Annual occurrence

There are so many things I would have blogged in the last few days /weeks. But I couldn’t.  

The worst thing (for me) was the BBC’s oh so predictable Christmastide anti-Israel emoting based on the BBC’s (and Sky’s) saccharine and weirdly sentimentalised portrayal of the Plight of the Palestinians - and at this time of year, of Palestinian Christians. If Palestinian Christians are beleaguered, it’s due to the ongoing persecution of Christians that the mainstream media persistently ignores, (because it’s) perpetrated by their favourite peaceful religion.

The BBC must know is going on, but they just ain’t interested. Only when they believe that Israel can be blamed by insinuation do the Beeb’s ears prick up and its eyes light up. The BBC must feel that the current climate offers a safe space for unsubstantiated innuendo and their special brand of passive-aggressive reporting.

BBC Watch has been on the case - does the BBC even bother to look at these painstakingly researched articles?

https://bbcwatch.org/tag/barbara-plett-usher/

https://bbcwatch.org/2019/12/26/the-bbcs-biased-bethlehem-binge-continues/

https://bbcwatch.org/2019/12/25/bbc-politicisation-of-christmas-continues-on-ws-radio/

https://bbcwatch.org/2019/12/22/bbc-news-again-self-conscripts-to-banksys-israel-delegitimisation/

https://bbcwatch.org/2019/12/23/bbc-ws-radio-airs-anti-terrorist-fence-falsehoods/

https://bbcwatch.org/2016/12/22/documenting-five-years-of-bbc-politicisation-of-christmas/ 

........and here’s a comprehensive summary of the Banksy nonsense by Camera. 

The way the BBC magnified Banksy’s tiny wee nativity scene is beyond (even my own) belief. I mean they’ve surpassed themselves. 

“Has the opening of any other art exhibit – never mind a single small installation – ever garnered so much interest before in Israel or the West Bank, warranting headlines in numerous leading news organizations? None of the aforementioned media outlets which covered the opening of “Scar of Bethlehem” gave any coverage to the graffiti murals painted on Israeli bomb shelters by visiting international artists.” […] 

“By giving the small installation such disproportionate coverage, journalists have provided an unfortunate platform to propagate the falsehoods.
Moreover, the suggestion that the Israeli military is firing on Jesus evokes ancient antisemitic charges of deicide. The widely-accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism includes the following:
Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
Instead of exploring and exposing the antisemitic canard behind the installation, or choosing not to give the vitriolic message a platform, media outlets uniformly provided warm, approving coverage. 

As you know, Craig took up the baton on behalf of  ITBB. 

The BBC sticks to its agenda, year in, year out. Surely they must know what’s going on. If they don’t, they must at least know there’s another side to the story. 

🇮🇱 BBC and Sky News demonise Israel for Christmas. 🎅

RT if you're sick of the medias anti-Israel bias. pic.twitter.com/82U4oXtQFk

— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) December 26, 2019

Who is ‘they’? I don’t know if it’s the on-the-ground personnel, from Jeremy Bowen and downwards and onwards through the ranks, or maybe it's in accord with a directive from on high. It’s relentless. Wherever it comes from, it plays a significant part in the current outbreak of overt racism. It all adds up.

Silent night.

"Silent Night": Persecuted Palestinian Christians Kept Out of Sight

by Raymond Ibrahim

"In short, Palestinian Christians are suffering from the same patterns of persecution — including church attacks, kidnappings and forced conversion — that their coreligionists suffer in other Muslim nations. The difference, however, is that the persecution of Palestinian Christians has "received no coverage in the Palestinian media."

[...] 

"The bread and butter of the PA and its supporters, particularly in the media, is to portray the Palestinians as victims of unjust aggression and discrimination from Israel. This narrative would be jeopardized if the international community learned that Palestinians are themselves persecuting fellow Palestinians — solely on account of religion.

