To be honest, I was sorry to see tonight that Israel has called a ceasefire. It would be best that the IDF/IAF continue to pound every Hamas savage into the dirt of Gaza but I guess this was an inevitable political gesture considering the Obama coronation coming to you 24/7 early next week. I caught Jeremy Bowen commenting on this announcement on the 10 News and was struck by his once-more repeated admiration for the Hamas policy of what he calls “Martyrdom and sacrifice” aka hiding behind women and children and finessing homicide bombers in the kindergarten. The BBC still refuses to share with us how many Hamas terrorists have gone in to meet Allah prematurely, instead preferring to imply that Israel has only killed innocents during this campaign. The coverage of this military campaign against Hamas is a textbook example of BBC bias against Israel and all the reason in the world why we should not be funding such naked anti-semitism .
CEASEFIRE.
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Yes I noticed that as well. I think Israel isn’t withdrawing though is it?
If the bearded morons keep firing their rockets (which they will as asking them not to is like asking 2 dogs not to sniff each others backsides) then it will be a lot harder for the lunatics like Bowen to keep spinning the pro Hamas line (although I’m sure he will)
The Hamas representatives in Syria will always be there. They were telling people in the Gaza strip to die for the greater good right up to the moment that expediency sid otherwise and I guess they must have known that the end was nigh.
It is Stalinism at its’ purest. But you will hear no criticism or analysis from the BBC.
Incoming to Sderot and Ashkelon in 3…..2…
we have pounded the infidels and brought the sons of apes and pigs to their knees.. er…. alahu akbar!
I dunno – round 1. Good stats – conservative 200 killed for no IDF (is that right?). I genuinely think the bullshit that the BBC is propogating is only being gibbered about in Europe by useful idiots and Muslims. Been watching ABC, CNN, CBS and the reportage seems more even handed.
I’d be quietly chuffed if I was an Israeli, doesn’t preclude further activity and no-one hurt. Result.
To be fair, it’s quite rude to bounce a new President, bad etiqutte dontcha know. This way he don’t have to say anything but platitudes and Clinton is expected to go into detail. Actually, it’s kinda brilliant.
Israel has called a ceasefire but of course that didn’t stop the sub-human pro-Hamas savages in London from smashing up a few more Starbucks, as reported here by Gateway Pundit via the Evening Standard.
“A demonstration against Israeli attacks on Gaza ended in violence after protesters looted and damaged shops, police said.
Scotland Yard is investigating the damage in central London, which was thought to be targeted at coffee shop chain Starbucks for the second week running.”
As of yet, no sign of it on the BBC website.
Looting? Ah, that classic tool of political protest and profitable too – bonus!
The BBC, of course, has this pro-Hezbollah, anti-Israel political line:
“Lebanese fear Israel’s next step”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7835822.stm
BUT, of course, the BBC doesn’t report anything like this:
‘Times’:
“Hezbollah plots bloody vengeance”
( by Nicholas Blanford in Beirut)
[Extract]:
“Israel’s bloody offensive in Gaza may be drawing to a close but there were growing fears last night that a new conflict may be looming with Hamas’s ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
“Nearly a year after suspected Israeli agents assassinated Imad Mughniyeh, the group’s military commander, sources on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border predict renewed conflict. The Shia militant fighter, credited with transforming his troops into one of the world’s most effective irregular armies, passed on to Hamas in Gaza some of the tactics that enabled Hezbollah to battle the Israeli army to a standstill in south Lebanon in 2006.
“Hezbollah has vowed to avenge Mughniyeh’s death in a car bomb blast in Damascus on February 13 and, with the first anniversary coming up, Israel fears an imminent attack.
“The Israelis have reason to be concerned. Speaking two weeks ago, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, said: “The Zionists will discover that the war they had in July was a walk in the park if we compare it to what we’ve prepared for every new aggression.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5533205.ece
BBC Ceefax reporting on the ceasefire:-
‘Nearly 1200 Palestinians have been killed since the violence bagan on 27 December. Thirteen Israelis have died.’
Must have been the ‘flu.
Jason
Yes, BBC censors the pro-Hamas attacks on Starbucks in London. The BBC are censoring many politically inconvenient news stories at the moment.
