‘BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen has admitted in ananalysis article for the BBC News website that the recent strain in relationsbetween Israel and the US has been ‘enjoyable’.
In ‘Analysis: Bleak climate for Mid-East talks,’published on Sunday 9 May, the head of Middle East coverage at the BBC examinedthe background to the recent resumption of (indirect) talks between Israel andthe Palestinians. In an undeniably candid move, Bowen wrote the following:
‘It has been an unusual and enjoyable new experience tobe able to look on as the Israelis argued with their most important ally. Thefact that the dispute is over Jewish settlements is even better for thePalestinian.
His choice of words here reveals a strong personal senseof satisfaction at Israel’s diplomatic difficulties, not in line with the BBCeditorial policy’
There is more in the linked article including JeremyBowen’s lamentable attempt at an explanation.
‘Jeremy Bowen responded to our report via email, sayingthat there was a ‘glitch in [his] editing process’ and that when calling achill in U.S.-Israelirelations ‘enjoyable’ he had meant to attribute this viewto the Palestinians. The article was subsequently amended on the BBC Newswebsite but no acknowledgement of an error was made.’
The new and unconvincing version:
‘It has been an unusual and enjoyable new experience forPalestinians to be able to look on as Israel argued with its most importantally. The fact that the dispute is over Jewish settlements has been even betterfor them.
It was Bowen who claimed in 2009 ‘that Israeli actionswere ‘disproportionate, murderous and probably war crimes.’
Nothing like being judge and jury.
Great catch, whoever spotted it. This should be added to the sidebar and sent to Drudge, the Telegraph, the Mail, and the Israeli embassy in London.
I got a distinct sense of deja vu on reading DV’s post. I feel sure that was covered here previously.
So do I.
Bowen did say that a while back I think. Anyway I get great enjoyment every time I see that video of his boyfriend getting slotted by the IDF, I can’t stop laughing.
There’s a video?????
Can you provide a link? I’m not being perverse. Bowen’s claim that the IDF deliberately targeted a civilian sitting quietly in a car is probably the basis of his active hostility to Israel. I’d like to see some evidence.
Don’t know if there’s one on Youtube but Bowen has shown it on the BBC before (or just after)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/760439.stm
Interesting.
This is the first time I’ve heard the claim that the shell might have come from the South Lebanese Army. Bowen in the prologue to his book War Stories assumes it was Israeli and provides some circumstantial evidence.
Martin,
it’s comments like yours that make it even harder to push back against al beebs bias. You male us look like left wing haters.
Mailman
Well I do hate the left, I hate Bowen and I hate the BBC. His endless anti Jew bile is sickening. If leftie scumbags don’t like it then tough. you will never get a leftie to change their minds, they are so thick most of them don’t know they’re alive.
The fact is Bowen was in tears about his sodding driver, yet he doesn’t give a shit when Jews are killed, he just makes excuses.
Mailman — I loathe the “left” – whatever the “left” even means these days.
Marxists, trots, Socialist Workers, Socialists, liberals, Labour — they’re all merely stops on the road to tyranny.
At the moment we live under a soft tyranny — that is statist, big government, nanny state — with the state Matron (the BBC) to keep us all sedated.
Whatever, it really is a zero sum game. The more authority they steal, the less liberty for the individual.
That’s why I’m proud to say to FRACKIN’ DESPISE leftist thievery.
I’ll go along with Martin and Jack on this one.
I understand your point, spewing the language of hate just gives the impression one would like to see a right-wing bias at the BBC instead of a left-wing one.
Whatever happened in the past, and it sounds more than terrible, the cruel fact is that Mr. Bowen is hopelessly compromised, as his subsequent words and deeds demonstrate.
In any other highly sensitive profession, requiring objectivity and detachment, a personal so personally invested would be immediately transferred elsewhere.
That he is point man still in the most volatile news balance bereft region around speaks volumes as to the competence of the market rate talents licence fee payers are compelled by law to fund.
Jack,
You missed out the “Cleggeron” so called government we currently have.
DB — sorry to say I have to agree.
It’s HEATHISM all over again. Corporatist, crony capitalism where you get the likes of BP run like an appendage of the government. ANY government.
” The unacceptable face of capitalism ” !
Former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar: If Israel Goes Down, We All Go Down
We cannot forget that Israel is the West’s best ally in a turbulent region.
From The Times:
For far too long now it has been unfashionable in Europe to speak up for Israel. In the wake of the recent incident on board a ship full of anti-Israeli activists in the Mediterranean, it is hard to think of a more unpopular cause to champion.
In an ideal world, the assault by Israeli commandos on the Mavi Marmara would not have ended up with nine dead and a score wounded. In an ideal world, the soldiers would have been peacefully welcomed on to the ship. In an ideal world, no state, let alone a recent ally of Israel such as Turkey, would have sponsored and organised a flotilla whose sole purpose was to create an impossible situation for Israel: making it choose between giving up its security policy and the naval blockade, or risking the wrath of the world.
In our dealings with Israel, we must blow away the red mists of anger that too often cloud our judgment. A reasonable and balanced approach should encapsulate the following realities: first, the state of Israel was created by a decision of the UN. Its legitimacy, therefore, should not be in question. Israel is a nation with deeply rooted democratic institutions. It is a dynamic and open society that has repeatedly excelled in culture, science and technology.
Second, owing to its roots, history, and values, Israel is a fully fledged Western nation. Indeed, it is a normal Western nation, but one confronted by abnormal circumstances.
Uniquely in the West, it is the only democracy whose very existence has been questioned since its inception. In the first instance, it was attacked by its neighbours using the conventional weapons of war. Then it faced terrorism culminating in wave after wave of suicide attacks. Now, at the behest of radical Islamists and their sympathisers, it faces a campaign of delegitimisation through international law and diplomacy.
Sixty-two years after its creation, Israel is still fighting for its very survival. Punished with missiles raining from north and south, threatened with destruction by an Iran aiming to acquire nuclear weapons and pressed upon by friend and foe, Israel, it seems, is never to have a moment’s peace.
http://eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com/2010/06/former-spanish-prime-minister-jose.html
and
http://tundratabloid.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-spaniard-gets-it.html
There is some sense still left in the West. José María Aznar is forming a group of people, included among them John Bolton, to take on the enemies of Freedom and Liberty – that is how I see the Leftists- as facilitators of evil.
I wonder if any former British Prime Ministers will join the group ?