I was delighted to hear two items on radio 4 this morning in which neither Israel nor Jews were shown in a bad light.
1. Israel has the moral high ground in this unusual report by Christian Fraser, and on Today R4 0.42.23 (too early for Listen Again.)
The antisemitism of Egyptian intellectuals who are virulently opposed to any normalisation of cultural relations with Israel has prevented little if any Hebrew literature from being translated – lest it infect Egyptain readers with the Jewish virus. The few translations they will allow are to be prefaced with a “warning.”
In 1994, out of curiosity, playwright Ali Salem spent 23 days in Israel, but was “completely alienated” on his return.
2. “In our Time” Radio 4. Melvyn and three Oxbridge academics discussed the Dreyfus affair. A fascinating case. Startling parallels could be drawn. One odd moment – “Socialism and antisemitism went together in a kind of powerful populism that we might find difficult to understand” ……………….Not really.
3. I thought the BBC hadn’t made such a meal out of the Goldstone report as it normally does with negative news about Israel, but I’m sure there’s a lot more in store. “UN Body to Debate Gaza Crimes”
If you have been following the story on other websites as I have, and you live in the UK or are an expat, you might like to sign this petition.
4. Must-read critique of Guardian Editorial Bias. Letter to the managing editor of the Guardian, but could equally be addressed to the BBC – arguably less overt than the Guardian, but with a broader reach.
5. “One in Four is Muslim, Study Says” I find this alarming. Having said that I wait for the usual cries of Islamophobia from those that know nothing about the subject.
“Socialism and antisemitism went together in a kind of powerful populism that we might find difficult to understand”
I was listening to In Our Time while mending a fence this morning and nearly took my thumb off as I laughed at this statement.
On point 5.), -of course this BBC summary doesn’t discuss the core ideology of Islam, nor does it look to the future demographics, but these articles do:
“A fifth of European Union will br Muslim by 2050”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/5994045/A-fifth-of-European-Union-will-be-Muslim-by-2005.html
“Demographic Time Bomb” (by Mark Steyn)
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=M2JmOTY4MGNkMWYyMmVmNzY5NzVmZjQwNzQ4MzgwZGM=
I listened to the In Our Time on Dreyfus this morning, and thought it was rather good for the 45 mins, although it could have gone into the underlying political climate a bit deeper, and like DB, I couldn’t quite see why the idea of anti-semitism and socialism combining in a powerful populism should be so difficult to understand.
But this prog, to give credit, was what the Beeb can do well when it puts its mind to it. Pity about the bias and the rubbish elsewhere.
On George R’s point, a good read on this subject is Bruce Bawer’s “While Europe Slept – How Radical Islam Is Destroying The West From Within”. We tend to concentrate on Islamification in Britain, but other countries in Europe have it far worse – even Norway.
Islamization.
And if one tries to protest about the Islamization of Europe, including Britain, this is what happens, and this is how the BBC reports it, with its predilection for banning free speech about Islam, but not about e.g. Israel:
“Call for anti-Islamic marchers ban”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8297950.stm
9:36 above. ‘Marches’ not ‘marchers’ in headline.
Of course, the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents all Islamic countries as an ideological bloc at the UN and elsewhere, is campaigning for a worldwide ban on criticism of Islam.
And the BBC has not, to my knowledge criticised this OIC assault on free speech.
Nor has the BBC treated Geert Wilders, the Dutch MP, banned by Labour from entering Britain, in a similar sypathetic fashion as it treats its Gitmo Muslim poster boy from Ethiopia, Binyam Mohamed.
Geert Wilders can say this in the USA, but not in Britain, and not on the BBC:
“Geert Wilders speaks in L.A.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2009/04/geert-wilders-speaks-in-la.html