Moving on

 Reporting from Gaza is a tricky affair because reporters are severely punished for, well,  reporting. 

Melanie Phillips: A remarkable story has been published by the Associated Press. It reveals that, shortly after Sunday evening’s ceasefire between Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Israel Defence Forces in Gaza, Hamas — which rules Gaza but had chosen to sit out that conflict — issued a set of instructions for journalists there:     

 Palestinians who work with foreign journalists were first informed of the new rules earlier this week in messages sent by the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. They were ordered not to report on Gazans killed by misfired Palestinian rockets or the military capabilities of Palestinian armed groups, and were told to blame Israel for the recent escalation.

But protests by the Foreign Press Association prompted Hamas to rescind that edict, as it constitutes “a severe, unacceptable and unjustifiable restriction on the freedom of the press, as well as the safety of our colleagues in Gaza”

However, Melanie Phillips says 

“.....rescinding the instruction hardly draws the sting. People in the west may not realise this, but journalists in Gaza only ever report what Hamas wants them to say. Gazan “stringers,” the local reporters upon whom western journalists rely to bring them information about what’s going on, conduct interviews with Gaza’s residents and act as western journalists’ guides and interpreters, know all too well that if they ever report what Hamas doesn’t want them to report they will be denied access or even that their lives will be in danger.”

Elder of Ziyon notes that:

“One of the criticisms of Israel when it comes to getting its side of the story out to the world is that it is just too slow, allowing the terrorists and Israel-haters plenty of time to get their version of things out and presented before the world audience. Israel just does not react quickly enough.

Not this time.

Now that Israel has demonstrated the ability to get its message across and reported in the media, what Israel needs is the ability to do this consistently.

Maybe it can even do a better job in presenting its side in the death of Abu Akleh.

Israel pushes back.

“… western media outlets stopped uncritically parroting Palestinian claims that Israel had caused the children’s deaths and started reporting the Israeli counter-claim, eventually conceding that some PIJ rockets had indeed fallen short into Gaza and probably caused Gazan casualties.” 

“…..the malice of the western media towards Israel knows no bounds. But these journalists generally speak no Arabic; and no Palestinian would have told them about the missiles falling short because Hamas rules Gaza’s journalists with an iron fist. They will report nothing that conflicts with the Hamas narrative.

If there's a softening of hostility towards Israel it seems to be largely confined to the US. The BBC, though, is unlikely to budge.

Camera.

Licence fee payers who fund the BBC’s permanent bureau in the Gaza Strip may well be wondering why, unlike AP, the corporation did not send staff to visit the sites where those shortfall missiles had landed and whether that has anything to do with Hamas’ known practice of intimidating journalists.

In fact, another report from AP gives details of restrictions imposed by Hamas which were opposed by the Foreign Press Association.

“Palestinians who work with foreign journalists were first informed of the new rules earlier this week in messages sent by the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. They were ordered not to report on Gazans killed by misfired Palestinian rockets or the military capabilities of Palestinian armed groups, and were told to blame Israel for the recent escalation.”

If that is the reason why Yolande Knell and her colleagues could not “check the figures independently”, then BBC audiences should obviously be told so.

One has to admire the ardour of Bowen’s Twitter and non Twitter followers who roughly fall into two camps: a) the Gullible and ill-informed, and b) Devout Arabists - for example our old friend Chris Doyle of CAABU. (See ITBB’s free-of-charge search engine.)

August 11, 2022

New role: I am now International Editor of BBC News. Will still do the Middle East, but after a year where I’ve spent a lot of time in Ukraine and Afghanistan, makes sense to look further afield.

— Jeremy Bowen (@BowenBBC) August 11, 2022

Boo Hoo then. Bye Jeremy! Hamas is missing you already.

Being fed a huge amount of lies

Did you know that all pro-Israel advocacy from the mouth of a non-Jew (Col Richard Kemp) is worth a million times more than the very same thing from a Jew? Obviously, the theory is that a Jew has skin in the game or a dog in the fight, whereas a non-Jew is trustworthy and less likely to lie. 

No sooner had I digested that sad-but-true observation (in the Stand With Us video) than I was invited to digest a proposal with a similar concept; inversely. And pretty indigestible it is too. 

The theory is, of course, that when an actual Jew defames Israel, his defamation is worth a thousand defamations by the usuals, and the Guardian and its ilk will hang on to every priceless word.

The ilk?

On the Elder of Ziyon site, I read this piece about a comedian named Seth Rogen who, “AsaJew” believes the scales have fallen from his eyes and that he has suddenly discovered the unvarnished truth about Israel. 

This is Rogan's revelation that got The Guardian going:

"And I also think that as a Jewish person, like I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life. You know, they never tell you, that oh by the way, there were people there. They make it seem like it was– just sitting there, oh the fucking door’s open!…Literally they forget to include the fact to every young Jewish person: Basically, oh yeah, there were people living there.

Unfortunately, he has yet to realise that those scales have been replaced by the much grimmer lens - the prism of Palestinian propaganda. According to Elder 'any fule (who attended a Jewish school), kno' - or should kno - the relevant history. He explains:

"It is literally impossible to teach Israel’s history without mentioning the Arabs who were the majority before 1948. The riots in 1920, 1921 and 1929; the mini-civil war of 1936-9, the reasons for the British White Paper limiting Jewish immigration, the partition plan, the fighting in 1947-8 and the refugee issue – these topics cannot be avoided if one is taught even a perfunctory history of Israel, no matter how Zionist that history is.

The 1950s book “The Story of modern Israel for young people” features this illustration;

The damage that this silly person will do through his own gullibility and that of others - and (if applicable) his celebrityhood - is of inverse proportion to the substance of his ‘revelation’. The fact that the Guardian 'leapt on it and ran' speaks volumes. 

