An MP is shocked by al Beeb

Hereford

I watched a BBC News 24 broadcast on Sunday morning. They showed the same footage of one or two casualties being stretchered into a hospital or rushed from an ambulance over and over again in a single loop.

It was obviously designed to make the number of casualties seem higher than the footage actually showed.

Miranda Rose Smith

G-D BLESS MICHAEL FABRICANT!!!I wish any religious Jews on this website, who are fasting tomorrow, an easy one. I wonder if the BBC would be interested in what I imagine, if, G-d forbid, they get their hearts wish and Israel is destroyed?

Raymond Joseph Douglas

once again, i long for the day when i can stop paying for this tax known as a licence fee!

N. Simon

There's no difference between the BBC/Grauniad propaganda and that of Der Stuermer when it comes to inciting hatred of Jews.

The BBC MUST be held accountable for their crimes of bias and obfuscating the truth.

Eddie

The hypocritical pronouncements by the British Government’s financial expert about insisting on a Gaza cease fire beggar’s belief. The fact is that closing down Hamas would be like cutting the Gordian knot. It would reinforce the fact that Israel has a most powerful defence force not to be messed with. It would change the politics of the Middle East and would give the peace process a real chance. Syria would be more amenable to a peace treaty and Iran would be given a serious blow.

Adam B.

The BBC stinks.

Paul

Three cheers for Mr RJDouglas.
The coverage of the BBC is absolutely disgraceful and totally biased I just wish there was an effective means to really voice my protests. Sending emails is a waste of time the BBC just bins them! Just listening to another whining Bowen report makes me sick, he is regurgitating Hamas propaganda. Not once has he said that the vast majority of casualties are Hamas terrorists, not my thoughts but those of the UN.

JW

"once again, i long for the day when i can stop paying for this tax known as a licence fee!"
Just get rid of your TV.

Adam B.

Where is the Balen report we paid for, but which is censored by the BBC?

Shimon

Israeli left-wing controlled media are just as biased as the BBC. As one who lives in Israel I unfortunately know too well that the media here is controlled by self-hating Jews, leftists and anarchists. I encourage British people to refuse to pay their BBC license fee, but from our Israeli glass house, we cannot throw stones at the BBC.
PS. I don't pay the Israeli TV license fee. Having Israeli TV in your home = open sewer running throught it!

CCTV

The BBC needs to be market-tested. When will a political party pledge to de-criminalise the TV licence or submit it to annual referendum ?

It costs me 30% my monthly water bill to have a TV licence - why should I fund a State Propaganda Unit ?

Adam

Surprise surprise. Michael Fabricant son of a Rabbi is also an impartial observer on Israeli actions and how they are reported?

hadrian

One is sick to the back teeth of Western reporting in general on Israel's woes- which, of course, are presented primarily as Palestinian woes. The provocation of the rocket attacks barely register with the damned BBC until of course Israel inevitably lose all patience and decide to flatten their tormentors. Then, miraculously, the BBC's in there, bristling with righteous indignation at the very idea of Islamic terrorists being giving a dose of their own medicine.
Yes, we genuinely grieve for any innocents caught up in this conflict- but it was not of Israel's choosing or making. And in the long run it'd be hugely beneficial for the Palestinians to be rid of their murderous 'champions'.

Shy Guy

Melanie, please tell MP Fabricant that now is the time to buy a nice piece of property in Jerusalem or Netanya, as I know certain others have done. ;)

Time is running out in England for its Jewish community.

Come home.

Mehran

I realize this is slightly off topic, but in response to Raymond Douglas I have to say, it's no good just wishing to see the licence fee abolished. We have to organize grassroots action.

Why should be made to pay this ridiculous and out of date poll tax (which is a TV licence is), and then have rubbish of the Ross/Brand/Strictly variety, and/or Islamic propaganda shoved down our throats?

I'm not advocating rioting in Trafalgar Square, but a clear, reasoned and consistent campaign to abolish the license fee (and hopefully Al-Beeb in the process).

To have this quasi-feudal law in the 21 century is an outrage, but what sticks in the gullet is the contempt the sneering Beeboids have for us while they take our money.

stanley Jerusalem

Adam B.
January 5th, 2009 11:55am

The BBC stinks.

The best precis of Melanie's words to date

Vision Aforethought

I have posted this before (perhaps on another forum), but having met one or two BBC staff, I have been stunned at their attitude. They are either from the Middle East and therefore biased by default or are your typical well meaning but naive liberal who have no concept of history, war (and how nasty it is - both all sides) or how carefully composed images can be used to sway opinion - with appalling consequences if said imagery is used for nefarious motives.

The solution lies with level headed but well illustrated explanations from the other side (via YouTube etc) that avoid worrying about politically correctness that may provide a hint at capitulation. Both Hitler and Churchill new how to use the media to their advantage - (fortunately, the latter won), well, it is the same today. Sadly, it is not who is right who will win the propaganda war today, it is who people BELIEVE is right.

Lend me your ears...

george

Not all the surrounding countries,Egypt,Syria for example think that Hamas is the gallant force fighting (as the BBC would have us to believe)the Israeli oppressor.There is much eveidence of their thuggery and brutalism to the people of Palistia.However no person in Gaza opposed to Hamas would risk and interview with the BBC as their life would be ended shortly afterwards. One would like the BBC to be less partisan but that unfortunately cannot happen until a new Government has the guts to take the licence fee away and allow us to pay for the news we want to hear. On Sky try Deutsche Welle-the German equivalent of the BBC-news in English short band to the point.

