The BBC has … started its news broadcast as usual from Ashkelon in Israel, highlighting rocket attacks on Israel. There is no mention on the BBC – there has never been any mention on the BBC, or anywhere in the Western mainstream media – that for at least 4,000 years Ashkelon was an Arab town, until in 1948 the entire, Arab population of 12,000 was driven out by armed force, many being massacred. Doubtless some older inhabitants of Gaza are refugees whose home is Ashkelon.
Israel is exercising its right of self-defence in precisely the same sense that Hitler was exercising the right of self-defence in Normandy in 1944 – ie not at all. Why the world puts up with this blatant ethnic cleansing and prolonged, agonizing genocide of the Palestinian people, I have no idea. It is not just about bombs and rockets and deaths now. It is about the shepherds being pushed out of their village in 2012 as part of the same process as the massacre of Ashkelon in 1948, all a process of genocide of the Palestinians in which Obama, Clinton, Cameron and Hague, as two whole generations of western politicians before them, are actively complicit.
I blogged this on 21 November 2012. Today every single BBC News bulletin leads with precisely the same trick, from precisely the same stolen Arab village. There is evidently a BBC policy to bias coverage of massacre in Gaza by basing it in the stolen town of Ashkelon. Every single BBC news programme is led by a report of the terror of people in Ashkelon at the rocket attacks which have killed and maimed – precisely nobody. There is then a brief “balancing” mention of the continual bombing of Gaza, which sometimes does and sometimes does not mention that at least 25 people have been killed, and hundreds maimed. Of the five reports I have seen, not one has mentioned that many of the Palestinian dead are women and children (although I once saw it on the strapline underneath). Rather the BBC says that “the Israeli government states it is targeting militants and weapons factories”.
The time given to the attacks on Palestine is abut 25% of that given to the rocket attacks on Israel. The coverage is also very different – we see human interest coverage of Israelis hiding from rockets in cafes. There is nothing remotely similar of the Palestinians under infinitely more deadly attack. There was one showing of funeral footage from Gaza, not of any of the women or children killed but of someone the BBC told us was simply a “militant”.
It is so blatant it is absolutely sickening. There are decent people I know in the BBC. Why do they put up with this?
We’re still pipe-dreaming with Cheney/Bush going before the bench. Something……huge has to occur where all are brought to their knees. Otherwise, it’s window dressing, or salad dressing.
Ashkelon was one of the 400 Palestinian towns which were leveled to ground by the Zionist Jewish terrorist militias in 1948.
Amos Harel, a journalist focused on military affairs for the Israeli daily Haaretz, revealed that the Israeli army command suggested three options to Netanyahu government in Tel Aviv on how to deal with Hamas in Gaza. The first is “bombing institutions and leadership headquarters, making sure that attacking aircrafts make frightful sounds, shaking the sector without causing casualties,” the second option is “bombing weapons and rocket factories and warehouses,” while the third options is “performing wide range assassinations against commanders and activists in Resistance movements.”
http://rehmat1.com/2014/07/09/israel-recalls-40000-combat-reserves-to-destroy-hamas/
I just emailed an American friend of mine who staunchly and unyieldingly supports Israel – in these terms:-
1. What do you say of the over 700,000 Palestinians displaced in 1948?
2. If you are not even prepared to accept the 1967 border lines under international law – what other kind of reaction/resistance do you expect?
3. If Native Americans reclaimed their land and forcefully removed you from your now “American land” – what would you do?
In any event there were also other very pressing matters on my mind today:-
Dear President Dilma Rousseff,
Re: Loss to Germany and an appropriate reaction
Please accept this letter as a slightly delayed reaction to the 7 – 1 defeat.
To be honest, I was in a state of shock for over 24 hours, as you might be aware the vast majority of Brazilians also were/are.
So – how are we going to deal with this absolutely humiliating defeat?
I have an idea – why not declare a day of national mourning?