Not only does the circularity of this brand of propagandising highlight the push-me-pull-you nature of the dissemination of disinformation like a snake eating its own tail, but it gives the Guardian a hook on which to hang further disinformation with its very own potted  “history lesson”.

"More than 700,000 Palestinians were driven out of their homes or fled fighting in the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation. Today, those families and their descendants make up around 5.6 million refugees.

No! It was not the 1948 war that led to Israel’s creation! Wrong! Wrong and back to front!

1. End of British Mandate 14th May 1948. 
2. State of Israel proclaimed 14th May 1948. 
3. Israel invaded by five Arab states 15th May 1948

It was Israel’s creation that ‘led to’ the war - a war of intended annihilation - started by the Arabs, waged by the Arabs and lost by the Arabs, if you didn’t know, Oliver Holmes or whoever wrote that garbage.  You might ask yourself who’s been feeding you all those lies your entire life? And, Oh, by the way, there were lies everywhere; and you literally forget to mention The Inconvenient Truth About Jews From Arab Lands

In case you can't access content from Haaretz - I think they ask you to register - I'm giving you an excerpt from it below. Don't forget, this is from Israel's equivalent to The Guardian and the BBC's go-to source of news and views from Israel - so don't dismiss it as predictable nonsense from the book of 'they would say that wouldn't they'  Nathan Weinstock, the subject of the article and author of a study about Jews of Arab lands began as a member of the anti-Zionist left - until the scales fell from his eyes and he realised he'd been playing the part of the 'useful idiot'.

"What makes Weinstock’s decision to write about the Jews’ expulsion from the Arab world especially surprising is his own political biography: He was one of the leading figures in the anti-Zionist left in France during the 1960s and ‘70s. From viewing Israel and Zionism as a colonial project aimed at dispossessing the Palestinians, Weinstock underwent a dramatic conceptual upheaval that led him to address a painful and rarely discussed aspect of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

“This book is the story of a tragedy,” he writes in a special introduction to the Hebrew edition, “of the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of Mizrahi Jews, who were torn cruelly from their homes and homelands. Whole communities of Jews, who had always resided in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world, underwent expulsion, persecution and malicious liquidations Nevertheless, this drama remains unknown and it has been denied for a lengthy period.”

In retrospect, Weinstock explains, that event showed him the degree to which he played the part of the “useful idiot” at the time. “I was thrilled when I got up to speak to the Palestinian students,” he told me. “Very naively, I was convinced that the Palestinian students would be happy to hear my pacifist message. So I was astonished when not one of them showed the least interest in what I said. Instead, they listened ecstatically to Radio Cairo, delighting in every word and swallowing the boastful announcements that the Arab armies would soon throw all the Jews into the sea.” 

Trace'n'Track

I’m going to take advantage of the current paucity of comments to return to my niche topic. You might have noticed that ever since the rest of the non-leftist media/blogosphere has (belatedly) recognised how agenda-led the BBC is, I’ve been deviating more and more from the blog’s core raison d’etre. However,  many of the things that have been bothering me are ultimately traceable back to the BBC. Track'n'trace. 

First and foremost, the entire content of the current page of links on the EoZ website is, as a whole, more disturbing than ever. Believe me, I thought that even before I saw this comment:

“Today the thread was more insane and chilling than usual and the threads here usually tend to be quite insane. It managed to surprise and alarm me.”

Of course, “Elder of Zyion” is just about the most prolific the blogger on the block, and true to form, that long ‘linkdump’ article has already been superseded by the next one.

I’m guessing that my interest in this issue is not every reader's cup of tea, but it’s (half) my party and I’ll cry if I want to. For brevity’s sake, I’ll try to stick to the ‘special bits’ like they did when someone was evicted on Big Brother.

Because the issues covered on that site are so huge, I tend to concentrate on UK focused material, but it’s a US-based site and I am interested in developments ‘over there’ too.

The first shocker concerns a man named James Zogby, then president of the Arab American Institute. I haven’t researched it, but I assume it’s a bit like CAABU. 

The headline on EoZ is: 

Historic Video Unearthed: The Arab American Plan to Defeat America’s Jews. 

The link takes you to “Americans for Peace and Tolerance.” (me neither) The word “historic’ threw me at first because the video in question is only about 30 years old. How historic does that sound to you? Not very, as far as history is concerned. The video itself features an interview broadcast on Jordanian TV circa 1998; the article's strapline is as follows:

 The Arab American Institute outlined a plan to undermine pro-Israel support in America — and it worked.

It seems that Zogby went to Jordan to garner support for his plan to undermine the Jewish community in America. He would do so by harnessing the Left’s natural opposition to “oppression” by promoting the ‘Arab’ interpretation of  Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

“Zogby saw the power of framing Israelis as “white oppressors” of innocent, indigenous, darker-skinned Palestinians. And he saw the possibilities of mobilizing left-leaning ethnic, racial, and religious groups against “Israeli oppression.”
The prescient Zogby understood how the Jewish left could easily become the willing lynchpin of his strategy.”

One only needs to look at the current situation to see how effective this was and is to this day.

If you have the stomach to watch it - I’m afraid I didn’t quite make it all the way to the bitter end, I would be very pleased to hear if Zogby explained what the ultimate goal of all this anti-Israel galvanising actually was?

*********

The next item on the link-list is by Melanie Phillips. The Barbarians Inside the Gates

You’ve got to read it. 

Now, as we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks, white society is being vilified by anti-white racists who viciously smear as a bigot anyone who objects. Western culture is being stripped of its historical memory, with the removal by violence or under intimidation of statues commemorating those whose behaviour in a different era doesn’t conform to the enforced orthodoxy of today.

