The real agenda

Eddie

I have just been watching the Sunday evening BBC news. The bias against Israel is extraordinary. The fact remains that the Editors and news staff of the BBC are all educated people who can read and who must know the history and background of this conflict extremely well. They must know the depth and infamy of Hamas and their total contempt for their own people, yet they feel so strongly against Israel. It makes me wonder if this is history repeating itself. Melanie is such a powerful writer but working almost alone. Jewish community leaders are silent but the Muslim Council has no such fears.

Sam Armstrong

Annie Lennox should be ashamed. I hope her dreary albums end up in the bargain bin at TESCO.

Ken Kopke

Melanie,

You are so kind. On the 4th of January you write in "The Real Agenda" that "To fill the gap , BBC World interviewed a Gazan, Hatem Shurrab of Islamic Relief, who during the night apparently moved his family into the basement to escape the bombardment.

I am less kind than you. Please replace "To fill the gap, BBC World ..." by "To show sympathy to the terrorists and to hasten the elimination of Israel, BBC World ...".

Thank you.

Ken

Seraph

If they want to get into Gaza so badly, then why don't they enter from the Egyptian side?

11B40

Greetings:

Back in the last '69, I was an infantry squad leader in Viet Nam. One day, while we were being resupplied by helicopter out in the bush, a camera crew arrived along with the things we needed.

A while later, our Captain came over to me with the crew in tow and asked me if I wanted to take them out on a patrol I was about to leave on. In one of my proudest moments in the war, I replied, in my New York fashion, with a question, "Do I have to bring them back?" We went out; they didn’t.

I am profoundly uncomfortable with media involvement in combat operations. It's one more thing to worry about when everyone is chock full of worries already, operational security being the foremost. It's hard to tell a free press from a fifth column these days. Let the media build their résumés on someone else's work.

Brendan Stack

Keep up the good work Mel ,nobody can tell it like you .You are a beacon of moral clarity Best wishes from Ireland
altough the irish governments line on this has been shameful
go Israel

N

My computer is a Dell, and because it's a Dell my homepage for the internet is Dell related yet hosts stock market news, sports news, international news, etc. I've been reading about Israel's stomping of Hamas, and i have to say that the news i've been reading (i live in the US) has been (subtley) Palestinian biased, but not in the way you'd think. People remember pictures much more than the remember words, in all the articles about the Israel-Hamas war which i have read have featured pictures. Though the pictures show the devastation of both sides (Israeli houses, Palestinian houses), when it comes to "victims" only the Palestinian victims are shown and 90% of the pictures show crying, injured,bloody, or dead Palestinian children. Given that we live in a more visual (video games, internet, movies, tv, etc) than literal age (reading), and that many people can't read at their appropriate reading level anyway (why read if you can't?), i wonder why the media chooses to show Palestinian children crying and not Israeli children? What possible message could such an act be trying to portray ? I wonder.....

Dixon

Sam Armstrong
January 4th, 2009 10:28pm
Annie Lennox should be ashamed. I hope her dreary albums end up in the bargain bin at TESCO"

She'd be so lucky, I've seen all of them in the charity shops, where they sit unsold for years.

An American

Now there are photos from a UK news service showing Iman Rayan's ten dead children being carried through Gaza streets. The news service said they couldn't show the more graphic pictures, etc.

I guess these reporters were concerned about our western sensibilities. Kind of like not showing people jumping from our World Trade Center towers when they were on fire or the poor people having their heads sawed off by screaming Jihadists.

The fact is these photos tell more about Hamas and the Jihadists than the liberal, western press wants all of us to see or know...but really, they're only looking out for us...aren't they?

Dixon

Unfortunately, if one judged musical artists by their fatuous political positions one wouldnt listen to anything.

Whatever creates the daft notion that if some bird is good with her voice that means we should respect her opinions on anything other than music?

Its ridiculous, how in this society how numbnuts are put on a pedestal. Its celebrity chefs now. Instead of wanting to be a doctor or an engineer when they grow up, kids are encouraged to want to be bloody cooks!

