I see the BBC has been doing it’s best for those poor innocents that support Hamas. It reports today that “the world” failed Gaza earlier this year. I agree. “The world” should have fully supported Israel as it sought to defend itself from the murderous intent of the Islamic Jihadists that constitute Hamas. But that’s NOT the line being retailed by the BBC this morning. No, you see the issue is that the bad Jews need to be pressurised much more for daring to defend themselves, or so says those impartial anti-Semites at Oxfam. The BBC is beside itself with joy at this seasonal message from the fake Charities although it does Israel two sentences to defend itself at the very end of the report. Meanwhile on Today, we had Hamada Abuqammar @ 7.19am relating just how tough life is for the poor people of Gaza, and explaining exactly why all those tunnels into Egypt are for humanitarian purposes. Hamas must love the BBC – if only they, rather than we, funded them.
PEACE ON EARTH, GOODWILL TO HAMAS
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The BBC exaggerates Palestinian casualties by almost 10X without even the standard BBC cut-and-paste with Israeli figures.
“The charities made the accusation in a report published just ahead of the anniversary of Israel’s offensive, in which almost 14,000 Palestinians died, and tens of thousands were displaced”.
Normally they say, “Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 people were killed during Israel’s Cast Lead operation between 27 December 2008 and 16 January 2009, more than half of them civilians.
Israel puts the number of deaths at 1,166 – fewer than 300 of them civilians. Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israeli soldiers were also killed”.
I’m sure it’s just an honest mistake… actually I’m not so sure.
Meanwhile, the BBC have “apologised” to Jonathan Hoffman:
BBC Journalist Forced to Change Story by Well-Funded Antizionist Lobby
I complained and it now reads “1,400”, although they haven’t changed the “last updated” time. Neither is the piece with the Israeli ambassador available to “listen again” – he must have made some good points.
As I said on another thread, this body count metric is not only ghoulish but is used dishonestly. There is no separation of armed fighter from innocent civilian in the Palestinian numbers. Because there is such a demarcation in the Israeli casualties, the combination of the “unfairness” of scale and the lack of Hamas fighter designation leads the audience to assume that the vast majority of the Palestinian casualties were innocent bystanders.
Presenting casualty figures in this way betrays the personal viewpoint of BBC editors.
Not content with a lengthy diatribe about hardship in Gaza from the Palestinian BBC “producer” the later item on Today finally dispatched all semblance of balance on the part of James Naughtie to the dustbin of history.
In the interviews with chief executive of Oxfam Barbara Stocking and Israeli Ambassador Ron Proser, Naughtie abandoned all pretence. Unfortunately that section isn’t given a separate slot on the Today listen again facility, so one has to scroll to 8.45 (2.38.40) to hear it.
Apart from the blatantly sympathetic tone taken with Ms. Stocking as opposed to the openly hostile one toward Mr. Proser, other astonishing bias stood out so much that it begged the question: can this really be only ignorance?
Conducting an interview is normally a matter of asking a question, then waiting for the answer. If necessary it’s customary to apply a bit of pressure to a reluctant interviewee. The technique is taken to its extreme form in Paxman’s over-exposed interview with Michael Howard
With Ms. Stocking, however, James Naughtie does the opposite. After allowing her to reiterate her lament about the suffering caused by limiting the number of trucks carrying building supplies from entering Gaza, Naughtie asks her opinion of Israel’s claims that such materials are diverted by Hamas, and not used for repairing buildings.
She replies: ”I don’t think that’s the case” and continues to list the hardships in Gaza. Naughtie has already forgotten about the question, so she is left to describe at length the food and other shortages that photographic images on the Internet hardly bear out. Has James Naughtie not seen them? Perhaps he doesn’t use the Internet.
cont.
Cont.
When he interviews Mr. Proser his contempt gets free reign. Mr. Proser is saying, “….it’s true that cement and steel pipes were not allowed in because…”
Naughtie interrupts, finishing the sentence: “So people can’t rebuild homes that were bombed.”
From an interviewer that is outrageous and completely unprofessional.
Naughtie introduces a quote from Jimmy Carter, notorious for being the most anti Israel US President there has ever been. “I take it you don’t regard him as somebody who is anti-Israel in his bones.” Naughtie says, before proceeding with one of Carter’s one-sided, ignorant and disparaging remarks. Does Naughtie know nothing about this subject?
Finally the purely nasty bit from Naughtie. To illustrate the ease with which all sorts of things can be brought into Gaza from Egypt, Mr. Proser finishes by joking “even belly dancers” Naughty responds with faux outrage “ So that’s alright because they can get belly dancers? Really ambassador!”