This article really is one of those ‘must-reads’

**********

Next on the list. Celebrities mistakenly or misguidedly posting approving tweets and comments about Louis Farrakhan’s oh so powerful speech. I admit I haven’t heard of a single one of these Hollywood heroines but their abject stupidity is less surprising than the attempts by various antisemites to silence anyone who criticises Farrakhan. (Chelsea Handler? What? Who? Why?)

********

This next item is very like the one above. It features something that many of us have seen already. 

When Rosie met Jim.

"The image went viral on Facebook and Twitter garnering millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes and shares. An apparent beacon of hope against racism."

It’s about BLM yet again, and the revelation that the cuddly grandpa with the placard “Racism is a virus - we are the vaccine” is really a Holocaust-denying racist named Jim Curran.

"His name is Jim Curran, an Irish nationalist and regular attendee at meetings of the Far Right/Left crossover group, Keep Talking. This extremist organisation was recently exposed by the CST and Hope Not Hate. They detailed how extremists from across the political spectrum (ex-Labour members Elleanne Green and Peter Gregson, Gill Kaffash and Tony Gratrex formerly of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and convicted Holocaust Denier Alison Chabloz and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke compatriot, James Thring) met to obsess over antisemitic conspiracy theories: from the ‘Jews did 9/11’ to outright Holocaust denial."

(to namedrop but a few.) As if the truth isn’t awkward enough, the really frightening thing is the way the “anti-racists” refuse to accept the truth. Undaunted, and in the name of anti-racism, they defiantly double down, spouting antisemitic / anti-Israel rhetoric as if to bolster their virtue.

" Despite the fact that concerns about Mr Curran were now flowing around social media, a series of prominent media and social justice organisations were more interesting in promoting the romantic narrative that than the messy truth. The Labour group, Momentum, posted the picture on their Facebook page with the caption “more of this please” and a leading figure in Amnesty UK shared it."

**** 

There’s more, but I think that’s quite enough for one day.

meanwhile, there's this:

Chris Williamson will be joined by Jackie Walker, Max Blumenthal, Ken Livingstone,Tony Greenstein & Marc Wadsworth
Thursday 18th June at 7.30pm.

Defending Free Speech and Challenging Manufactured Consent.

Join us on Resistance TV
Watch live on Youtube or Facebook#FreeSpeech pic.twitter.com/KaHLSTISVa

— The Festival of Resistance (@TheResistFest1) June 13, 2020

Sorry for today's YouTube videos overshooting the sidebar  - there seems to be a technical issue with Blogger and YouTube. (Same as yesterday)

No results

Yom HaShoah

I would like to feature some poignant articles marking Yom HaShoah.

What is the difference between Holocaust Memorial Day and Yom Hashoah? While both are days to mourn the loss of those killed in the Holocaust, Yom Hashoah is specifically a day for the Jewish community to reflect on what was done to their people. An important theme is also educating future generations on the millions of people who were murdered by the Nazis, to ensure that today’s children know the magnitude and horror of what happened.

Prince Charles made a remarkably statesman-like speech

Elder of Ziyon posted a thought-provoking and chilling piece:

  

The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland, published December 1942, ignored by the world

The Mass Extermination of Jews in German Occupied Poland was published by the Polish government-in-exile in December 1942 and sent to the foreign ministers of the 26 government signatories of the Declaration by United Nations.

BBC Watch presented a film about Shimon Greenhouse - the resilience of such people completely bowls one over.

(Searched the BBC - "no results")

Dancing in the square

“By Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square and dance with delight if the Iranian missile hits Israel.”

So bragged Abdel Bari Atwan, the most frequently invited panellist on BBC Dateline London.

This video of a conversation about the media’s bias against Israel between “Elder” (from EoZ) and Adam Levick (from UK Media Watch) reminded me of Atwan’s infamous statement - which should surely be regarded by any genuinely anti-racist organisation as a damning, career-undermining boast - yet there he often is on our Saturday morning BBC TV screens chatting away animatedly with his trademark flailing arms and bulging eyes while Carrie Gracie or Shaun Lay look on benevolently.

I suppose we must make allowances for the fact that the Trafalgar Square pledge dates back to 2010 and his dancing days may be over.

Another topic that came up in the EoZ video was a fanciful headline in a recent edition of the Mail online. Prince Harry Faces Backlash ….

It seems that Prince Harry invited injured IDF soldiers to participate in the Invictus Games, and when ‘Bari’, as the BBC affectionately calls him, raised an objection on the basis of his deeply antisemitic sensibilities, the Mail online chose to upgrade this solitary, one-man ‘objection’ to the status of ‘backlash’.  

This is uncharacteristic of the Mail, but I’m not sure if it’s primarily motivated by Harry-bashing or Israel-bashing.

I found the technically challenged EoZ video in question worth watching because both speakers are equally ‘well aware of’ and ‘baffled by’ the inexplicable blindspot that persists in much of the western media; a tacit refusal to acknowledge the antisemitic pandemic that is rife in the Arab world, particularly within Palestinian culture. No matter how many studies reveal staggeringly high percentages of unadulterated, religiously rooted Jew-hate (not Zionist-hate) - shocking figures are consistently found in survey after survey - the largely atheist western media will obstinately insist that their much venerated Palestinians are ‘just like us’.

It was odd hearing two Americans pontificating over the current state of the British Labour Party, and deciding whether Keir Starmer was a good guy. Better than Corbs, that’s for sure.

A question that still troubles me is who on earth put that shelf up?

But what about Gaza?

What if every item of BBC news had to include a comparison with “Gaza”? That seems to be what Jeremy Bowen has in mind.

Today programme. (2:28:47) 

“….someone usually on this programme to talk about the Middle East” 

says Mishal Husain as she introduces Jeremy Bowen and his 'choice of poem' at 8:28 am. 

“G’morning to you and y’now I’m gonna be as cheerful as possible because this is a very hard time and it’s miserable for so many and people are dying. Y’know, we’re gonna get through it. 

