BBC journalism hit a new low today. The BBC News channel devoted only a single sentence to Palestine’s diplomatic coup in gaining full membership of Unesco. It used that single sentence once at 18.23 and once during the following hour. And this is that single sentence:
“Israel says that Unesco’s decision to admit Palestine to full membership will damage the prospects for peace in the Middle East.”
No other view was given, We did not hear what Palestine says, or what Unesco says, or what any of the huge majority of 107 countries which voted for Palestine say. The only view we were given was the Israeli view, and there was no questioning or discussion of that view.
“Israel says” – what an astonishing opening two words to a report on a great day for Palestinian diplomacy. Everyone connected with BBC News should be utterly ashamed. Why don’t we just save the license fee and let Netanyahu’s office broadcast the news instead?
The vote incidentally was 107 to 14. It was a humiliating defeat for US diplomacy. Latvia, Tuvalu and Uzbekistan are among the states which did not follow the US lead against Palestine but which always have done in the past. The USA was also unable to coerce a single African state – I am proud of Africa, and Ghana in particluar.
Here is the list of the pathetic 14, the overwhelmingly defeated states which tried to block Palestine and which either have extreme neo-con governments or are completely susceptible to US aid blackmail – you can decide which are which:
Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Sweden, United States of America, Vanuatu.
If I want to know what British foreign policy is in regard to a particular matter in the news I tune into BBC News 24.
@Suhyal Yes, Norway has maintained a reasonable middle-east policy and open with the recognition of the Palestinian state. They were severely punished for that too, in the so-called “lone-man” attack on Oslo and the Utoya island. There are many eyewitnesses saying there were several shooters on the island. The Oslo incident bears the mark of a black-op and we can guess who was behind it. Interesting enough in the first speech after the attack the Norwegian PM stated that Norway will not bow to external pressure. Why would he say that if the attack was carried out by a lone nut, even thought the nut is a documented pro-zionist?
Komodo: I didn’t bother with the 18:00 news. PM was bad enough – a _lengthy_ section on some foreigners who’ve been caught cheating at cricket, and we were treated to repeated playbacks of what they bragged was the most annoying sound going. They weren’t far wrong either, it sounded like a violin being played hard and slow below the bridge. Don’t know what actually produced it, it had gone beyond my point of tolerance to hear the full report on that one. I swear they want people to just turn off and forget about troubling themselves with the news.
Yeah, I missed the details on the noise,too, but they would have been just as well replacing the news with it.
However the short summary at 2000 contained an extra item, which the media are just picking up on. This is a restrained version:
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/palestinian-territories/israel-to-freeze-palestinian-tax-fund-after-unesco-vote-1.922452
I imagine the BBC will disappear it as soon as they can.
PS, Gaza and the West Bank’s computer users enjoyed a major DDOS attack tonight. Can’t think who’d want to do that, can you?
No mention @ 2100 roundup. Bent cricketers, bust Euro, St Paul’s convolutions, Michael Jackson’s doctor….jesus.
@Suhayl “Odd that Sweden voted against, no?”
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The current prime minister of Sweden uses Karl Rove as a political advisor. I think that explains Sweden’s actions.
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The No Countries form two blocks:
Czech Republic, Lithuania, Palau, Panama, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu.
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Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, United States of America.
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I imagine the support from the former block will have been purchased by the US, so the real opponents are just the seven in the second block.
Let’s just step back and be simpletons and ask the simpleton question: How the hell does that happen? How the hell does a tiny little nothing country perpetually have all these great nations bow to its will? Israel has nothing anybody wants: no vital products, no oil, no nothing. So… why do we perpetually kowtow to them?
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What If I was to declare that Israel achieves this by way of corruption, blackmail, and diaspora Jews whose allegiance lays not with their country of residence but with the Jewish State. Would that argument fall at the first hurdle? Or indeed any of them apart from the hoary old chestnut of anti-semitism?
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These are the most wicked and corrupt people on the planet. Between them and their Oded Yinon declared enemies (which just happen to be those countries not practising usurous banking) and whom we are dutifully bombing back to the stone age, we’re on the wrong side.
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http://churchofnobody.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-cease-opposition-government-was-right.html
Hey Nobody … it’s called anti-Semitism by anyones definition …
It’s right out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion … don’t look now there’s somebody behind the curtain … I said DON’T LOOK!
Sheesh … I thought ONLY Neanderthals … idiots … nincompoops … believed that BS …
If the shoe fits … ?
The Swedish no was because of internal politics within the ruling center-right coalition. We have one strong pro-israel party which is also has the education ministry and handles our representation at Unesco. Since our prime minister is uninterested in foreign policy the pro-israel party got to decide this one.
Thanks for that Mathias, I hope you are well. What is going to happen to Assange if and when he is exorcised from this totalitarian state to one of the most happiest country on earth.
I suppose the happiness comes from the obligatory distill’s many sport in their back gardens….:)
I also hope that your regualr Government will have enough spine to reject a US extradition request, knowing full well what sort of treatment he will receive from US torturers, I can’t see Sweden wanting to downgrade its image further, giving Nobel peace prices to warmongers who blow up the most dynamite is seriously daqmaging as it is.
