Insomnia prompted me to watch HardTalk at about 4:30am. Stephen Sackur was TalkingHARD to Nasser Judeh, Jordan’s foreign Minister. The whole point of Hard Talk, Mr. Judeh pointed out helpfully, is that the talk is hard. Fair enough.
If Sackur was interviewing a lettuce he’d have to press home forcefully the argument from the slug’s perspective. If God Almighty was in the opposite chair, Sackur would be obliged to be devil’s advocate. Or, if he was interviewing himself, he’d have to demand, from himself, some answers to the excellent points made by B-BBC.
One can only hope that this was the idea behind his questioning of Jordan’s foreign minister.
He accused Jordan of not being tough enough on Israel, not being sufficiently condemnatory of Israel’s behaviour during the flotilla incident, and asked why Jordan wouldn’t do the right thing and talk to Hamas, and why it wasn’t sending more aid to Gaza. He criticised Jordan for not being friendlier towards its own Islamist political parties. Sackur was trying to get the guy to admit, as though it was something to be ashamed of, that Jordan might want to stop radical Islamists securing a bigger grip on the country than they already have.
I mean. Give hm a grilling by all means. But give him OUR grilling, not Osama Bin Laden’s.
Episode not available on the website.
Great post sue, and excellent bottom line!
Excellent, Sue!
Another great Post Sue, you are on top form right now!
One point not examined by Sackur for some reason is just Jordan is hostile regarding hamas and fatah and the Palestinian political groups and clans and gangs and sub gangs and sub clans etc etc just happens to be those groups deliberate inflamation and agitation of Palestinians within Jordan.
The Palestinians within Jordan as elsewhere are trouble makers, they are being controlled at the moment but Jordanians never forgot the uprising against King Hussein. There has been a concerted effort to stir up trouble around the borders of Israel and the ‘refugee’ camps. The islamists wish to create a greater jihad involving all palestinians everywhere, agitation and trouble making within a population already encouraged to feel victimised.
It may well be that hamas are trying to recruit suicide killers in Jordan to attack Israel which will force them to close a freindly border and disatance Jordan from the west.
luckily the Jordanians have a lot of expereince in stamping on Palestinain trouble makers!
Sorry first para a bit jumbled for some strange reason not linked to a glass of cherry brandy I have been enjoying =-O
Cassie,
Cherry Brandy ?? Well, there is an admission. But, it proves someone drinks it. You want to get on to the Irn Bru, mate ! It is especially useful to mix with inferior whiskies, such as Irish, American, Canadian or Japanese.
I dont usually drink, but just occasionally and very rarely, perhaps one a year I like a tipple. Someone bought me a bottle of my favourite drink as a gift for looking after them for a while.
I will enjoy the drink more for it being a gift of thanks than anything else, how silly is that?
Don’t have even one drink in the presence of your children, or the BBC will manufacture another story about it.
I am very grateful for those appreciative comments. Thank you very much.
I suppose Sackur wanted Jordan to be tougher on Israel about getting that land back they lost in ’67? Oh, wait….
Yes, excellent post , Sue. The Beeboids just can’t understand why their Arab brothers just don’t all toe the same line and spend most of their time arguing with each other.
Yip, good catch Sue – even at 4am!
The Irony here is that out of all the countries in the region (other than Israel) Jordon is not only the country formed as the land of the Palestinians but in 1971 it fought a war with the PLO who tried to take it over (you know like how Hamas took over Gaza) thousands were killed and at a critical part of the fighting Syria (yes that Syria Abu Bowen sucks up to) invaded Jordon in support of the PLO. King Hussien asked the American and the Brits for help. However it was the rumor that the jets attacking the Syrians were Israeli which saw the Syrians turn tail.
Maybe there lies a lot of the reasons why Jordon isn’t as friendly towards Palestinians as the bBC would like them. You’d thinl that somebody doing an interview would have brushed up on the subject other than how wide Abu Bowen can spread his arse cheeks.
Turkey and Iran did volt faces on sending ‘peace flotillas’ to Gaza when Israel said they’d consider them to be acts of war. When Israel waves its stick these hyenas go slinking off.
For now the pack of hyenas slinks away but always they watch for weakness, ready and waiting and always watching.
Earlier, on the open thread, I linked to Douglas Murray’s article in the Telegraph about the lesson of the London bombings. I see Robin Shepherd has written about it on his blog today, and about an article in the Guardian of all places, by Mark Curtis. I wonder what the BBC will make of that? They’re bound to see it if it’s in the Grauniad.
It;s everywhere…
CNN has it’s own al-Bowen
CNN’s senior editor of Middle East affairs, Octavia Nasr, posted a message on her Twitter account on Sunday in which she expressed sadness at the death of Ayatollah Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, described by terrorism analysts as the spiritual mentor of Hizbullah.
“Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah’s giants I respect a lot,” Nasr wrote.
Yes, great post Sue. The Hardtalk is now available. But not to me, being outside the UK, because of “rights agreements.” It used to be a simple matter to download it using Real Player but this option is no longer available with the iPlayer. In typical sly, unaccountable fashion, the BBC quietly shelved the Real Player option. They claim to be “aware of the demand for an international version” of iPlayer, but they have been making that claim for a long time now.
Sackur took a similar line a while back when he interviewed Saeb Erekat, I think it was, insisting that Erekat was “selling out” to the Americans and Israelis by negotiating while Hamas was on the sidelines.
Where does Sackur really stand? Is he doing, as you say, an Osama bin Laden or is he simply playing Devil’s Advocate? Knowing the BBC, I’m disinclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.