No – on second thought – that is not the best approach.
The Brazilian nation really does need full and appropriate consolation. There is only one way.
I am now recommending in all earnestness and with deepest sympathy a full seven days of national mourning – one for each goal scored by Germany.
Respectfully and with deepest condolences,
Courtenay Francis Raymond Barnett
P.S. I remain in trepidation that the last best chance for redemption – of a third place slot – will not occur – because the Netherlands so far is looking the superior team (notwithstanding the defeat to Argentina). Was it that “7-up” was prescient when they gave that name to their soda? You may very well think that I am mocking you and/or Brazil. Actually, I am not. I am a fan and great supporter of Brazil as I have been all my life. Now – can you pass me that can of “ 7-up” please.
My old colleague, a nice chap, supports Israel in everything. Doesn’t matter what, he’s staunch. His politics are conservative, but not lunatic neocon, and he’s not jewish, he’s just picked a side. Often I think that’s what it comes down to, the propaganda makes people pick a side, and mostly they’ll fall on the side of the propaganda. Propaganda works. If it didn’t, they’d try something else. Like shooting people in the back of the head, Stalin’s personal favourite.
Me, I won’t pretend to be immune, nobody is. But the blatant stuff, I see that coming a mile away. And the coverage in the Guardian, and the bbc, is lame, and condescending. The Guardian appears to be stuffed full of neocons, or female writers targeting sixteen year olds, or both. There are good writers, Milne, Hyde, Pilger, think Penny appears sometimes, but not enough. In fairness to the Guardian, they have mentioned that many Palestinians have been killed. On the other hand, this:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/09/iron-dome-gaza-israel-air-defence-missile
Iron Dome? Looks like a straight out military press release. And probably is.
I am trying to write in defence of completely innocent men, women and children…who just want to live their lives in their countries where they live.
Can we PLEASE Stop Dropping Bombs On Them, Trying To Kill Them…or Trying To Control Them…
They are Just Like You and Me…and Your Wife and Kids..sure they speak a different language…and we don’t immediately understand…but just give them a smile and a welcome…like my wife and I do….and they just invite us into their homes…talk about making friends…nearly everyone in the world understands a few words of ENGLISH….and maybe a bit of spanish, french or german…us Europeans..are not hated..quite the opposite..we are invited into people’s homes all over the World.
We come From Europe
We Do Not Come from The USA
And We Do Not Come from Israel
And You Guys are Not Going To Eff Us Over With a War With The Russians…or Anyone Else.
Go eat your own shi#ite.
Bye
Tony
So I thought should I do the Catholic One as Well???
Nah The Yanks Will Believe it…
The Only Problem with this is it is true…
My Brother’s Son Does have a First Class PhD in Maths – at Cambridge (My Ex has met him when he was really young) and my wife too…
He of course got recruited with qualifications like that..and being the son of his Dad (My Brother – the best electronics genius in the world so far as I am concerned)
To Design Weapons of Mass Destruction in Deepest Dorset..He did tell me about it at my Brother-In-Law’s Funeral…
Then He Gave it Up To Train as a Catholic Priest..Yes we went to The Ceremonies…I thought well its a load of old bollocks..but its better than designing weapons to kill people…I gave him a Real hard time when he was training …His Dad couldn’t…But I could…He was just so clever…and well full of God (his Dad died when he was young)
He is no well on his way to be Pope (no seriously)….but I have this dilemma…
My wife and I have been invited to his Mum’s 70th Birthday Party..at the same time as Cambridge Rock Festival is On…with some excellent bands…My wife says She wants to Cambridge Rock Festival like Before…I am hoping By Then…My Ex Girlfriend Will Have Made a Miracalous Recovery…cos I think Our Other Girlfriend is Coming Too (She’s From Lancashire like us)..and I have just bought a new Tent..and it sleeps 4 Very Comfortably…I don’t fancy sharing it with 3 blokes..But My Wife and Two Girlfriends..That Sounds O.K To Me…Maybe I should ask my nephew to Pray For Me…
Sorry about that.
