It seems the revised ‘Free Gaza’ Flotilla E.T.A. is Saturday (tomorrow.)
I hear that someone from BBC radio 4 is on board one of the vessels, but the BBC has been strangely silent on this.
Amongst the online chatter about the situation in Gaza – the abundance of produce, Olympic-size swimming pools, the availability of luxury goods, and the ultimate gourmet experience advertised by Roots Club – the argument goes that all this does not prove that there isn’t real hardship and poverty there too.
There are many other places on earth where extremes exist side by side; where corruption keeps the poor in poverty and the rich in luxury.
They probably have to make do without a flotilla, and presumably without humanitarian aid from countries they’ve sworn to annihilate.
Hamas smuggles various goodies through the tunnels, but nevertheless Israel supplies Gaza with necessities such as fuel, medicine and food despite Hamas’s continued refusal to moderate its hard line stance. Numerous inventories of the goods regularly delivered to Gaza by Israel do little to disabuse Israel’s critics from their persistent allegations of humanitarian crises and deprivation, illogically attributed to Israel. Hamas having been absolved of all responsibility.
The flotilla is less concerned with Human Rights than with carrying out a provocative publicity stunt to stoke up a propaganda coup against Israel. They are such humanitarians that they turned down a request from the parents of Gilad Shalit to plead his case with Hamas.
Tomorrow, if Israel rises to the bait and confronts them, the BBC will probably have the story they are waiting for.
I am not the only one who has noticed the BBC’s bashfulness. Someone from the opposite camp has noticed too, and thinks it would make just the story the BBC likes, so he’s written a letter.
“Hi. As a BBC online viewer, I’d like to alert you…….”
Soz for my ignorance Sue but why is this just Israel’s problem when Egypt (nicking the Nile which should be fun) is as culpable as those nasty Israelis.
Roots club sounds good – may go there for me jollies, can probably smoke there too.
Well, it sounds like the MSM have their bank holiday coverage sorted…
This is O/T but I’m making it a comment rather than a main post, to minimise pro-Zionist disproportionality on B-BBC. 😛
If it was a main post I’d head it: Throwing a Hero to the Lions, and continue:
If anyone wonders why we believe the BBC is against the Jewish state, here’s a typical example of how the BBC presents an item about Israel.
Today Programme, R4.
A headline is announced – to the effect that Israel isn’t doing enough to protect a Palestinian informant, Mohammad Sa’ad, whose actions saved many lives. The intro isn’t in the clip, but on the web page it says:
“A former collaborator, Mohammad Sa’ad, describes how he infiltrated Palestinian militant groups and says he deserves more protection and help from the Israeli state.”
I haven’t been following this case, so I come to it anew. I put myself in the position of your average disinterested bystander.
Good grief, we think, disinterestedly, Israel is heartless and unappreciative. Fancy not protecting someone who ought to be their hero.
He faces certain death at the hands of the Islamist terrorists he has betrayed, Wyre Davies goes on to tell us. He has spied on his brothers, and collaborated with the enemy, an act of extreme disloyalty by anyone’s standards. Almost indefensible it seems.
Any Palestinian who is regarded as a traitor faces a sticky end, even if their crime is to sell a property to a Jew, and even if it’s through a third party.
Oh we think, that’s strict. So, certain death for him.
Why is Israel doing so little for this brave man? Oh yes, of course, I was forgetting. Israel is a brutal racist apartheid state, that’s just how they behave. It had slipped my mind for a second.
Hang on. Selling property to a Jew is a crime? Oh yes, that’s not racism. Plonking Israel in Muslim land is the crime, it’s the Jews that are Nazis; do concentrate.
Now Wyre is talking to our hero’s lawyer. What’s this? He’s in Tel Aviv? He’s got a Lawyer? An Israeli lawyer? What’s that he’s saying? are we to conclude that Israel hasn’t made a decision about the case after all? That what we are hearing is merely the case that is being prepared on behalf of our Palestinian collaborator hero, for permanent sanctuary in Israel?
A more accurate description of the item is to be found on the label of the clip. “Palestinian Mohammad Sa’ad who collaborated with Israeli forces describes his fears of being sent back to Palestine.” (Palestine?)
That’s all it was.
Isn’t that a bit disingenuous, to imply that Israel has thrown their hero to the lions? And at the same time accept that the summary justice meted out by the Islamists is par for the course, and just “what they do.”