Gregory

Hamas = BBC = Guardian = Oxfam = Charity Commission =

who among the great and good, apart from some notable exceptions, are not cheerleading for Hamas, and is this what dhimmitude means?

Augustus

Anti-Semitism is as old as the hills. During the interrogation period before the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961, Eichmann pleaded that he didn't want to die because it would be so terrible for his child (then six) to be left without a father. In answer to this the interrogator, Avner Less, whose own father had, on Eichmann's orders been transported to Aushwitz, replied that he had sent more than half a million children to their death. Whereupon Eichmann replied, "But they were Jews."

But Eichmann wasn't born with a genetic hatred of Jews. He wasn't pre-programmed to be the engineer of the Holocaust. The key to his despicable crimes lay not in the man himself, but in the ideas which took hold of him, the community in which he was schooled, the political system in which these ideas bore fruit, and the circumstances which made the deeds possible. What Eichmann did was made possible because of the dehumanization of Jews. The definition of Jewry as an abstract, radical, biological and political enemy, and the abandonment of a moral target which one is not allowed to kill. In short, the man was an anti-Semite. He had even visited Jerusalem in 1938 where he met with the highest Palestinian mufti high priest, Haj Amin al Husseini, who later became a Nazi, in order to discuss with him how to deal with 'the Jewish problem' in the Middle East. Jews were 'a problem' in the eyes of radical fundamentalist Muslims, even then. So the thought processes of the BBC, and countless other organizations and individuals have a scary and manipulative precedent.

Graeme Thompson

Melanie, a Commons motion of censure needs to be table against the BBC for its anti-semitic coverage of the Arab-Palestinian conflict. Here's one I sent last week by post and email urging MPs to do so:-

Dear Sir,

RE: GAZA – COMMONS CENSURE MOTION OF THE BBC

One of the worst things that come to light in such times is the insidious way in which much of our media, particularly the BBC, acts as a propaganda arm for terrorists.

I thought Melanie Phillips gave a very good example of this in her Spectator blog 29.12:-

The ineffable BBC reported in radio bulletins on Saturday that Israel ’s attack had ‘put back the chance of peace in the region’. Most sane people would think that the reason peace in the region had been put back was that Hamas was continuing to wage aggressive war.

Is it not long overdue that a Commons motion of censure was tabled against the BBC for its anti-semitic reporting of the Israeli-Arab conflict?

It is conceivable that one can be an anti-Zionist and support the destruction of Israel by legitimate military means without being anti-semitic, but aiding & abetting the heirs of Adolf Hitler can be nothing but anti-semitic.

I fear that one of the reasons the above motion has not been tabled is that the evil the BBC subjects Israel to would be turned against the sponsors. It would indeed take an enormous amount of courage.

The BBC’s anti-semitism is a threat to our national security. The terrorist enemy we face is the one Israel faces. Because of this the BBC loses no propaganda opportunity to undermine our war against it. Before 7/7 there was ‘The Power of Nightmares’. Directly after 7/7 the BBC gave camera crews to Hamas Spokesman Dr Azzam Timimi and various other terrorist mouthpieces to make propaganda films. Then we had the suppression of the Balen Report.

The defence of Israel is the defence of civilisation. For the sake of British democracy and the honour of our nation I implore you to table this motion.

Yours respectfully,

Graeme Thompson

CC: Hon Andrew Dismore MP; Hon Dr Denis MacShane MP; Rt Hon Alun Michael MP; Rt Hon James Arbuthnot MP; Hon David Amess MP; Hon James Clappison MP; Hon Sir Alan Beith MP

Dixon

Yes, BUT...nothing can be worse than Channel 4s coverage. So wickedly twisted I have had to turn it off or risk an indignation-haemorrhage.

They keep featuring lengthy "reports" from a Sami someone, "Gaza businessman". News to me there is any business in Gaza. But anyway, an insult to our intelligence to assume we dont realise that no such person could go on UK TV night after night and say anything that Hamas doesnt approve of. A bullet in his head if he dares "report" anything they dont like. Yet Channel 4 thinks we are idiots...which we would be if we lapped up this stupid thinly veiled propoganda.

Plus, I cannot abide that Samira Achmed. Like I said before, cannot she..on her top-flight presenters salary ...get something done about that hair, and learn to talk like normal mortals instead of with an enormous plum in her mouth. Maybe she doesnt recognise the irony, but she DOES sound like His Lordship..Lord Haw Haw!

stanley Jerusalem

Adam do your homework. Michael left the fold years ago.

Dixon

JW
January 5th, 2009 11:56am
"once again, i long for the day when i can stop paying for this tax known as a licence fee!"
Just get rid of your TV."

What if you watch video, DVD, or your own camera-work?

The answer: Just dont buy a "digi-box". When the terrestrial switch-off occurs, it will no longer be possible to claim that anyone who uses a TV for watching DVDs is secretly watching television: if they dont have a digital decoder it would not be possible.

This happens in less than two years. I will be interested to see what happens to licence renewals at that time.