Fran

The BBC's Paul Reynolds is rather on the back foot after writing a piece casting doubt upon an IDF video posted on YouTube purporting to show a lorry loaded with rockets being destroyed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7809371.stm

I was astonished at how quickly the Beeb picked up on the possibility that the IDF video may not show what they claim. And fair enough to investigate an interesting story.

However, I don't remember BBC news teams being anything like so eager to pick up on the fauxtography which characterised Hezbollah propaganda in July/August 2006 (a much more recent example, by Reynolds referenced in his piece) For instance, the oft repeated footage of an ambulance which, it was claimed, had been rocketed by Israeli fighters despite the Red Cross on the top. We had professional and determined bloggers to thank for the exposure of that lie, not the fearless watchdogs of the mainstream media. I'm sure that the BBC reticence on that occasion was entirely uninfluenced by the fact that it was Israel's opponents who were openly disseminating lies about the conflict. So what IS the reason for the inconsistency in approach?

Then I saw the Sky News coverage from the conflict. It made a refreshing change, I can tell you, reminding me of what real, impartial reporting looks like! In addition to the shots of Israeli bombardments of Hamas targets, Sky gave viewers a hospital bedside interview with an elderly Sderot woman whose home had been rocketed today together with her son providing important context to the Israeli insistence that their citizens have been under attack for years. Furthermore, viewers were informed that reaction from the Arab world to the Israeli offensive had been muted - and WHY. No words were minced about the involvement of Iran in strengthening Hamas' resolve to annihilate Israel; we were reminded of the reality of the Shi'te/Sunni divide in the Muslim world in which so much of the violence in Iraq has its roots. And viewers were reminded of the vicious infighting between Hamas and Fatah which culminated in the murders of hundreds of Gazans after Hamas purged Fatah. All of this provided the perspective necessary for viewers to form their own views of the conflict - a perspective which the BBC is pledged to bring, but so rarely seems to manage where the Middle East is concerned!

We saw all the horror of the Israeli incursion, to be sure, together with a report on the way in which Israel is making positive efforts to present its best case in the inevitable war of spin. But viewers were left in no doubt that the causes of and reactions to the war are far more complex than BBC coverage is showing. Compared to Sky, BBC coverage looks un-nuanced and sloppy at best and biased at worst.

bronxmike

Since I was a child I always thought bombing and strafing innocent people from the air was as bad as shooting them on the ground.

The innocent people being killed are still innocent. Some of you people can't seem to grasp this because of your ethnicity or religion which is fine. Stupid but fine.

It's the odious sons of bitches who make money off these wars...

EthanII

Melanie reports:

"Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas!", in the Netherlands, according to Jihad Watch.

Similarly:
"Jews, to the ovens! Jews, go back to the ovens!", in Ft. Lauderdale:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Xl68kP4wo
(a horrifying video).

What is happening at these pro-Hamas demonstrations is truly grotesque. But it is more important to analyze exactly what is happening:

A new barrier has been broken in terms of what it is acceptable to say.

I believe this means that soon a new barrier will be broken in terms of what is is acceptable to DO.

Daibhidh MacAdhaimh

The warped attitude of the BBC and its equally warped representation of Israel is symptomatic of the spirit of this age: delusion. The western mindset has been systematically deluded and blinded to reality by rampant, destructive post-modernism. The moral inversion that has been taking place as a result will ultimately usher in the required implosion of the west that a triumphant Islam requires. The following paragraph from David Solway's excellent essay, 'What is Palestine' (Frontpagemag.com) includes an example of the warped mentality endemic of post-modernism that dominates UK discourse on the subject of Israel:
"We hear the same tired refrain in Western intellectual and political circles. Claire Rayner, president of the British Humanist Association, writing in the Independent for April 21, 2002, dismisses the idea of a homeland for the Jewish people as a “load of crap.” British MP George Galloway, a supporter of the anti-Israeli boycott movement, in his relentless pibroch against the Jewish state compares the Palestinians to the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. The apt historical analogy would rather identify them with the Persian hordes attempting to swarm the pass."