Mohammad sa’ad is the son of a major Hamas figure and to be fair to the lad he’s got a huge amount of courage. One would suspect (and this is just my own reading between the lines stuff) that he’s now a spent force and that his use is at an end. However, he really can’t be completely trusted. To that end, I would have thought that he’s been nicely reimbursed but wants a bit more – fair enough.
I doubt it’s an issue of residency as that would have been granted immediately but more a question of protection as he’s a walking target. He didn’t sell out the Palestinians but Hamas. The BBC rarely distinguish between the various factions, political groups or sectional interests which they don’t with Israeli politics – it’s simply not relevant to their narrative. Slack, unprofessional, biased and largely inaccurate – it’s the unique way they fleece the taxpayer!
Are you confusing Sa’ad with Mosab Yousef? He was the son of a senior Hamas figure, and now resides in the US.
I don’t think Mohammed Sa’ad is the son of a major Hamas figure, but he certainly needs to be brave, now that he’s gotten himself into such a fine mess. There’s another chap with the same name. Several, actually. One’s a former light heavyweight boxing champion. Let’s hope it’s him!
Probably. Whoops! Still, yes, good lad and a bit of a pension seems reasonable. He could move over here and err…’seek assylum’ but no doubt the Beeb would think him a traitor also.
I know I shouldn’t (and I honour the bravery of Mohammed Sa’ad) but his name reminds me of an Islamic version of Simons Says…
Mohammed Said — kill the Jews!
Mohammed Said — convert the Infidels!
Mohammed Said — submit to me!
Mohammed Said – dress women in black sheets with a couple of eye-holes!
So ‘the BBC has been strangely silent on this’, yet it will be biased when it does cover the story? Is that what we are to understand from another cryptic post?
former collaborator, Mohammad Sa’ad, describes how he infiltrated Palestinian militant groups and says he deserves more protection and help from the Israeli state.”
I put myself in the position of your average disinterested bystander. Good grief, we think, disinterestedly, Israel is heartless and unappreciative. Fancy not protecting someone who ought to be their hero.
I on’t think the average listener, who is listening would be disinterested. What would you suggest the BBC do about that. Its a simple fact of life that not everyone is as interested or outraged about the subject as you. I don’t know why yyou would come to the conclusion from that sentence that ‘Israel is heartless and unappreciative’ but then I guess that’s just your perception. Your perception, get it?
If only the BBC was “disinterested” between Israel and the Palestinian entity. I’d accept that.
But it’s not. It’s biased… the antonym of disinterested.
Erik.
I’m glad you came along. As it happens
I do often wonder whether it’s worth persevering with complaints about the BBC’s bias in relation to Israel here on B-BBC.
Is this subject better suited to a specialist blog I ask myself.
On such websites I see many references to the BBC’s antisemitic attitude; people reluctantly accept this state of affairs, and have resigned themselves to what they see as an intractable problem.
Specialist blogs automatically marginalise themselves and often turn into echo chambers sprinkled with trolls, which they use as hooks to expand arguments, and debate. They inadvertently liven things up.
I hoped that my contributions might at least draw someone’s attention to the subject, if failing to convince them or change their mind.
What I would suggest the BBC does, since you ask, is to pay as much attention to what I’ll call the “Israeli narrative,” as they already do to the “Palestinian narrative.”
They must stop presenting every item as though the antisemitic Islamist ideology wasn’t antithetical to western ideals, and that every attempt to defend itself was not an act of gratuitous agression by Israel.
Is it your perception that Israel was not presented as heartless and unappreciative in the way I described?
Yes, my original post about the flotilla was preemptive, if you like. I admit that. But there’s one thing I’m willing to bet on, and that’s that any reporting on the confrontation, if there is one, will not be sympathetic to Israel.
Your tone, “get it” is quite rude by the way.
Its getting better actually..
The 5 ships (3 appear to be either unseaworthy or merely non existant) have been refused any facilities by the Greek Cypriot government, so the fascist flottila is having to embark from a Turkish occupied Cypriot port. (maybe on sunday, if they can work out how to the start the engines)
Oh the rich irony of that! Does any country in the world recognise Turkish “sovereignty” over any part of that island?
I seem to recall a full scale Turkish military invasion of that island, wasnt it in 1974?
So we have an illegally and unrecognised islamic entity offering facilities to a group of freaks who wish to “aid” a terrorist and racist group holding despotic power. Nice.
Just about sums it up really.
I am not a pagan…
But I have just sacrificed a couple of burgers on the barbie and called on Neptune to sink the Arsehole Armada.
Maybe I shouldn’t have danced naked around the garden in this weather, but what the hell.