It’s not reported in the Palestinian media? Nor is it reported in the British media. 

Meanwhile, the BBC is busy promoting Banksy’s annual Christmas stunt, which has been elevated to the main news bulletins.  The website even shoehorns the year-before-last's promotional video about Banksy's elaborate agitprop project - the repulsive 'walled-off hotel', into the 'report'.  

The BBC acts as if nothing has changed. It’s high time Boris’s new-fangled government appointed someone like David Collier - or actually David Collier - to apply his expertise and tenacity to the BBC’s antisemitic bent. Taking Collier's forensic study of Amnesty International as the operational model would be a start.  When staff recruitment comes solely from a single source, there's bound to be trouble. 

It seems the Balen report will never see the light of day; it must be obsolete by now. The Labour Party’s overt antisemitism played a part in its own downfall. The BBC should heed the warning and start watching points.

More than absolutely necessary

I love this animated Christmas greeting from The Times. I particularly enjoyed Corbyn struggling with his bow and upside-down guitar.

*******

Just tell me. Am I an Islamophobe? Not that I think it’s a valid term, for reasons I’ve stated many times before. However, when I read articles on websites like Gatestone Institute, I feel my reservations about Islam are well-founded and not. a. phobia. 

This piece is just one example of thousands. Denmark: Why Integration Fails. By Judith Bergman

Here’s a taster:

“In a recent survey conducted by the Danish Ministry of Foreigners and Integration (Udlændinge- og Integrationsministeriet), 48% of descendants of non-Western immigrants in Denmark said that they think it should be forbidden to criticize religion, according to Kristeligt Dagblad. Forty-two percent of immigrants who had lived in Denmark for three years agreed with the statement, while only 20% of ethnic Danes agreed with it.

Some people might just dismiss Judith Bergman too as an Islamophobe, for this and many other statements she (and others) have made, but this circular argument is the road to nowhere.

Melanie Phillips has got herself into trouble - the kind that emanates from people who hate Melanie Phillips more than absolutely necessary (a riff on the old joke about the definition of antisemitism.) 

Hatred of Melanie Phillips is a kind of running theme, but it came to a head (again) after her article about antisemitism appeared in the Jewish Chronicle. For once we have an article that doesn’t obfuscate and contort the facts just to avoid linking Islam with hatred of Jews. The vitriol this has piece brought upon her - and also upon Stephen Pollard for publishing it - is made even more devastating and hurtful because most of it comes from the British Jewish leadership.

My immediate reaction is to ask why the Board of Deputies and many prominent Jewish figures in the public eye (including showbiz) will stand up to fight against antisemitic bullying in the Labour Party but are too terrified to criticise ‘another religion.’ Is it a fear of being accused of ‘hypocrisy-of-the-racist-kind’? They seem afraid to delve too deeply into the quagmire of koranic-based antisemitism, too quick to equate antisemitism with Islamophobia and too easily discombobulated by semantic misinterpretations of terms like “Semite” and similarly distracting irrelevancies.

Another disturbing factor in this toxic soup is the undeniable tendency amongst groups and individuals that identify as ‘Jewish’ to call for open borders. This seems to me, yet again, as if failing to offer unlimited and unconditional sanctuary to refugees, no matter who they may be or why they need refuge would look hypocritical coming from the descendants of parents or grandparents who benefited from the (restricted) sanctuary that Britain once offered them. “And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive them that trespass against us.” 

The inescapable conclusion one has to draw from this is that a kind of tacit blasphemy law already exists. So am I an Islamophobe? And if so, what odds does it make? 

*******

I have been reading all manner of articles here there and everywhere about the persecution of Christians - often perpetuated or orchestrated by majority Muslim countries. The BBC reports it occasionally, in this case after the report by the Bishop of Truro, but on the whole, our national broadcaster remains pretty uninterested in this phenomenon unless, of course,  the persecution (falsely) implicates Israel somewhere in the mix. We hear a lot from the BBC about the treatment of Muslims in China, India and Myanmar, but not so much about the fate of Christians in Indonesia, Russia, Cameroon, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Egypt, China, Sudan, Pakistan, Turkey, Nigeria, Iran, the Gaza Strip or Iraq. 

