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Gaza Groaning With Goodies. Israel Still Guilty

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You know when there’s a well-established mantra that’s invariably used to batter one’s adversary over the head with?
A notion that’s repeated over and over till thoroughly incorporated into the narrative, to be produced reflexively each time a certain something sets it off?

Well, when that thing is suddenly exposed as a bit of a myth, but the adversary doesn’t wish to concede or make friends, so they continue beating you with a new stick as though nothing has changed?

I’m talking, of course, about the accusation that follows the slightest mention of Israel; namely that Israel’s blockade has driven residents of Gaza to a state of malnutrition and starvation.

Ed Stourton seamlessly shifts the emphasis thus in his recent reports from Gaza on R4 Today and From our Own Correspondent. Which brings me to Alan Johnston. Reminiscing nostalgically, he says in his introduction :
“In the years when I was a correspondent in the Gaza Strip there was always one steady bleak trend; life there always got harder and harder, and for most Gazans that continues to be true.” (But not for all, as Ed will attest.)
“A major reason for this is Israel’s economic blockade. The Israelis say it’s aimed at weakening the Hamas movement, which controls the strip.”(They’re just saying that)
“ For years Hamas has launched rockets from Gaza targeting homes, schools and offices in nearby Israeli towns, and Hamas doesn’t only oppose Israel’s continuing occupation of the Palestinian territories, it also talks of ultimately seeking the destruction of Israel itself.”
( Hurry that past the listeners and they might think Israel still occupies Gaza and won’t notice the other bit) “So the blockade goes on, and Ed Stourton has been looking at the everyday impact it has on the streets of Gaza.”

Ed Stourton:
“The shops in Gaza City centre are so well stocked that the abundance is almost indecent!” […] “All of this in a place that is supposed to be on the brink of a humanitarian crisis because of Israel’s economic blockade.”
You said it bud. But although the ‘tunnel economy’ has allowed crooks and thieves to prosper, and cars and camels to be brought in, somehow Israel is to blame for the fact that Hamas won’t let poor people acquire the materials to mend their houses. (Because Israel says they might be used for military purposes.) Well, if the need for washing machines and fridges is greater than the need to repair their houses, whose fault is it that they haven’t bothered to smuggle in a few bags of cement too?
Whose do you think?
So the starvation/malnutrition mantra no longer holds water, and the charge against Israel is cunningly transferred from the original one to the updated crime of forcing them into corruption and profiteering. The prosperity of crooks and thieves, the abundance of which could also be described as indecent, seems somehow to be the fault of Israel.
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The blood libel that has been doing the rounds recently might have some foundation after all. Clare Short shouldn’t have antagonized those dastardly Israelis. Parts of her have been harvested and reallocated. Jane Corbin got the face, and Alan Johnston the voice.

How neat, alluding to the blood libel as “organ harvesting,” with its connotation of avarice and greed. Why not use the term as a euphemism for acquisitions of any type, not just stolen body parts. Anything one might gather in, so to speak, such as the groaning shelves of Gaza which are a veritable harvest festival.

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Worlds Apart

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For many years the BBC has been engaging in a two pronged campaign, on one front familiarising the British public with The Islamic World, and on the other steadily demonising Israel.

This is, after all, the British Broadcasting Corporation, so this flying in the face of Judeo-Christian tradition defies logic. The current BBC has been able to pull off a mass suspension of disbelief by taking liberties with the ‘old’ BBC’s reputation for virtue and impartiality acquired long ago.

It’s true that the instant we get a whiff of an unpalatable viewpoint we’re apt to shut down, so many people will have decided that what I’ve said already is not for them.
If anyone is still here, a spat, perhaps a cyberspat, has arisen which has brought another aspect of this sorry tale to the fore.

Vivian Wineman and Robin Shepherd both have slightly unisex names, so for your information they are both gents. Their disagreement is over the recent Community Service Trust report which concluded that antisemitism in Britain has risen alarmingly. Chris Huhne and several other MPs are aware of this and think it is intolerable.
Mr. Wineman, though, says it’s nothing to worry about, it’s not really happening, while Mr. Shepherd says it certainly is, and it’s very concerning.
Strange to tell, Mr. Wineman is a Jew, and Mr. Shepherd is not.

Mr. Wineman is the newly elected President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and he has expressed his controversial views in the Jerusalem Post in a ‘debut’ article. It was written in response to Robin Shepherd’s earlier article on the topic, also in the JPost, which took a different view, and which I mentioned here.

Mr. Wineman’s ‘nothing to worry about’ article has attracted many responses from a wide range of people who are appalled at his complacency, and who agree with Mr. Shepherd. who has in turn written about it all on his own blog.

