Following Daniel Sandford's bizarre comments on that video, particularly his references to the al-Quds march, I’d like to bring more Hezbollah related material to your attention.
According to Sandford, the al-Quds march was ‘obscure’ therefore did not merit being reported, specifically for fear of inciting people like Darren Osborne.
What an odd concept, particularly as it seems it was the BBC’s own dramatisation “Three Girls” that was, at least according to this, Osborne’s major inspiration; that and being unhinged.
I’ve already posted a brief article on the recent Hezbollah debate in the House of Commons. There was an implied thread running through the piece, which is that the desire to proscribe Hezbollah in its entirety was a joint-party matter. My intention was to highlight the fact that the divide was not between Labour and Conservative, but between people who knew what Hezbollah was all about, and ignoramuses and cowards who buried their heads in the sand for fear of triggering the “Islamists” among us, as well as a coalition of deluded and weak Conservative MPs and the current Labour leadership.
There is a worthwhile opinion piece from CUFI (Christians United For Israel) which I urge you to read, as it sets out the arguments for proscribing Hezbollah with clarity.
The Times has also published some interesting commentary about this topic. One erudite article is by Col. Richard Kemp, who has forgotten more about Hezbollah than Daniel Sandford will ever know about informative reporting, and interestingly, this piece, which sets out the idiotic attitude of both front benches which led to the kibosh being firmly put on common sense. It’s a short piece, and I advise you to have a look.
If you’re interested in Trump’s misgivings about the Iran deal, and you’re wondering if you have been getting the full story, you haven’t. (without sounding like Michael Fish) You might have seen reports about this on ’obscure” “far-right’ websites, but now your actual mainstream press in the form of The Times, brings you this.
I don’t have enough time to blog as fully and as frequently as I’d like, so sometimes I rely on links to flesh out my arguments. I know it can be a bit of a fag to click, but if it weren’t for hyperlinks I’d be stuffed.
While we’re on the subject of snappy retorts, how about this one, from the London Mayor.
The video of Sadiq Khan at the London Mayor’s Question Time refusing to promise he’d raise the matter of Hezbollah with the Home Secretary, could have gone viral.
Has it gone viral? Or have they deleted it?
Andrew Boff is the name of the man who asked for clarification as to what constitutes a banned terror organisation, after Hezbollah flags appeared during a march in the capital earlier this month. Khan was riled.
The Al Quds Day march is no harmless, virtuous Palestine Solidarity thing. The Washington Times has this: England is drunk on PC Kool-Aid
“Make no mistake, there is nothing pro-Palestinian or pro-Arab about Hezbollah. It is heavily engaged in the ongoing killing of Arab citizens of Syria in support of the brutal Assad regime. Hezbollah has been spreading terror around the world for decades. As far back as 1983, Hezbollah murdered 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service personnel with a truck bomb at a U.S. Marine compound in Beirut, Lebanon. Hezbollah is dangerous, deadly and violent, as everyone knows.
Among the countries that designate Hezbollah a terrorist organization are: Arab League, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, European Union, France, Gulf Cooperation Council, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States.
Nevertheless, Hezbollah was granted permission to march through London.
British authorities have gone mad. They have wedded political correctness to a revival of historical Jewish scapegoating, enabling a wave of destruction that threatens to go out of control. Britain has drunk the Kool-Aid.
Of course Al Quds Day is the kind of thing that would appeal to Jeremy Corbyn’s followers. That kind of march is just up their street, so to speak.
“The BBC has also been berated by Tory MPs who claimed the corporation is “out of control”.
Mr Corbyn will speak for the first time on the main Pyramid Stage, a year after cancelling an appearance on a much smaller platform.
But this year the Labour leader will take to the iconic stage before introducing hip-hop act Run The Jewels.
Revellers at Glastonbury, a festival long associated with Left-wing activism, have been heard singing ‘oh Jeremy Corbyn’, sung to the tune of White Stripes song Seven Nation Army, this morning.”