Maybe? Your poor neighbours!
Jack’s way of paying special tribute to professor Pissias.
Jack
In that end of the Med the “meltemi” winds are not very severe – but yes, maybe Poseidon will reach up and drag the idiots down into the vasty deep. Or at the very least – blow up a real storm and shoo them off to all points of the compass.
Given the Greeks, I thought it best to use the Roman name!
It seems to me the BBC is falling over backwards ‘NOT‘ to cover the convoy. This was the only piece I found online:
Gaza hopes to welcome blockade-busting flotilla It seems relatively lacking the semantic tricks the BBC uses to project bias while pretending neutrality. For example, the article has a subhead ‘Cheap stunt’. This a quote from an Israeli official. It’s very unusual because generally the BBC uses subheads to push the Palestinian narrative.
Yes this article could have been worse..
On the whole, though, it’s still very accepting of Hamas. In the video Jon Donnison does refer to ‘spin from both sides,’ but he seems to be giving equal, or more credence to the utterances of Ismail Haniyeh than to the information given out by Israeli press officers, and emphasises that they have been “briefing journalists, shall we say, that the aid wasn’t necessary.”
Adding that the UN refers to this blockade as a medieval siege, and “We’ve had a major conflict with Israel, and the idea that everything is okay, it’s just fine in Gaza, simply isn’t true” is one thing, but leaving out vital context altogether is quite another.
Who’s responsible for the hardship? Why is there no mention of the inequality, the smuggling, the rocket-building? Why isn’t Ismail Haniyeh criticised for not doing enough to help, not to mention his culpability in bringing this situation about.
It does pretend neutrality, but still comes from a Palestinian-friendly perspective.
“A former collaborator, Mohammad Sa’ad, describes how he infiltrated Palestinian militant groups and says he deserves more protection and help from the Israeli state.”
From that you get, the BBC says: ‘it’s the Jews that are Nazis; do concentrate.’
“A headline is announced – to the effect that Israel isn’t doing enough to protect a Palestinian informant, Mohammad Sa’ad, whose actions saved many lives. The intro isn’t in the clip, but on the web page it says: “
“From that you get…”
Of course, not just from that as you very well know. From six decades of bias.
But you don’t want to argue. Just hit, run and insinuate from on high.
The story is just one of a string of stories that link to each other forming a ‘perception wall’ around the the state of Israel.
One story means litlle on its own BUT when combined with others it becomes a greater narrative.
The story of the collaborator is important because hamas and fatah have a problem with traitors and informers in their midst and this is where the close co opperation between the anti israel/jew hating elements at the BBC and the hamas/fatah islamists comes in.
The islamists need it to be known that Israel treats its informants badly which may inhibit informers from coming forward to help the IDF etc. Negative stories about Israel take many forms but the essence of the stories is the same as is the overarchng aim, nothing less than the de legitimization of the state of Israel and the effort is long term and has many supporters in the western media.
No story coming from the BBC is positve about Israel, the rule is that every story has to add certain memes and false reality constructs and present certain racial stereotypes as belonging to the Jews, these are as old as antisemitsim itself and a mirror of the blood libels and the protocols of the elders of Zion and just as dishonest.
Put simply the aim of the BBC/hamas/fatah/islamist axis is to sling as much mud as possible for as long as it takes for people to equate the name of Israel in the anticipated way.
The aims of the BBC are the same as hamas and fatah, they are allies in the cause of jew hatred and the longed for anhiliation of the state of Israel.
Some people might be fooled by the lies,some people want to be fooled by the lies,some people need to be fooled by the lies but in the end the truth will win out and the messengers of evil will lose.
Just an add on note to the above post.
The aim of the BBC reports is to reinforce certain prejudices about Jews and the age old perception of Jews, these reports act as a kind of cement and building blocks of a false reality.
The BBC aim is to show that Jews are selfish/unreliable/false/dishonerable/double dealing/cruel/heartless/nasty bullies so report after report adds subtle angles and subtle flavours of the above racial slander to its reports day after day,week after week,month after month,year after year,decade after decade untill the general false perception has been created.
We know whats going on and we know why its happening and we know who is doing it!
The bBC is currently airing a video clip on the Gaza freedom fleet. Part of that video explains that according to the UN gaza doesn’t receive enough food and the people are starving and then they show this clip of a woman/child with a poster demanding food. Have another at that woman/child again. Does she look like she’s missed a few meals.
It seems the bBC are so ingrained in their hatred for Israel they cannot see that the staged protest about a lack of food involves a fat bastard.