‘Telegraph’
“Starbucks smashed and looted as anti-Israel protests turn to violence ”
[Extract]:
‘Two London branches of coffee chain Starbucks were smashed and looted when protests against Israel’s military action in Gaza turned to violence.’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/4279688/Starbucks-smashed-and-looted-as-anti-Israel-protests-turn-to-violence.html
Damian Thompson ‘Telegraph’:
“The Starbucks conspiracy theory: how a coffee chain was libelled by anti-Zionists ”
[Extract]:
“For the last couple of weeks, internet conspiracy theorists have been spreading a story that Starbucks is funding the Israeli attacks on Gaza. The story is based on lies and a hoax – but it found a ready audience in protestors who trashed a Starbucks outlet in Kensington High Street, opposite the Israeli embassy.
Brendan O’Neill, editor of Spiked, today published a thorough debunking of the Starbucks conspiracy theory. It makes fascinating reading:”
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian_thompson/blog/2009/01/14/the_starbucks_conspiracy_theory_how_a_coffee_chain_was_libelled_by_antizionists
It’s good to see that the Reader Recommended comments on the ‘What Next For Gaza?’ HYS are all very pro-israeli.
Maybe the tide is turning and Al Beeb will have to change their tune.
Whoa, Ayatollah Bowen has flipped from ‘commited war crimes’ to ‘broke the laws of war’. Where the hell do they find these people?
It’s funny how jews quickly run to shout anti-semitism if they are criticised for their brutal aggression, you all fail to mention that Israel forcefully took land belonging to arabs through war and bloodshed, and they continue to daily attack and discriminate against non-jews.
The BBC is doing a decent job, your all just mad because the BBC is not biased and pro-israeli like pretty much every other western news station…
A poster called “Hamas” thinks the BBC is “doing a decent job”…
Now that’s a damning indictment!
Spot on, ‘moonbat nibbler’! Need anyone say more?
Hamas | 18.01.09 – 2:58 am | #
Israel is the least oppressive, most inclusive state in the Middle East and affords more rights to its Arab residents than Arab countries affords to its own residents.
Furthermore Israel took no land “belonging to Arabs” and no “attacks” would be necessary if Arabs weren’t attacking them on a daily basis.
Just to clarify.
Hamas is probably the sad Bill Buchanan with a new ip.
By the way, did anyone notice about 10 years ago when western media introduced the change SHIA (militia etc) from the far more amusing SHIITE?
I know which one I preferred!
I’m a bit disappointed – i’d hoped that hamas would be wiped out.
So, lets try to look at the situation without bias from either side.
Compared Death tolls:
Israel has killed 1,010
Hamas has killed 13
Who broke the existing ceasefire:
U.N. documentation shows that Israel broke the ceasefire.
War Crimes:
The U.N. has pointed to atleast one possible war crime by israel.
You all have been here long enough to stop feeding trolls.
It appears Ben is labouring under the delusion that the UN is some sort of source of objectivity.
I wonder how much of our huge, state-sponsored ‘anti-racism’ industry is investigating anti-Semitism in the BBC and amongst all those who last weekend took to the streets call for death to the Jews?…
http://theyrejokingarentthey.blogspot.com/2009/01/hogwartsshire-local-education-authority.html
ceasefire already broken…
http://www.jpost.com/
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1232100172625&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
“Hours after an Israeli unilateral cease-fire had begun in Gaza, six rockets and four mortar shells were fired from the territory at the Sha’ar Hanegev and Eshkol regions”
deegee: Not a troll, troll implies that i am disagreeing for no other reason than to cause contoversy and gain negative attention. Not the case(okay, maybe on the Ross thread, but you should be happy, i think he should have been sacked), i am a true believer, i think that the ignorance and stupidity that fuels your beliefs is one of the great threats to humanity and wish to aliviate your suffering.
GCooper: I labour under no such illusion. However, of the avaiblible sources, the U.N., the Red Cross and other NGOs are the most trust worthy sources, and they agree, as do many observers and news sources. It is called concensus and evaluting the varasity of sources. The balance of availible infomation points towards israel having broken the ceasefire, they certainly use morally objectionable unconventional weapons.
Israel is open to critism for its behaviour in Gaza. What is your bias that means you are unwilling to critise them propotionally to Hamas?
http://muqata.blogspot.com
9:39 AM Security forces confirm that Hezbollah launched rockets on Israel’s North last week via Palestinian proxies.
8:39 AM So this is a unilateral ceasefire. Gunfire from Gaza at IDF positions, IDF tank responds with a shell and automatic gunfire (Channel 10, minutes ago). Our IDF troops are now sitting ducks in Gaza, and can only respond to attacks.
