More one way reporting of the Hate Flotilla by the BBC. I listened to Sarah Colborne from the Palestinian Solidarity Movement being interviewed on Today @ 7.50am. She spewed forth a series of allegations about the IDF boarding the Mavi Marmara, denied any knowledge of those on board that vessel seeking martyrdom (even though the families of at least two of the dead have confirmed this), stated that the Israelis opened up without provocation, and claimed all on board were peace-loving humanitarians. Now, this is all standard fare from Palestinian propagandists, but why did the BBC not try to provide balance by interviewing perhaps one of those Israeli soldiers who came under such vicious attack from the Islamic thugs on board the vessel?
ALL AT SEA….
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Curiouser and curiouser -five of the dead remain unidentified. Could they be al-Qaeda mercenaries whose bodies nobody is in a rush to claim ? The Israelis say they were confronted with experienced fighters on board the Mavi Marmara who had bullet-proof vests and night vision googles. There were large quantities of cash, too. All essential to the average peacenik, of course.
I listened with interest at the demolition of the young useful idiot Sarah by Monatgue who was sympathetic yet managed to destroy the UI collaborator entirely.
Yes there was no balancing guest and yes the claims flew in the face of the evidence BUT Montague did a reasonable job(7 out of 10) IMHO of teasing out the inconsistencies of the UIs story.
The censored pictures of the IDF soldier being stabbed repeatedly yet not firing back would stand as testement to the bravery of the commandos, who among us would show such restraint after being punched into a corner and stabbed?
The UIs pathetic excuse that nobody told her that the IDF intended to board(did she expect a cabin call?)is beyond funny, maybe she was expecting a tannoy message? more likely she knew full well but as we heard she resorted to the fanatics default position, she lied through her teeth rather than admit wrongdoing. Funnily enough this tactic of lying to cover up culpability is a strong trait of islamists in general, the useful idiots taking on the character of their masters.
The UI came across as a childish and foolish immature spoilt brat, the kind that the middle classes produce in great numbers, possibly still upset that her friend got a pony for christmas when she was five or daddy didnt love her or loved het too much?
On balance a gentle method of presenting her with the truth was the correct way maybe?
The BBC WHYS is always putting up topics about “Is Israel to blame” “Has Israel gone too far” “Has Israel lost friends” “Should Israel be ashamed”
You never see anything along the lines of “Should the Palestinians and their supporters feel ashamed”
Of course, any attempt to point this out is quickly blocked by the little Hitler mods for “breaking the house rules”
BBC will hate this item, almost as much as Beeboids hate Israel:
“Why the U.S. must stand by Israel”
(Glenn Beck, FOX News)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,593965,00.html
Glenn Beck (FOX News), a video on this (unlike political line of BBC)
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4223909/the-one-thing-62
People are blinded to the obvious truth by the intensity of their misguided compassion. Sarah Colborne’s emotional outpourings are the result of the BBC’s sixty year promotion of pro Palestinian propaganda, with an inevitable outcome. Whipping up passion amongst the gullible and ill-informed.
Directionless people looking for a cause, on stilts.
” ‘Unprovoked’ attack on Gaza bound ship.”
Does it occur to Sarah Montague that the BBC bears some responsibility for this madness?
She was okay, but there were a few more discrepancies she could have gently pointed out.
When will we see the hostile interrogative attack style they use against Israelis applied to ‘activists?’ (Not trembly dimwits like Ms Colborne, she’d shrivel away and everyone would feel sorry for her)
If Jeremy Paxman set out to give a peace activist or a Hamas supporter one of his withering looks I might start to appreciate him.
The BBC are curently deciding whether to put this on The Now Show or the News Quiz, or perhaps Rory Bremner might like it over at Channel 4?
A little balance:
IDF: Mercenaries to blame for violence
The IDF has identified one of the passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara , which navy commandos commandeered earlier this week, as the ringleader of a group of mercenaries who were recruited from a city in northwest Turkey, according to new details from the military’s ongoing investigation of the Gaza flotilla.
The IDF identified a group of about 50 men – of the 700 on board – who were well-trained and were stationed throughout the ship, mostly on the upper deck, where they laid an ambush for the IDF soldiers who rappelled onto the deck from helicopters.