Depressing to know that these pseudo intellectuals dominate public discourse.

Sounder

Watch the video linked here:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024240.php

Alex Bensky

"Jews to the gas?" They have to make up their minds--the Holocaust didn't happen, or Hitler didn't finish the job. First one, then the other. Make up your minds, guys.

As to "never again," Melanie, "never again" is not something that is solely in the hands of Jews although Israel has, for the first time in a couple of thousand years, made Jew-killing no longer a risk-free pastime.

A more accurate prasing would be, "Never again, but if again, this time not just us." It's an unchristian attitude, I grant you, but I come by it honestly.

As to HaBiBi Cee, it might be tolerable if like National Public Radio, which isn't nearly as bad, it dependined on contributions. But you have to pay for it. We can at least let someone else do that.

Still, al-Guardian takes the cake with the headline asking if Israeli pilots enjoy killing women and children.

YA

"humanitarian catastrophy"
(lie)

"disproportionate response"
(intentional use of idiotic statement to create diversion)

"war crimes"
(..look - Hamas is not at war with Israel, it is resistance movement, so it can't commit war crimes by definition)

"occupation"
(Arabic myth)

"military solution never worked"
(..hamas' rockets are not "military", they obviously eeh.. civilan rockets)

"that will cause radicalization"
(intimidation)

"genocide of Arabs"
(lie, blood libel. how about 1.2 million Israeli Arabs? - all enjoy their genocide)

"Israeli forces.. kill people"
(dehumanization of Jews)

"Israeli spy agency"
(hostility to the state of Israel)

"Israeli soldiers..come back in body bags"
(dehumanization, dhimmitude)

BBC is lying, deceiving, intimidating, dehumanizing, spying..

..and they still have UK citizens' license fee, - de facto a ransom we pay to terrorists.

BBC is UK's Gaza.

Winston Smith

Sam,

It's not just the Annie Lennox. Throughout the last 40 years within the UK, the main supporters of Palestine have not only been the Left but in fact all that is included in it. When you think about it, every major Artist(Music, Art, Stage TV & Film) has been pro Palestine and Anti Israel. They are the 'champagne socialists' of our society. All you need to do is just look at Musicians and Actors and they're all pro Palestine. The situation is rife and that's why the West is in such a sorry state. Whereas in the past the warrior and the teacher were the respected in society and the musicians and artists the entertainers, we now have a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn on this. Look at Geldoff? Look at Bonno? Musicians and actors are a loud voice and one of the main reasons that NuLabour got into power and Obama's democrats in America.

Winston Smith

I agree with Eddie in that Melanie is putting most of the British Media to shame with her poignant articles.

Bruno Pontes

Melanie, you´re a bless of reason in these times of such absurdity. Thank you very much.

Go on IDF. Keep on hunting Hamas till the last thug.

With a lot of admiration,
Bruno, a reader from Brazil.

Margaret

Melanie,

I ache for you having to watch the Isrealis struggle to survive in their tiny country in the midst of a sea of hatred.

I am so tired of being told by a Leftist media that what I see with my own eyes is not true. Am tired of being propagandized and having to deal with fellow citizens whose views are being corrupted by the insidious lies being told about Isreal, about the "Religion of Peace," Illegal Aliens in my own country USA), etc.

Decent people are demonized immediately by the left-wing media -- we can't managed to elect morally competent people to public office due to the malfeasance of our media "masters."

We who are religious must pray for our world and the souls of those committed to evil.

GC

I don't listen to the BBC World Cult Service (can't bear to) but this from their website at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7810945.stm doesn't strike me as very biased:

"Some 2,500 people have reportedly also been wounded.

The figures could not be independently verified. Israel is refusing to let international journalists into Gaza despite a ruling by its a supreme court to admit a limited number of reporters."

