Pure opinion

Meanwhile, Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's Middle East Editor, has been sounding off away from the BBC at his usual non-BBC haunt, The New Statesman. 

(Come to think of it, how has that 'progressive' magazine managed to avoid a name change? 'Statesman' in 2018? #MeToo). 

The Impartial One does his usual thing. He begins by making the Palestinians of Gaza sound like victims and the Israelis look like their oppressors. He then praises those critical of Israel. 

Next he complains that his pet subject (Israel and the Palestinians) has been neglected in recent year before painting a picture of the border protests which reinforces his initial binary portrait (oppressed Palestinians, oppressing Israelis). 

His own vaguely unnerving trip through Israeli security follows. 

Then, in contrast to the sufferings of the Palestinians (according to JB), comes the contrast: the Ivanka-led US embassy in Jerusalem launch. ("Many were middle-aged, in good shape, and expensively dressed. They looked rich and my guess was that they were generous donors, to Israel, or President Trump, or both.") The talk there of peace was, Jeremy opines, "misleading". 

Hamas is given the alternative description of "the Islamic Resistance Movement", though - oddly - not described as being considered a terrorist organisation by many (the EU, the UK, the US, etc). 

Yes, Hamas organised the demonstrations, he concedes, before going large with the buts. "But is wrong to claim that Hamas ordered thousands to risk their lives at the fence. They had plenty of reasons of their own to protest" - unemployment for instance. 

There won't be peace until Israel and the Palestinians agree to share the land, and "history shows" that Israel's "military occupation" won't work in the long term, he says. 

The present leaders - Mahmoud Abbas and Binyamin Netanyahu - aren't the right people: MA is too old and unable to galvanise his side; BN is "good at using the language of peace but his actions belie his words", according to Jeremy. And the piece ends by continuing Jeremy Bowen's point about the abysmalness of President Abbas and PM Netanyahu by gloomily saying:

The next generation of leaders might be no better. If so, they will condemn their children to more hatred, insecurity and death. 

It may be at The New Statesman but it's nothing new for Jeremy Bowen. His BBC reporting from Israel/Gaza a couple of weeks back was entirely in tandem with this piece. 

Right, wrong or otherwise, it's pure opinion, isn't it?

(You may have to gird your loins and read the piece via the link to make sure).