Smokescreen

I don’t usually listen to the World Tonight, but I happened to turn the radio on tonight in time to catch Chris Mason introducing the BBC’s version of what’s been happening on the Gaza border.

His introduction took me aback. This is a late-night post, written in haste. Make allowances. 

“When you hear, or use the word smokescreen, the chances are the speaker is indulging in a spot of imagery about a ruse designed to disguise someone’s real intention.
But along the eastern borders of the Gaza Strip today a smokescreen was a literal description of the tactic deployed by Palestinians; the choking black clouds, the result of burning tyres, had a simple purpose - make it harder for Israeli soldiers on the other side of the border to shoot protesters in Gaza.
This was the second week of a planned six week protest set to end on 15th of May, the 70th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, or catastrophe in which more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced by Israeli forces in the Arab Israel war of 1948.”

Before I go any further, that short introduction is stuffed to the gunwales with with malign insinuations and the most blatant falsehood came last. 

If the BBC sincerely believes that 750,000  Arabs (not Palestinians - the brand hadn’t been invented in ’48) were ‘forcibly displaced by Israel forces’ they are factually wrong and they really need to check with  reliable, non partisan sources. Most credible historians recount that most of the Arabs who fled in 1948 did so following instructions to ‘get out of the way’ issued by warmongering antisemitic Arab leaders who intended to demolish the nascent Jewish state and mistakenly assumed this would be quick and easy. 

‘Israeli forces’ is hardly a suitable way to describe hastily trained, armed Jewish pioneers and Holocaust survivors fighting for their lives.  In other words, Chris Mason is regurgitating Palestinian propaganda based on wishful thinking and racist hatred of the Jewish people. So who’s been using a smokescreen as a tactic?

Doesn’t the phrase “making it harder for the IDF to shoot protesters”  imply that the trigger-happy IDF takes pleasure in shooting Palestinians? I thought so; but then I would.

Next, we were treated to Yolande Knell chatting with her pet refugee, who probably still has the deeds to his mother’s house, which the family lost when five Arab armies tried and failed to eliminate the Jewish state and all who sailed in her. Now he thinks it’s his ‘right’ to march back to his ancestral home taking his twenty five grandchildren with him.  Pity; they should have stayed put and accept Israel, like the ones who made the sensible choice.

Yolande Knell then urged him to deny that Hamas had orchestrated this planned protest. Why? Hamas’s plans have surely been documented and widely publicised by all, including Hamas themselves.I suppose she thought it was worth a try - some people might not have seen it on t’internet.

My point is that the BBC is openly inciting hatred. One-sided, factually erroneous reporting only encourages the pro-Palestinians and the anti-Zionists to believe they’re supporting a good and righteous cause, and that there is a realistic possibility that Israel will be eliminated. 

This gives the haters false hope, and is tantamount to openly inciting, nay, whipping up antisemitism. 

Then, to add insult to injury, the BBC reverts to full smokescreen mode, effecting pretend outrage at Corbynistic manifestations of antisemitism. It’s a disgrace. Thank you and goodnight.