Labour politicians have ben spotted at the festival - attended by 200,000 people every year.
Former shadow chancellor Ed Balls and wife Yvette Cooper are at the event and John McDonnell will hold a discussion on Sunday.
Deputy leader Tom Watson is also at the festival which is notoriously difficult to secure tickets for.
[…]
Tory MP Philip Hollobone said: “The BBC is riddled with Left-wing bias from the Today programme downwards.
“They will seize any opportunity to get Theresa May out. Jeremy Corbyn at Glastonbury is a typical example of their behaviour… the BBC is out of control.”
Andrew Bridgen, another Tory MP, added: “The BBC will do everything they can to get their hero Jeremy Corbyn into Downing Street. Now with things like this year’s Glastonbury, it’s becoming ever more blatant.
“They are at the stage where if the BBC give it one more push, we will end up with a Marxist in No 10.”
Isn’t it galling that Jeremy Corbyn’s new-found rock-god status has has managed to eclipse his appalling record and get it so quickly brushed under the carpet? It’s even more remarkable when you compare it with certain other BBC bogeymen whose past record is attached to them as permanent fixtures, in perpetuity.
Meanwhile, revellers are pictured at Glastonbury, some of whom seem all too willing to sweep Jeremy Corbyn’s reputation under the carpet
That sinking feeling is back. Glastonbury time again.
As if Glasto dominating the airwaves wasn’t bad enough, the thought of Ed and Yvette Balls queueing up for the showers and Jeremy Corbyn appearing on the pyramid stage, (presumably to rapturous applause) hearing that Radiohead had been heckled with shouts of “Free Palestine” was just about the last straw.
I see Malia Bouattia signed off her NUS presidency by shouting “Free, free Palestine”, doubtless to similarly rapturous applause from her student fans; but a glimmer of light is here, in the form of a lone voice at the BBC, John Ware, who happens to have noticed the Al Quds Day March, even if his BBC colleagues didn’t.
"How's this for hate?
"We are fed up of the Zionists, we are fed up with all their rabbis; we are fed up with all their synagogues; we are fed up with their supporters."
Or this?
"Zionists. are responsible for the murder of people in Grenfell Tower - the Zionist supporters of the Tory Party."
I went to the annual Al Quds Days march in central London last weekend to watch several hundred supporters of Hezbollah, the "Party of God." [...]
“Please welcome Nazim Ali, the Al Quds' Master of Ceremonies for the march, organised by the Khoeminist oxymoronically named Islamic Human Rights Commission
Here's another of Nazim's gags.
While presenting the IHRC's "Islamophobe of the Year" award shortly after the 2015 massacre by jihadists of 12 journalists and a policeman at the Paris-based satirical Charlie Hebdo magazine, he said: "No one from Charlie Hebdo could make it" (to the awards ceremony).
Are you cracking up? No? How 's this then?
"We've always been a peaceful, family-friendly, humanitarian protest" Nazim shouted to the marchers. "That's what we're about."
And then pointing to the protestors, he said ""Do not react to these people... Do not react to the IDF."
Judging by the frenzy Nazim had worked himself into, my impression was that "react" was exactly what he hoped the Jewish protestors would do. "You've hit the nail," a police officer said.
"Bye, bye Zionists, bye bye bye" taunted Nazim, waving his hands as the march prepared to move off.
"Free, free Palestine" he chanted which got the ritual response: "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” [...]
"The march was nothing short of a three-hour public hate fest against Jews who regard themselves as Zionists – who are the vast majority of Jews. Nazim Ali repeatedly referred to the only "real Jews" being those marching with him, the tiny fringe from Neturei Karta. "Zionists are the imposters" he said ".Do not talk to them.they like to show themselves as 'victims': 'Oh, we're Zionists; we're victims; we've only killed 10 children today; we're victims - we didn't get a chance to kill 20'."