Um. There have been some comparisons made with this fight against the virus and the war, and I think that’s valid - without the bullets - now, a reason why this is so shocking is because usually in this country and most other developed countries we have pretty secure - most of us - and stable lives and in wars that mass security gets taken away I’ve seen it all over the world many times, and that’s what the virus is doing; now - it’s not a competition of course, but man people around the world never have that kind of safety and security that usually we’re used to. Untimely death is always part of it for them. 

And so think about all that and the fact that, you know, we have the NHS and many countries don’t, and figures I’ve seen lately - forty ventilators in Gaza for two million people - three ventilators in the Central African Republic for five million, so it’s a time to count our blessings, I suppose is what I’m saying. Now this poem………

Jeremy Bowen, your agenda is showing. Why on earth did you shoehorn that particular statistic into your ‘cheerful’ intro? (I suppose it cheered you up to do so)

Is there a new rule that every item of BBC news has to include a comparison with “Gaza”? 

BBC Watch has been monitoring the BBC’s agenda-littered reporting of Israel / COVID-19 related issues, which invariably includes snide anti-Israel innuendo. For example, just examine the emotive language in one passage of Jonathan Marcus’s report. One could easily omit the gratuitous insinuations, without compromising the accuracy of (e.g.,) the following report.

“But the densely populated Gaza Strip presents an altogether more worrying case. The population there is isolated; the Palestinians are under effective blockade from both Israel and Egypt, who say it is a necessary security measure against militants. 

There has been a long-running debate between Israel and the international community as to its abiding responsibilities for the territory. Israel’s troops have left and it insists that it is no longer responsible for events there, which is now the job of the Hamas rulers. 

But if the pandemic sweeps through Gaza this may become a very difficult case to argue given the grip that Israel still retains from outside. 

No wonder there have been calls from Palestinian experts and humanitarian agencies for the so-called Israeli “blockade” to be lifted, and for Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Israelis to make common cause to fight the pandemic.”

Here’s a suggestion:

“But the Gaza Strip presents a worrying case. The population there is isolated; the Palestinian residents are under effective blockade from both Israel and Egypt, which is a necessary security measure against Palestinian terrorism. 

There has been a long-running debate between Israel and the international community as to its responsibilities for the territory but Israel is no longer responsible for events there; this is now the job of the Hamas rulers. 

There have been calls from Palestinian experts and humanitarian agencies for the so-called Israeli “blockade” to be lifted, and for Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Israelis to make common cause to fight the pandemic.”

Contrary to the BBC’s insinuations, it has been widely reported on the pro-Israel press, (not the BBC) that Israel has continued to supply goods to Gaza including medical supplies, throughout the epidemic and the ubiquitous references to the density of the population do not give a true picture of reality in terms of ‘comparative densities’.   

The Palestinian Authority leadership has done virtually nothing to help the Gaza Strip confront the coronavirus pandemic. Ironically, the only country that has been helping the Gaza Strip in the past few weeks is Israel. https://t.co/QQUYpuCOn2

— Gatestone Institute (@GatestoneInst) April 1, 2020

and yet:

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar threatened to kill all of Israel's Jews if Gaza does not get enough ventilators. 

“If ventilators are not brought into [Gaza], we’ll take them by force from Israel and stop the breathing of 6 million Israelis," he said, as reported by Times of Israel and Arab media.

Compendium

I have come to realise that my pro-Israel focus is of relatively minority interest, even for BBC bias nerds. It’s a bit niche, or it was until a few months ago. While this stuff is important to many of us (me) I could easily dominate this blog with material that would invite “people” to dismiss it as “Zio" - not that I need approval from them - but for that reason I’ve condensed this material, harvested from a particularly vibrant link-rich post on the Elder of Ziyon website into what Craig referred to the other day as a ‘pamphlet’. 

It’s turned into a giant post, but I hope it isn’t dismissed as another tl;dr  - It’s more of a digest, a compendium. Dip in.

1) For me, a must-read. Many of EoZ’s pieces are American-authored and primarily aimed at an American audience. However, since the Labour Party’s antisemitism hit the fan, British politics has been catapulted into the spotlight.

Jeremy Corbyn Reminds Us Why Israel Exists. National Review

As Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis correctly points out, Corbyn hasn’t merely “tolerated” anti-Semitic attitudes — as so many publications like to claim — but rather he has actively transformed Labour, once one of the most important political parties in the free world, into a safe haven for Jew-hatred. As Mirvis notes, under Corbyn, a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, Labour has “hounded parliamentarians, members and even staff out of the party for challenging anti-Jewish racism.” 

Perhaps Corbyn’s rise simply reflects a new — or is it a renewed? — reality in Europe? A recent ADL poll claims that a quarter of Europeans hold anti-Semitic views. Around 45 percent of Poles and 42 percent of Ukrainians admit to pollsters that they believe that “people hate Jews because of the way Jews behave,” a view that over 30 percent of our old friends the Austrians and Germans share. And one of the fastest growing groups in Europe, Muslims, are importing an even deeper enmity towards Jews than is found in Poland, Ukraine, Germany, and elsewhere. Muslims in Western Europe are anti-Semitic at almost three times the rate of the general population. Thus far, Corbyn has appeased, rather than tried to extinguish, this hatred. 

If Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party ends up winning next month, Britain will be led by an openly anti-Semitic government. Mirvis warns that such a result is an existential threat to Britain’s Jewry. What he can’t say, but implies, is that people such as Corbyn are exactly why Israel must exist.

******

2)That fake letter This David Collier piece has been on our sidebar for a short while. A piece that can genuinely be described as ‘investigative’ journalism.