The blame for this outbreak of racist hostility which is (or is not) increasing alarmingly, had initially been laid firmly at the door of Operation Cast Lead. However, on further examination all roads lead straight past this red herring and on to the real culprit. The BBC.
What has come to the fore, and something that clearly emerges from all this, is the way Britain and our state broadcaster are currently perceived around the world.

Alongside the increase in racially motivated incidents and covert hostility towards Jews, there is a growing worldwide perception that British Jews should watch their backs. The BBC is seen as antisemitic, Britain is seen as ‘no place for Jews’, and the BBC is seen as having played the most significant role in the fiasco that has led to this disastrous state of affairs.

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PEACE OFF!

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Right, I will admit that I am a long term critic of US former Senator George Mitchell. Met him during the Northern Ireland peace process talks, figured him as a smooth-talking appeaser of terrorism, and told him so. Not that he could care less what people like me think, after all, we don’t kill people who disagree with us. It’s Georgie-boy who is now leading efforts to appease the thugs who run Syria and who support terrorism against Israel. This glowing BBC report does mention, in passing, that Boy Bashar supports the Palestinian..ahem… “militant” group Hamas, backs Hezbollah in Lebanon, and has close links with Iran. But hey, apart from that, surely he is an ideal partner for peace. That’s what Mitchell and US State reckons and that’s what the BBC pushes. In truth, Syria is a pro-terror tyranny but in this golden age of Obama, it is now seen as a beacon for hope and change.

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A Tale of two Censures

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The BBC reports that Ofcom has censured George Galloway over five shows broadcast on Talksport during the Gaza conflict. Ofcom says he crossed the line from legitimate and provocative debate to one “calling listeners to action,” but “did not break the rules on offering opposing views.”

Was that the same kind of ‘not breaking the rules’ as in the ‘I’ve done nothing wrong’ kind of ‘not breaking the rules?’

Or in the sense that fading out counter arguments on a radio debate is somehow within the rules of ’offering opposing views’ (Well, Galloway did offer them, it’s just that he happened to make them inaudible.)

Because that is what happened to Oliver Kamm who appeared on one of his programmes, and he didn’t seem to like it very much.

When Jeremy Bowen was censured for breaching impartiality rules Oliver Kamm supported him, rather bizarrely according to many people.

Kamm said he believed that scrupulous impartiality was not necessary from Bowen, citing other notable journalistic precedents.

Though he disagreed with some of Bowen’s views, he concluded:

“Objective reporting means that, while being aware of your partial information, you describe the world as you see it. This is the responsibility that Bowen has, and it’s one that he has discharged.”

Furthermore he doesn’t seem to think Bowen is the sharpest knife in the box.

“I watched the BBC programme this evening, and I have to acknowledge that its presenter, Jeremy Bowen, whose greatest admirers would be hard put to identify in him the sharpest of inquiring minds, didn’t do a bad job.”

But he’s the BBC Middle East Editor! Of course he has more of a responsibility than just describing the world as he, the Palestinians and Hamas, see it.

So Bowen is Biased AND thick, but Galloway is beyond the pale. The fact that the BBC lets him get away with so much speaks volumes; it’s time he was faded out altogether.

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WE’RE

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ALL MULTILATERALISTS NOW.

I caught the wretched Lord Patten on Today this morning. He’s a BBC favourite! He was there to make all the usual talking points about the great joy of now having the “President we wanted” but he did not miss the chance to have a good old swipe at Israel, insisting that it would have to deal with Hamas just as “we” had to deal with the IRA. This completely false analogy is consistently pushed by BBC talking heads and it blithely ignores the fact that whilst the IRA were indeed homicidal vermin even they did not seek to wipe every Protestant off the map. The BBC never gives space to those who hold this view although I know that the gospel of appeasement runs deep within the British political Establishment, and is an article of faith for the BBC.

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GAZAN UPDATE.

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I would urge you to be sitting down as you listen to Jeremy Bowen’s latest report from Gaza. It’s amazing, isn’t it, to listen to such naked partisanship dressed up as reporting? Jeremy is nothing more than a pro-Palestinian talking head, doing everything possible to diminish the Israeli response to the savagery of Hamas. He concludes his ever so world-weary diatribe by saying “let’s hope there is a cease-fire soon”. Why? He is now offering opinion which favours one side (Hamas) in the conflict, is this not bias? And while we are at it, I notice the BBC is STILL pushing the death statistics of those in Gaza as one BIG media friendly number, whilst they breakdown Israeli deaths by military/civilian. We hear how many kids have allegedly died in Gaza, we never hear how many Hamas terrorists have been killed. Isn’t that a little odd? The BBC seem determined to portray the deaths of all those in Gaza as being the deaths of innocents. It’s sickening to behold.

