Yes, this one did catch my attention and B-BBC Alan lays out the indictment;
“A squirmingly coy Evan Davis attempts ‘clever’ but finishes looking ‘stupid’.
Davis believes this is a ‘cheeky’ question….implying that Toner would not know that the US does veto such resolutions and that the ‘ally’ is of course Israel. The line of questioning has nothing to do with Syria and Russia….but it tells us that Davis thinks Toner is too stupid to know the US uses vetos and that Davis would happily compare Israel with Syria which has happily gunned down peaceful protesters and tortures many of its own people, and that the US is comparable to Russia.
The payoff was of course that it was the US’s position on Israel that caused the violence in Syria….by being a bad example it led allowed Russia to veto the resolution and Syria to continue its violent strategy…if only the US would stop supporting the nasty little Jewish state we could have peace in the Middle East.
So in the end it’s all Israel’s fault really. The democratic Israel which has defended itself against 60 years of Muslim attacks is comparable to a Syrian dictatorship which slaughters its own people. Israel being allowed to fight its corner and defend its borders and its very right to exist is in fact the instigator and leading protagonist of violence in the Middle East that gives cover to other regimes that fight viciously against the will of the people.
Israel is the rotting apple that turns all other nations bad. Israel supplies arms to other equally appalling regimes, it supplies nuclear technology to dangerously unstable countries and trains and equips terrorist organisations whilst the corrupt political class ignores the plight of its own massively poor and illiterate population….oh no that would be Pakistan. But Pakistan is Muslim….so that’s OK.”
Spot on.
Maybe the Russians feel that by agreeing to the UN action on Libya they were conned into regime change which was not supposed to be part of the deal.
In that case the veto is as much about re affirming Russian power as anything else.
You knew Israel would be blamed for Assad’s faults eventually. So according to Davis, the US loses credibility because of support for Israel. But when will the BBC say that other countries lose credibility for supporting Assad or some other violent dictator? Did a Today Beeboid ask if African countries lost credibility when they didn’t want outside intervention against Mugabe?
I think it’s Evan Davis and the BBC who lose credibility when they pull this kind of crap.
Heard the interview and was frankly embarrased listening to our ‘flagship’ current affairs programme attempting to contrive such an unsubtle, transparent, unsophisticated, juvenile, smug, self gratifying narrative, I think even Evan was looking for the least worst exit by the end of it.
Leaving the politics aside, it failed on so many levels, what a waste of an opportunity to probe/explore failed by lazy, smart arsed, amateur, sub Sixth Form level debating!
Evan – you are often very good when being more direct and honest – stop conforming to stereotypes
I find it hard to credit that our normally cynical MSM, and especially the BBC, defers so much to all that carries the prefix ‘UN’. It’s UNique.
There even seems this quaint notion that dicking about there on the Falklands is the way to go, which I suspect they’d still be doing if President Kirchner was personally striding down Stanley’s main strip like Rambo gunning down anyone in sight.
As to whether the people of Homs feel it is an effective peace broker on behalf of indigenous locals unkeen on imposed state takeovers (in Aregentina’s case, again) is… UNlikely.
So Syria becomes Milli Dowlers shroud in the eyes of Evan and his line manager feeders and weavers.
To devote over half your “interview about Syria” towards whether the USA should have ever backed Israel in the past only shows that the BBC don`t care at all about the plight of the “Syrian people”-unless one of their boys gets a few snaps in a local morgue.
Really cynical and nasty product placement by the one man gay plague-so I expect he`ll be moving further up the gravy train at the BBC.
I reckon that the BBC are only primping themselves for the Glorious Day when Ahmedinejadh comes a calling. What then they`ll do with “cheeky Evan” won`t even make Al Jazeeras “and finally” bit!