The only thing that was new in Andrew Marr’s interview appeared to be Obama’s acknowledgment that ‘conditions on the ground have changed’ in the Middle East. People are attributing this to Netanyahu’s response to the ‘1967 lines’ section of Obama’s speech. On BBC news 24 with Zeinab Badawi they infuriatingly cut Netanyahu’s reply. It was essential to listen to Netanyahu’s speech in full to critique his reaction, but as the BBC would rather misunderstand it, why bother?
The West’s desire for a new dawning of an Arab age of enlightenment has triumphed over reality. Effigies draped in the Israeli flag, strange fruit hanging in Tahrir Square, are ignored while the West’s wishful thinking is projected onto the so-called Arab Spring. Echoes of the deluded optimism that led America to project all its desires onto Obama’s vacuous promises of Hope and Change and swept Him to power, startled, on a tidal wave of expectation with only a platitudinous manifesto to sustain him. Obama was bound to disappoint.
As we pull out of Iraq it is generally admitted that we failed to plan for the ‘peace.’ The overthrow of Saddam was the beginning, not the end. Yet we repeat this error having learned nothing.
Obama’s obtuse self-serving interpretation of the Arab revolutions, his deliberately naive pretence that they herald ‘democracy,’ his willful ability to ignore the rise of Islamism and refusal to acknowledge that the single unifying feature of the Arab street is hatred of Israel and Jews, were the discordant notes in Obama’s ambiguous backward-looking speech.
In the Marr interview Obama refers to ‘ rockets fired by Hizbollah’ but completely fails to mention the ideology behind them. Similarly his two ridiculously biased ill-informed guests sagely warned that unless Israel makes more concessions to its deadly enemies there will be dire consequences for the whole world.
On Barry Rubin’s Pyjamas Media summary, commenter ‘Terry’ describes Obama as:
“an adolescent, a sophomore radical imbued with all the Leftist BS slogans, he is immature & his intellectual development stopped long ago, he is intellectually shallow & not particularly well-educated or well-read. He has no understanding of history or economics beyond all the incoherent leftist slogans & the crap he heard from his leftist & Islamist friends & acquaintances, the Rev. Wright comes to mind.”
The BBC is hostile to Israel, openly disrespectful to PM Netanyahu, superficial, lazy, pandering to Islam; in fact the BBC itself fits the above description of Obama perfectly. How else could they get away with promoting Obama’s outrageous plan to wind the clock back 44 years and recreate the conditions that gave Israel’s enemies the confidence to attempt an intended war of annihilation? They make no secret of the fact that this is still their aim. They don’t have to. Even if they shouted it from the rooftops, the world would project their own cuckoo-land interpretation onto the religion of peace, and the BBC is up there aiding and abetting.
There’s no votes in foreign policy. Cameron’s doing exactly the same – in fact, they’re both quite feeble minded and I can’t really see Bibi giving a monkeys. Always liked Netanyahu, not particularly a details man but top notch on strategy.
It was vaguely reassuring for The One to pop the UN but the US still fund it so talk is cheap.
Of course, Islam Not BBC (INBBC)’s Ms Badawi is a Muslim of Sudan origins who can be relied upon to put the Hamas/Fatah case against Israel.
What INBBC avoids:
“What’s Wrong with Obama’s Israel Speech?”http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/35086
I hope I’m allowed to go OT on my own thread, but please see our good friend Daphne Anson’s latest post about a dangerous infection that is spreading throughout the UK. Mild cases cause the sufferer inconvenience but acute cases could be fatal.
I’m talking about the boycott Israel epidemic. If they knew exactly what they were sacrificing…..
Sue, I recently went to the Gadget Show at NEC and saw a 3-D printer on one of the stands. I am truly amazed by this technology; I can’t wait to own one. When I enquired about the company – wishing that it would be an English company – the demonstrator, reluctantly I might add, told me it was an Israeli company. I can’t help but marvel at the ingenuity of such a small country. Long live Israel and its many talents. Sorry that I don’t hold the same sentiments for the islamic world.
1967 borders?
What the BBC are not saying of course is that forcing Israel to accept this humiliation will create a very very dangerous precedent. The waging of aggressive war has always carried a stiff penalty for those who wage these wars and lose.
The Arab war of anhiliation, the waging of a war to obliterate an entire people was a crime by any measure and by any measure the Arabs paid the usual tarrif for their crime. The danger is that those who wage aggressive war against their neighbours will take from this that they can indeed wage these wars and not suffer the dreadful consequences of losing.