That was rude, biased, and substandard, and it saddens me to hear it.
Thanks for that link Sue!
Another quote from Ms. Stocking worth mentioning is, “if you treat people that way all you do is breed even more hate.”
The classic response from the caring left; it’s all Israel’s fault that the Palestinians hate them – nothing to do with Hamas’ charter and the hatred instilled in children as young as six, and we have to empathise with and understand the terrorists!
Israel evacuated completely, down to the last Jew, from Gaza. Where’s the love Israel got from the Palestinians in exchange for that?
Instead of using belly dancers as an example of what does find its way from Egypt into Gaza perhaps the ambassador could have mentioned those motorcycles, on which women are forbidden from riding on by Hamas…
http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/20724/hamas-bans-gaza-women-motorcycles
Can’t you just feel the love?
Yes that ‘breeding hate’ bit struck me as well. One could equally make a similar comment the other way round. The theory that Palestinian hate stems from, or is bred through “treatment” is so disingenuous. It’s a bit like justifying suicide bombings, because “What else can they do?”
When Israel responds to this ‘understandable’ hate, which is expressed in the form of thousands of rockets aimed at civilian targets, the understanding evaporates. Because people who hate Israel are convinced that Jews have brought it on themselves, and don’t deserve to be understood.
No “what else can they do” questions are to be asked on behalf of Israel.
Evidently the “interview” with Oxfam was no more than a plug and a warm up for this, it is the source of the Jimmah Cartah quote parroted by Ms. Stocking (is she a relative of the famous Christmas Stocking?)
Oxfam, Amnesty, 14 other charities call for legitimisation of Hamas, produce joint report approving language that says Gazans treated like “animals”
Do you think James Naughtie knows anything about Jimmy Carter’s position? I mean, good grief. As Robin Shepherd asks – Ignorance or bigotry?
Given the millions of dollars that Carter receives from Saudi Arabia in exchange for his antsemitic rants I’d say it’s bigotry.
That isn’t to say that he’s not also wilfully ignorant, which boils down to the same thing.
Oh, I see what you mean. Naughtie possibly doesn’t receive money from the Saudis so he’s just an ignorant bigot. Is there any other kind? 😉
This is not just ANY ignorant bigot. This is a BBC ignorant bigot. 🙁
That’ll explain why he has a top spot then.
Now we’re alone, do you think anyone has noticed that the ‘recent comments’ have been stuck for days? Shhh. Don’t tell anyone else. Just got them back from the menders as well.
i did notice but didn’t want to be a boring whinger =-X
I mentioned above Hamas’ indoctrination of hatred into very young children. Here’s a must-read:
“Ask for Death!”
Linked to from here:
The Ultimate Betrayal
Just got up. A severe case of man flu.This am, before crawling to my sick bed, at around 4am, Tim Franks piece, World “failed Gaza”-aid agencies caught my bloodshot eye.
A cringingly typical bbeboid production..but at the last 2 sentences, it got bad. An Israeli spokesman, speaking to Wanks, quite accurately mentioned hamas’ intention to destroy Israel, and kill Israelis. Here Franks strange urges kicked in. Quite gratuitously, he added, “as he put it”.
No Wanks, as the hamarse charter, and every single public rant the hamarse leadership deliver, makes bloody clear! He just couldnt refrain, could he?
Anyway, I immediately put in a complaint, and I am glad to see that now the conclusion of the piece has been changed, dropping that nasty little aside so that the piece accords with reality.
Small victories.
Good for you.
Why is it that whenever a Palestinian is supposedly shot or killed by Israeli troops, and certainly when by an Israeli civilian, it receives instant headline status on the BBC website, but when, as in this case, a Christian is murdered in Pakistan by Muslims for refusing to convert, there’s not even a mention of it?
This is not a rhetorical question – How do YOU explain it?
Perhaps because there are too many cases like that to report?
That would probably be the BBC’s response.
See here:
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks
So the Israelis should kill more Palestinians and then it wouldn’t receive such prominence?
Scraping the bottom of the barrel for hummus with which to big up the Pakestinians, again.
Today’s Toady programme features Tim Franks on “Hummus wars”, except today it’s called “humous”. Listen at 0742 here.
But just a minute, this isn’t news, it’s not even new!
Jerusalem Diary: Hummus wars
Page last updated at 10:54 GMT, Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Must be a slow news day, not much happening to bash Israel with…
“Pakestinians” should of course read “Palestinians”. No disrespect intended to those of Pakistani origin :-E
For BBC:
“Can they give Britain a loan, please?”
(Melanie Phillips)
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/5662741/can-they-give-britain-a-loan-please.thtml