It Tolls For Thee.

All eyes are on Syria. The problems Syria’s civil war poses for the surrounding area as well as the tragedy faced by its people are the main focus of the world and the media. No-one knows what to do.

 As it is plain for all to see, including those who strive to shoehorn Israel’s culpability for all Muslim grievances into every remotely related issue, Syria’s current crisis concerns a fundamental schism within the Arab world. Even the BBC is beginning to see that these problems exist, and have always done so, regardless of Israel’s unwelcome presence in ‘Muslim Land’. 

Even the BBC is beginning to see, therefore, that overtly scapegoating Israel is looking conspicuously biased, so is, for the moment, redundant a bit like Jon Donnison and Wyre Davies.  However, it appears to me that now those two gents have departed, the BBC’s remaining Middle East reporters have been instructed to keep the plight of the Palestinians in the public eye until the crisis in Syria blows over and normal service can be resumed; that is exposing the mendacity of the Israelis. 

Biased BBC’s search facility brings up various articles featuring Yolande Knell, six of which were written by me. Those were the days.

The other day I felt so uncomfortable with Yolande Knell’s FOOC that I had the urge to transcribe it in full without knowing what else I might do. 

In the same episode, another BBC M.E. staffer, Bethany Bell reported on cherry picking in the Golan Heights!. All this is high on the you-couldn’t-make-it-up-ometer. Cherry picking? Bell? Knell?

BBCWatch has now blogged this FOOC episode, but Hadar’s local knowledge has enabled her to flesh out several of the points I was stabbing at. Mine is the category of ‘vaguely uncomfortable’ whereas hers is more ”exactly  why it was factually incomplete and deliberately misleading.”

(Who ya gonna call?)

To summarise:

Of Kate Adie’s: “Thousands of Palestinians marched from Gaza City to close to the Israeli border the other day to demand the liberation of east Jerusalem which was occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.” I merely said:

 “The latter message-laden sentence bears no relation whatsoever to Yolande’s tale.” 

I knew that was completely irrelevant to Yolande’s piece but failed to research the background.

Hadar supplies the missing facts: 

“The event to which Adie refers was actually one of the events organised by the ‘Global March to Jerusalem’ campaign: a conglomeration of Islamists from Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Iranian regime, among others, but Adie’s reference to the event fails to inform listeners of that fact.”

So now you know.

“There are still regular power cuts,” says Knell. I mentioned that the power cuts are self-inflicted, but left it there.

Hadar expands this, linking to Haaretz.

“Hamas stops buying fuel from PAMeanwhile, Hamas has stopped buying fuel for the Gaza power plant from the Palestinian Authority. The fuel, which was itself purchased by the PA from Israel, is believed to have been replaced by a stead supply of fuel smuggled in from Egypt through the Rafah tunnels.This is a significant coup for Hamas, from an economic point of view.Hamas previously received 150,000 liters of fuel per day from Israel, via the Palestinian Authority.”

Hadar continues:

“That Hamas plan went sour when Egypt began clamping down on smuggling through the tunnels, but Western journalists such as Knell still insinuate that power cuts in the Gaza Strip are Israel’s fault.  Likewise, Knell’s banal claim that “most exports” are “banned” is simply a fabrication and fails to provide listeners with the context of the effects of terror activity upon the crossings.”

As for footie being played in an Israeli-obliterated football field: “that same football field was one of those used to launch missiles at Israeli civilians”.

The final section, which I could only reproduce leaving it to you (if you’re out there) to supply your own incredulity DIY style.

Here are the words of our handsome hero’s song:

“Oh flying bird, circling round, 

My eyes protect you and Allah keeps you safe 

By Allah, oh traveling [bird], I burn with envy 

My country Palestine is beautiful 

Turn to Safed and then to Tiberias, 

And send regards to the sea of Acre and Haifa 

Don’t forget Nazareth – the Arab fortress, 

And tell Beit Shean about its people’s return 

By Allah, oh traveling [bird], I burn with envy 

My country Palestine is beautiful.”

After describing this ‘keep the pot boiling’ interlude as “keepy uppy” I saw that Knell has been *literally*  trying her hand at this kind of thing herself; and a very un-athletic-looking sight she is too.