Much more worrying I feel is this from the New York Times (oh dear) at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/world/middleeast/01mideast.html (hope that's right):

"Israel’s Supreme Court told the government on Wednesday to allow foreign journalists limited access to Gaza, which had been closed to them since early November. The ruling, which urged the government to allow in a group of up to a dozen foreign journalists, came in response to a petition filed by the Foreign Press Association."

which smacks suspiciously to me of what you might call factual bias.

However I don't seriously dispute that the BBC is biased against Israel. I'm not sure that it's deliberate but I don't doubt that effectively it is.

Hatem Shurrab also features in the Guardian and also is to be found on Facebook as I trust you aren't Mel.

Actually it's 'nooit weer' in colloquial Dutch although 'nooit opnieuw' is virtually a synonym. However 'nooit weer' is what used to be on the Auschwitz memorial inscription which incidentally I tried to find on an internet search recently but drew a blank. Appreciate a post reminding me. I thought it simple, effective and beautiful.

In 1987/1988 I lived in Dordrecht, Holland and during that time the local library hosted a display celebrating Arafat's first intifada (the one where small boys were encouraged to sling stones in the front line). That was biased OK and I got hold of the head librarian and requested some balance and she agreed readily enough to address the issue but it never was.

Grumpy the Terminator

Greetings and salutations.
Incisive as always - succinct and to the point.

May I now offer some luminaries of our own - as a counter to the old, the tired, the confused and the opportunistic ie Lennox et al.

How about:

a.the current Czech leader of the EU.
b.the US assistant under-sec to the UN.
c.several Arab leaders who are as concerned about Iran and its proxies - Hamas/Hizbolla, as many right thinking western nations.
d.a great percentage of normal, clear thinking people around the world, who understand how it would be to have their families threatened daily by a lunatic idiology hell bent on destruction.
In this group I would list somebody who trumps the tawdry lot mentioned any day of the week/month/year whatever and who said, and I quote: "If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.” - Barak Obama

End of story
We win.
The rest is just details.

Dave Weeden

"Police were searching Saturday night for a foreign reporter working for an Iranian TV network who reported the IDF incursion into Gaza before the military authorized the release of the information to the public."

Gosh, the ineffable cheek of a journalist! Daring to report news without official permission to do so. As so you often say, Melanie, truly, it's like living in Nineteen Eighty Four.

madeleine7

Good for you, Melanie , a lone voice in the wilderness....!!!! Most reporters are guilty of treason... They are such fools...! One day , reality will come and mug them...! Truly, Israel is the "canary in the mine-shaft" for all of us in the West. May G-D bless and protect Israel, her btave soldiers and you, Melanie.

ilana

it is nothing new that the BBC isn't a fair reporter when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.But what has happened to Europe?
History has a strange way of repeating itself.
Thank you for your powerful closing of your article.

George

The main difference between the Hamas version of Islam and Judaism can be summed up by one verse in Deuteronomy (Chapter 30, verse 19): "I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore choose life, that you may live, you and your children."

Michelle

Hatem Shurrab told the BBC that he voted for Hamas and was glad they won and told Al Jazeerah that "One good thing is that Hamas targeted many collaborators who worked for Israel".

Sounds to me like he supports terrorism.

Michelle

sorry - forgot to post the link for the above quote. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2007/06/200852518412375925.html

stanley Jerusalem

Dixon
January 5th, 2009 12:11am

Unfortunately, if one judged musical artists by their fatuous political positions one wouldnt listen to anything.
The fabulously successful and Jewish-born Offenbach commented on the loathsome antisemitic Wagner's pamphlet decrying Jewish contributions to music in the 19th C. by saying " Let him carry on writing music"
Annie Lennox, Alexei Sayle, Dannie Barenboim; you have your orders.
Would one take medical advice from Cruise and Travolta?

Shy Guy

bronxmike
January 5th, 2009 12:30am

Since I was a child I always thought bombing and strafing innocent people from the air was as bad as shooting them on the ground.

