published a response to one of Ian Yes’ posts. He claimed that it was all Israel’s fault for continuing their occupation of Lebanon.
I pointed out that Israel pulled out of Lebanon 6 years ago, but the BBC didn’t publish my comment.
Why let facts get in the way of somebody’s anti-semitism?
BBC World Service is running as second item the tired old Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson story.
As usual, no mention that Plame was NOT a covert agent, that the US Special Prosecutor has decided that NO-ONE in the White House committed anything illegal through the release of her name (or rather the CONFIRMATION of her name, a senior journalist had simply looked it up in Who’s Who), or that the whole issue started with Joe Wilson lying about his trip to Niger and the report he made. A Congressional Committee confirmed that he lied. Any action by the White House to counter his lie was entirely proper – but the BBC never mentions that this is where the trouble started.
Anyway – here is a very revealing interview with the journalist who first printed Valerie Plame’s name. In a separate piece this week, he said that his only contact with Karl Rove was for a few seconds – he called Rove – there was NO CONSPIRACY to reveal Plame’s name.
But still the BBC ploughs on with this nonsense. It IGNORES the other side of the story. And it keeps giving a platform to Joe Wilson, a rabid Dem with far-left links, an attention-seeker who has been thouroughly discredited. Even the ultra-liberal Washington Post said in an editorial that he lied.
No anti-Bush bias at the BBC ?
http://www.exposetheleft.com/2006/07/13/novak-hc/
http://www.iowavoice.com/index.php?/archives/2394-So-This-Is-What-Plamegate-Boils-Down-To.html
http://www.exposetheleft.com/2006/07/12/matalin-plamegame/
http://wizbangblog.com/2006/07/12/if-a-reporter-wanted-to-tell-a-really-interesting-story.php
Why are we paying BBC researchers when they appear never to research this story properly ?
Can I get a job as a BBC researcher ? It sounds like a reaql doss.
The central BBC lie.
At 8.10am James Naughtie introduced the main item of the Today programme with the words :
“This crisis began with the capture of an Israeli soldier in Gaza”
His whole piece was dripping with animosity towards Israel.
Allan@Aberdeen
Have you ever been to Israel? I am not Jewish either, but went as a tourist in 1996 at a time of relative calm.
Israel just wants to be a modern democratic nation like Britain or the US or Australia (or even France or Italy would do). And one of the characteristics of democracies is that they don’t pick wars with other democracies. They trade. Their citizens visit, do student exchanges and marry each other. Play sport. All the good things of life.
The beachfront in Tel Aviv reminded me of Manly (in Sydney where I come from), some of the newer suburbs in the hills around Jerusalem looked just like parts of Canberra. Civilised, functioning, peaceful, busy and prosperous with great weather. The tension is fairly obvious (and is a poison on its society). If they could ever achieve peace, Israel would be one of the best countries in the world in which to live.
Israel’s neighbours should be trying to copy it, not destroy it. But they are fed such blind hatred from childhood that they can see nothing else but Israel’s destruction. And then they scream blue murder if Israel refuses to lie down and die.
There are a number of groups around the world who are being led to destruction by their leaders. The Palestinians are near the top of the tree. Australian Aborigines are probably up there too, but that is a subject for another day.
This crisis began with the capture of an Israeli soldier in Gaza”
Not true. It began after Israel unilaterally left Gaza for the Palestinians to organise and run…………but instead terrorists tunnelled out to attack an IDF border post and murder soldiers before abducting the survivor.
This is seemingly normal behaviour in the view of James Naughtie…………does he know of any other aspiring democracies which do such things ?
Rick
Is there no editorial control at the BBC that can stop someone like Naughtie spouting lies like that ? It was so blatant !
I replayed it again a few moments ago. People at the BBC can lie through their teeth on this kernel fact – and the Today prog “sets the agenda”.
anon at 11.49am was me.
Anyone thinking of stopping paying their BBC jizya after the BBC so evidently are biased? I don’t want my money paying for pro-Arab propaganda and blatant anti-semitism, barely disguised as neutrality. I know they get their gestapo to come looking for dissenters to threaten with prison but I just feel like saying f*ck it. I can’t morally justify paying them when their output endangers lives.
oooh , i’m in the mood for a bit of fisking right now.
why, its none other than Jim Muir
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5178572.stm
“Israel’s open-ended onslaught on Lebanon has thrown the fragile Beirut government into disarray, highlighting the stark contradictions at its heart.”
