Biased report

I wonder if any polling company has quizzed the British person-on-the-street on his/her/their/its opinion of Israel. I mean on Jews, Israel, and the Palestinian cause. 

Amongst your typical, politically engaged person on the London / Land’s End /John O’Groats omnibus, (don’t you just love that name O’Groats?) I wonder if any enthusiastic pollster geeks have ever tried to ascertain what proportion of the 'UK cognoscenti' support or sympathise with one side or the other. A clean split in accord with the left/right divide? I doubt that, but I’m curious. 

To sub-divide, I’d be interested to see how many pro-Israel answers would have been based on knowledge of legitimate Middle East (Israel-related) history and how many favourable opinions of Israel would simply have been influenced by having been there. Once, I overheard a girl working at the local bank (when there was a local bank) telling a customer that she had been to Israel for her hols and that it was very nice. The weather and that.

A considerable number of minds - hearts and minds - must have been swayed a little bit by Islamist terrorism as well as incidents related to, say, the grooming gang issue, the Batley teacher-in-hiding issue, not to mention the Manchester Arena bombing and other terrorist events. And Shemima Begum. And bus-gate. In other words, did newsworthy displays of Islamic extremism and belligerence put them off and make them think twice about where Palestinian grievance-mongering is really coming from? Joining a few dots. Or, is opinion purely formed courtesy of the UK’s pro-Palestinian press and media?

Amnesty International has come out with another smear against Israel. But Amnesty's outrageously biased report has been slammed by: 

Jewish European Congress,

Wall Street Journal

New York Post

 The Jerusalem Post

David Collier

Honest Reporting

Israel Hayom

and it's all over Twitter. 

The BBC has this and I predict they’ll soon be saying sorry for displaying a Tweet from the Israel Foreign Ministry decrying the false allegations that appear in Amanesty's report.

We join @IsraelMFA and FM @YairLapid in condemning @AmnestyUK's shameful upcoming report that labels Israel an "apartheid state."

Amnesty continues to undermine its legitimacy by engaging in anti-Israel propaganda that fuels antisemitism. pic.twitter.com/3mKoJ0vgV0

— American Jewish Committee (@AJCGlobal) January 31, 2022

 

It is already tucked away near the bottom of the piece, so maybe they'll assume no one will notice it.

And Sky has shown this interview with Palestinian Ambassador Husam Zomlot. More of a rant and a hate-fest.

"Palestinian ambassador responds to Amnesty International report alleging Palestinians are living under a system of apartheid.

A new Amnesty International report alleges Israel has maintained 'a system of oppression and domination' over the Palestinians going all the way back to its establishment in 1948."

So another few hundred Israel-haters recruited just like that. 

Update:

The Amnesty International hate group      Melanie Phillips

"The accusation of Israeli apartheid is risible, and anyone with a functioning brain can see at a glance that Amnesty has produced a report as ludicrous as it is malevolent."

 

Amnesty International Wants to End the Jewish State      Col Richard Kemp

The title of the report, "Israel's apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and crime against humanity", is not only a blatant and unsubstantiated lie but also an insult to black South Africans who suffered so horrifically under a genuinely apartheid regime. Few will read this 200+ page diatribe of falsehoods, distortions and half-truths, but many will see and absorb its title, which has already been plastered greedily across left-leaning newspapers and disseminated to millions in social media. The BBC, for example, trumpeted "Israel's policies against Palestinians amount to apartheid" in an online article, giving full weight to Amnesty's claims, quoting several people who support them, but allowing only the briefest opposing view from the Israeli government at the end.