7:28 AM From Ha’aretz Flashes last night: 2:52 Muslim chosen to speak at Obama inaugural prayer allegedly tied to Hamas (AP)
I was intrigued by the wording of the BBC headline and sub-headline on the main BBC news page about the ceasefire being broken.
“Rocket salvo tests Gaza ceasefire
A unilateral Israeli ceasefire comes into effect in Gaza, but at least six rockets are fired into Israel hours later.”
No mention of Hamas at all.
If Israel had broken a ceasefire you just know the equivalent piece would have read along the lines of:
“Israel breaks Gaza ceasefire
The ceasefire in Gaza was broken when Israel launched a devastating salvo of rockets against a still sleeping Gaza.”
The BBC make me sick.
Ben | 18.01.09 – 9:57 am |
The Red Cross : refused to allow Israel to be a member until 2006…
The UN : its organisation UNWRA is 99 per cent staffed by Palestinians, and infilitrated from top to bottom with supporters of Hamas.
The UN also has a “Human Rights” council, which has Saudi Arabia as a member.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council
The UN has tried to outlaw criticism of Islam
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/01/14/2009-01-14_unacceptable_censorship_the_united_natio.html
And the UN secretary general has himself made a moral equivalence between the fascism of Hamas , and the democracy of Israel…
http://ronmossad.blogspot.com/2009/01/does-not-compute_15.html
“The secretary-general is saying that Israel attacking places of refuge is unacceptable. Then he says Hamas using those same places of refuge is equally unacceptable. However, this is a huge logical fallacy! It’s not equally bad because if Hamas did not use schools as bases to bomb Israelis in the first place, the IDF would not have to attack the school!”
“By claiming there is moral equivalency between both sides when one side clearly initiated the fighting, when that same side DELIBERATELY targets innocent civilians while the other side showed restraint for EIGHT YEARS and takes great pains to AVOID killing innocent civilians, the United Nations is actually saying is that Hamas is right and Israel is wrong.
If Hamas has an equal right to put civilians in harm’s way as Israel does to defend their civilians from being put in harms way…what he is actually saying is that Israel DOES NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO DEFEND ITS OWN CIVILIANS FROM HAMAS ROCKETS”
in short, f**k the UN.
Anyone noticed the UN absolute condemnation of the rockets Hamas has fired into Israel post ceasefire? No, me neither. BBC have no views on this. When the missiles are fired at Jews, it’s always understandable in medialand.
NotaSheep: What evidence do you have that is was Hamas and not say another group who are trying to destabilise the Ceasefire?
When you assume, you make an ass out of you and me. Good journalists do not make assumptions, the bbc, despite claims here to the opersite, is largely made up of good journalists.
It plays the other way too.
When a helecopter gunship worth millions fires munitions worth as much as your average lottery jackpot. It is very easy to identify the source.
You can assign blame with certainty when when it goes one way, it is very hard to assign blame with certainty when it goes the other way.
So answer me this, how is it less biased to make a claim you are uncertain of, based soley on the location of launch, than it is to make a claim based on solid evidence?
Ben: is there just ONE sentence in your last post that either makes sense or was not written by a dyslexic?
Lets just hope and pray a couple of Hamas rockets takes out a few beeboids.
I was thinking of the 9.57 one – but that 10.14 one’s almost as bad!
I am very heavily dyslexic.
sky news: israel has hit back in response to hamas rockets.
i guess they didnt the get the memo on the hamas definition of ceasefire – “You cease, we fire”
and this is how we help israel out in dealing with terrorists… we write letters.
“On Saturday, Germany, France and Britain sent identical letters to the Israeli and Egyptian governments offering support for a ceasefire and their help in preventing arms smuggling into Gaza. ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7835981.stm
woooah.. thats gonna make hamas quake in their boots.
If Israel has committed ‘war crimes’ then it must be punished for them. Otherwise there is no legitamacy in the concept at all.
But the question really is ‘has Israel committed war crimes at all?’ Bearing in mind that Hamarse have been winning, with the MSNs connivance, a propaganda war it is very difficult to tell who is telling the truth. Obviously I know who I believe …
A example. A few days on here someone mentioned that Israeli security forces were ringing up Hamas’ leaders to warn them that their houses were about to be bombed. What a joke! Would anyone really do such a thing for their enemy? This had to be Israeli propaganda. Surely?
