These are the BIG issues that concern the BBC;
“Israelis have a reputation for straight-talking, a quality that visitors are not always prepared for. But what lies behind it?….”
These are the BIG issues that concern the BBC;
“Israelis have a reputation for straight-talking, a quality that visitors are not always prepared for. But what lies behind it?….”
No doubt BBC hacks elicit much of the bluntness…
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Actually it’s refreshing to have an article from the BBC about Israel and Israelis that reveals something else than what they usually want to portray.
I’m reminded by the article of a Simpsons episode with Sacha Baron Cohen as an Israeli tour guide. In one scene, he presses the Simpsons for positive marks on a comment card. When Marge accuses him of being “pushy,” he snaps back, “Try living next to Syria for two months and see how laid back you are.”
😆
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Can’t complain about this, since the BBC got a useful Jew to do it. The casual xenophobia is perfectly acceptable at the BBC when done with humor. Gosh, what is it with them crazy foreigners, eh?
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‘The casual xenophobia is perfectly acceptable at the BBC when done with humor.’
Pretty ironic that whenever anyone else does it, the BBC rains hellfire down on them.
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It’s always good for a laugh in the multitude of BBC comedy panel shows, so why not?
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Yeah, any BBC reporter up for examining the Arab love of lying and hating?
Might have something to do with the Big Mo, best not go there.
No, I dont have any problem with this BBC piece, a lot of Israelis act like complete arseholes from my experience there, but I’ve no doubt what country I’d prefer to live in if I had to choose somewhere in the Middle East.
Great to see stereotyping on the BBC, it’s like revisiting free England, but appalling double standards.
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‘Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world’
And something verging on anti-Semitism.
Pinning the old label onto them…. rich, successful Jews, add a new one, ‘special trait’ of being rude and obnoxious, and unconcerned with other people’s feelings.
You might be led to think that the Israeli’s treat the Palestinians in a cruel and oppressive manner (as the BBC believe) not because of anything the Palestinians have done…but because it is in the Jew’s nature to be cruel, uncaring and oppressive.
I’m sure that that is not at all what the BBC intend you to take away from this piece.
Shame they couldn’t concentrate on the fact that ‘the country is an economic success story, a powerhouse of technological innovation and a world leader in medical and scientific research.’
As for rudeness being the secret of good business….makes you wonder how the Japanese turned out so successful.
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thanks Alan – yes I don’t even see it as ‘verging on’ but plain straight-forward anti-Semitism. Substitute any other nationality (and there are many) and imagine the article on a BBC web page.
Racism is defined (I understand) if the person to whom it happens perceives it as racist. Well I see this BBC item as anti-Semitic……
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Got to love the bBC:
When Iran says it is going to destroy Israel, that isn’t reported
When Lord Ahmed said he would lead a protest on the H.o.P if Wilders spoke there, the bBC didn’t report it
When Hamas say they are going to destroy Israel, that doesn’t get reported
When the Taliban murder for Allah, that isn’t reported
When Hamas launch missiles into Israel that isn’t reported
When Muslims in the UK speak out against the British way of life, the bBC will claim that they were misunderstood.
But when a Jew says anything, well he’s a bastard for speaking the truth.
The bBC, the traitors within our Midst
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At least we Israelis, don’t behead you for holding a different worldview.
But that’s OK, the al-beeb can still advertise tourism in a country where you could be tossed up in prison and have your passport and human rights abolished for kissing in public.
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Irrespective of the content of the article, I am still struggling to understand why it was published. What has it got to do with anything in the news? It’s a non news-story on a news site, like some sub sub editor had a 1,000 word space to fill. £4bn pa quality journalism.
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I think it’s what’s called a ‘human interest’ story. I enjoyed it. But lumped in with the overall BBC coverage of Israel when people who shoot up Bar Mitzvah’s and children’s parties in Pizza Parlours are treated sympathetically, it can’t help but raise a bit of an eyebrow.
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Do you think Israelis would put up with al-beeb. They’d scrap it in a second! If this site is to prove its worth, perhaps you should right now call for a referendum on the state broadcasting disgrace.
For example — has the bbc reported anything substantial about Mrs Thatcher and her frequent visits to Israel? About her honorary degree from the Technion; about her meetings with every Israeli prime minister and president since she took office; about her own seven Jewish ministers; about her long friendship with the former Chief Rabbi and her respect for self-help and hard work that the Jewish community personified for her.
Don’t you all just love the complete honesty and integrity of al-beeb? So let’s call for that vote now. I’ve already started pestering my MP!
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I thought NewYorkers we like this too. I can’t see anything adverse in this story.
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I’ve no problem with affectionate reviews of cultural differences.
But it rather depends how affectionate, and with what intentions.
Also when, as can happen with certain cultures, details are avoided at all costs, suppressed or plain misrepresented.
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I was tempted to flag this article when it was published, but thought perhaps I was just being over sensitive or mildly paranoid. My experiences of Israel – and I am not Jewish – are that the people are fantastically friendly and go out of their way to help. Exploring Tel Aviv for the first time I would stop for a few seconds to get my bearings; invariably someone would ask if I needed help or could they assist in some way. People in other parts of the country, including the West Bank, were also friendly and helpful. I appreciate this may not be a universal experience and everyone will have their own opinions, but the tone of the article was negative and misleading and of course, that leads to the question: Why? To which I rather suspect we know the answer.
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I don’t suppose this is the start of a new BBC trend? BBC journos visit countries around the world and generalise about national characteristics. Very non PC.
It could make an interesting quiz. Sample questions:
Which nationality reacts violently to even imagined slights?
Which nationality prefers not to work?
Which nationality prefers not to wash?
Actually by BBC standards I felt this article to be even friendly. Usually the Israelis are faceless, emotionless ciphers.
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I have visited the land of the descendants of “pig and apes” (and how polite is that?) twice. Both visits were to attend weddings. I am not a Jew, but my brother is. He converted to Judaism after going to live on a kibbutz in 1964. He married a local girl and has lived there ever since.
There is something very direct about Israeli’s. But then I am so anglicised that anything but the Hugh Grant type of approach to what’s her face ( Ally McDowell?) in Four weddings and a Funeral strikes me as positively brutal.
After the second wedding we (my wife and I) flew from
Tel Aviv to Eilat. At the internal airport in Tel Aviv I went to the gents to use the urinal. Some time into the process of peeing a young lady (I was in my mid – fifties then), in uniform and all of 18 years old walked into the toilet and started looking around. I, somewhat shocked and outraged bleated out “Excuse me, but this is the men’s toilet”. The young lady, without so much as a blind of the eye or the slightest hesitation, looked me up and down and a somewhat dismiss tone of voice replied “security check”. She then proceeded to open all the cubical doors look in before looking me up and down again and with a slight dismissive grin on her face exiting the toilet. To this day my male ego has not recovered from this incident.
They all do military service and if you witness them talking to their own police or military they have no deference or fear. They jail their ‘ex/presidents’ for sexual harassment and corruption. Yer qualities that are so very worrying.
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According to BBC Watch
http://bbcwatch.org/
this item was broadcast on NPR in the States. On i-player with this item Israelis were described as ‘rough and ready’. Travelling on the Tube I see many people who could be described as ‘rough and ready’ (and some other adjectives) but I don’t use them to describe the whole of the UK population.
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So, just like the French then?
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