So much hate in just 24 hours both in Finsbury Park and central London. It shows just how difficult some of these "difficult and often embarrassing conversations" in countering extremism, are going to be.
They say ‘we mustn’t let the terrorists divide us” but their refusal to connect the causes they support with the terrorism they say they wish to defy, means they themselves perpetuate and exacerbate the division.
Another piece in the JC explains where our government could ‘do the right thing’ if it had a mind to.
"The issue of government subsidies for Palestinian terrorist salaries has returned to the international spotlight. What began in November 2013 as a barely believable revelation — that taxpayers in Britain, the US and other Western nations were bankrolling terrorist salaries — has now become a universally-acknowledged, impossible-to-deny and impossible-to-defend embarrassment for governments.
"A recent in-depth study has calculated that all terror incentives and rewards paid by the Palestinian Authority over the past four years total a mind-numbing $1 billion.
As more citizens are murdered by Islamist terrorists in Great Britain, Europe, the US and elsewhere, Western donor governments have found their financial involvement with the Palestinian Authority terrorist salary programme increasingly indefensible.
‘The Palestinian “Law of the Prisoner” openly rewards those convicted of even the most heinous attacks with generous monthly “salaries” and a phantom job in the PA government.
The salaries increase on a sliding scale. The more carnage inflicted and the longer the prisoner sentence, the higher the salary.
Terrorists receiving a five-year sentence are granted just a few hundred dollars each month. The bloodiest murderers are paid as much $3,000 monthly. Cheques are sent directly to the prisoner, who appoints a power of attorney to distribute the funds.”
What about the BBC doing an in-depth study of that preposterous situation? I’m sure John Ware would be up for it.
Craig will tell you that I never did have very much faith in Theresa May. As for Brexit, I like the principle that we can take back control but - ‘That’s all very well’ I’d say, ‘but who is gonna be the ‘we’ that takes it?
It could be Jeremy Corbyn, propelled into P.M-ship by the upcoming post-Brexit dip in the economy. If Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell were the ‘we’, it would be even worse than the dreaded bad-deal, but by the same token if Theresa May made a pig’s ear of the negotiations we could be lumbered with a deal that could be a good deal worse than a bad deal..
Her first cabinet reshuffle was hardly confidence-inspiring, and her disastrous election campaign with its clumsily presented, ill-judged, and if I may say so, arrogant manifesto, together with Jeremy Corbyn’s fairy-godmother manifesto, not to mention those furious rallies and all the bullying by his antisemitic, politically illiterate Momentumists; between them they created a perfect storm.
For want of a better alternative many people were prepared to settle for Theresa May.
But, and it’s a big but (as Jeremy Corbyn probably said to the Shadow Home Secretary) if there’s one thing I certainly don’t think Theresa May should be criticised for, it’s the absence of that public show of emotion that everyone is clamouring for. I don’t want to see Theresa May or any other politician blinking back tears and I’m fed up of listening to anyone prefacing their political opinion with a sad-faced statement concerning their thoughts and prayers. What prayers? Does everyone say prayers now?*
After Grenfell surely Theresa May should have been doing exactly what she says she has been doing. Setting up the public enquiry. Putting emergency funding in place. Doing Prime Minister stuff.
Yet we had a veritable stream of identical-looking women parading through the TV studios (BBC and Sky) reviewing the Sunday papers. They all said the same thing, directly or indirectly, that Theresa May hasn’t shown sufficient emotional incontinence in public.
There’s a theory that economics influences fashion. Something in the current climate - hair straighteners ? - has produced armies of clones with the same infantilising hair-style and the same infantile opinions. They all want everything delivered in the form of a soap opera. To earn their approval Theresa May must be seen in public fanning her red-rimmed eyes and hugging a poor person.
Perhaps Theresa May can take heart from the turnaround within Her Majesty’s opposition.