When you were a child, did your Mommy and Daddy tell you how bad it is to fire lethal missiles loaded with metal pellets at random civilian targets for 7 years non-stop?

Did your Mommy and Daddy tell you when you were a little boy that if someone uses civilians or civilian structures to defend themselves, that such people solely bear the responsibility for the welfare of such people and their property?

Did your Mommy and Daddy tell you that even the UN, known to lie through its teeth, agree that the vast majority of those killed are NOT civilians at all?
According to the UN, under 25% were civilians, while according to the ICRC, under 10% were civilians.

Even if the UN's figures are correct, where else have you heard of in the world where perfectly legitmate military targets located in heavily populated civilian areas are destroyed, and yet 3 out of every 4 casualties are valid terrorist targets?

Or were your Mommy and Daddy as naive and thin-brained as you've grown up to be, little man?

Neil Turner

Time we all refused to pay the Licence Fee ?

PS

Great article with sharp insight from Melanie as always.
I am thoroughly disgusted with the BBC and have tuned off!!
We should refuse to pay the Licence Fee

Wikahiri Oleleyo

See I am African and when I heard things like oven to Jewish, that is bad thing to say, the Muslims or their supporters if they are from Florida or Holland they need to understand one thing, now many people don't like Arab people or Islamic extremist, what do they think if people demonstrate oven to Arabs! go the Hell Arabs! that would not be good either, they have to understand they should leave Jewish people along, otherwise "What goes around comes around" it could happen to them!, one day people go around saying do this do that to Arabs.

Adam B.

Who cares what Annie lennox thinks? Do you think she is one of the towering geniuses of our times? She got a contract with a record company in the 1980's - that's the extent of her "expertise". And did anyone see her "sing" on Jools Holland - she was bloody awful! (Except being surrounded by sycophants, no-one would tell her). She doesn't have musical judgment and she doesn't have political judgment.

gary

"The innocent people being killed are still innocent. Some of you people can't seem to grasp this because of your ethnicity or religion which is fine. Stupid but fine."

Both states have known for a while that this war was imminent. Hamas, the party responsible for the wellbeing of the Gazan Palestinians has done nothing to prepare for casualties among their own population. They've spent millions preparing for war and nothing for defence of their people. Israel has built bomb shelters, arranged medical supplies - they have prepared proper defences for their population equal to their defensive military preparations.

Yes - innocents are being maimed and killed, and the responsibility for that is on Hamas.

If that's a religious issue, then I know which religion I would choose. Instead though, it's a simple issue of impartial logic.

Barry Larking

The report on BBC News this morning at 05.01.09 10.00 am GMT consisted almost entirely of the voice of a reporter 'inside Gaza' reeling off a series of unverifiable (to date) incidents in which the very young or families were killed, (and four 'rescue workers') by very specific weapons, such as "tank" shells or "artillery" rounds. It was usual (I am speaking now about what was the former policy of the BBC) to 'frame' remarks such as these when they were unsupported by secondary evidence – impartial witnesses.

If these reports are to be credited then Israel has developed a very sinister new weapon, one which seeks out and kills only children.

I wish to see this conflict ended at once. I do not want to see any children anywhere subjected to the horrors of warfare and strife, not one. Can that be said by the Islamic government in Tehran?

Mr Dark

We should applaud what the IDF has undertaken since if the Islamist rent-a-mob we have seen here were allowed their way we would soon be confronted by the same sort of nihilistic chaos Hamas has created in Gaza. Maybe that's why only five thousand people are turning up to demonstrate outside the Israeli embassy. Time for the shouty Islamists to learn a bit of self-awareness.

Adam B.

11b40, couldn't agree more. I remember a TV documentary which showed how, in Vietnam, journalists were tipped off about a particular combat operation to be carried out by the Americans, and went to the location before it had started, thus forewarning the Viet Cong. The Americans, when they arrived, walked straight into an ambush, thanks to the media. The rot with the media started in Vietnam, making it difficult for the west to win anything now because the media will do its utmost to undermine public support. The media doesn't report the news, it is now manufacturing it. Anyone remember the Al-Durrah hoax?

