The Inescapable Shadow of the BBC

I listened to Gavin Esler’s programme, radio 4 ‘Esler on Eichmann’, (a title which elevates ‘Esler’ to one-name status alongside Elvis and Eminem.)
It was about BBC’s favourite Jews, holocaust victims. Accordingly, there was little to complain about in the programme itself, as it consisted mainly of interviews with witnesses of Eichmann’s trial, leaving little time for cynical speculation by BBC sages.
The dodgy bits are in the printed material – the article on the website, and the content of the programme information. The latter bears little relation to the programme that I heard. Glad to see that Esler is ‘award-winning’ though. Well done!

“The kidnapping violated Argentina’s sovereignty and was condemned by the UN. Questions were raised about whether it was appropriate to try Eichmann in Israel, and international Jewish leaders feared an anti-Semitic backlash.”

What a nice touch! I always relish seeing the words ‘violated’ and ‘sovereignty’ in a piece about Israel, especially when followed by ‘condemned by the UN.’ An acute attack of pedantry led me to look up ‘lead’ and ‘led’. Petty, I know.

As for the web article, like familyjaffa in the open thread – I wondered what

“This 50th anniversary is, therefore, also a time of debate within Israel about whether the inescapable shadow of the past also makes it difficult to make peace in the present, and thrive in the future.”

is doing there. It seemed to have no relevance to the actual programme.

As for “thrive” – I regularly receive a newsletter entitled “Good News From Israel” (thanks to the Ordmans) It’s choc full of heartening tales of Israeli successes in technology, business, medicine, science and anything else one could think of, so Israel’s *thriving* in the future is more down to whether blindness, political recklessness and stupidity lets international governments sanction the genocidal behaviour of her neighbours than to any ‘inescapable shadows of the past.’ The same goes for the difficulties of making peace, settlement freeze or no settlement freeze.