*****

3) Here’s Gisela Stuart. Labour’s loss. Guido Fawkes

WATCH: @GiselaStuart tears into Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party. pic.twitter.com/WAJB9uychz

— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) November 29, 2019

*******

4)  Corbyn rejected by prominent British historian of Nazi Germany J.Post

"The British legal academic Julius said that “Antisemitism is stupid. It makes people stupid. It is not a coincidence that the least accomplished leader of the Labour Party is also its only antisemitic one…This is not a party that cares about the concerns of the Jewish community, save insofar as those concerns might have a damaging impact on its electoral fortunes.”

I tackled this issue in an earlier post, but it’s worth adding this:

"Julius concluded his letter stating: “To purge the party of antisemitism will be the work of a generation. The evidence that the political will exists to undertake this task is not compelling: members are not yet ashamed enough of their party’s antisemitism. The driving out of leading Jewish (and non-Jewish) politicians from the party, who cited its antisemitism, did not have a substantial impact on party morale, still less commit its officials and elected members to decisive action. We cannot leave the work to the party itself. Supporters have to lend a hand. Depriving the party of a vote is a start.”

******

5) This is a short article from the Campaign Against Antisemitism, but I thought this quote was worth passing on to our readers.

Respected Rabbi Menachem Margolin / blistering attack on Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn

“There is no nuance, no clever turn of phrase or election soundbite that can undo what is done by Jeremy Corbyn. His record of supporting terrorists who want nothing short of the destruction of the world’s only Jewish State, his sympathy with those who murder and maim women, children, the elderly – any civilian – as long as they are Jewish – is a matter of public record that no amount of spin or whitewashing can erase. This is his legacy. He must live with it, and the solid and justified judgement and abhorrence that comes with it from the vast majority of Jews, not just in the UK but in Europe too.”

********

6)

Watch as John McDonnell is confronted by British Jews leaving Labour's 'Arts For All' event.

When asked why Labour is ignoring the concerns of British Jews he awkwardly dismisses their fears and scuttles off to a waiting car.#LabourAntisemitism pic.twitter.com/FFnRuAnVek

— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) November 28, 2019

John McDonnell leaving an 'arts' event with hard-left ‘veteran’ agitator Tariq Ali, supporter of Hamas and throwback to a previous generation of commies. One might have hoped these Peter Pans would have grown up by now. Of course, Peter Pan never grew up if I remember correctly.

Israel to blame for rise in antisemitism, left wing veteran Tariq Ali declares.

Describing Mr Corbyn as his “old friend and comrade”, Mr Ali – who founded the Stop The War movement – said that he wanted to begin his remarks by speaking about “antisemitism that we are told has swept the Labour Party, that we are told is a big problem for the left.” 

He accepted there was prejudice against Muslim, Jew and gay people, but added: “If you were to ask me what is a bigger problem in Europe and north America – is it antisemitism, or is it Islamophobia? 

“The answer is very clear, it is Islamophobia.”

*******

7) For dessert, with a cherry on top, Canceling Roger Waters

Most people who find Roger Waters’ position on Israel and BDS objectionable take the “high road” and do not call for a boycott of the political activist/musician because of a fundamental objection to cultural boycotts. They believe, as do I, that cultural boycotts undermine the peace and understanding that comes from cultural exchange. Others, however, do not initiate a boycott of Waters because they believe it will be fruitless. For the latter, this example might make them think again. 

The activists at the Westwood IPic theater wanted to send the message that antisemitism, like racism and sexism, is toxic to our world and you can no longer be publicly antisemitic without consequences. 

Like everyone else, artists are entitled to express their opinions and advocate for their personal agendas. When they do, however, they invite a public response and fame and fortune should not be a shield.

You might not see (any of) these items on the BBC -  that's why they're here.

At the sharp end

This is a turn up for the books. Gosh, that’s an old-fashioned expression - it’s supposed to mean ‘an unexpected piece of good fortune’. In that case, scrap that. This is unexpected alright, but it’s not exactly a piece of good fortune. 

Remember Dr Rosena Allin-Khan? She was the subject of a couple of our recent posts after she’d managed to generate a flurry of anti-Israeli broadcasts about the Israeli medical profession’s heartless cruelty to Gazans. Babies dying alone? Parents denied permits to accompany child cancer sufferers for treatment? Yes, those.

There was a nasty interview in which deputy Israeli ambassador Sharon Bar-Li was at the sharp end of one of Mishal Husain’s customary tongue-lashings and at the blunt end, Dr Allin-Khan was invited to a leisurely stroll on Husain’s personal red-carpet.    

Now you’ve remembered all that, clock this. 

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan:

“So, in my quest to improve the permit system, I had a very lively radio discussion with the Deputy Israeli Ambassador - something which continued in the green room at the BBC. Weeks later, she invited me to meet with her to discuss it further. 

So last week, I went to the Israeli Embassy to discuss it, in the hope to get some traction, to improve the permit system - which will benefit thousands of Palestinians waiting for hospital treatment. 

Instead of supporting my work, those purporting to support the Palestinian cause have spouted horrible anti-Semitic abuse. See some examples here - it’s disgusting, these views are abhorrent - but also misguided and ill-informed.”

"This behaviour does nothing to help the Palestinian cause. I have been there, called out what I’ve seen and spoken in the press. Am I now not meant to work to improve this dreadful situation? 

I’ve worked with Palestinians across the Middle East for 10 years - but these racists think they can sit behind a keyboard here in the U.K and troll someone genuinely trying to help. It’s revolting - it’s wrong."

This looks a little like self-pity rather than a genuine dawning of the light, but it’s a start. At least she’ll see what it’s like to be at the sharp end of unfair criticism.

The unknowns we don't know we don't know

There are things going on in the world besides Brexit. There’s also the Tory Leadership circus, drones, brinkmanship, the Strait of Hormuz and Iran is “just DAYS AWAY from breaching uranium stockpile limit agreed under nuclear deal.”

The upcoming Palestinian Expo in London is another disturbing thing I can’t do anything about.  

