This R4 programme is unfortunately not available to listen to anymore…
Lawrence of Arabia: The Man and the Myth …but this was one of the BBC’s ‘Trojan Horses’…a programme masquerading as one thing whilst actually being a ‘vehicle’ for something else entirely.
Clearly from the title you get an idea of what to expect…but you’d be wrong……far from being a history of Lawrence of Arabia it was another of the BBC’s warnings, or lessons, from History about the dangers of Imperialism, Colonialism and War…..and in particular the illegitimacy and injustice of the creation of Israel.
As the BBC said… ‘It shines a sharp light on the pre-occupations of our own times…..his (Lawrence’s) post-Imperial vision might have shaped a rather different Middle East today.’
Well that’s pretty much nonsense…as Lawrence was fairly pleased with the post war arrangements….
‘The settlement which Winston (mainly because my advocacy supplied him with all the technical advice and arguments necessary) put through in 1921 and 1922 was, I think, the best possible settlement which Great Britain, alone, could achieve at the time.’
‘As I get further and further away from things the more completely do I feel that our efforts during the war have justified themselves and are proving happier and better than I’d ever hoped.’
Neither of those statements, from letters to trusted friends, reveals a man who thinks that the post war settlement was a terrible outcome for the Middle East.
‘Lawrence mounted a bitter campaign in the British press – which impressed the Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill. Lawrence reluctantly joined a new think- tank whose brief was to carve out a just settlement for the Arabs.
In March 1921, Lawrence travelled to Cairo with Churchill, to create a new settlement. With the Arabs they created a new order. Feisal, recently banished from Syria, received the throne of Iraq and British troops were removed.
Feisal’s brother, Abdullah, received the throne of Transjordan. Lawrence was convinced this settlement gave the Arabs all Britain had ever promised.
Finally, his long war was over. ‘
The BBC’s ‘facts’ which are used to colour this narrative and support its line are also dubious….the programme tells us Lawrence treated officers with contempt, as buffoons….but far from it…he was on very good terms with many officers and maintained good relations with them and senior politicians, such as Churchill, after the war right through till his death.
The programme told us he loved dressing up as an Arab and that he was a showman seeking attention…he would have loved the ‘limelight‘….well his own writing says he only adopted Arab dress in order to fit in….and as for seeking attention he in fact went out of his way to avoid it….refusing to publish his books, refusing to allow a film of the books to be made, refusing to talk to the Press and having himself posted to India whilst in the RAF to avoid more exposure.
The BBC tells us Lawrence initiated a new way of war, that he was a pioneer of fighting behind enemy lines…..the BBC had the grace to mention the Boer Commandos but dismissed them for some reason as not being real guerrilla fighters….never mind Roger’s Rangers, or the native American Indians used by both sides in the American War of Independence as scouts and raiders.…or the Spanish Guerrillas in the Peninsular War (the origin of the word‘ Guerrilla‘)…or….well, you can go back through history to find that guerrilla warfare has been fought as long as there have been wars.
‘Guerrilla warfare can be traced back to Sun Tzu, in his The Art of War (6th century BCE). Some authors argue that his example directly inspired the development of modern guerrilla warfare.’
The programme also says the secret to fighting any war is ‘hearts and minds’…..really? A somewhat over rated belief.…one that is more a sound bite for politicians and media…..the reality is money (and success) talks.…
‘Lawrence wrote of his meeting with Allenby, “He was hardly prepared for anything so odd as myself – a little bare-footed silk-skirted man offering to hobble the enemy by his preaching if given stores and arms and a fund of two hundred thousand sovereigns to convince and control his converts.” ’
The Indians agreed to fight for Britain in the WWII because they were promised independence if they did…..not out of love or sentiment for the Raj….pure self-interest…and why not of course.
That’s all window dressing though…the main aim of the programme was to get onto the structure of the Middle East today…or more specifically the creation, and continued existence of Israel.
The BBC tells us that a map of the Middle East as Lawrence would like to have seen it had been discovered a couple of years ago…the BBC tells us that if only the map had been followed we would have no problems now (erm…no Israel).…unfortunately what the map reveals is that the Middle East is not too dissimilar to that intended.…it also reveals the intention to create several ‘States’ or nations…and not an over arching Arab ‘Empire’.
The map also shows that Lawrence intended these ‘sovereign’ states would still be under British ‘guidance’….and no doubt the map was not a final draft but merely a working suggestion, from the basis of which, the final borders could be eventually drawn.
We were told that ‘Palestine cannot be shared with others…it is for the Arabs.…they are a ‘nation’ ’…and the creation of Israel would have dire consequences.