The members of this violent group were not carrying identity cards or passports. Instead, each of them had an envelope in his pocket with about $10,000 in cash. The defense establishment suspects the funding for the mercenaries may have come from elements within the Turkish government.
[…]
Clues undermine ‘Mavi Marma’ innocence
There is evidence pointing to the fact that firearms were thrown overboard by passengers of the Mavi Marmara. Investigators found gun-sights and cartridge-magazines not fitting IDF weapons in a search of the ship, Israel Radio quoted IDF sources reporting Friday morning.
Coded messages apparently referring to scenarios of soldier-kidnapping and of soldier fatalities were also found on board the ship.
[…]
St.-Sgt. S: We had no choice
When St.-Sgt. S. fast-roped down from an air force Black Hawk helicopter onto the Mavi Marmara Turkish passenger ship on Monday morning, he did not expect to be landing in what he called “a battlefield” and facing off against a group of “murderous mercenaries.”
The 15th and last naval commando from Flotilla 13 (the Shayetet) to rappel down onto the ship from the helicopter, S. said on Thursday that he was immediately attacked by what the IDF has called “the mob of mercenaries” aboard the vessel, just like the soldiers who had boarded just before him.
Looking to his side, he saw three of his commanders lying wounded – one with a gunshot wound to the stomach and another with a gunshot wound to the knee. A third was lying unconscious; his skull was fractured by a devastating blow with a metal bar.
As the next in the chain of command, S., who has been in the Shayetet for three and a half years, immediately took charge.
He pushed the wounded soldiers up against the wall of the upper deck and created a perimeter of soldiers around them to begin treating their wounds, he said. He then arranged his men to form a second perimeter, and pulled out his 9 mm. Glock pistol to stave off the charging attackers and to protect his wounded comrades.
The attackers had already seized two pistols from the commandos, and fired repeatedly at them. Facing more than a dozen of the mercenaries, and convinced their lives were in danger, he and his colleagues opened fire, he said. S. singlehandedly killed six men. His colleagues killed another three.
[…]
The BBC and half the story!
Now that is someting the BBC will never show or allow on air, the BBC could not bring itself to report that.
The BBC trust isnt going to make it and they are supposed to be the ultimate overseeing body, the fact is that it would utterly derail the ‘Israel is guilty’ narrative so no IDF commandos will ever be interviewed by the BBC.
I have posted elsewhere that this operation could not have taken place without the complicity of the Turkish government. No doubt all will be exposed by the “independent” enquiry. Ha ! Ha ! Ha !
More from “Not The BBC News”:
Hamas raids, closes NGO offices
Hamas’s security forces on Monday and Tuesday raided the offices of several non-governmental organizations in the Gaza Strip and confiscated equipment and furniture, drawing sharp condemnations from human rights groups.
The sources said the raids were carried out by agents belonging to Hamas’s Internal Security apparatus without court permission.
Hamas spokesmen in the Gaza Strip on Thursday refused to comment on the raids.
After conducting a thorough search of the offices of the organizations, the Hamas security agents confiscated files, documents, computers, fax machines and other equipment.
The agents also informed the managers and workers of the organizations of the Hamas government’s decision to close them down indefinitely.
The Gaza-based Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights expressed outrage over the raids and called on the Hamas government to open an investigation.
“Al-Mezan condemns these assaults against NGOs and views them with much concern,” the center said. “Al-Mezan calls on the Gaza government to initiate an investigation into these acts, ensure full respect of the law, and protect the right of NGOs to work freely.”
According to affidavits given to Al-Mezan by workers at the NGOs, on Monday morning Hamas security agents stormed the NGOs offices in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.
The NGOs raid on Monday were: Sharik Youth Institution, Bonat Al-Mustaqbal (Future Builders) Society, the South Society for Women’s Health, and the Women and Children Society.
Whats the odds that this snippet never makes it past the BBC auditors?
That’s what happens when you don’t pay your “protection” money !
Offspring of bin Laden mentor were on ‘Mavi Marmari’
Among the activists who were onboard the Gaza aid ships were the grandson and son-in-law of Sheikh Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, a Palestinian teacher and mentor of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, Palestinian sources revealed on Thursday.
The 19-year-old grandson, Muhammad, was accompanied by his father, Abdullah Anas, who is married to the sheikh’s daughter, Summaya, the sources said.