The exhibits they’ve set up are actually thinly veiled anti-Israel stunts. The programme reads like an immersive experience in Hamas propaganda. Apparently, you can ‘have a go’ at all kinds of games to help you empathise with the Palestinian cause and whip you up till you despise the Israelis even more than you did before. (H/T EoZ)

"While the expo does spend some time on "Palestinian culture" with fake date-palm trees and a "Palestinian wedding" from 1900 (way before any Arabs identified themselves as Palestinian,) it spends more time not celebrating Palestine but bashing Israel: 

Once you see this in context, you realize that even the exhibits that celebrate "Palestinian culture" are really meant to create the myth of Palestinian culture, as up until the 1960s there was no such thing outside of the larger Arab and Levantine culture. Even those exhibits are created with the idea of Israel in mind - Palestinians must make up a fake history in order to lay claim to the land that is stronger that the Jewish claim. 

The most laughable example of that comes from this exhibit:
 Tapestry: Over 70 metres of tapestry pieces stitched by Palestinian women. This collection illustrates Palestine from Neolithic to current day.
The Neolithic period was the final stage of the Stone Age - 12,000 years ago. 

Palestine Expo isn't designed to celebrate Palestine but to incite hate against Israel. Which is pretty much what the entire Palestinian cause is really is about to begin with."

It’s painfully reminiscent of that nasty Apartheid Wall Christmas stunt set up by Lucy Winkett, the vicar of St James’s, Piccadilly, and a regular contributor to TFTD. 

These theatricals are all part and parcel of a tectonic-scale, ahistorical, context-free, misinformation movement, a kind of septic tank-full of lies that spawn the sanctimonious moralising that Israel-hating agitators thrive on.

The BBC fell for it a long time ago, and so did most of the left-liberal intelligentsia, which helps explain why Emily Maitlis feels perfectly free to describe antisemitic comments made by the “imam from Bristol” as anti-Israeli rather than anti-Jewish. When she sheepishly read out the front page headlines on Newsnight’s late-night press review, she looked as if she was being forced to defend the BBC but wasn’t quite sure why. 

This brings us back to the troublesome question ‘Do you agree that words have consequences?” What are they going to say? No? Of course they bloody do - words certainly do have consequences, otherwise, Goebbels must have been wasting his time. Why is there even an advertising industry? Words have obviously had consequences ever since mankind learned to grunt. (And womankind.)

So why did the BBC have to get a Muslim, not just any old Muslim, mind you, but a Muslim brimming with Muslimness, to pose that ridiculous non-question? As soon as I saw that camera shot - a preview, if you like - of what we were about to receive, I bloody well knew the Lord was not about to make me truly grateful.

Not just any old Muslim

So it wasn’t just any old words we were supposed to be talking about, was it? The BBC’s ruse was to entice Boris through his own letterbox and into their ready-made elephant trap. The only words the BBC was concerned about were those pesky ‘Islamophobic’ ones.  You know, the ones that have gradually morphed from one of Boris Johnson’s colourful metaphors (about the all-enveloping full-body burka) into a mean, slang, Islamophobic name for “Muslim women.” You couldn’t make it up; well, you could. And you did. 

While we’re at it, we mustn’t forget those other legendary bad words - the piccaninny and the watermelon smile. Having been snatched out of context, and having undergone a humour-ectomy, Boris’s personal brand of phraseology makes him officially racist. But you can’t have your cake and eat it..so if you’re going to manipulate the prospective Prime Minister into introducing a blasphemy law, you must also expect him and his government to address those antisemitic slurs and smears that the BBC has been perpetuating for the last 70 years, which have had such an epic, seismic influence on public opinion. You know, words and their consequences.

One example is the audience’s laughter at that Malaysian nonagenarian’s antisemitic quip during his speech at the Cambridge Union. 

There’s the sniggering, scornful laughter from the Question Time audience when Melanie Phillips points out that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. And at the Intelligence Squared debate…

“When I observed that the Israelis go to unique lengths to avoid killing civilians in war and that the ratio of civilians to fighters whose deaths they cause is at least three or four times better than in any other country, the audience laughed derisively. When I said Israeli Arabs enjoyed full civil rights, the audience laughed again in disbelief.

They get away with doing that because they are ignorant. Worse, they’re ignorant of their own ignorance. This is known as Donald Rumsfield’s unknown unknowns — “the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” They want to show that they’re not going to be hoodwinked into disbelieving what they know they know; they know better. They’ve learnt it from listening to the BBC.

Intelligence Squared debate; Palestine Expo; Imam from Bristol. It’s all happening, despite Brexit.

P.S. Breaking news. Has Boris scuppered his chances? Maybe the BBC needn't have bothered with their ambush after all.

Who is Ilhan Omar?

I've written a feature on Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-born US congresswoman, who's drawn praise and criticism since her election in November 2018 https://t.co/m03J5Ste71

— Toby Luckhurst (@TobyLuckhurst) February 15, 2019

Toby Luckhurst BBC twitter  Ilhan Omar: Who is Minnesota's Somalia-born congresswoman?

The BBC’s Toby Luckhurst; (me neither) Google gives the impression he’s ‘Twitter’s Toby Luckhurst' rather than the Beeb’s since his work seems to be mainly in the form of Tweets.

Anyway, the BBC has given him a platform to express his admiration for Ilhan Omar, Minnesota’s newly elected Somali-American, hijab-wearing, antisemitic Democratic congresswoman.

I was alerted to this puff piece by D.B., who Tweeted a question to the writer on behalf of many of us.

Why have you cited a Guardian article supporting Omar? You don't link to any journalists criticial of her. Interesting use of loaded language on her behalf too - she gave "a powerful rebuke", she "fired back". & you finish by giving her the last word - playing the Muslim card.