Frances Waddams

Sky coverage of this conflict is much more thorough than the Beeb's. There are interviews with victims of Hamas rocket attacks on Sderot and analysis of Arab reaction to Hamas' actions, which is by no means uniform approval. Altogether, Sky's much more nuanced approach makes the BBC's look sloppy and un-nuanced.

Stuart Cunliffe

My heart is grieved and desperately sad, not because you should say "Never again" in several languages in your Spectator blog, but because you should have to do so.

May God bless you, may He bless your people, and may He bless your efforts to achieve justice by the written word.

Sincerely,

A Christian Gentile.

Sam Armstrong

Adam B.
January 5th, 2009 10:52am

Lennox doesn't have to be a genius. The fact is that she has a deep reach into the hearts and minds of Middle England. People see Lennox as a pure, mother earth type and she has cynically bottled this fame to drag people along with her causes. This latest pro-Palestine cause of hers is the most scandalous to date, and if sales of her new album (she's still recording) bounce as a result of this latest publicity, then the proceeds will be Jewish blood money.

Gary Coulter

Don't be too upset Eddie, God has an interest still in Israel. And who can win a war against God.
It is times like these that all God's children should pray and get right with the true God:YHWH.

hadrian

The rampant anti-Semitsm from erstwhile card carrying leftist 'multi-culturalists' tells its own sorry tale. How that self trumpeted egalitarian and can support those who make the Nazi agenda for the Jews look mild is way, way beyond me. It is as has been noted the poisoned fruit of years of delusional secular 'liberalism' which in its self-righteousness used to abhor 'racism' but now crassly and ignorantly joins those whose own savage creed is virulently divisive and not only filled with hatred but if one examines it closely filled with self loathing too.
Mind you we cannot forget that bloodlust has ever marked the revolutionary so their common cause with 'Islamist' fanatics actually seems depressingly inevitable. However if the Western world ever does allow Israel to go down - or have to soldier on entirely alone- then we can rest assured the West will go down too. Then all our vapid pop stars, superannuated lady novelists and far left extremists will be able to enjoy their egalitarian dream...er, no, their Islamic theocracy...led of course by the Arcbishop of Cant.

An American

The UK Guardian's Tisdale is begging Obama to step up and support Hamas. He's dissapointed that Obama hasn't yet come forward to put Israel in its place and let the world know his administration is on the side of Hamas' thugs.

Arabs are expressing dissapointment in Obama too...they expected his immediate support on all things. They believed his two year chant of 'Change'.

It will be interesting to see how The Messiah handles his fellow Muslims' constant barage of problems, protestations and proclamations.

Israel has done research on Obama...they don't trust him or expect his adminstration to support them as Bush has. That's why they took the battle to Hamas just weeks before the US inaugeration.

Most US entertainers are far left. They helped get Obama elected and support Palestine and all things unamerican. I use to go to movies often...no more. And I've cancelled my magazine subscriptions this year...it's not much, but I don't want my money supporting my country's traitors any longer.

Revenues have fallen off for Hollywood in the US, but the foreign market is making up the deficit. China has become a big supporter of US cinema which seems appropriate since they are all basically Communists.

Dixon

Celebrities...VietNam...Journos tipping off our enemies...these things all converge in a story told by a former NVA prisoner on a veterans web-site.

When "Hanoi Jane" ( Fonda ) ...a truly lousy actress in anyones book who achieved success by a combination of parentage, marriage and courting controversy supporting the enemy... arrived with the media on a visit, the prisoners were let out of their cages to meet her. One of them had put their names on a piece of paper ( so their families would learn they were still alive ) and passed it to the lovely lady when she shook his hand. What did she do in her best humanitarian spirit...she gave it to the gaurds. They then dragged away the man and beat, starved and otherwise tortured him for weeks.