Max

BBC is the most nuetral channel even it's biased to israel sometimes.

Tony

At last someone has the grit to stand up publically and criticize the appalling British Bullshitting Corporation's take on the war in Gaza!
Well done Mr. Fabricant! It is high time people had a balanced view of the crisis and I myself have repeatedly written to the BBC to complain of their bias, but to no avail.
Israel clearly has the moral high ground in this specific battle and it's by time the world's media told the truth for once!

Richard Mather

I've written to the BBC to tell them how concerned I am about the number of decontexutualised images coming out of Gaza and the constant reminders of Gazan deaths which fail to draw a distinction between the innocent and the Hamas militants/combatants. Even the UN, which usually takes an anti-Israeli perspective, has pointed out that the majority of the dead belong to Hamas. The BBC – both as a public institution and a supposedly impartial news provider – has a duty to educate viewers on the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and provide proper context for photos of weeping women, angry men and bewildered children.

john doe

Israel is showing the world that killing Jews is no longer a risk-free pastime. That's what's upsetting all the haters.

mckenzie

Similar to the saying,'people in glass houses should not throw rocks', is the old saying, 'people who live in sewers should not complain about the smell of shit'.

Edmund

Unschocked by Guardian's comment is free - some considered analysis from a Muslim brother:

No one is asking the west to launch an attack on Israel, or even cut off ties, but a dose of illuminating reality, calling a one-sided attack just that, showing some compassion for the Palestinians dying in greater numbers, that is all we ask.

Dave M

"Then, miraculously, the BBC's in there, bristling with righteous indignation at the very idea of Islamic terrorists being giving a dose of their own medicine."

This is absolutely true. I wonder why they don't feel the same sense of ourage, though, about any possibility of India taking military action against Pakistan? I mean, the Beeb reported India's anger over terrorist attacks as mere news without any sensationalism. Had the Indian military actually taken a poke at Pakistan the Beeb would have been worried, perhaps, but not "outraged" or hysterical. They're reporting this current situation more so as propaganda than actual balanced news. It's substandard, sensational journalism.

roGER

"The BBC’s collusion with Hamas..."

Evidence, please?*

* Opinions don't count.

Saul Starozinsky

Dear Mellanie!
I fully agree with Shimon that israeli ultra-left-wing controlled media are just as biased as the BBC. Also as one who lives in Israel I dont watch now nearly all ours TV-stations(Chanell 2 Chanell 10)controlled by self-hating Jews. I only watch evening edition of the goverement TV-chanell 1/ Two anchors are not like others. One even dared to say that she is @proud jewish woman@). She is also left-wing but she is not completely crazy. So 100 percent I cannot throw stones at the BBC.
As for BBC I watch only Eastenders. The was now even jewish line:))).

Jane

I'm utterly sick to death with Al Beebzera. How the hell is it I'm forced to pay for this propaganda on pain of imprisonment?

To those looking for an antidote to the appalling BBC coverage, these are three of the best pieces I've read on this topic in recent days:

Frederick Forsyth (Daily Express):

http://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/78095

Mark Steyn (National Review Online):

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MDFhMDNiODExNGM3ZTE3NmRiMWU5YTM1NThhZmQ1MzQ=

Melanie Phillips (Daily Mail):

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1105228/MELANIE-PHILLIPS-Yes-war-Gaza-terrible-But-alternative-worse--us.html

There's also been some really good coverage day after day on the ever-growingly indispensable American Thinker website (www.americanthinker.com)

Hereford

Mehran et al: Nobody has to pay the licence fee any more. Get your TV on-line.

The beeb is now streaming most of its content at almost the same time as it broadcasts, ITV is doing the same and the Beeb is planning to offer ITV, Channel 4 and 5 space on iPlayer to allow us to watch the last 7 days telly.

I no longer have a TV and I don't pay a licence. Yet I do not miss anything I want to watch, don't need a DVD recorder and have become much more judicious about what I end up watching.

Best of all, I don't pay this politically biased propaganda machine a penny for its output. And there is nothing that can be done to prosecute me.

The BBC may well be cutting it's own throat through its ambition to dominate all channels of communication.

Unless of course the Government decide to replace the licence fee with a BBC ring-fenced poll tax.

But that will be unenforceable.

phil

Most of us here believe the BBC is anti Israel .but does anyone have any idea of why these people are appointed in the first place .Are they well meaning liberals who basically are uninformed .and following the line of we Brits who always support an underdog ,or are they a fifth column of real anti-Semites ?.Truthfully I feel it is the former spiced with a bit of the "upperclass" idea from the breast that Jews are not quite our thing old boy .Most will not have studied the history deeply that pertains to the area- going back no further than the Ottoman empire and the role of the grand mufti would be a start at least .One must also remember if the newscaster does not follow the designated line promotion will not follow , so we need to look at the top end rather than the word spillers .

