Having cut our blogging teeth (blogging teeth?) on the well-trodden website Biased-BBC in the days when there were several above-the-line contributors when no sooner had one hit the ‘publish’ button than responses would start flying in to the comments section, our decision to isolate ourselves here, on our own little venture was not taken lightly.
We ummed and ahhed over it for a while, but finally took a leap in the dark with gay abandon. This is not a hate site, (not that B-BBC is, but it has been regarded as such by the pro-BBC lobby) and both of us (Craig more than me) enjoy a good deal of the BBC’s output.
The fact that we mainly slag off the BBC and draw attention to what we think are its flaws doesn’t mean we deserve to be dismissed as Mr and Mrs Angry.
(Firstly, we’re not married to each other - don’t tell anyone, but we’ve never even met - and secondly, we’re not permanently angry.)
I probably seem angrier than Craig does. I hope so, anyway.
The comparative paucity of below-the-line comments on this blog does not reflect the actual visitor numbers, which are quite good, and growing daily. Mind you, I don’t know how many page views would be considered a triumph and how few a tragedy.
Anyway, I am angry about the way the BBC has influenced the public over ‘Israel - Palestine’, and I am also quite aware of he futility of my anger over the BBC’s biased reporting of all matters concerning Israel.
Look how this has tainted everything and everyone including the people who are supposed to be engaging intelligently and responsibly with the important political issues of our time. Here’s a full transcript of yesterday’s astonishingly ill-informed debate.
“A great evil has overtaken Britain. By this vote – and despite the majority of MPs who absented themselves – the House of Commons has identified Parliament with lies, blood-libels and racist terror and strengthened those bent on Jew-hatred and mass murder.”
says Melanie Phillips on Facebook.
I didn’t see Melanie’s article about the Palestinian statehood parliamentary motion that was published in yesterday’s Times newspaper until this morning. Of course it was written before the so-called debate, but I’d like to reproduce some excerpts. If I had time I’d have liked to reproduce the whole damned thing. Go and buy a copy or subscribe.
It’s headlined: Recognising Palestine won’t promote Peace. (£)
“British MPs should reject this dangerous proposal – just as the Arabs have so often done.
With all the terrifying security issues now facing Britain, just what urgent topic is parliament debating today? Support for an independent Kurdistan, perhaps? Britain’s ties with Islamic State’s backers, Qatar? Whether Turkey should be expelled from Nato for refusing to help to fight Islamic State?No. This afternoon a motion proposed by a group of backbench MPs wants the government to “recognise the state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel”.
That’s the part you’re allowed to read free. The rest is obscured by an ad asking for your £s.
".......The idea that Israel-Palestine lies at the core of global danger has been exploded ( literally) in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and other Muslim states.According to the motion’s main proposer, the Labour MP Graeme Morris, the international community has “cruelly refused” the Palestinians their right to a state and thus hindered peace and security in the region.Totally untrue. The sole reason no Palestinian state exists alongside israel is that the Arabs have consistently refused to accept one.
".......The Arab answer has always been rejection, war and terrorist campaigns.The reason the peace process has now stalled is that even the supposedly moderate Mahmoud Abbas remains committed to exterminating Israel. He has repeatedly said that the Palestinians will never accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.. His Palestinian Authority glorifies those who murder Israelis and teaches children to hate and kill jews. In 2012 its TV service broadcast Palestinian leaders applauding children singing: “I shall saturate you with my blood, redeem you with my life”.Now Abbas is trying to turn diplomacy into a weapon of war by building international support to isolate Israel.”
"......Abbas has now embraced Hamas as a partner”[...]”Palestinian leaders have repeatedly said (in Arabic) that Jews would not be allowed to live in Palestine”[....]“For no other conflict has ever been so misreported and misrepresented; no other victims of a century of annihilatory aggression have been so demonised and delegitimised.Last summer’s media coverage of the Gaza war, which caused a huge outbreak of anti-Jewish hatred, uncritically transmitted the Hamas falsehood that the vast majority of casualties were civilians. Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information centre shows that 49% of fatalities were terrorists and 51% civilians, a far lower civilian toll than in other wars.” [...}
“Israel is the West’s one ally in the Middle East and is essential to British Intelligence and military security.”
Do these naive British MPs not even realise this? Do they think they can pass futile motions willy-nilly “because they can”, and because they don’t have to take responsibility for “placing Britain on the wrong side in the great battle for civilisation?”
It really is too bad. Parliament and the BBC should get a grip before it’s too late.