The link to that bBC propaganda video.
Jon Donnison is a fool. He is extremely ignorant. Earnestly churning out propaganda.
Elder of Ziyon, Richard Landes and Akus at CiFWatch have the real story.
The BBC is a disgrace.
But is the BBC interested that the U.S. government may deport Mosab Hassan Yousef (ex-Hamas, then Israeli agent) and so send him to his certain death at the hands of the Islamic jihadists of Hamas in Gaza?
And where are Chakrabarti’s ‘Liberty’, and ‘Amnesty’?
In a related report, note how the BBC uses the unquestioned political assertion in its headline (no quote marks) as fact: the phrase, ‘Palestinian collaborators’, not the phrase: ‘resistors to Islamic jihad’:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/10175907.stm
“Sen Lieberman and the DHS hearing for Mosab Hassan Yousef”
http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/27795
The provocation of Israel has taken a deadly turn as the islamist enablers hoped it would, the blockade busting fleet has got the headlines it wanted and now people are dead.
The sinister angle is the involvement of islamist Turkey, its support both direct and indirect is important, the fleet could not have used the port of Famagusta without the permission of the islamist regime in Turkey and I have the sinking feeling that Turkey is trying to stoke up a confrontation with Israel where Turkish naval forces can intervene and hey presto a holy war between the hated Jews and the new islamist regional power.
The dangerous thing about the islamisation of Turkey is that it is a member of NATO and if Turkey can engineer a confontation with Israel it puts NATO members in a difficult postion because the treaty demands that other NATO members must support Turkey, this will lead to a massive fracture in NATO and Turkey can pull out with popular support and then an alliance with their new friends Syria will become the new hostile power in the region.
Islamist Turkey wants to break its ties with Israel and is trying to engineer this break by enlisting populist methods to bring this about, the islamist regime can say to its population that it is defending islam and protecting future convoys with its navy which is more than a match for Israels small navy.
NATO is split and weakened riven with fractures and a trouble making Turkey eager to flex its islamist muscles will cause no end of mischief, what this points to is the growing reality that Turkey is the new islamist military power and where the west could contain the islamist axis with the addition of Turkish military might it is going to be very very difficult to contain this new danger.
Watch for the reaction from Ankara, they are the players to watch and their reaction will dictate the new reality.
I don’t anticipate the BBC will be delving quite that deeply into the reasons and implications of this episode. I fully epect them to keep it to the time-served simplistic narrative – EVIL JEWS!
Shall we put the pieces of the jigsaw together, a puzzle that has escaped the finest brains the wests governments has to offer.
It makes the claim that global warming is the biggest threat to humanity look ridiculous in the extreme doesnt it?
The arrests of Turkish generals on trumped up charges earlier starts to make sense, the islamist regime removed any critics within the military so it could move ahead with its objective of shattering the Israel-Turkey alliance, then the planned provocation and setting up of Israel could proceed.
A weakened NATO embroiled in a unwinnable quagmire and led by weak cowardly and ignorant regimes and leaders like Obama, a euro crisis and a collection of eurotrash scum only too willing to do the dirty on israel in a vain attempt to placate an islamist Turkey. The western leaders gaily waltzing into what could be the opening scenes of the next world war which sees the west broken both financially and morally and economically!
Turkey has a powerful armed forces and its leaders want to use that power for the coming and longed for holy jihad against the infidels. The USA would be very hard pressed to beat Turkey and Iran/Syria combined even if it wanted to/had the will/had the money and courage, the key is Russia and what side they take because if they supply the axis with weaponry ten big trouble lies ahead.
The next step for Turkey will be to use its naval power to proect the next blockade running fleet heading for Gaza, a war ensues and Syria uses the opportunity to attack the Golan heights, bite and hold and once the Golan heights are taken and Israel humbled by losing a naval conflict with Turkey then she is more or less finished.
This aint gonna end well and unfortunately for us we do not have the leaders we need to prevail, in fact we have the worst possible leaders in place!
Well the idiots tried to attack the Israeli soliders with knives and axes when they boarded and ten of them got killed, bless their cotton socks. OF course the BBC is in full anti-Israel spin, around 1% of the following article is devoted to Israel’s persepective in this, the rest of course devoted to quoting whomever wants to call Israelis evil bastards and whitewash the activists as peaceful http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/10195838.stm. And of course, the BBC is accepting comments on this story and we know fine well how they’ll turn out. Prepare for non-stop Israel bashing by the Beeb over the next few weeks.