.I think many are influenced by the propaganda battle that is being won so easily by the Palestinians in the last few years, they were reviled after the Munich massacre, Entebbe and 67/73.--since then Israel has done a rotten job of putting their case and now are cast in the fallacious role of aggressor.Goebbels proved that the bigger the lie and the louder one shouts it the more it will be believed -check the Guardian /Independent comment sections for even more proof -

Today the Independent leader was well balanced and immediately came under attack from so many deranged posters

-viz my post ""Typical ,as soon as you write something balanced the useful idiots arrive en masse to scream hate at you ,all of us who pray for peace and justice are castigated ,especially by those whose knowledge of the area is in terrorist soundbites .One nation and government want peace and are opposed by one people who do and one "government" who do not .Until hamas and hesbollah learn to live in a modern world where respect for others is more important than their religious fanaticism and desire to rule this world with sharia ,we will not progress from this medieval madness""--------well you can imagine how reviled I became within minutes.---c,est la vie :)

phil

roGER
January 5th, 2009 3:30pm

"The BBC’s collusion with Hamas..."

Evidence, please?*

* Opinions don't count.

YOU HAVE JUST PROVIDED IT -of all the fools who post here ,you are certainly the king -you have never said one word of sense in all the times you have posted here apart from a pathetic try at sarcasm .give us a break man .try the guardian they will love you .

An American

So...let me get this straight. Only one UK politician has been brave enough to criticize the BBC on how it is handling the Israeli, Gaza war?

How very pathetic.

Adam B.

roGER, you want proof? Here it is:

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/000039.html

Andy Gill

Yesterday, when 38 civilians were killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq, the BBC's "breaking news" ticker was reporting 5 civilians killed in Gaza - with no mention of the Iraqi bombing. The first and second breaking news items were related to Gaza, and the third to the UK.

BBC news is out of control.

stanley Jerusalem

Augustus
January 5th, 2009 1:59pm

Simply brilliant!

Nicole S

'Sending emails is a waste of time the BBC just bins them!' Actually, I sent an email complaining about Jeremy Bowen's woefully selective and under-informed reporting and received two replies, which shows some effort, if not co-ordination between the left and right hands. I think it is worth registering dissatisfaction with the BBC, if enough people do it. They seem to think all they have to do is interview an extremist on one side, an Israeli representative on the other, just to show impartiality. They need to understand listeners want old-fashioned, thorough reporting, not emotive descriptions of the casualties of war (and only this war) and the ill-considered opinions of their washed up Middle Eastern editor.

Leslie

Max
"BBC is the most nuetral channel even it's biased to israel sometimes."

If you had said "neutered"I might have agreed with you.

Dixon

Adam
January 5th, 2009 12:50pm
Surprise surprise. Michael Fabricant son of a Rabbi is also an impartial observer on Israeli actions and how they are reported?"

Adam, what exactly are you saying? Are you saying he is Jewish? Is that what you are saying?

Lets hear your answer, Adam, what IS it you are saying?

Please, please moderators, do NOT remove Adams comment. we want to be able to see precisely what it is he is trying to say!

Dixon

JW
January 5th, 2009 11:56am
"once again, i long for the day when i can stop paying for this tax known as a licence fee!"
Just get rid of your TV."

What if you watch video, DVD, or your own camera-work?

The answer: Just dont buy a "digi-box". When the terrestrial switch-off occurs, it will no longer be possible to claim that anyone who uses a TV for watching DVDs is secretly watching television: if they dont have a digital decoder it would not be possible.

This happens in less than two years. I will be interested to see what happens to licence renewals at that time.

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!

Dixon

Ooops! My aplogies, I think Ive accidentally re-posted a previous comment! Doh!

Robbit

Yes, Dixon. Ch4 with the loathsome John Snow and Samira are justy just about as disgraceful as the BBC. it si just that the BBC has whole legions of Israel-hatining dhimmis - from top to bottom.
They are simply unspeakable.

Dixon

Hereford
January 5th, 2009 4:06pm wrote:
"Mehran et al: Nobody has to pay the licence fee any more. Get your TV on-line.
The beeb is now streaming most of its content at almost the same time as it broadcasts, ITV is doing the same and the Beeb is planning to offer ITV, Channel 4 and 5 space on iPlayer to allow us to watch the last 7 days telly."

Sorry, but this is actually a cunning trick by those swine...if you can watch a TV show online at the same time it is broadcast, that under the present law requires a TV licence.

Anyway, what of the zillions of uses for TVs which have nothing to do with broadcast television. Not juat Videos, DVDs and home movies. I use TVs to show people my photographs. I use TVs as real-time relays from my camera station when presenting live pub-shows. I earn about 15% of my disposable income by selling DVDs of my live shows. None of this has anything to do with either the Internet or broadcast television. Why in hell should I have to pay the BBC for my legitimate work in spheres that are not in a million miles connected to them?

Like I say, just make sure you dont have any digital receivers or converters and do not sign up to broadband, then when the analog switch off comes, you wont be eligible for the BBC tax, no matter how many TVs you own!

phil

Dixon you expect to much from adam .he is another useful idiot who thinks because MF is Jewish the truth will evade him -You are absolutely right ,leave him up ,it just shows the quality of opposing ideas for all to see..

Dixon

Edmund above gives me an idea:

The problem with us lot posting comments here is that we nearly all agree anyway. So why don't some of us lot ( the regulars, like Cabbie and Verity, if they can be found, conspicuous by their current absence and missed ) coordinate an appearance en-bloc at some site like the Gaurdian one, where there might be a few souls not yet totally brainwashed and still susceptible to another viewpoint.

