Sorry for bringing up this topic again. I don’t care for daytime TV, but a couple of weeks ago I heard that one of the topics on The Big Questions was to be about the morality of Israel, so I switched on. Unfortunately something went wrong with the transmission near the beginning, and the rest of the episode, including the Israel topic, was abandoned.
As today’s B.Q. concerned Islam’s PR campaign, and curiosity led me to the programme’s online messageboard. I was interested to see that several of the comments concerning the missing B.Q. blamed a conspiracy. Zionists, they said, had scuppered it. There was some discussion about whether the debate that did take place could be uploaded onto i-player, but computer said no.
It could be that Israel’s case was heard at last. I gather from Jonathan Hoffman’s comment that it was a good debate. We’ll never know.
Over the last few decades the BBC has managed to turn Israel’s wrongness into a certainty. It’s established as a a given.
Therefore, unless it includes a caveat in acknowledgement of that certainty, every fact containing a whiff or a hint of evidence to the contrary is inadmissible. In the absence of a nod in the direction of Israel’s innate wrongness, every teeny fact-ette will be discounted as Zionist propaganda.
Similarly, in political and journalistic circles, the ‘two state solution’ has turned into a bizarre cliché. ‘Two States’ is now established as a *solution* as though it’s the definitive answer to a mathematical problem. But how is two states the solution? What will it solve?
The idea that giving the Palestinians what they want will solve everything is very nice and tidy in theory. But is that what they really, really want? zigazig-ha?
Hamas and other Islamist organisations say they want the removal of Israel altogether, and the annihilation of Jews everywhere. Would that be a satisfactory solution? Would that constitute full and final settlement?
Many very aggressive and angry people clearly want much more than that. Obviously not the P.R. Muslims on B.Q.; or the nice Muslims, or the real Muslims, or the Muslims that don’t live in the massive ‘Muslim lands’ surrounding Israel.
So let’s call a spade a spade. I suggest that the two state solution is renamed the two state experiment or the two state trial, like a medical trial, where they test the side-effects of a new medicine, and try to find out whether it cures the patient, or kills him.
And further, I suggest that whenever this trial or experiment is mentioned on the BBC, it isn’t always in the context of the certainty of Israel’s innate wrongness.
It’s telling that the far left S.W.P. “Trot” Andy Newman, routinely advertises this programme on his own blog these days, as a matter of far left ideology.
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=6192
I suggest that the two state solution is renamed the two state experiment or the two state trial, like a medical trial, where they test the side-effects of a new medicine, and try to find out whether it cures the patient, or kills him.
Great idea Sue!
But I see the “two state ‘solution'” as not far removed from the “one state solution”, ie: the disappearance of Israel.
The Palestinians, even the so-called “moderates” of Fatah have made it clear that they don’t accept the existence Israel as a Jewish State.
Did I link to this the other day? (The double-speak of Abbas.)
I can’t remember if I linked to this charming clip. Particularly annoying is the presenter’s sniggering when our friend yasser Qashlaq says Gilad Shalit should go back to France.
it’s been a very busy weekend over there in the Levent but for some strange reason the bBC hasn’t bothered reporting the following;
1)The UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Sunday called on bickering Palestinian factions to resolve a deepening electricity “crisis” in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip…The territory’s sole power plant, which provides 25 per cent of its electricity, was forced to shut down over the weekend as a result of a payment dispute between Hamas and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
2)Egyptian tribesmen attack Gaza aid convoy
3)Palestinian refugees gathered yesterday outside UN headquarters in Beirut to demand basic civil rights in Lebanon, such as a choice of jobs and ownership of property.
4)Hamas police seize thousands from Gaza bank
5)Iran blames Egypt for barring Gaza aid ship
Nothing as far as I could see either about a massive rally held by Iranian exiles in Paris:
Thousands of Iranian Government Opponents Hold Rally Outside Paris
At least 30,000 opponents to the Iranian government gathered on Saturday in a stadium in this quiet town outside Paris to support the National Council of Resistance to Iran in a large rally coming a year after disputed elections in Iran.
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Amid high security, and with the presence of some well-known conservative political figures like the former Spanish prime minister, Maria Aznar, and the former American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, the crowd heard speeches condemning the Iranian regime of the ayatollahs and of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
[…]
The rally, with supporters dressed in lavender and yellow, was in support of the council leader, Maryam Rajavi, who calls herself the president-elect of the Iranian resistance and lives in exile in France. Her husband, Massoud Rajavi, has not been made any public appearances since 2003.
She called for mobilization of resistance inside and outside of Iran, saying: “No to turbaned fascism, no to stoning, to executions and amputations, no to the obligatory veil, to obligatory religion, to imposed government.” Supporter shouted, “Azadi,” or liberty. She called on governments to stop buying oil and gas from Iran, welcomed sanctions resolutions passed by the United States Congress and said that Iranian leaders should be tried for crimes against the Iranian people.
Mr. Aznar said: “I support your fight for liberty and democracy. The Iranian people have suffered enough. They demand and deserve a better government, which respects the dignity of people and assures fundamental liberties.”
Mr. Bolton said that “the Iranian regime has become a military dictatorship, fascist and repressive. But the repression that followed the fraudulent elections of 2009 has shown to what point the regime is criminal and the opposition powerful.”
They have had a two-state solution since 1946 when Churchill gave the Muslims 80% of the British Mandate of Palestine east of the Jordan river. It’s called Jordan by the way. Somehow that doesn’t seem to be what they want!