Jonathan Hoffman and Rabbi Tony Bayfield were asked for their views on an Ipsos Mori poll about whether British Jews were in favour of Motherhood and Apple Pie.
They were.
What was the question Mori asked? Would you prefer Katkins, or this bowl of broken glass?
Nine out of ten cats prefer Katkins.
Evan Davis queried why British Jews who support Israel should be thought of as courageous. With OUR reputation, he winked?
Okay I’ll spell it out. Jews in Britain listen to the BBC, much like everyone else. Horns permitting. They might support Israel, they might have relatives there, and they might go there a lot. But curiously they might rely on Jeremy Bowen to keep them posted on how badly behaved Israelis are.
So, Evan, if they don’t admire Hamas and Hezbollah in quite the way the BBC and the Guardian do, they might need to be plucky.
“A study of more than 4,000 British Jews suggests that although most feel a strong affinity with Israel and strongly support its right to self-defence, a majority believe the country should swap territory for peace, and negotiate with Hamas. Rabbi Jonathan Bayfield and Jonathan Hoffman, vice chairman of the Zionist Federation, debate the importance of British Jews’ sense of identity.”
By the way, Rabbi Bayfield’s name isn’t Jonathan.
Why did the BBC run the story? Are they trying to make it sound as though British Jews want Israel to make yet more unilateral concessions for peace? Talk to Hamas? A missing word is conspicuously absent. Conditional. Good for Jonathan Hoffman for mentioning it.
I commented on this in David’s “Jeremy’s Back” thread, but I think this does deserve a thread of its own. Davis was clearly being selective in his depiction of the results, and not making clear the qualification to the question about whether there should be negotiations with Hamas was inexcusable. The whole tone of the piece showed the BBC’s hand on the issue.
I believe that there is little awareness of the BBC’s Anti-Israel bias among Britain’s Jewry. Being brought up on the BBC being the source of all that’s good and impartial takes quite some getting around.
The BBC, once more, has completely lost The Point – that Jews, whether they are in the UK, the USA, or Israel, are willing to make sacrifices to achieve real peace. This was another excuse for the BBC to tell Israel what to do – “Look Israel, even Jews in the UK think your policies are wrong!”
In the interests of balance the BBC should do a similar analysis, with Arab guests, of the numerous polls carried out amongst Palestinians which show that a majority support suicide bombings and “armed resistance” against the state of Israel.
I got the feeling that Davis would have liked to steer the discussion onto questioning British Jews’ “divided loyalties”. listen to Davis’ introduction.
Thankfully getting the Rabbi’s name wrong took the wind out of his sails.
Davis sounded a total fool.
Meanwhile it appears that the attempts to break the Israeli blockade have failed – with Egypt kicking back against Hamas.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=181032
John,
Of course, the BBC hate Egypt’s relatively responsible approach to this whole matter.
I’ve been saying this for a while now, and it’s being proven every day. Defenders of the indefensible (or anyone who has come here bitching about “Israel Firsters” ) have been saying forever that it’s totally wrong to associate condemnation of Israel with anti-Semitism. I’ve long said what the BBC does goes far beyond criticism and into demonization, which encourages anti-Jewish sentiment in the public.
Of all people in the world, only Jews are made to suffer consequences for anger against a country run by people of the same religion. Supporting Israel is now becoming a valid reason for punishing Jews. People like Evan Davis will say that punishing Jews for supporting Israel has nothing to do with their being Jewish, but he would be wrong.
The BBC has been silent about violence against Jews in France and the Netherlands. The BBC has also censored any news of Jews being forced to leave Malmö (with the mayor explaining the justification for it). Is the BBC now encouraging violence against Jews in Britian?
How do British Muslims balance their loyalty to Islam and all Muslims everywhere with their attitdues towards particular policies towards the governments of Muslim countries or Muslim organizations such as Hamas?
Well, quite a few UK Muslims have murdered a bunch of innocent UK citizens, and quite a few more of them have tried to kill more of you. How about the Jews? BBC? Hello?
Jonathan Hoffman corrected Davis and made it very clear that the question about talking to Hamas clearly included the condition that British Jews felt that Israel should talk to Hamas IF “it would advance the cause of piece” (about 40 seconds in), which is exactly Israel’s stated policy, as is a “two state solution”. Basically the report shows that generally British Jews support Israeli policy – quite the opposite of how the BBC are trying to spin it.
Undetered the BBC now has this online:
UK Jews ‘back Israel two-state solution’
A majority of British Jews believe Israel should swap territory for peace, and negotiate with Hamas, a survey suggests.
Some 72% agreed Israel’s action in Gaza in 2008 and 2009 was “a legitimate act of self-defence”.
But 77% favoured a “two-state solution”, creating a Palestinian state, as the “only way” to make peace.
(Why the “But”?)
Just over half, 52%, said they would support Israeli government negotiations with Hamas.
BUT NOT UNCONDITIONALLY BBC!
Bio,
I have noticed that the word BUT has a special function in all BBC reports. Look out for it! It’s always in there somewhere, and sometimes it alters the emphasis of the whole piece.
Here’s the part of the survey regarding Hamas, from the JPR’s own report:
Negotiate with Hamas?
Just over half (52%) of the sample agrees or strongly agrees that “The government of Israel should negotiate with Hamas in its efforts to achieve peace.” However, as Figure 32 shows, 39% disagree, and 9% have no opinion. Furthermore, of those who agree, only one-third “Strongly agrees” which suggests that even among those in favour of negotiations with Hamas, a certain degree of caution is being expressed.
“Secular” respondents are more likely than “religious” respondents to agree that Israel should negotiate with Hamas (see Figure 33). 35% of “Religious” respondents agree with the statement, whilst 67% of “Secular” respondents agree, almost twice the proportion of the religious group. Self-described “Zionist” respondents are far less likely than “non-Zionists” to agree that Israel should negotiate with Hamas (42% compared with 81% respectively) (Figure 34). Further, respondents with higher level qualifications are more likely to agree (61%) that Israel should negotiate with Hamas than those with up to A-Level qualifications (45%).