Another grandson, Ahmed, 17, is planning to join the next aid convoy to the Gaza Strip.
Azzam, who was born in a small village near Jenin in 1941, traveled throughout the Middle East, Europe and North America in the 1980s to raise money and preach about jihad.
In one speech in Brooklyn, Azzam urged his followers to wage jihad in the US. He explained that jihad “means fighting only, fighting with the sword.”
When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Azzam issued a fatwa declaring that both the Palestinian and Afghan struggles were jihads in which killing occupiers of one’s land was fard ayn [a personal obligation] for all Muslims.
He later convinced his friend and long-time associate, bin Laden, to come to Afghanistan and join the jihad.
Azzam’s trademark slogan was “Jihad and the rifle alone: no negotiations, no conferences and no dialogues.” He was killed by a bomb blast in his car in , Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1989.
His daughter, who lives in London, said she was proud to be raising her children in the path of their grandfather.
She said she had been following news of the aid ships from the day they began their journey to the Gaza Strip. She said she was in direct and constant contact with her son and husband from the moment they left home to join the convoy.
She plans to send her younger son, Ahmed, on the next flotilla.
She said that her husband phoned her on Monday evening from the the Mavi Marmari Turkish passenger ship to inform her that he and Muhammad had not been hurt in the confrontation between IDF soldiers and some of the activists.
“I felt very calm after the phone conversation,” the mother was quoted by the Safa news agency as saying. “I had expected my husband and son to be either martyred or wounded.”
Summaya added: I was prepared to “sacrifice myself and my five sons as martyrs for the sake of Allah. This is not much and we will give until the last drop of blood.”
Summaya said that her father, who is believed to have had huge impact on fundamentalist Islamic groups such as al-Qaida and Islamic Jihad, wanted his children and grandchildren to be raised on the teachings of Islam and jihad.
Summaya was prepared to “sacrifice” herself by not going on the ship, but happy to send her sons. What a bitch !
Bio,
if any of it ever gets anywhere near the BBC, they’d have to add on a big fat “Israel Says.”
But not to worry. They might not think it’s newsworthy.
But Sue, all of that is from the Jerusalem Post!
The BBC must know about it but they choose to ignore it – bias by omission of the worst possible kind.
The useful Jews at the Jerusalem office have been pretty silent on the facts coming out of this story. Meanwhile, Jonathan Head keeps saying that the video footage that Israel has provided so far is too edited to trust and is merely propaganda.
The stunned silence during last night’s QT when MacKenzie read out a list of actual facts (and after Diane Abbot told vicious lies) shows how misinformed BBC viewers are about this issue.
Bio,
Okay. “The Jerusalem Post says,” then.
Same difference. We know they know, and if they’re eventually forced to acknowledge that they know – they attach the little doubting sneer. Simples.
Yep :'(
It’s not just the BBC.
All the US broadcast networks are left-wing in their bias. Most US news rooms (print and TV) are 90%+ Democrat and semi-“socialist” in the soft tyranny of the EU style Nanny State variety.
Here’s an interesting anonymous post by a news anchor.
Anchor accuses own network of ‘embarrassing’ bias in Israel coverage
Here’s the memo that I want to send but – under great duress – can’t.
Dear XXXX,
I’m writing for some clarification about how we are supposed to cover the Gaza flotilla story. If we, as a news organization, are supposed to be acting as a public relations arm of Hamas, or Hezbollah, both internationally recognized terrorist organizations, or if we are supposed to be jumping on the bandwagon of 1930’s style anti-Semitism that’s presently sweeping much of the world, then we are doing a fine job. If we are supposed to be acting as a news organization that covers the story objectively, then our coverage is a travesty and an embarrassment.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2010/06/02/anchor-accuses-own-network-of-embarrassing-bias-in-israel-coverage/#ixzz0ptP4mhSr
Apart from the Arab press, which is to be expected, the Spanish media must be the worst. See my comment here.
Jack,
re your Anchor, pity he decided not to send it though.
Someone asked me if they should wade in against a ridiculous Facebook campaign to boycott a competition involving a performance of music by Ernest Bloch. ‘Because they support Palestine!’ Would you adam ‘n’ eve it?