But no
In fact the number of dead may well be real if Hamas are being forwarned of the targets and are then packing them with civilians …
So exactly who is commiting the war crimes?
Oh and the Darwin award clips in ‘related videos’ are funny, just to lighten the load 🙂
James Naughtie and others at the BBC believe that the violence in Gaza unites ordinary Palestinians yet more steadfastly against Israel and inspires them to support Hamas yet more solidly than ever before. In other words, James Naughtie and his colleagues feel that if Hamas provokes Israel to retaliate, causing much suffering, the Palestinians’ natural response would obviously be, for some reason, to beg for some more. He thinks they would choose to do this rather than ask their democratically elected leadership to stop the provocation.
Sadly, that may well be the case, as it is well known that honour and pride are more important to religious Muslims than life itself, and death is preferable to life if it bestows martyrdom upon the dead and glory upon the relatives.
To us in the west, it would seem logical that to let sleeping dogs lie would be a more sensible way of improving the Palestinians’ lot. That is, if the BBC regards Israel as a sleeping dog. After all, if Hamas left Israel alone there would be no retaliation and soon, if they renounced violence, no blockade.
Do James Naughtie and his friends not know this? Or do they all swallow the Palestinian distortion, and so misinform the great general public, that the rockets are because of the blockade, and the blockade is there simply because of the oppressive disposition of the Israelis, that the targeted assassinations occur for no other reason than the natural aggression and bloodlust of the Israelis, and that Israel itself is there simply to steal land from the indigenous population.
If conflict engenders an instinctive consolidation of public support for government, why should we in Britain not consolidate behind our own government if it carries out foreign policies that are blamed and cited as justification for acts of violence and terror by ‘angry’ Muslims? If our own government has a policy of refusing to let sleeping dogs lie, and this sleeping dog is Islamic extremism of the variety that wants to eliminate or subjugate all the unbelievers, compared to Israel that merely wants to live in peace within secure borders, if our own government provokes terrorists to perform acts of terror against civilians because of its foreign policy, why doesn’t James Naughtie think we should be united, stand by said government and support them. But instead, fearing a backlash by terrorists and agitators, he and his ilk push for changing our foreign policy. Appeasement. Good for the goose but apparently bad for the gander
Discussing the ceasefire this morning, the man hosting BBC Breakfast asked the man in Gaza about the feelings of the ordinary Palestinians, having experienced a night free from bombing, and wondering whether they still think Hamas should provoke more of the same.
“Of course they hate Israel” he opines, sagely, insinuating that they do so, naturally, because of their recent horrific experience.
He does not mention that they are indoctrinated with aforementioned hatred from birth, and are taught all the things that are inherent in radical Islam, such as the glorification of death and martyrdom, and that they must rid “Palestinian land” of all Jews.
We do not know if he is ignorant or malevolent. But we do know that he is merely perpetuating the same old BBC bias.
Ben: that answers one question. And the one about making sense?
The following is from a company that supplies security personell to the BBC (and other media) I doubt they will be investigating Hamas???!!!
“There is a possibility that we may in the near future have a requirement to conduct an investigation of a technical military nature.
If you have attended either the Weapons Staff course (dagger) or the Gunnery Staff course could you let me know.”
Hi Ben, I thought you were dyslexic from your posts. Me too, though not at serious as yourself I guess, and your viewpoint certainly dose differ from mine!
Any disctinction between terrorist groups firing rockets at Israel (including your imaginary ones) is pointless in practical terms – “They’re all Hamas Now”!
Ben sunshine – the UK and US have killed 1.2 million Arabs for a bit of petrol, why no UN investigation of war crimes? Ah, it’s because the US pays a billion dollars per year to the UN (the largest contributor by far) and the UK has veto. In other words chuckles, they’re politically biassed and worried about their jobs.
All the muppets attacking Israel are just useful idiots.
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3282
Fish: You objection is a little like walking into a hospital with a ferrit hanging from your hand and saying, ‘i need some one to treat this dog bit.’ and then lobbying to have the dangerous dogs acts broadened and made more survier.
Nothwithstanding Hamas are bound to break this ceasefire (in fact they already have), I’m going to miss the footage of those F-15s flying over Gaza pooping out decoy flares and dropping high-explosives on the heads of genocidal gangsters (and unfortunately the human shields they’ve surrounded themselves with). Does anyone remember some video from near the start of this conflict when the Philistines all gathered in some square to mourn their dead terrorist friends and an F-15 flew low over the proceedings with full afterburners, drowning out their medieval wailings? That put a big smile on my face.