Im not talking Trolling, Im saying a group online protest up lefty street, like they keep doing up our very city centre streets. Not abusive and vile, like they are on their scummy hooded placard wielding forays into public, but just an online phalanx of a few doughty Samiszdat-Spartans stepping into the breach to confront the advancing tsunami of mindless idiots.

Louise

Phil, I don't think the BBC's attitude has anything to do with upper-class antisemitism. The BBC seems to delight in overturning everything the middle-classes, let alone the upper-classes, hold dear, and everything for which Britannia and "bourgeois values" once stood. How often do we hear "received pronunciation" on the BBC? Not very often, these days. No, I believe that the BBC's appalling prejudice against Israel had its roots in Israel's stunning victory in June 1967 and the recruitment, beginning around that time, of 1960s-style radicals to the BBC, a process that gathered pace as time went on, with the first generation of lefty executives subsequently recruiting others of their kind, a process that continues ad infinitum. Israel's victory in the Six Day War and its aftermath removed the image of Jews as victims, and in the eyes of the far-left was replaced by the image of Jews as imperialist occupiers. With the end of apartheid, Israel has become more centrally in the far left's sights as the principal villain on the international stage. There may, in addition, be an element of leftwing antisemitism, the kind which sees Jews as rich and powerful, and resents them accordingly. In my view, the BBC's News website (apparently run by young people who have only known Israel as "an occupying power" and are ignorant of the history of Zionism) is even more biased than the radio and television BBC News, for it seems to demonise Israel with virtually every item included, day in, day out, and to do this with deliberate venom. Since it is the biggest news website online, read by untold numbers of people round the globe, this is extremely worrying.

Gert

A fifth attempt at getting a comment posted:

As so many commenters here, Melanie Phillips manages to fatally miss the main point and the elephant in the room: that the West Bank has been Occupied and colonised for just over forty years by Israeli settlers on Palestinian land. Most Palestinian discontent stems from that fact, little reported in the US MSM, that this forms the largest largest stumbling block to peace in the ME.

Melanie Phillips herself does not consider the Israeli settlements in the WB illegal. Draw your own conclusions...

To all well meaning people here I would like to ask how they would feel if their land had been occupied by brutal military occupation and for a large part settled by people from a neighbouring state that show not the slightest inkling or intention of ever leaving your homeland.

Even the complete elimination of Hamas will not change this reality, to which so many here appear to be willfully blind.

Al Goldstein

Melanie -- Speaking as a Zionist American Jew, my interest is different from yours. I love your work, but I don't care if England is to be taken over by the Muslims anymore. In such a case, you would emmigrate to either the USA or Israel, as would most of the real Jews of England (as opposed to the beaten-down self-hating ones). The Christian Zionists of England would mostly emmigrate to either the USA or Australia. Perfidious Albion would continue on much as now -- blaming subway bombings on "Jewish conspiracies" and the like. As long as the Muslims don't go so far as to try and ban the Beatles, they will fit right in. I have hated England ever since Tony Blair's re-election campaign, during which he portrayed his (nominally) Jewish opponent as Fegin-the-Jew. I have since come to realize that it is a mere accident of history that England wound up opposed to nazi Germany; it was Hitler's European territorial expansionism which brought England to war against him, nothing more, and English people are as constitutionally anti-Semitic as Germans ever were.

Melanie, you belong in the American South, where good morals still count for something. I recommend Branson Missouri for you -- it's lovely, and you can rub shoulders with patriotic American Country Music legends there.

Margaret Muller-Johansson

You should of complaining about the BBC let's say about seven years ago, why know? why it took you so long to understand the BBC and all this left wing media is misleading people, sorry guys, you did it to yourself, the only thing I could say is it is never to late to remind them to do the right job and to show honest news.

logdon

Al Beeb is not the only one. This from today's Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article5446519.ece
What a load of idealistic twaddle! The road to hell must certainly be paved with the blood of good intentions like this but what shocked me was the supine response from the readers. Straight from the Obama playbook of a mish-mash of populist idealism without reality, has the West been hoodwinked by his teaching the world to sing? In perfect harmonee of course to such an extent that this 'solution' is grabbed at like the drowning mans straw. The problem is that that 'straw' has been used as a Mae West so many times it is totally waterlogged.

Jerry

To roGER seeking evidence of BBC collusion with Hamas: When it is hard to communicate by cell phone or runner during battles, perhaps the BBC will suffice if it can help out in real time with minimal delay. Please note, roGER, that transmission of troop movements would constitute intelligence gathering. Check out the specifics contained in the BBC link. Does it meet your requirements for collusion? How close does it come to aiding and abetting? Think about whether you would want the movements of British troops in Afghanistan to be broadcast in like manner.

"At the moment the Israeli soldiers are close to one of the most important streets, the eastern street, they are at the beginning of it."

Read the whole pathetic piece and then get back to us about your view of the BBC's active advocate status in this conflict.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7810468.stm

Margaret Muller-Johansson

Most of the pictures in the Guardian and all this news papers are done by photoshop, a computer program, and many people can think it is true for example, if someone is laughing they could make that parson is crying, they could show bad pictures like men eating men, if you are artist you know the pictures are not real, I am not surprise if people are not aware of the photoshop touch up, they could be brain wash easily and that can create a problem

Dave

And on the BBC every night this week in Prime Time... a new adaption of the Diary of Ann Frank.