Come to think of it I haven’t noticed as many of the traditional yuletide Palestine-victimhood stunts this year. Wot, no Banksy? No Lucy Winkett? No Danny Boyle? 

What’s going on? 

*******

Did you see the TV coverage of the Parliamentary debate yesterday? I was transfixed by those obnoxious cackles heckling Suella Breverman’s speech. I know the new Speaker is a nice fellow and a breath of fresh air, but surely letting that appallingly coarse cacophony go by without comment or reprimand was non-interventionism gawn mad. The Express suggests the culprit was Joanna Cherry; the SNP won’t confirm or deny. (Bear with me if this video migrates from Suella into another topic.)

************

In stark contrast to Craig’s progressive bite-size format, I’m lumping all these observations together. You may see this as an example of ‘sublime to ridiculous’ but at least it’s diverse.

**********

What did you think of the way ITBB’s “Fifty Festive” became TCW’s “Fifty Shades”? I thought Craig’s holly-sprig laden format had the edge. Many thanks and congrats to Monkey Brains for the material. 

We have to face the fact that ITBB is a niche blog in comparison to TCW, which often features in the ‘Seen Elsewhere’ section of Guido Fawkes's blog. I bet that generates quite a bit of traffic.  However, (Oh no! There’s going to be a ‘however’) one of the drawbacks of attracting traffic/comments in considerable volume is that it puts your blog at greater risk of being discredited by your btl commentariat, arguably, through no fault of your own. 

I have caught a whiff of some nasty, antisemitic innuendo below the line on supposedly right-wing blogs and in various MSM comments fields. The Spectator and The Times are not immune to this. A couple of dubious names regularly comment on TCW. Until someone takes issue with these buggers they must feel that they’re amongst friends. At least we don’t get much of that here in our obscure hidey-hole.

One of our (former) commenters took offence when we questioned his use of a potentially provocative moniker, which he seemed to have reserved especially for us. While I appreciate any faith in our defiant refusal to kowtow to Politically Correct censorship, we don’t really need to be ‘discredited by association’ any more than absolutely necessary, especially as that particular commenter happily modifies his moniker to accommodate the sensibilities of TCW.

*****

Funny that this squeamish inability to admit that antisemitism is rife in Muslim communities is so prominent amongst the many-not-the-few. Does this have any bearing on the widespread condemnation of Tommy Robinson? After all, he hasn’t shied away from exploring the root causes of Islamic-based antisemitism and anti-Christian ‘ism’. 

Let’s face it, no-one’s going to be saying “Tommy Robinson was right all along” in the immediate future. But then, we’ve heard the Prime Minister speaking out against BDS. So one never knows. Interesting times.

The PM:
"When it comes to standing by our friends, one innovation that this Queens Speech introduces is that it stops public bodies from taking it upon themselves to boycott goods from other countries.... that with nauseating frequencies that turn out to be #Israel" pic.twitter.com/iqMHiFLrkP

— SussexFriendsofIsrael (@SussexFriends) December 19, 2019

What persecution?

At around the same time as my previous, (I’d switched to the Parliament channel to get away from the Brexit related  hysteria on the BBC/Sky) I also saw the HoC debate on the persecution of Christians overseas - apparently Christians are the most persecuted religion of all  - that debate took place quite a while ago (11th July in response to the Bishop of Truro’s report) but, apart from broadcasting the debate itself on the Parliament channel, have we heard a great deal about it on the Beeb? 

I don’t think we have. There was something on the Asian Channel, but it’s ‘not currently available’. 

You have to rely on the internet for such information. 

The BBC is useless in that regard.