Sykes -Picot and the Balfour Declaration both get the usual airing.….and the blame for all the ills of the region placed firmly in the Western court…in particular with Britain……but let’s look at the reality…the Middle East has been reasonably peaceful since its post WWI restructuring…..relative to say Africa or even Europe (WWII, Balkans, NI…and the Cold War, exported around the World). Many new states were created that still exist today and have run successfully, however you may define success, under one regime or another.
The BBC have chosen as one of their main contributors Rory Stewart….who is a well known anti-war advocate, and anti Liberal-Interventionist……he is hardly a voice of reason and impartiality when it comes to the Middle East and any agreements ‘imposed’ by Western powers…..He criticises the agreements but the Arabs got a lot of what they wanted….who gets everything?…in particular the creation of Saudi Arabia, the Arab Kingdom….and if not ‘imposed’ and enforced and protected by Western powers what would have happened? Complete chaos and war.
Much of Europe is the creation of redrawn maps after each war….so why does the BBC attack a similar process in the Middle East……or is it just one country in particular…Israel…that creates a ‘problem’?
What is it about Israel that is a problem? Israelis are ‘Semitic’ just as the Arabs are, and have roots in the region that go back thousands of years….Jordan was created out of at least half of ‘Palestine’.…and yet no one raises an objection or voices an opinion that Jordan should be part of a new ‘Palestinian’ state. So why is the creation of Israel such a problem?
It boils down to the Jewishness of the Israelis…..it’s pure, outright ‘racism’ or rather discrimination due to religion….had the Israelis been Muslim like their Jordanian neighbours or their parallel ‘Muslim Zionists’ in Pakistan then I doubt any objections would have been raised at all about the creation of ‘Israel’.
It is simply a hatred of Jews, the usual Muslim ‘apartheid’ attitude to non-Muslims, that is driving the conflict…and it is the BBC which is one of the supporters of this attitude, continually attacking the creation and continued existence of Israel in programmes like this, which does so much to legitimise violence against Israel itself and Jews around the world.
Just another BBC anti-Israel programme trying to slip in under the radar.
Here’s some info which puts to rest Al Beeb’s perpetual whinging and squealing about ‘illegal occupation’ and ‘occupied territories’
http://www.adespicabletruce.org.uk/page75.html
Saying that Jordan was created out of at least half of ‘Palestine’ is being generous. Over 80% of the land of mandated Palestine was turned over to become Trans-Jordan, with a future Jewish homeland expected to co-exist with others in the remaining tiny sliver (and Jews were happy to accept this, whereas the opposition did not). To all intents and purposes – by geography and demographics – Jordan is the Palestinian state. Israel’s natural borders are historically defined in the Bible and by the geography of the region.
Thank you for this excellent analysis.
The BBC ‘s produced documentaries in the mid 2000’s that although purported to be fair anaylys the Middle East situaton were in fact incitements to hatred of the Jewish State in one way or another. For eg in the series Empire Nov 2004 the actual facts on the bombing of the king David hotel were “fairly” represented but the week long trail of the programme and the introduction repeated again and again that “The Jews were the first modern terrrorists of the 20th century”
Another example of a distorted history programme on Radio 2 was when a Professor of History introduced a clarification of the Middle East situation “explaining” that the Jews were the first suicide bombers in Roman times . When I complained I was told that “not enough people would take offence at this” so the BBC was not going to do anything.
It is vital that those that know better like yourself make official complaints as well as getting the message out on this important website.
‘When I complained I was told that “not enough people would take offence at this” so the BBC was not going to do anything.”
If you have that in writing then it will eventually compound to see their demise hastened.
The Savile excuses like this were laid bare and really wounded their smug dismissal defaults, especially by having a mystery number of anything before their selective moral compasses swing into action.
Keep up the pressure.
‘the illegitimacy and injustice of the creation of Israel.
This resonates so much, and especially today, as I watch another bunch of ‘A’-list usual suspects traipse into the same studio with the same backdrop to read the same script about another ‘something must be done’ they have no clue and care less about as they walk out 5 minutes’ later after a great emoting take to camera for the holidays.
That most I saw will be walking straight back onto a set where sex-bondage or beheading is an essential part of the narrative to sell the making of DVD will be an irony too far for minds that are only good for parroting what their minders tell ’em.
Guns… exist.
A-bombs exist.
Israel exists.
Wishing so hard that your forehead throbs that any of these things didn’t so all will be well in the world… is the stuff of which Breakfast TV hosts are made, fed by smarter, more dangerous folk in the production suite, typing out the teleprompter feed.
And it is pervasive.
My 16yo’s are at an all boys independent. Have been now for over a year. Just got their results. We’re now in actual A and A* and even X territory already. Best Xmas present a very much poorer parent can get. Totally worth it.
They are also in the CCF learning skills such as flying. And shooting.
I recently got co-opted onto the parent-teacher committee, which is nearly all Mumsies. No problem with that… more time on their hands.