John Edwards

If genuine reporting is what Israel is interested in, why don't they let journalists and reporters into Gaza...or are they afraid of what will be reported and shown ??

Margaret Muller-Johansson

Gert, the Jewish went back their former country after all those years, the land of Abraham, Yitzhak, and Jacob, Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel, and Leah,
What is wrong with you, don't you know history? The Jewish been there before you was born, no one took any ones country, Sorry i think you been reading the Guardian too much

Neil Turner

For those of you who want to do something practical for Israel, rather than just sound off....

check out Pizzaidf.org where you can order pizza for IDF units. This really cheers and encourages them

Tell your friends !

Leven-Torres

Dear Mr Goldstein I don't know which planet you live on but the majority of Britons side with Israel!Many like me are deeply angry about the Islamisation of Britain and will do everything to oppose it!
EVERYTHING...

I deeply admire the Jews as a people and the State of Israel..So please do not judge us by a few scumbags in the BBC who are living on borowed time anyway!

Britain is a tinderbox about to explode! We have had it up to our necks with Moslem fanatics, their leftwing madmen allies and stupid criminal Socialist politicians. And by the way we want our Jews to remain to help us defend the country against the thugs and crackpots trying to destroy it!

I amd many ordinary Britins still go to Church and are as moral as always...

Please ignore the psychiatric cases in the BBC..They do not speak for us believe me!

Frank P

Al Goldstein

Much of what you say is true, but I regret that you feel that you "don't care if England is taken over by the Muslims, anymore". A weakening of the transatlantic alliance, already damaged by the machinations of the Left in Britain, would be a disastrously retrograde step in global geopolitics. Moreover, what makes you think that the US is safe from the irrevocable forces of Islamic jihad? The MSM managed to brainwash the US electorate into a very unwise decision in November, just as it brainwashed the British electorate into a similarly idiotic mistake in 1997 ... and two subsequent elections! I see no evidence that the US is impervious to the creeping demographics of Islamism (9/11 was a sorta clue, wasn't it?) and moreover you have other issues of incursion by races from the south inimical to to Uncle Sam's interest. Religious and other demographical tolerance can sometimes be just as insidious as racial intolerance, if a balance is not struck between accommodation and defence of cultural freedoms and long established civilised institutions and heritage. I applaud Israel for defending their land and their right to exist. I wish Britain would be equally defiant against those who wish to destroy us, as the enemy within is always the root cause of the fall of all civilisations. Melanie has a dual loyalty and she dispenses both interests with vigour and great journalistic skill. Though I wouldn't blame her if she chose to take an easier path, I doubt she will. You should not try to encourage her so to do. Just as we have a self interest in supporting Israel, then you, whether you realise it or not, have a self interest in defending the UK. The picture is not as extreme as you describe, though antisemitism is more widespread than some would like to admit. And I speak as a a great friend of America and understand your concern about antiAmerican propaganda spewed by our MSM for the past 5 years or so. The lamestream media is not representative of the wider swathe of public opinion, though it does have an incremental impact, I agree. Leave our Mel where she is, her country needs her. In fact both her countries - and yours need her, but like good wine, she travels well.

Dixon

Gert
January 5th, 2009 6:48pm:
"A fifth attempt at getting a comment posted:
As so many commenters here, Melanie Phillips manages to fatally miss the main point and the elephant in the room: that the West Bank has been Occupied and colonised for just over forty years by Israeli settlers on Palestinian land. Most Palestinian discontent stems from that fact, little reported in the US MSM, that this forms the largest largest stumbling block to peace in the ME. "

Elephantine twaddle........the land was owned by Turkey for five hundred plus years, their empire was dismantled by the British. The "Palestinians" are just Arabs... the same people as inhabit the rest of the region, just as Yorkshiremen are simply Englishmen of one locality...it was no more "their" land than anybody elses.

The logic of your argument, Gert, is that Yorkshiremwen "own" Yorkshire and noone from anywhere else are allowed to live there...say from Pakistan or Somalia.

Apply that "logic" and you are just the same as the BNP or the actual NAZIs. Which IS exactly what Hamas is...an ultra-extreemist, racial nationalist party.

THAT is what Israel is fighting.

Thats the bloody great pachyderm in the room of leftist stupidity. I mean, do you REALLY support racial nationalism?

Roger Adlington

In the face of 12000 rockets in five years, the Israelis have shown the utmost restraint. Not a single Palestinian life has been taken by the IDF in all that time. And now that Israel has finally lost patience and has ventured delicately and lightly into Gaza the BBC chooses to vilify and pass judgement.

The action in Gaza is small price to pay to defend the life and property of Israelis.

But does the BBC care? Not a jot.

Dixon

Its not just the Israel issue...the BBC is utterly wrong about EVERYTHING. Even in the drama it makes. I tried watching some: "Apparitions". If you really want to encourage people in the 21st Century to believe in dangerous Mediaeval nonsense, thats how to go about it. The irony was, I had just an hour earlier watched a CH4 documentary about the thousands of little children in Africa who are every year beaten, tortured, shunned by their families and disowned by their communities because they are accused of being witches possessed by evil spirits. Then the BBC puts out a show that uses the best of its dramatic abilities to make it seem as if demonic possession was an absolute reality.