Toby Luckhurst’s article shows that the fabric in the BBC’s cloak of impartiality is getting increasingly threadbare.

Ilhan Omar: Who is Minnesota's Somalia-born congresswoman?

Luckhurst has pitched the article in the style of an educational resource - Perhaps the BBC sees it as one of those “all you need to know” pieces that they favour. (Educating, informing and entertaining the masses.)

It’s divided into three sections, with, at  number one: “Who is Ilhan Omar?” - “What do her fans think?” at number two, and last but not least, at number three “What do critics say?”.

This (concluding) section is lengthy but please don't be fooled. It doesn’t signify impartiality.  Not at all; because a large proportion of it covers her apologies and excuses for her inadvertent (“innocent face”) transgressions and "mistakes". The author might believe that a section featuring criticism of Omar is enough to provide the requisite balance, but as DB points out, the language he uses throughout belies this.

The first two sections are virtually elegiac. 'Diversity!' and 'Racial disadvantage triumphs over racist white privilege’ is the none too subtle message.

"A refugee girl came here and achieved the American dream," Somali refugee Awmam Mahdi told the BBC.

Never mind the antisemitism and chronic “Israelophobia.” Her victory over the “181-year ban on headwear in the House of Representatives, allowing her to wear a hijab for her oath of office, and holds a place on the House Foreign Affairs Committee” is apparently regarded as progress for some reason.

I don’t think Luckhurst will have read 'I was forced to wear a hijab. It wasn’t liberating Why World Hijab Day is an insult to girls like me' by Soutiam Goodarzi, (Spectator(£)  otherwise he might not have promoted this as an unequivocal and progressive triumph. 

And Omar’s support for BDS is accepted uncritically, even though many of us see it as an abomination; both deeply antisemitic and an inherently hypocritical position for any users of Israeli-invented and manufactured medical and technological resources.

Her overt antisemitism is brushed aside by linguistic sleight of hand: 

“She was embroiled in controversy over tweets which some have claimed are anti-Semitic.”

That’s straight out of the BBC’s weaselly  “Israel says” formula. 

Some have claimed......

“Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel. #”

is antisemitic? Just a claim, then.

As DB has also pointed out, the only article that has been extensively quoted by Luckhurst is an opinion piece in the Guardian by a  critic of Israel, and for those extra Brownie points, a notorious “asaJew” 

Just from the last few weeks, the pro-Israel press provides a metaphorical bottomless pit of critical articles from which the author could have dipped into just to provide a modicum of balance to this would-be backgrounder.

Times of Israel:  Jewish money behind US support Israel.

Daily Wire  Ilhan Omar Promotes Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories, Retweets 'Hook-Nosed' Tweet

Daily Wire Ilhan Omar To Speak Alongside Man Who Praised Killing Jews, Report Says

Washington Beacon  ‘Hateful and Offensive’: Omar Slammed by Fellow Democrats for Saying Israel Support Is Bought by AIPAC

Daily Wire Bipartisan Condemnation Erupts Over Ilhan Omar's Anti-Semitism

Daily Wire Democrats, Pelosi Condemn Ilhan Omar, But Keep Her On Key Committee

Washington Free Beacon  Obama Ambassador to Israel: Omar Should Be Condemned by All Democrats for ‘Outrageous Comments’

Washington Free Beacon  Former KKK Grand Wizard Defends Omar Tweets

Washington Examiner In rare vote, House sends a message on anti-Semitism to Ilhan Omar

This is but a mere handful of alarming information about Ilhan Omar's conduct, all picked up via Elder of Ziyon. But there's much more of the same out there, for those of a curious disposition.  

Fetishising Palestinian extremists

I’ve been out of the country, and have missed most of the last couple of week’s domestic news. However, one morning on internet radio I caught a Palestinian speaker decrying the “Israelisation of Palestine”, and perpetuating the falsehood that “The Jews” are interlopers on “our land”.  Unchallenged, of course, by the interviewer. I can’t be bothered to go off in the pointless pursuit of a link, but it reminded of the Tamimi clan’s extensive publicity tour, where they’re busily perpetuating the same “our land”  theme.  

Ignorance of history is so widespread that one is resigned to the fact that the battle for hearts and minds is truly lost. The BBC’s role in the public’s ignorance about Israel was highlighted the other day by Col. Richard Kemp on this BBC related clip.  H/T EoZ

Talking of ‘Ahed Tamimi the icon’, the BBC has fallen for another cynical Pallywood stunt and perpetuated it in a sickeningly partis pris manner. BBC Trending picked it up and featured it, fanboy fashion, online with the headline: Gaza protest image likened to famous Delacroix painting.

Elder of Ziyon had a laugh about it, and BBC Watch dissects it more seriously here, but the most pertinent response to it that I’ve seen is by Stephen Daisley in the Spectator.

“As a live Palestinian, Amro, who was snapped mid-rampage on Monday, will not have the same impact on low-information media consumers. He has, however, stirred that morbid romanticism which draws Western progressives to the Palestinians, ever since Laleh Khalili, a professor at SOAS, tweeted the photograph and the words ‘Holy shit what an image’ on Tuesday. Khalili’s tweet has been retweeted 48,000 times and liked 124,000 times. 

Newsweek gushed of ‘the now-iconic photo’ that ‘some [are] suggesting the image is reminiscent of the Biblical story of David and Goliath’. The New Zealand Herald wrote it up under the headline ‘Palestinian goes viral while leading the people’ and told its readers the image had ‘drawn comparisons with the iconic French Revolution painting, Liberty Leading the People, by Eugene Delacroix’. It topped The Guardian’s best photos of the day gallery and The Atlantic’s photos of the week list. Social media is awash with the picture and there is scarcely an anti-Israel agitator who has not tweeted, Facebooked or Instagrammed it. A student dorm room poster has been born.”