Tony
Herbie – “Salary, career, the club and coke are much more important than dead women and kids.”
One big factor is that interviewers are generalists. They have limited knowledge, ofter extreme ignorance of the topic they are interviewing on. So they aren’t aware of, and won’t ask the basic questions and retorts that the people who are suffering the misery would.
Then they are set against a highly polished PR man like Mark Regev for Israel. Expert on his brief, practiced in every sidestep, who runs rings round them.
And for Hamas/the Muslim Brotherhood etc – someone who ofter even has poor English, who the BBC interviewer proceeds to harangue as they approach things from the BBC establishment perspective: “Terrorist!”.
Tucked away on the BBC main page,
10 July 2014
UN chief Ban Ki-moon: Gaza situation ‘on knife-edge’
The civilian death toll in Gaza is rising, as Yolande Knell reports – video
Mr Ban warned that the region “cannot afford another full-blown war”.
It’s off topic but I will print out Tom Watson’s words which Fred kindly linked to. Lansley is a dangerous type. Thanks to his Health and Social Care Act 2012, the NHS is now being shafted.
‘Something terrible could be happening in Parliament on Monday and I need your urgent attention.
Please don’t ignore this.
Last Thursday there was a curious announcement in the Chamber of the House of Commons. At the session to announce future business, Leader of the House, Andrew Lansley said this:
“Monday 14th July — consideration of a Bill, followed by a motion to approve the first report from the Committee on Standards on the respect policy”
If you look on Parliament’s web site tonight, you will not see the name, nor the text of the Bill to be considered.
None of your elected backbench MPs have been told what Bill is to be debated on Monday. It’s Wednesday evening. Tomorrow, MPs are on a ‘one line whip’ ie they can return to their constituencies this evening.
Imagine how outrageous it would be, if tomorrow, the government were to announce emergency legislation to an empty chamber. Imagine if that emergency legislation was to be introduced on Monday or Tuesday, with the intention of it slipping through the Commons and the Lords in a single day. Imagine if that Bill was the deeply controversial Data Retention Bill.
It’s a Bill that will override the views of judges who have seen how the mass collection of your data breaches the human rights of you and your family.
Regardless of where you stand on the decision of the European Court of Justice, can you honestly say that you want a key decision about how your personal data is stored to be made by a stitch up behind closed doors and clouded in secrecy?
None of your MPs have even read this legislation, let alone been able to scrutinise it.
The very fact that the Government is even considering this form of action, strongly suggests that they have an expectation that the few people on the Liberal Democrat and Labour front benchers who have seen this legislation, are willing to be complicit.
No matter what you think about this issue, if you care about democracy, make sure your MP does not walk through the chamber and vote for legislation nobody has had the chance to debate and question.’
https://medium.com/@tom_watson/22c3136de17c
How very true.
Amos 1:8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him that holdeth the sceptre from Ashkelon, and I will turn mine hand against Ekron: and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, saith the Lord GOD.
Zephaniah 2:4 For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.
Google has been got at by the Israelis too.
My search for ‘total number of deaths in Gaza 2014’ produced this as the first result. I had not said anything about ‘Israeli’.
Gaza rockets land deep in Israel as it bombards Palestinian …
Reuters - by Jeffrey Heller - 18 hours ago
GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israeli air strikes shook Gaza every few … No Israeli deaths or serious injuries were reported and Israeli news …
O/T Tom Watson is right. The fascists are rushing through this snooper’s charter legislation. Cameron, May and the rest are meeting at the moment. The ECHR ruling is for nothing.
Breaking News on Sky.
MI5 ‘Allowed To Track Terror Plots On Internet’
A new deal on data snooping is expected amid fears of the terrorist threat posed by Britons fighting in Syria and Iraq.http://news.sky.com/story/1298294/mi5-allowed-to-track-terror-plots-on-internet
It’s all because of the terrrrr situation.