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ANY QUESTIONS.

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Managed to miss most of the first of the 2009 “Any Questions” programme and given that it had the loathsome Tony McNulty and the abomination that is Sarah Teather no bad thing. Alas I did catch Teather doing her party piece and getting viciously stuck into Israel. All that was missing was the violins as she spewed out her pro-Hamas talking points. I also heard McNulty having a go at Christians, so no real change there. However the bit that struck me most was the actual introduction to the programme. It came from Kingsmead School in Enfield. Dimblebore thrilled about how the school is proud of the “multicultural and inclusive ethos in a community of 87 ethnic groups” that make up this area. Sorry, is this a British school or not? Maybe “Any Questions” could one day find a school with “modern facilities” which is proud of it’s British ethos? It’s not just the panelists and the audience which the BBC stacks, it is even the choice of venue.

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UN(REAL)

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I see the BBC has been shilling for the UN following that organisations petulant display that the Unwra will not re-commence its allegedly humanitarian mission in Gaza until Israel guarantess the safety of its workers. Suits me if they never recommence but I wonder why the BBC never asks why the Unwra does not idenify Hamas as a threat to its workers. Maybe they are related? Also, anyone catch Newsnight defining the Red Cross as ” a very conservative organisation” as it launches a verbal onslaught on Israel. Meanwhile Alan Johnston was afforded space to let us know how invincible Hamas is. Loved the way he talked of the Hamas culture of “sacrifice and martyrdom” – that’s homicide bombing to you and me. Nice stuff, Al Beeb – Hamas could not wish for a better PR campaign.

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GAZA HISTORY 101

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I very rarely watch BBC Breakfast TV but I have just been told about a gem that was on it this morning just after 8am. It appears we were treated to a short potted history of Gaza and the conclusion was that Hamas, after all, is democratically elected and all that Hamas really want to do is get on with building up the Gazan economy and making life better for the people of that area. The faux analogy with Northern Ireland was then employed with the suggestion that Israel should talk to the more “moderate” wing of Hamas, just like the British Government had engaged with the “moderate” Sinn Fein wing of the IRA. It’s all so risible, so totally detached from reality, that it is almost beyond comment but the reality is that many millions of people will have tuned in and been exposed to this pro-Hamas propaganda. And THAT is the danger of the BBC; it is a willing propagandist tool for terrorism, in this instance shilling for Hamas, the IRA — and for that, it deserves to be damned.

Moving on to other matters Gazan, I see the BBC is relentlessly quoting “500 deaths” without any effort to tell us how many of those killed are Hamas terrorists and how many other were killed because of Hamas. Just one big bite-sized media friendly number, natch. I also noted that on the Today programme this morning, the BBC explained that because of Israel’s refusal to let journalists into the conflict area, it had to rely on images provided by those residing in Gaza. (And they didn’t mean the IDF) It stopped short, however, of making it clear that all images and data provided to the BBC are Hamas approved – so no possibility of any bias there then!

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You will recall that BBC reporter Alan Johnston was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists

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You will recall that BBC reporter Alan Johnston was kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists in the Hamas stronghold of Gaza. He was held captive for four months and then released as an act of “goodwill” by the deranged Palestinian killers – a group that the British government had been in “dialogue” with leading up to his release.

The question NOW being asked if the release from prison this week of Abu Qatada – a radical Islamic cleric once described as Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe – part of a deal that Britain made with Gaza-based terrorists for the freedom BBC reporter Alan Johnston?
Speaking from jail last summer, Abu Qatada himself offered to help mediate the prisoner exchange. Hamas sources and Israeli diplomatic sources familiar with the Johnston release talks confirmed to WND last summer there were third-party discussions between Gaza’s Hamas rulers, a mediator and the British government for the release of Johnston. A second track of negotiations were opened between Hamas and the Army of Islam kidnappers, the sources said. Also, the BBC was in direct contact with Hamas, said the sources.

Palestinian sources involved in the Johnston negotiations said Hamas passed to the British government the Army of Islam’s demand for the freedom of Abu Qatada. They also warned if Hamas stormed the Gaza compound in which Johnston was known to have been held, the BBC reporter likely would have been killed during any rescue attempt.
Abu Oubaida, a spokesman for Hamas, would not confirm any deal was reached. The British embassy in Tel Aviv did not return calls for comment on the issue. Officials from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ office said they believe a deal was made for the release of Johnston. They also accused Hamas of paying off the Army of Islam.

So, is it possible that the British government and the BBC have colluded to engineer the release of a BBC journalist by doing a shoddy deal that gets an alleged Islamic terrorist mastermind a “get out of jail free” card? I think we should be told, don’t you? Can we trust the BBC to tell us?

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