So it’s not only the BBC. But the BBC should have higher standards. Some hopes.

Why do it?

I just watched an extraordinary performance by Andrew Neil. First, he interrogated Stephen Crabb of CFOI. His questioning was repetitive, and his approach was impatient and unoriginal, namely that  Israel is guilty of ‘disproportionate use of force against unarmed civilians'. 

“Social unrest” he called the riots. “Sixty people shot dead, most of them unarmed” he repeated. “Why do it?” 

It was perfectly obvious that he and the rest of the BBC can see no justification whatsoever for Israel’s actions. He kept saying, irritably, “so you refuse to condemn Israel” and constantly reinterpreted his interviewee’s words, rather like a combo of Cathy Newman and Evan Davis, who wanted to extract an emotional outpouring of regret from his Israeli interviewee on last night's Newsnight.

Neil seemed to think it was a simple matter of bringing in a few “anti-riot police” - not soldiers armed with high-velocity weapons. Did he know the numbers involved? How many anti-riot police would be enough to quell 40,000 ‘protestors’? We’ll never know. “Why do it?” he kept asking, then  “How many Israelis were injured?” he ventured, turning into a ghoulish Mishal Husain. How many injured Israelis would suit you? one would like to know.

 “Killing sixty people is disproportional.”  “A disproportionate response.”

What are things coming to, I wondered - when the BBC’s only supposed ‘good guy’ is brimming with ill-will towards Israel?

Next, he turned to Richard Burgon, the shadow something or other, (Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor) and suddenly it transpired that Andrew Neil knew all along that many of the unarmed civilians were not unarmed at all.   He wondered what would have happened if the protesters had got through the fence? "But they didn't," said Burgon. (No, because they were shot.)

“It all happened because Hamas organised it,” said Neil, and it was Burgon’s turn to be dismissed with: “so you refuse to condemn Hamas?” 

I have to say this was not Andrew Neil’s finest hour. He was impatient and rude and at times he wouldn’t let his victims complete a sentence because he thought they were not answering his unanswerable questions. He showed no attempt to think beyond the superficial and appeared to be pandering to the kind of viewer who is as ignorant of the reality on the ground as the entire coterie of journalists and reporters currently employed by the most trusted news-gathering outfit in the world. They have all, collectively, leapt to the same conclusion- reflexive condemnation of Israel.

Everyone is willing to rush in with their disapproval, most of them showing no curiosity and little understanding of the situation. It reminds me of the Goldstone report. Remember that? 

I'd say, don't rush in, just because you can. This is one time when it really is wise to wait for a formal inquiry before dishing out blame. I’d be interested in Andrew Neil’s response to this letter from a soldier in the IDF who witnessed the proceedings, published on the Elder of Ziyon website.   I reproduce some of it below.

"I’m writing because I am one of the few who was there – in uniform, in the reserves, but I was there. Yes, right there on the fence where the demonstrations are happening. It was last Friday – but I saw it with my own eyes; I was on our side but I could see and hear and understand everything. I want to testify from my firsthand knowledge, not a theoretical point of view. Because I was there. 

I want to testify that what I saw and heard was a tremendous, supreme effort from our side, to prevent in every possible way Palestinian deaths and injuries. 

Of course, the primary mission was to prevent hundreds of thousands of Gazans from infiltrating into our territory. That kind of invasion would be perilous, mortally dangerous to the nearby communities, would permit terrorists disguised as civilians to enter our kibbutzim and moshavim, and would leave us with no choice but to target every single infiltrator. 

That’s why our soldiers were directed to prevent infiltration – in a variety of ways, only using live ammunition as a last resort. The IDF employs many creative means of reducing friction with Gazans and uses numerous methods, most of which are not made public, to prevent them from reaching the fence. 

In addition, over the last few weeks there have been serious efforts to save the lives of children and civilians who have been pushed to the front lines by the Hamas – who are trying to hide behind them in order to infiltrate and attack Israel. 

When there is no alternative and live ammunition must be used to stop those who storm the fence – the soldiers make heroic and sometimes dangerous efforts not to kill and only to injure those on the other side. 

The IDF is stationing senior commanders at every confrontation point to ensure that every shot is approved and backed up by a responsible figure with proper authority. Every staging area has an especially large number of troops in order to make sure that soldiers are not put into life-threatening situations where they will have no choice but to fire indiscriminately. 

A situation where thousands of people rush you is frightening, even terrifying. It is extremely difficult to show restraint, and it requires calm, mature professionalism. 

55 dead is an enormous number. But I can testify from my first-hand experience, that every bullet and every hit is carefully reported, documented and investigated, in Excel spreadsheets. Literally. I was there and I saw it with my own eyes. 

This isn’t the time or place to discuss the situation in general and the desperate plight of the residents of Gaza. I’m not interested in starting a political discussion here, although I do have a clear position. 

What I’m trying to do is present, for everyone who really wants to listen, the extent of the IDF’s enormous effort to protect Israel’s borders while minimizing injuries and loss of life on the other side. 

And despite all this – the situation on the border with Gaza is deteriorating. I hope that we won’t be called up again soon for reserve duty to protect our country. But if we are, we will go with the knowledge that we are serving a just and morally correct cause. We do not rejoice when we must go to war, but we also don’t go like sheep to the slaughter. Not anymore.

So there you are. Why do it? you ask. Now you know at least part of the answer. 

Update:  
It would be quite nice if Andrew Neil and some of the least intransigent armchair moralisers would acknowledge that Hamas claims 50 of 62 Gaza border deaths were its own members.

The Jewish Chronicle.

Salah al-Bardawil, one of the Islamist group’s leaders, told Palestinian Radio on Wednesday: “In the last round of confrontations 62 people were martyred, 50 of them were Hamas.”

In a further statement, the Islamic Jihad terror group said three of its members were also killed in the protests.