Tanks at Heathrow soon Mrs Nay?
Even Mrs May, the PM in waiting!
The BBC Radio 4 news just now is typical. Ran like an excuse piece for the IDF. The Israelis killed a family in an airstrike because in the BBC’s words “they returned too soon” to their home. So it was their own fault they were murdered then!
The news according to Radio 4 wasn’t that a family had been killed but they led off giving us the Isreali’s PR message about it. That it was a tragedy. They Isreali PR machine always trot out the same – before carrying on regardless causing another tragedy with another bomb. They had no-one else’s view on it – just the Isreali one. And their excuse. They “returned too soon” – it was their fault they were killed.
“The BBC Radio 4 news just now is typical. Ran like an excuse piece for the IDF. The Israelis killed a family in an airstrike because in the BBC’s words “they returned too soon” to their home. So it was their own fault they were murdered then!”
I listened to Radio 4 news this morning and I didn’t get the impression they were trying to blame the family in Gaza for returning too soon. They also reported Palestinians killed in a cafe while watching the football and the comments of Ban Ki-moon.
“During the US State Department’s daily press briefing this morning [yesterday], spokesperson Jen Psaki was asked whether Palestinians in Gaza have a right to defend themselves against Israeli aggression. As of this writing, Israeli bombing has killed more than fifty Palestinians since Monday, including more than a dozen children, and injured an additional 450 in the besieged Gaza Strip.
“Psaki responded by feigning confusion and deflecting the question. The question was posed after Psaki repeatedly invoked Israel’s right to defend itself from Hamas rocket fire.
“Psaki was also asked by the same journalist whether Israel’s “response” to rockets fired from Gaza has been proportionate. She again deflected and reiterated the United States’ support for Israel. Here is the exchange:
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/us-state-department-rejects-gazas-right-self-defense-israeli-aggression
Fred: “I listened to Radio 4 news this morning and I didn’t get the impression they were trying to blame the family in Gaza for returning too soon.”
Of course they weren’t. That’s what the Isrealis were doing. The BBC just parroted it.
” They also reported Palestinians killed in a cafe while watching the football and the comments of Ban Ki-moon.” Yeah, eventually, briefly. Its all about prominence and what you lead with. The didn’t lead with these crimes – they lead with the Israeli PR message. And just what they said. Really bizarre choice.
It all requires some analysis – the kind that was in that university study you dismissed.
Well you read into it what you want to read into it but personally the picture and caption on the Sky news page I linked to yesterday was blatant pro Israel propaganda
” The IDF says Hamas is firing from civilian areas. Pic: IDF/Twitter”
Yet in the comments section everyone thought the opposite. Maybe they read into things what they want to read into things as well.
“It all requires some analysis – the kind that was in that university study you dismissed.”
I didn’t dismiss it, like I said I read it and considered it 10 years ago when it was published.
This morning you were basing your judgement on one part of one bulletin. Ignoring the rest.
What was it Paul Simon said? “A man sees what he wants to see, And disregards the rest.”
Theresa May has just been to Israel. She says she discussed ways to combat slavery. More like terrrr alerts and airport security in which Israel leads the field.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmhansrd/cm140707/debtext/140707-0001.htm#14070728000008
The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May): 7 July 2014……..
/..Last week I visited Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories to meet senior politicians from both Israel and the Palestinian Authority. During my visit, the bodies of the three abducted teenagers were discovered near Hebron. Since then, we have also heard about the terrible killing of a Palestinian teenager. No reason, belief or cause can justify the abduction and killing of innocent civilians. In spite of that harrowing news, I was able to hold encouraging discussions on how best to combat modern slavery as part of our efforts to garner greater international co-operation on that important issue. Those discussions will feed into the substantial work that the Government are doing to stamp out the horrendous crime of modern slavery. As I said earlier, the Second Reading of the Modern Slavery Bill will be debated tomorrow, and the Bill’s progress will take place alongside the work that the Government are doing to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with this horrendous crime.’
