Monthly Archives: January 2009

Been a busy morning for the BBC in the promotion of the Hamas cause. Around 6.45am they were phoning Gazans up and asking for feedback on how things were going in Hamastan! You can imagine the predictable results! I was wondering how they got these telephone numbers as it would be interesting to know who provided them and who set the calls. Then, half an hour later, it was time for a discussion on how the Egyptian government is coming under increasing pressure from its own people to open the crossing at Rafah – Gaza’s border with Egypt. The BBC reporter did mention the fact that this area is criss-crossed with tunnels which Hamas use for smuggling weapons into Gaza but for some odd reason, he never wondered who provided these weapons to Hamas, nor indeed where the cash came from to buy these weapons. After all, I thought Gaza was cash-strapped? Half an hour later, we enjoyed thought for the day with Dr Usama Hasan, a Muslim academic before segueing into an interview with Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador to the UK. Sarah Montague’s attack line was that the Israeli shelling on a UN school undermines any credence to their cause and she refused to accept the obvious, namely that Hamas use women and children as human shields, so committing war crimes. The second BBC attack line is that Israel was to blame for the breach of the cease-fire last year because it killed six Hamas terrorists! Ambassador Prosor performed admirably under the circumstances but the chill in the air during the interview was visceral. The BBC really are unhinged.

I very rarely watch BBC Breakfast TV but I have just been told about a gem that was on it this morning just after 8am. It appears we were treated to a short potted history of Gaza and the conclusion was that Hamas, after all, is democratically elected and all that Hamas really want to do is get on with building up the Gazan economy and making life better for the people of that area. The faux analogy with Northern Ireland was then employed with the suggestion that Israel should talk to the more “moderate” wing of Hamas, just like the British Government had engaged with the “moderate” Sinn Fein wing of the IRA. It’s all so risible, so totally detached from reality, that it is almost beyond comment but the reality is that many millions of people will have tuned in and been exposed to this pro-Hamas propaganda. And THAT is the danger of the BBC; it is a willing propagandist tool for terrorism, in this instance shilling for Hamas, the IRA — and for that, it deserves to be damned.

Moving on to other matters Gazan, I see the BBC is relentlessly quoting “500 deaths” without any effort to tell us how many of those killed are Hamas terrorists and how many other were killed because of Hamas. Just one big bite-sized media friendly number, natch. I also noted that on the Today programme this morning, the BBC explained that because of Israel’s refusal to let journalists into the conflict area, it had to rely on images provided by those residing in Gaza. (And they didn’t mean the IDF) It stopped short, however, of making it clear that all images and data provided to the BBC are Hamas approved – so no possibility of any bias there then!

Once again, my breath is taken away by the upfront admiration that most BBC reporters seem to be showing for Hamas. I just caught the dog-faced Lyse Doucet on BBC 24 News enquiring of Abu Bowen if many people will be surprised how plucky Hamas are still “fighting back”? Then there was the convenient conflation of Hamas terrorist deaths with civilian deaths – giving viewers the clear impression that ALL those killed in Gaza are innocent. (No mention of the Fatah assassinations carried out by Hamas in Gaza, memory hole) This is the same trick they used in 2006 during the Lebanon crisis. The BBC has morphed in the oast few days into the Hamas Broadcasting Corporation, wilfully spinning events to suit their Gazan soul-mates.