Jeremy Corbyn outwitted the critics and rebels in his own party whose desire to unseat him evaporated with his electioneering triumph; so if he can ride out the storm, maybe she can too.
All she needs is a good BreakfastBreggsit Brexit.
*****
I was too busy to blog yesterday. Now I’ve got Theresa May’s emotional inadequacy off my chest there's the latest car-ramming incident to respond to. More tear-filled thoughts and prayers.
The BBC already speaks fluent Muslamic. Announcers pronounce “Muslim’ with the double ‘ss’. ‘Moosslim’, and enunciate the term ‘Friday prayers’ with a familiarity that subliminally incorporates Friday Prayers* into standard British culture, which I suppose, these days it just about has been. Mosque-goers are referred to as ‘worshippers’ in a reverential manner I’ve yet to hear applied to any other religion.
Unlike Theresa May, Jeremy Corbyn has done the right thing. He’s blubbed. He’s just soo honest.
Most of the Today Programme was devoted to this incident. John Humphrys consulted Brendan Cox to ask if this was an act of hatred or an act of insanity?
BC.
“There is an increasingly strong group of people who are actively inciting hatred against others, and that has certainly been true from bits of the extremist Islamist community in the past and we’e spoken about what we can do to crack down on those hate preachers, but I think it’s also something, in the case of Islamophobia, people, there are extremists again who are driving hatred, who are using language about cleansing Britain of Islam, who are talking about a final solution for Muslims and I think we have to treat this act of terrorism, if that’s what it ends up being, in the same as any other act of terrorism”
“Final solution” now where have I heard that before? Apart from your actual Hitler, wasn't it his modern incarnation, hate preacher and thought criminal Katie Hopkins?
BC.
“Extremist voices feel more emboldened to act on these views and that’s all about the climate. You know, for example when there is the US president talking about Muslims in a disparaging way and failing to break down the difference between extremists and people that just happen to belong to a community, it changes the entire tenet of the debate. The person that did this is the person that has the responsibility. I said that in the context of the Manchester attack and the London attacks and the murder of my wife; the person that did it is the person that’s responsible, but we do have to look at the context in which these events happen and I don’t think we take that seriously enough.
JH.
Is there any evidence at all of any coherent organisation behind this far right extremism?
BC.
You’ll see online, and it’s very clear that there are a series of organisations who are actively inciting hatred, not against extremists, but against Muslims as a whole and I think those people are very organised, they’re well funded they’re well financed, and again I think we have to have a dual approach to this cos it’s partly about those extremist organisations, but I also think we all have to have a look at ourselves and actually more mainstream organisations and organisations who probably don’t tip over into that incitement to violence, but I think sometimes we do blur the distinction and talk in a way where people think that Muslims as a whole are represented by the people that committed the attacks in Manchester or London. They don’t, in the same way that this attack doesn’t represent the vast majority of people.
You know yesterday and over the weekend we had this huge coming together of communities in celebration of the things that unite us across the UK.
That’s what represents our country, but we have to get much better at tackling hatred in whatever community that comes from.”
Who or what is this well organised, well-funded and well financed group? I’d be interested to know.
I didn’t join any of those ‘Get-Together’ celebrations yesterday but I did find time to watch some of the live-streamed footage of the Al Quds march through central London.
People, including Sadiq Khan, who were talking about coming together were probably too busy to notice the bile that was megaphoned over the streets of London to the insistent beating of a drum.
If Brendan Cox doesn’t acknowledge that it’s not just the violence of the few that needs to be dealt with, but the extremism of the many, then all his posturing is hypocritical and hollow.
"we have more in common than that which divides us” while the Al Quds brigade retaliate with “Jews to the gas”?
These sentiments are not mutually exclusive, are they? In fact they may complement each other.
The BBC is aware of the former celebration, but apparently not of the latter. It will be interesting to see how (and if) they report these events, particularly Al Quds, should there be ‘trouble’.
Which event to attend? Jeremy Corbyn must be torn.