Hi Ingo. I am well, though it is unfortunate that my very pro-palestinian green party is not in power. Then we would not have to be ashamed about how Seden votes in UN bodies.
I think Assange may have to spend quite some time locked up awaiting trial, and that Sweden will be justly blamed for this practice. If he is unlucky he may also face a biased lower court. He will in any case get a fair trial after an appeal.
Or he could be released after just one hearing. Depends on the prosecutor.
In order to extradite someone from Sweden he must have committed a crime that is punishable by at least one year in prison in Sweden. It must not be a political crime. I cannot see that Wikileaks has done anything that would be a crime in Sweden, so I don’t understand how we could extradite Assange.
Thanks for that Mathias, does one have to be charged with a crime before extradition can commence, because he is as yet not been charged with anything.
I fear that the UK will be the second nodding donkey in this extradition game, see the Assange thread.
I’m also sad that the greens in Sweden have not done better, some radicval new policies are needed, maybe? 😉
Wiki: Sde Boker.
A large agricultural farm or small village existed here in the early Islamic period, from the late 7th century to the early 9th century.[1] Remains of dozens of structures exist, including a mosque near which hundreds of Arabic inscriptions were found.[1]
The kibbutz was established on 15 May 1952.
In 1953 Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigned from office and moved to the kibbutz. Although he returned to politics in 1955, he continued to live in the kibbutz until his death in 1973, when he was buried nearby at Midreshet Ben-Gurion aside his wife Paula Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion moved to the kibbutz due to his vision of cultivating the arid Negev desert and building up its surrounding towns such as Yeruham and Dimona. He believed that eventually the Negev would be home to many Jews who would move to Israel after having made aliyah, and he felt that Sde-Boker was a trailblazer and example for what should follow.
Midreshet Sde Boker is otherwise known as Midreshet Ben-Gurion, isn’t it, Tzatz? I think you’d know. Settler.
Indeed, Sunflower, I thought the same wrt the Norwegian PM’s speech. Yonatan, yes, thanks for that, I think you’re correct. Uzbek in the UK, yep, it’s true, what you say about the Arab countries. Furthermore, right now, most of them are likely to far too preocupied with internal strife and power struggles in their own cities to bother exerting much leverage wrt Palestine, even if their lackey-leaders wanted to (which they don’t).
Thanks Tzatz,
I do love predictability. The shoe fits mate because it’s the only one you got. Here, see if you can guess who said this in response to being asked about anti-semitism:
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“Well, it’s a trick, we always use it. When from Europe somebody is criticizing Israel, then we bring up the Holocaust. When in this country people are criticizing Israel, then they are anti-Semitic.”
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Meanwhile the simpleton, neanderthal, idiot, nincompoop question still sits there. Why do the great nations of the world all bow down to Israel? Why are we fighting the people topping Oded Yinon’s shit list? Between the Muslims with the oil and the Jews who have nothing we need why are we fighting the former? Why does middle-class Israel recieve more of the US’s foreign aid than all the other countries in the world put together? You got any answer beyond, ‘Because they’re so deserving’?
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PS. Excellent ad hominems by the way. “We have two main weapons – accusations of anti-semitism, and ad hominem. And a fanatical devotion to Israel! Three main weapons! Our three weapons are…”
Are the mods sleeping on the job? 13 consecutive posts of commercial spam!
Another link to Werrity! Can’t believe no one has picked up on this leaked email from Bicom, a company who contributed funding to Atlantic Bridge. They paid for Werrity’s hotel and flights when he attended an Israeli conference in 2009 and talked up the Iranian “threat”. Bicom regularly lobby news organisations to present biased perspectives on the I/P conflict and they also chaperone British journalists on their visits to Israel. Needless to say, the media have ignored this dynamite, because it implicates some heavy-hitters. Here follows a choice sample of the email (emphasis added):
“Throughout the weekend, BICOM staff were in contact with a whole host of BBC and SKY news desks and journalists, ENSURING THAT THE MOST OBJECTIVELY FAVOURABLE LINE WAS TAKEN, and offering talking heads, relevant to the stories unfolding.”
Here is the email in full: http://www.scribd.com/doc/65513272/Leaked-Bicom-Email
Down the rabbit hole we go.
Craig, I have long noticed how the beeb supress Palestinian voices, i only wonder whether it’s out of fear or complicity.
“Australia, Canada, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Sweden, United States of America.
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I imagine the support from the former block will have been purchased by the US, so the real opponents are just the seven in the second block.”
Yonatan, you have it right on the button as far as Australia is concerned. As Wikileaks brought out.. the US ambassador said of this country, “rock solid with the US but pretty insignificant”
Shows the “high regard” they have for us, but with a PM who said of Cast Lead Israel has a right to defend itself. She also flatly refused any contact with Gaza on one of her (probably) Israeli paid visits there.
To-day it is reported the US will now rotate Marines through a base in Darwin, but the announcement will be made by Obomber on his visit here. (26hrs he will give us)
Cheers up there, (and please don’t mention cricket.)
Robbo