Established international custom has it that the criminal regimes who wage these wars must be punished and that means losing territory to the nation attacked, Germany lost territory after the 1st and 2nd world wars and that is how it should be. Imagine Poland handing back land to Germany or the Czechs handing over land, impossible to contemplate isnt it? And so it should be.
If the Arab nations who lost their war of aggression are so caring and if they feel so sad about the plight of the ‘Palestinians’ then why dont they offer their Arab brothers some land? Why dont these losers of the 67 wars offer the ‘Palestinians’ citizenship within their borders?
Peace at any price? There will be no peace, there can be no peace with those sworn to erase brave little Israel from the map. We are watching a great betrayal not seen since Hitler took Czechoslovakia, our scum leaders are betraying the Jews once again and once again they are being handed over to a people that harbour all the hatreds toward the Jews that the Nazis held.
Clinton aide James Rubin pointed out the change in Obama’s language (between the speech and today’s interview) to Andrew Marr – suggesting he’s a shrewder commentator than those employed by the BBC -, though he didn’t ascribe any reason for it. I can’t see any ‘analysis’ on the BBC website, and I’ve not heard any on Radio 4 either, pointing out the “subtle shift” Mr Rubin talks about – or the likely reason for it. (Has anyone heard/seen such an analysis of the Marr interview by any BBC employee?) The BBC’s antennae never seem to twitch when PM Netanyahu (or Israel) achieves any kind of diplomatic success.
He’s a favourite of the Beeboids – and referred to by the more chummy Jamie by them, as you may have noticed.
Shrewd, I don’t doubt he is, though he did have the misfortune to call Obama Osama in the aftermath of the Bin Laden demise. Well, it could happen to anyone…and did on the airwaves at that time.
Millie, it happens to the best of us!:
http://www.atangledweb.org/?p=19217 😀
🙂
The full Obama-Netanyahu statement was put up on the BBC website, perhaps compensating a little for what can be seen as either the News Channel’s characteristic miscalculation (“let’s not miss a single word Obama says but sod anyone else”) or a casual/deliberate anti-Israeli bias (“who wants to hear what Netanyahu says?”).
Newsnight did make a slight amends for months of misinformation last week by broadcasting a scary if somewhat punch-pulling report from Egypt on the anti-Israeli mood there, showing flag-burning protests outside the Israeli embassy and featuring various anti-Israeli ‘talking heads’.
However, the point Sue makes about the BBC misinforming us about the ‘Arab Spring’ is becoming ever more obviously true.
Since the “moderate” Tunisian islamist leader Rachid Ghannouchi was plugged on my (least) favourite BBC programme, Broadcasting House, (the word “moderate” being prominently used) I’ve been following his fortunes and despite voices on the BBC – and, in fairness, much of the MSM – constantly reassuring us that Tunisia wasn’t fertile ground for islamists (even “moderates” like Mr Ghannouchi), it now seems that the islamists of Ennahda might win the forthcoming Tunisian elections. Thanks BBC for warning us about that – not!!
And thanks also for failing to report Mr Ghannouchi’s latest pronouncements which (if we are to believe the sources, including the Ahlul Bayt News Agency), show his “moderate” image to be a sham. It appears he’s gleefully predicting the end of Israel:
Ghannouchi said that the revolution sweeping through the Arab world is a good omen for the Palestinians for it would bring Israel to an end. According to Ghannouchi, Arab regimes that have been supporting the West would all fall, and he quotes the prophecy of Sheikh Ahman Yassin that Israel will fall before 2027.
Reports identify Ghannouchi as a leader of the Islamist movement Al Nahda of Tunisia, in exile. Al Nahda has ties with the international Muslim Brotherhood.
Ghannouchi alleges that the “Jews everywhere are behind a worldwide campaign against Islam” and that Islam and the West could reach an accommodation “were it not for the worldwide machinations of the Jews.”
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=242644
Quite right Craig, and Obama must be aware of this, yet he pretends otherwise, as do our own dear leaders.
Sue,
I am not sure I would credit Dave with such insight !
Are the faithful questioning your judgment for a targeted illegal assassination? Simply shift attwntion to nasty old Israel and they’ll fall back into line. Pathetic, and no Beeboid will call Him on it.
One could see this coming after reading Marr’s own blogpost on his audience with The Obamessiah. Even a seasoned veteran admits to being nervous in His presence. Blegh. And his primary concern was if the President’s answers came off okay.