This kind of moral idiocy runs right through the BBC like "Blackpool" through a stick of rock.

Wilhelm

Hamas has fired 6000 missiles into Israel.

Not mentioned on the lefty liberal BBC.

What a suprise..

Dixon

Margaret Muller-Johansson
January 5th, 2009 7:38pm"
" Most of the pictures in the Guardian and all this news papers are done by photoshop, a computer program, and many people can think it is true for example, if someone is laughing they could make that parson is crying, they could show bad pictures like men eating men, if you are artist you know the pictures are not real, I am not surprise if people are not aware of the photoshop touch up, they could be brain wash easily and that can create a problem"

At least Margaret you have a better grasp of English than I do of your native language, whatever it is. I dont speak anything but English.

What you are referring to was shown up in the Lebanon attack when a widely published picture was recognised and exposed as containing photoshop "cloning" of buildings and bomb smoke to create three times as much apparent damage as there actually was. After the dumbass media used this picture everywhere, bloggers exposed it, the photographer ( himself an Arab ) was fired by Reuters and they removed NINE THOUSAND of his other images from their library!

Indeed, as a photographer I can often spot how pictures distort the reality. You dont need Photoshopping. Just a choice of focal length or angle can dramatically alter the import of an image.

Then there is the other fact revealed in the Lebanon attack, that Hizballah were employing operativces to actually set up scenes before the press arrived. On one occasion, even removing a childs body from an ambulance and then recreating the scene of her being carried off.

These incidents were eventually traced to the activities of one Hizballah member, "Green Helmet Guy", who was in all the shots. Eventually he was identified and exposed.

How many other cases are there that are not revealed. Look closely, you can often see for yourself in images or on TV, things which just dont "add up".

For example, on CH4 news, a bomb site was being guarded by a man who refused to let the cameras in, because it was said "there were bodies of civilians inside". For a start, they didnt know that. More to the point, they might have been bodies of Hamas fighters. Weapons, remains of arms stashes, etc. Any journalist ought at least consider such possibilities. Not merely repeat as a "fact" that the man was protecting the dignity of innocent "martyrs", a term which they apply as much to fighters as civilians.

Joshua

If people really want to know how bad it's getting, they should take a little trip over to the blog run by the journalist, Neil Clark. Some of the comments that have recently been posted there:

1) "Does Israel have the right to defend itself? I don't accept that 'it' does, or that it has a 'right' to exist."

2) "this Gaza assault is not an assault on Hamas, but on Palestinian identity, civilization and life. The Israelis are nazi scum - they have no right to anything. Those who apologise for them, like Neil Craig, our government, the 'Friends of Israel', nearly all jewish organisations, the owners, managers and editors of our media - all these should be tried for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity, not to mention treason."

3) "People who target ambulances are filthy Nazi scum.

Arguably they are even worse than that - because even the Nazi SS generally drew the line at killing ambulance crews in battle!

These Zionist bastards (and all those who support them) are the utter scum of the earth."

An American

Gert,
I can see why it took you five times to have your comments posted here.

What do you propose that Israel do? Pack up and leave?

The more territory Israel gives back... the more vulnerable they are to continued attacks.

The Palestinians have Gaza... but what are they doing with it...they've turned it into a dismal slum now being destroyed further by Israel's bombings. In the meantime...Hamas is busy spending begged money on missiles and sending their young suicide squads to kill Israeli citizens.

I have a better solution.

Hamas and Gaza decides to make peace with Israel...they work hard (if they know what that is since all they know is scheming and war)at building a society with jobs, prosperous businesses, good schools, good water and sewer systems, more hospitals, clean up their filthy streets, etc. etc. . If they were to take on these tasks, the west would help with the financing.

But instead they perfer to destroy the Jews and themselves in the process.

davidka

AL Goldstein
I am a Brit and i agree entirely with you on the antisemitic nature of the British. If it were not for the splendid Winston Churchill. the pro Nazi elites might well have had their way and Britain gone the other way and joined hands with Hitler.
of course he always expected that but thanks to Winston it never happened.
It was indeed Winston who restored Britain's honour and backed to be fair by the man on the street and not the elites who branded him a parvenu war mongerer.
Well there is no sign of a Churchill today and the elites are once more at work weaving their dishonesty and amorality on the British public but this time it is not the arrogant aristocrats of "the Remains of the Day" but the media and their nihilistic hordes of journalists who have lost their abilities to tell right from wrong, good from evil because of their addiction to neo liberalism and the moral equivalence absurdness that entails.
Margaret Muller
Melanie HAS been warning about the BBC for at least seven years! So has the Biased BBC website but you are somewhat right it is only now that the BBC own public are waking up to its dishonesty and lord HAW HAW role in preserving British values.

Penny

Gert

There is perhaps more to the elephant in the room that you speak of.

With respect, Gert, I would like to point out that my husband's family were amongst the 800,000 Jews and Christians who were forced to leave their countries in the Middle East.

They lost their homes,jobs,all their money and were stripped of their jewellery at the port from which they sailed. I believe they were allowed to take a couple of suitcases with some clothing. There was no reparation made for all they lost by (in their case) Nasser.

The difference is that none of them have even remotely considered strapping a bomb to themselves and blowing up others, nor have they exacted any form of revenge.