I don’t watch the BBC News for the same reason I don’t watch Al Aqsa TV, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d showed it too. You know, so they could go with the ‘Noble savages’ noble savage custom contemptuously rebuked by evil Western-style democracy and their infernal flying machines of steel’ line.
‘Brussels Journal’:
“Ant-Semitism Sweeps Europe in Wake of Gaza Operations”
[Extract]:
“Of course, the European political left” [with BBC compliance] “is also pursuing an ideological battle to eradicate Judeo-Christian influences from European culture. Part of the strategy to achieve their objective involves embracing a host of Muslim causes. And so millions of Europeans have eagerly joined ranks with Islam’s 60-year challenge to Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Indeed, when European commentators proclaim that Israel is a Nazi, apartheid, pariah state, they are deliberately calling into question Israel’s legitimacy. What is clear is that European anti-Semitism says a lot more about the state of contemporary Europe than it does about the State of Israel.”
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/3745
George R – we’re at war and the sooner people start realizing, the better. It’s not about picking sides in the Israel / Palestine conflict – it’s just a front that we can all see. There are various other fronts in Indonesia, in Darfur, Somalia and now, due to the rapid immigration of cultures who take the mickey out of our tolerance in Leeds, Bradford, Birmingham, London, Madrid, Amsterdam, all over Europe. And as we’ve seen this week for the Chezc president to appear luke warm before the EU he gets shouted down as a right wing extremist.
There is a hegemony of apologists who have no understanding of the demographics of the situation, of the fact thet some cultures have absolutely no intention of integrating and see our tolerance as nothing more than an Achilles heel from which to start.
I’m not a right wing extremist, the thought of voting for the BNP appaules me, but sooner or later, when their child is raped, stabbed, robbed, when they can’t get a job, when their taxes hit the roof, when their kids can’t get a decent education, when their health service is crap, when we are prevented from going to war when a clear danger presents itself, well, that’ll be too late.
This is religious, this is a jihad to get a caliphate – nothing less.
I see that Hamas have called a ceasefire. Isn’t that a bit like Hitler calling a ceasefire when the Russians have surrounded your hole in the ground?
Hamas wrote:
It’s funny how jews quickly run to shout anti-semitism if they are criticised for their brutal aggression, you all fail to mention that Israel forcefully took land belonging to arabs through war and bloodshed, and they continue to daily attack and discriminate against non-jews.
Err Hamas ins’t it against your faith to use the internet? (I wonder how long it it before we find so called British muslims arrested by the jews while looking for a computer course in gaza) I mean don’t you have far better things to do than to inform the great unwashed that what Abu Bowen unzips from his masters has to be swallowed with a smile.
Just think you could be;
Smashing up coffee shops
Chasing the police
Rioting
Honour killing your women
bending over for Allah
Working to join the bBC
Raping a white woman
Playing a victim for the local bBC news
Spending money that you collected for the poor people of Gaza
Dealing in drugs
or even
breeding more children in which to gain a bigger council house.
Tell you what HAmas.
You don’t tell me about the bBC and I won’t tell you how to kill the jews.
Sorry, this comment should really be here on this thread.
George R | 18.01.09 – 1:09 am
There seems to be quite a campaign against Starbucks. Note the dates of the articles in this search result:
http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=starbucks&x=0&y=0&sp-a=00062d45-sp00000000&sp-advanced=1&sp-p=all&sp-w-control=1&sp-w=alike&sp-date-range=-1&sp-x=any&sp-c=100&sp-m=1&sp-s=0
This probably the most relevant regarding Starbuks’ alleged support for Israel:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/israel/schultz.asp
Ben | 18.01.09 – 9:57 am
Even the BBC’s own website documented the rockets fired by Hamas, even within hours of its self-declared ceasefire.
Anyhow, as a self-declared ceasefire Israel was under no obligation to respect it.
Now, tell us pray, when exactly did Hamas declare its “ceasefire” and when do you and they accuse Israel of breaking it?
http://wapedia.mobi/en/List_of_rocket_and_mortar_attacks_in_Israel_in_2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rocket_and_mortar_attacks_in_Israel_in_2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Qassam_rocket_attacks
I am very heavily dyslexic.
Ben | 18.01.09 – 10:32 am
DISLEXYCS OF THE WORLD UNTIE!
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.