Just had a ‘share’ about how they will be allowing Tarquin and Henry to have an XBox at last, but only to run ‘nice’ games.
I simply hark back to a kid my two brought back once who had been banned in the same way. When he got going killing Japanese his expression was actually a worry. Now, am I the bad parent for not checking whether he was ‘special’ vs. my two red blooded testosterone buckets? Or were his parents setting him up for a very nasty series of mind-bending reality checks when he leaves their cotton-wool world.
I think one of his life guide partners at least was a TV producer.
‘Guerrilla warfare can be traced back to Sun Tzu, in his The Art of War (6th century BCE).
WTF is BCE ?
Only joking – I’ve seen this dating notation before, especially in academic and educational publications. CE stands for Common Era to avoid offending non- (and anti-) Christians, and right-on writers bandy this notation as a badge of honour.
‘….right-on writers bandy this notation as a badge of honour…’
You are quite correct. It is just like using the metric system in common day speech a la BBC favourite Matt Baker: ‘I’ve just 3 kilometers left before I finish this fun run’.
Or BBC reporters randomly adopting odd supposedly anti-colonial names for certain locations eg. ‘I’m off to Kolkata for the test match’
Lefty badges of honour.
WTF is BCE ?
Before comrade Entwistle.
And I suppose ARSE is After Resignation of Said Entwhistle…
Head Of Loathsome Entity
Surely CE = Christian Era and BCE = Before Christian Era. Anyway, it’s all academic as soon we will have to use the Islamic Hijri calendar so we don’t “cause offence”. It is currently the 15th century – 1434 AH – in the Middle East/Broadcasting House by the way, which some might say explains a lot.
I first came across CE and BCE in Michener’s novel about Jewish history, ‘The Source’ back in the sixties’ – I get the impression it’s used by some Jewish writers who don’t like using BC since Christ is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word for messiah, and AD, as ‘in the year of the lord’ .
I am sure most BBC favoured historians could quite happily live with causing offence to the Jews – other religions….not so much.
Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou : ‘There is no evidence for the existence of King David’ (In conversation with Nicky Campbell this week).
However:
http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-sites-places/jerusalem/did-i-find-king-davids-palace/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2141942/Ancient-relics-definite-sign-Bibles-King-David-theyre-facing-Philistine-city-Goliath-home-.html
‘Ancient relics are the first definite sign of the Bible’s King David (and they’re next door to a Philistine city where Goliath might have made his home…)’
But I suppose when you are employed at Exeter University with that lovely Arab funding and you a favourite BBC talking head with an anti-Israel agenda….well then there’s not much evidence for the existence of King David.
Maybe Douglas Adams ‘B Ark’ had a special B-CE compartment for useless parasites who also tried to impose their daft meddling on everyone and even had its own EU safety and quality-approved sticker?
http://decalsground.com/img_b/vinyl-decal-sticker-1360.jpg
Of course, the political impression of T.E.Lawrence is strongly influenced by the David Lean film ‘Lawrence of Arabia’. The screenplay was written by leftist Robert Bolt, who opposed the British Empire, but wanted an Arab Empire!
Here is an excerpt from an article by historian Jeremy Wilson of
T.E. Lawrence Studies:-
“Lawrence of Arabia or Smith in the Desert?” (2006).
http://www.telstudies.org/discussion/film_tv_radio/lofa_or_sid_4.shtml
thanks for that
One indicator that the BBC are talking about a deceased Guardian reader Leftist is that they adopt a loving and sympathetic tone. If on the other hand they were a well known Conservative supporter the tone is one of discomfort (unless that is they were anti-Thatcher).
A recent example is the treatment of Clive Dunn in comparison with Arthur Lowe.
This even applies to the Far Left (for example the [still living] KGB spy Blake) although Leftist extremists usually have to be middle class to get the dewy eyed treatment.
Maybe Al Beeb will make a film ‘Bowen of Palestine’ with Orla Guering playing the camel.
More misleading BBC crap about Israel – this time regarding the recently announced new settlements.
As usual, the BBC tells half the story i.e. the half that suits their anti-Israel agenda. Either that or they really aren’t the world’s greatest investigative journalists and they failed to unearth a few crucial facts which would have thrown a completely different light on the subject – after all, they were a bit slipshod with the McAlpine story, weren’t they?
http://bbcwatch.org/
Lawrence was an early poster boy for so many things Beeb.
Liked Arab boys, liked to be punished by same…so a few points already.
He was an original member of the Camel Corps..where the Arabs are so romantic, what with their 1001 Nights and that simply charming Koran of theirs.
And -of course-one of the first victims of boy racing without appropriate Health and Safety, in regard of helmets etc…a 20mph limit is now in operation round that crazy bend he took…
Powerful and lucid article.
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