Whenever I see that lousy vile woman ...nowadays using her wrinkled lizardy fizz to sell "beauty products"...I remember what a vile evil character she must have.

Having said that, "Jane Fondas workout" was the most erotic book ever published when it first came out!

LondonMike

The next time someone asks why the media has only been granted restricted access by Israel into Gaza, tell them the reason is the same that the British disallowed any media into the Falklands - that should help them to understand.

EthanII

Egyptian film star: Hamas is to blame

Jan. 4, 2009
Khaled Abu Toameh , THE JERUSALEM POST

The Arab world's most prominent comedian and movie star, Egyptian actor Adel Imam, has shocked many of his fans by expressing understanding for Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip.

Imam, a longtime outspoken critic of Islamic fundamentalism, lashed out at Egyptians who have been demonstrating against Israel's war on Hamas. He said calls for general strikes in solidarity with the Palestinians "harmed our economy and benefited Israel alone."

The veteran 68-year-old movie star blamed Hamas for the violence, pointing out that the Egyptian leadership had warned the Islamist movement against an impending Israeli military operation.

"Hamas ignored our warnings and chose to lead an asymmetrical war," Imam said, echoing earlier statements by Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. "It's preferable for Hamas to stop [the rocket attacks]. They should have known that Israel wasn't going to receive the attacks with roses."

An American

Dixon,
I do enjoy your blogs...thanks for my morning chuckle on Fonda.
She lives in my state and is as clueless as ever... spouting her far left garbage like it is VietNam all over again. She looks older than her years...those wrinkle creams she's pushing don't work.

phil

Stuart Cunliffe-11.57 may God bless you too Stuart -This world needs more gentle Christians like you .In Israel there is a special place for the righteous amongst Gentiles.

phil

An American in another two weeks we will have some idea of who judged Obama correctly .I pray that it was me and that if I am right you will then back your President .he will need it -if I was wrong you will see that I am not one to hide away-I will admit it -just hope everyone else will hold up their hands too -happy new year.

GRUMPY the GOLANI

Stuart Cunliffe - You have helped restore my faith in humanity.

Phil - You brought tears to my eyes. That special place of course is Yad Vashem, with its famous 'avenue of the righteous'.

NEVER AGAIN SHALL MASADA FALL (never again will we have our backs against the wall).
The Israeli paratroop regiments used to take an oath of honour on the windswept reaches of the old fortress.
Bless them and keep them.

Rose

The insights in this article are terrifying!!!
I do pray that somewhere there is Western leadership with the guts to intervene and force Hamas to bring to a conclusion this deadly drama
Also a questionable but I think interesting Scripture input
Heavenly Father loves all his Children but right from the Beginning(Genesis 25) we learn that they may never get along
The Prophet Isaac’s wife Rebekeh was expecting twins
"And the children struggled together within her"
And Rebekeh enquired of the Lord
"And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels: and the people shall be stronger than the other people and the elder shall serve the younger"
The elder or first born was Esau,the younger was Jacob The two were very different Esau or Edom the first born was red all over like a hairy garment and was a cunning hunter. Jacob was of a more intellectual nature.
Esau sold his birthright to appease his temporary physical needs,it wasn't till later that the full realisation of what he had done dawned upon him.
From that day on envy and hatred entered his heart towards his brother
One of Esau's grandsons was called Amalek, from whom come the Amalekites. They were the first tribe to attack Israel when they first entered Sinai.
Many from the Modern Nations of Palestine,Syria,Turkey,Libya and southern Russia are from the same DNA bloodline.I know it seems unbelievable but could the traits of hate and envy exist today in Esau's descendants towards the descendants of Jacob because of the loss of the birthright. Could it be in the blood Birthright meaning chosen seed through Jacob. Seed meaning descendants. Through jacob's descendants came the Prophets, Kings, Divine laws which are the moral foundation of Westtern Society
Btw i am not Jewish

Ronnie

An American, a wrinkle is a wrinkle and a sign of character. There isn't a cream on earth that works, thank God.