Keep out of it, was my sage advice. For now. Maybe, quite soon, sticking ones head above the parapet will be imperative.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens later today or early tomorrow, when the Good Ship St. Pancake, brim full of Irish leftie moonbats, arrives off Gaza.
I say give ’em no quarter – if they start any of the same nonsense as the Turks, give ’em a bath 😀 Arrrrgh!
Yes the Irish Flotilla is due to make landfall in Gozo 9.37am.
Pssst, don’t tell them.
Sorry for the sterotype, to me Paddy mates.
Nice one !
For BBC, and all its pro-TURKEY reporting.
Con Coughlin, ‘Telegraph’:
“Turkey’s role in the Gaza flotilla affair should worry us all in the West”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/defence/7802401/Turkeys-role-in-the-Gaza-flotilla-affair-should-worry-us-all-in-the-West.html
You’ll have seen this, George R, it’s featured on New English Review. I linked to it on another thread.
Yes, Sue. It’s fascinating to witness the political myopia of the BBC and much of MSM on role of Turkey in all this.
Turkey gets a political pass from the West’s political ‘elite’, and Turkey, for example, is given a relatively easy ride on its invasion and occupation of Cyprus (now coming up to 36 years on).
‘Jihadwatch’ (July, 2009):
[opening extract]:
“This week marks thirty-five years of the Turkish occupation and ethnic cleansing of northern Cyprus. People have been driven out of their homes, churches have been converted into mosques, and the thriving resort of Famagusta transformed into a ghost town. Nobody cares.
“Instead, the trumped-up plight of the ‘Palestinians,’ an invented nationality committed to the eradication of a sovereign state in the name of Islamic jihad, occupies the world’s attention.”
Why doesn’t anyone talk about the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus?
Churches into mosques? They started with the Incredible church in Byzantium now called Istanbul(the city) they have a habit of stealing things from the west, most of their ideas in the so called golden age of islam were stolen from the great libraries of the byzantine empire and passed off as their own(eagerly helped by wesern dhimmis).
Many churches in the west face the same fate and if we allow it to happen then one day St Pauls will have minerets attached.
I was in Northern Cyprus twice in the 1980s for work, in Nicosia and Kyrenia.
Apart from the ethnic cleansing of the Greek Cypriots I was impressed by the fact that all of the Turkish Cypriots I met there said they were happier and better off before the invasion and would be happy for the Turks to leave.
Pretty much like the majority of Gazans, if they were free to speak their minds, would prefer to have had Israel remain in Gaza – at least they had work then.
Bio,
No you weren’t, you were in Lefkosa and Girne 😉
Bio,
PS if the Turks had not intervened there wouldn’t have been any Turkish Cypriots left for you to talk to in the 1980s.
“Had Turkey not intervened….. I would have annihilated the Turks in Cyprus ”
Nikos Sampson ” Eleftherotipia” 26. 2. 81
Sampson was President of Cyprus at the time of the 1974 operation and made many speeches at the time urging the extermination of the Turks.
I was on the island until a few days before the operation and saw many corpses in the Turkish villages including children who the Greeks had crucified.
Two sides to every story.
Yes indeed.
I stayed in the Saray Hotel where at that time many of the floors were closed because of the damage caused by the Turkish invaders.
The hotel manager took me to see the rooms pock-marked with bullet holes.
The Israel haters in the BBC and other media won’t be happy until an Iranian mushroom cloud hangs over Israel! I can’t tell you how much I despise these people.
Yes the BBC will be strewn with empty champagne bottles that day.
More from those humanitarians aboard the “Peace Flotilla”:
Melanie Phillips:
“So much for the ‘humanitarian’ fig-leaf”
[Concluding extract]:
“On BBC1 this Sunday The Big Questions—a show about religious themes (sic) – is asking ‘Is Israel Acting Immorally?’
No prizes for guessing what answer the BBC would give. But the BBC is not alone. To repeat once again – the British government, in demanding an end to Israel’s ‘blockade’ of Gaza which is solely directed at preventing the import of weapons to wage war against Israel, is tacitly supporting the arming of Hamas to wage that war. Cameron and Clegg should be held to account for this at all opportunities.”
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6058450/so-much-for-the-humanitarian-figleaf.thtml
FLOTILLA CHOIR: ‘We con the world”
(5 min. musical video)
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6056375/flotilla-choir-we-con-the-world.thtml