I cannot provide any supporting evidence as I haven't researched this, but I would be surprised if any of those refugees of the ME in the '50's have.

Adam B.

The BBC always bats complaints away with standard replies. It is crucual to escalate the complaint up to the next level, so a more senior person deals with it. It's only at this higher level that anything gets noticed.

Adam B.

Gert, it is your historical ignorance which unfortunately perpetuates the problems of the Middle East. Perhaps you can explain to me when Judea and Samaria (or West Bank as you call it) became part of a Palestinian entity? Can you explain when the "Palestinians" themselves became a separate identity from the Arabs of the surrounding nations? How old is this identity? What distinguishes it? You believe that if Israel withdrew from these areas (and ask yourself why you believe it needs to be Jew free when it's OK for 1.5 million Arabs to live inside Israel) that peace would inevitably result. Ask yourself why Israel entered these areas in the first place - the Arab world attempted to wipe Israel off the map in 1967, and Arab governments openly declared their genocidal ambitions. They lost the war they initiated. Show me one other example where the aggressor loses the war they started, then receives everything it lost back. Didn't happen to Germany in 1945. If there was no peace before 1967 (and your so-called "occupation"), why do you expect peace to occur if Israel withdrew? Israel withdrew from Gaza, and look at the result! 6500 rockets targeting Israeli civilians!

Dixon

Penny, Im sorry to learn about that. I was unaware of it. It reminds me of another analogy:

The Muslims in one half of Cyprus expelled all the Christians with the help of the Turkish navy and Paratroops in, what was it, 1974 I think.

Have these Greek Cypriots, who REALLY DID have their land and houses stolen taken to waging terrorist war on the rest of the world in protest?

"We" are NOT the same as "them".

Kiwi

Gert wrote: "To all well meaning people here I would like to ask how they would feel if their land had been occupied by brutal military occupation and for a large part settled by people from a neighbouring state that show not the slightest inkling or intention of ever leaving your homeland."
Well meaning is one thing, but to be ignorant or simply misinformed is something else! Judea and Samaria has never been part of any Palestinian ‘State’, not ever, not even when illegally occupied by Jordan 1948 -1967. And how ridiculous to suggest that Israel has no right or claim to a land littered with Hebrew-named cities whose history can be traced back for thousands of years ((Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Hebron, to name but a few).

wrighty

An occupied and brutalised people fight back. How dare they ?
Free Palestine, end the occupation !

Dixon

wrighty
January 6th, 2009 11:52am
An occupied and brutalised people fight back. How dare they ?
Free Palestine, end the occupation !"

Another "intelligent" person. Keep it up "Wrighty"...or is it "Wolfy", AKA Citizen Smith! Wez Ya Beret boy? Keep it up so we can all have a laugh.

Adam B.

wrighty, Gaza wasn't occupied when Hamas fired 6000 missiles. Little detail I thought your cretinous mind should know.

wrighty

Cheer on the war crimes Dixon, you'll sleep very badly in your old age.
Wolfy: Wolfowitz ? Another warmonger.

Adam B.

wrighty, firing missiles deliberately at civilians (as hamas has done for the past 8 years) is a war crime. Not an hysterical squeak out of you over that, is there?

wrighty

Adam; this forum may not see it but the world sees Israeli barbarity for what it is.
By all means take comfort, surrounded here as you are by other blinkered haters; but the bigger battle you have LOST.

Adam B.

wrighty, you speak in slogans and hatred, and unthinkingly repeat lies you have been told. It is impossible to engage with you, as you have switched your brain off. You haven't offered one substantive reply to any of the points put to you. The world is not as united as you think either- the US, Netherlands, Italy, and the Czech Republic which holds the EU presidency have expressed understanding for the Israeli position.

Groovy Times

I agree with Augustus and his astute anaylysis into the mindset of eliminationist anti-Semitism.

Groovy Times

And to wrighty...what does that mean in reality - Free Palestine, end the occupation? It is a euphemism for; Destroy Israel, kill the Jews. Take a closer look at the manifesto of your ideological brothers-in-arms in Gaza before you refute this claim. You remind me of those morally redundant middle class French radicals in the early 70s who liked to dress in the chic of the Khmer Rouge and spout fashionable slogans about Pol Pot's romantic vision of returning Cambodia to an agricultural utopia. Yah! So radical man!

wrighty

1967 borders as per the Saudi plan does NOT spell the end of Israel, Groovy, it spells an Israel for the FIRST time in respect of international law and agreements.

Adam B.

wrighty, wrong again. Read resolution 242 (you clearly never have). You really don't know what you're talking about, yet you're so convinced you're right. sad really.

Ray Midlands

I sit and watch BBC news every night at 10 ....hoping that we will get a more balanced view because surely they can't keep this properganda up ,can they?
I sit in utter disbief that this is a corporation paid for by taxpayers and used as a private lefties brainwashing outlet.
We are going to have a lot more of this when it starts siding with GB as the next elextion looms.
None of this would matter if it wasn't for the licence fee.
What to do though in our undemocratic society!

Free Gaza

Yes the BBC is biased, favourable bias towards the Israeli's. Fails to mention this is massacre of Palestinians, and as a prominent cardinal said recently the Gazans were living in a “big concentration camp”.
Maybe you need take a reality check. Over 845 people dead in Gaza including 270 children, during this so called war.