Penny

Stuart Conliffe - May He bless you, too!

An American

Ronnie,
You apparently believe that wrinkles denote character. I've always equated character to mean that someone has done good in their life. Fonda, while I'm sure she has done some good things in her life...has also been a very weak and flawed person who has caused much harm during her time on this good earth.

And she continues to make loads of money off of the American public pushing her 'snake-oil' wrinkle creams...if they work so well, why does she has so many wrinkles...that was my point.

But...really who cares.

What concerns me is the power that celebrities have worldwide. Most of them are uneducated, uninformed, clueless, feel-good liberals like Fonda who continue to do great harm.

wrighty

Three cheers for the beautiful Jane Fonda !
She had more guts than the draft-dodging Bush/Cheney/Perle/Kristol/Wolfowitz...all of whom supported that and other wars.
Hypocrites ALL.

Ronnie

Exactly, An American, who cares about Jane Fonda's wrinkles. More than you, that is.

And thank God you've had the courage to take on the onerous challenge of judging who has and has not 'done good in their life'. How high your mountain top must be for you to know how uneducated etc. our feel-good liberal celebrities are.

Thank you for setting such certain standards of thought and behaviour.

And thank you for sticking so rigidly to the point of this forum.

phil

GRUMPY the GOLANI-thank you I had those same tears too-it balanced the -can I say drek on this column- that comes from the oaf known as wrighty

An American

Ronnie,
It gets boring when one has no sense of humor. My original response was to Dixon who I really enjoy.
I do have good character and a high standard of morality unlike Fonda.
I won't bother with you any longer...what's the point?

Ronnie

There might be a point, An American, if you raised your game above the level of those lazy generalisations.

Ritually dragging the Hanoi Jane voodoo doll into this current situation is as gratuitous as it is pointless.

That was my original point here and its a shame that you missed the gentle humour in it.

Adam B.

wrighty, you sad sad man. Perhaps you can go and live in the utopia of Communist Vietnam. You don't live in reality.

Ronnie

Adam B., perhaps Wolfowitz et al could go and live in Iraq, post surge, and enjoy the reality that they created.

Adam B.

Ronnie, there's nothing funny about Americans being tortured because Jane Fonda was finding herself, backing a dictatorship (which she would never dream of living in herself).

Ronnie

Adam B, who's laughing (except at the ridiculous introduction of wrinkle cream to the debate)?

Nor is there anything funny about neocons creating death and destruction on a massve scale on the basis of their deceitful fantasies.

My main point was and remains, what has Jane Fonda's particularly gross error of judgement in Vietnam got to do with what is now happening in the Middle East. 'Liberal-minded' artists will always blunder into things like this, so what?

An additional point I now have is that in an interview I read some time ago (for God's sake, keep the hounds from asking me for the source!) Jane Fonda had come to deeply regret her behaviour then although she still disagreed with the principle and conduct of the Vietnam war.

phil

ADAM b AND RONNIE COME ON YOU ARE BOTH ON THE SAME SIDE -SMILE AND SHAKE IT GUYS :)

An American

Ronnie,
Jane Fonda is still politically active on the far left in the US. Last year, she attended a Washington anti-war ralley and took to the microphone with the same old leftist rhetoric on the Iraq war...she wanted us out immediately...it sounded just like the we were all back in the good ole VietNam war days...when questioned by a Fox reporter while on the way to her limo...about what happened after the US withdrew from VietNam with resulting millions of deaths in Cambodia, etc. and didn't she fear this could happen in Iraq...she had no retort just a smirk and an ugly remark about Fox. She is absolutely clueless about what happened in Cambodia and the horror that resulted or perhaps she doesn't want to face the truth.
I agree that we are off the subject here. Let's move on.

Ronnie

Adam B, :-)

Ronnie

An American, agreed. :-)