Framing Israel as the bully. and its not “open ended” – Israel just wants Hizbollah disarmed.
“Ironically, Israel is punishing and pressuring a largely anti-Syrian government for an action which it blames partly on Syria and Iran, the sponsors and supporters of Hezbollah.”.
A government who also failed to disarm Hezbollah, and ceded control of its southern region to it.
“Far from seeking negotiation, Israel has made it clear it intends to continue venting its wrath on Lebanon with the goal of eliminating Hezbollah from the border zone and obliging the Lebanese government to curb the powerful Islamic militia.”
Mr Muir -Israel withdrew from Lebanon 6 years ago. Negotiations have obviously failed because the terrorists refuse to negotiate. And what about mentioning Hezbollah “venting its wrath” Mr Muir? Or have you forgotten about the rocket attacks on Israeli towns already?
i will leave others to fisk the rest of this piece of garbage. my blood pressure cant take it.
Effing and Blinding,
I’ve known and/or spoken to many people like you over the years. Non-Jews who have been to Israel and seen for themselves. With the exception of the few who have gone with their minds made up, as human shields with the ISM á la Rachel Corrie, all share your opinions.
I simply can’t find an explanation other than that ‘antisemitism trumps all reason and logic’ to explain the attitude of BBC correspondents who live there. Maybe they live in fear of offending the “Palestinians”, maybe they’re suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, whatever it is far from telling the truth, and in doing so perhaps contributing to real understanding and so to peace, they are indeed feeding Jew hatred by their blatantly biased reporting.
archduke:
“… with the goal of eliminating Hezbollah from the border zone and obliging the Lebanese government to curb the powerful Islamic militia.”
And what exactly is wrong with that goal Mr. Muir? The Lebanese government is obliged by UN resolutions to disarm the terror organisation it hosts on its soil. If Lebanon (as it claims) is too weak to do so it should be grateful that Israel is doing the job instead.
… and why not call Hizbollox a terrorist organisation as classified by the EU and the US rather than this ‘Islamic militia’ crapola?
Most of the BBC is stuck in a timewarp. It assumes that people in Britain can draw no link between the terrorism of Hamas and Hizbollah and the terrorism we have here at home. Or the terrorists in Mumbai, Madrid, Bali, Iraq, Indonesia etc etc etc. The prog on the 2 British suicide bombers who attacked Mike’s Place is part of joining the dots – both men contacted Hamas and Hizbollah, evidently. They were footsoldiers for them.
Times are a-changing. I think a lot more people now recognise that Israel is fighting for its peaceful existence, that it is NOT the aggressor in this case, NOT the initiator. No matter what lies BBC presenters and reporters spout. People have had it up to here with terrorists – and they no longer trust people who apologise for terrorism, or fail to call terrorism for what it is.
And a lot of people recognise that most major conflicts may be sparked by an apparently small incident – but this comes as the culmination of a lot of trouble. Think Concord, think Sarajevo.
My take is that there had been near 1000 attempted murders by Hamas-backed terrorists, 1000 rockets fired from Gaza into Israel. No arrests in Gaza. Quite apart from all the thwarted suicide-bombing attempts we don’t hear about. The tunneling out of Gaza to kill Israeli soldiers was just the culmination – no matter how the BBC may try to minimise it. The same applies to Hizbollah.
Bryan,
I expect the BBC doesn’t show Hitler salutes because it could be a ‘barrier to understanding’ – i.e. viewers might start to associate Palestinians with a certain ideology, rather than passive victims of Israel. We can’t have that now, can we?
dumbcisco | 14.07.06 – 11:37 am,
I tried to listen to Naughtie in the ‘Middle East’ slot at 08:10 but it’s been replaced by a talk on vat fraud starting with a pre-recorded threat by someone called Ray who says something like, “You switch it off or I’ll snap it/you to bits.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/
Hmmm, so has the Middle east clip been swallowed up by BBC censors?
victims of terror in Israel – 1950 to 2006
http://lindasog.com/public/terrorvictims.htm
the likes of Mr Muir and Mr Bowen of course just ignore all that.
Grimer, yeah we definitely can’t have that.