Intermission

Nigel

Find the end of the rainbow?Something else lost by this government?

J. Isaacs

Happy holidays and happy New Year.

Chris

Not even a Merry Christmas? Bah humbug!

zardoz

I didn't realise that you were doing panto this year!

Jack R

It's no good you going to Pakistan to try and sort it all out.

Jim

A "Merry Xmas" would certainly have been nice, and I hope Melanie will accept one from me. I admire and support her defence of traditional values in Britain and she has herself pointed out that Christianity is central to them.

Elizabeth

Hope you're somewhere warm and relaxing. You'll need it with the year to come.

Jeremy Jacobs

Chris, Jim. Point taken but really...........

simon

Melanie--

I'm curious as to your take on the following:
Buried deep in a long open thread on the Biased-BBC website is the following exchange between BBC employee "John Reith" (a pseudonym for several BBC employees, as admitted further down in the thread) and commenter "Edna." Reith essentially uncritically presents an "interpretation doing the rounds" that rather than springing from innate British support for the Zionist cause, the (Balfour) Declaration was more or less extorted from the British as the price of access to war loans from Jewish-owned banks." Reith goes on to condemn the "Protocols" strain of anti-semitic writing this "fact," and the "fact" that there were "German Jewish bankers in New York...enthusiastically backing Germany", inspired, but nonetheless he presents the argument as though it were fact, and possibly the predominant reason for the adoption of the resolution. The implication is that somehow the realpolitik of "Jewish money" and "political power" in the US led to the declaration, rather than sympathy for the cause. Here is Edna's response, and Reith's rejoinder, where he pontificates on the positive aspects of what might have been had Germany WON World War 1:
Edna: 
So the 'Zionists' managed to bring America into the War, according to JR, because of the Balfour Declaration- a bribe in other words.

And so?

If true, it possibly prevented a German success in WWI.

Was that a bad thing?

And even according to your post JR, the 1916 agreement was made with the approval of the Arabs.

Or have I misunderstood?
Edna | 31.12.07 - 1:34 pm | #

John Reith: 
Edna | 31.12.07 - 1:34 pm 



If true, it possibly prevented a German success in WWI.

Was that a bad thing?

Hard to say, really. You could mount a pretty plausible 'what if'? case along the lines that a German victory would have meant:

1. No WWII
2. No Holocaust
3. Little impact on Britain or its Empire
4. Soviet Communism might have been quickly squashed
5. The brunt would be felt chiefly by the French and Belgians



sounds almost attractive 
John Reith | 31.12.07 - 2:14 pm

The first entry by Reith was made on 31.12.07 at 1:21 pm. You can find it in the "General BBC-related thread" labeled "ed thomas" from Thursday December 20,2007

field

When does an intermission become a three week holiday? We've had Bhutto assassinated, Kenya in flames and further mayhem in Gaza since our MP went away. She's neglecting her constituents!

Lauren Knapp-Resnik

The world sorely needs Melanie Phillips. Get it on back! Bring it on home, we miss you. Bottom line, you ROCK. Lauren Resnik Texas

Yisrael Medad

As for Simon's post, I wonder what JR would respond to the fact that if his suppositions are true (they aren't), the Brits sure got a better deal than that they made, exactly the same bribe-ish way (except that they had to give the bribes, not receive them) with the Arabs - you know Lawrence & Co. - but with much less success, either militarily (Jewish Legion vs. the "Great Revolt") and diplomatically. Of course, obtaining and controlling oil (Mesopotamia, Mosul, Saudi Arabia) was always the most moral of British acts, right?

zardoz

Fear not Melanie will be back tomorrow. As I mentioned earlier, she has been appearing as the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella at the Sunderland Empire. The run ends tonight so she, and her magic wand, will be able to resume 'the day job' on Monday 7th. Oh YES she WILL ........

Chris (another one)

Got lost, or something?