~~~
Israel provides the technology for security at many international airports and even run it as at Schipol.
‘At a conference in May 2008, the United States Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Reuters interviewers that the United States will seek to adopt some of the Israeli security measures at domestic airports. He left his post in January 2009, a mere 6 months after this statement, which may or may not have been enough time to implement them.[31]
On a more limited focus, American airports have been turning to the Israeli government and Israeli-run firms to help upgrade security in the post-9/11 world. Israeli officials toured Los Angeles Airport in November 2008 to re-evaluate the airport after making security upgrade recommendations in 2006.[32] Calling Ben Gurion “the world’s safest airport,” Antonio Villaraigosa , mayor of Los Angeles , has implemented the Israeli review in order to bring state-of-the-art technology and other tactical measures to help secure LAX, considered to be the state’s primary terrorist target and singled out by the Al Qaeda network.[33] New Age Security Solutions, led by the former director of security at Ben Gurion and based in Washington, D.C. , consults on aviation security at Boston’s Logan International Airport.[25]
Other U.S. airports to incorporate Israeli tactics and systems include Port of Oakland and the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority . “The Israelis are legendary for their security, and this is an opportunity to see firsthand what they do, how they do it and, as importantly, the theory behind it,” said Steven Grossman, director of aviation at the Port of Oakland. He was so impressed with a briefing presented by the Israelis that he suggested a trip to Israel to the U.S. branch of Airports Council International in order to gain a deeper understanding of the methods employed by Israeli airport security and law enforcement.[34]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_security
At risk of repeating myself….no, I’ll let you do it. Google “Tony Blair” Gaza, select ‘last 24 hrs’, and let us know when Mr. Blair, the Quartet’s Middle East Envoy, tasked with ensuring the economic and political rehabilitation of the occupied territories and Gaza, has delivered his thoughts on the current situation there. So far, nothing. Too busy advising Sisi/Aliyev/Nazarbayev?
Aha. He’s gone to Tel Aviv. Yesterday: landed 0238. (not via Google)
Will he make any difference at all? Place bets now.
There is hope…
http://www.el-balad.com/1037405
Try again,lads. Blair’s in there somewhere.
US Tel Aviv embassy closed today:
http://rt.com/news/171604-us-embassy-israel-closed/
Sup. Devil. Long spoon.
GOD BLESS GEORGE & SCOTLAND. (And f**** the rest of the heartless B’stards.
http://www.imemc.org/article/68408
http://www.imemc.org/article/68408
Here’s the BBC front page “latest”
“Israeli spokesman describes as “tragedy” deaths of eight people killed in air attack on Gaza house despite receiving warning to leave ”
Exactly like headlines the BBC had during the NI troubles. Not.
“IRA spokesman describes as “tragedy” deaths of eight people killed in attack on pub despite receiving warning to leave “
Miss Castello –
International Middle East Media Center, which you linked to, appears to be down or blocked. Like the Palestinian News Network, also based in Palestinian territory, at least for me.
english.pnn.ps/
The Israelis really don’t want a counter narrative getting out, is the obvious conclusion.
If anyone has access to stories on either of these, please precis or paste them rather than just giving the link.
Electronic Intifada is still up;
http://electronicintifada.net/
However,its news coverage of Gaza is strangely lacking.
“Israeli spokesman describes as “tragedy” deaths of eight people killed in air attack on Gaza house despite receiving warning to leave ”
That would be the one where a drone had a clear view of the neighbours who had gathered on the rooftops in the hope it wouldn’t fire on civilians, but who discovered Israel’s committment to the Geneva Convention the hard way?
Electronic Intifada has a page of Gaza updates here:
http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gazaunderattack