When it was recently announced that 40,000 people, the great majority civilians, have been killed in the Gaza conflict, I checked the media coverage. Almost all – Sky, CNN, the Guardian etc – correctly reported that the figure came from the Hamas health ministry. All, however, implied acceptance of the figure’s accuracy by the prominence they gave it (except for the Guardian, preposterously plus royaliste que le roi, which said the Hamas figure ‘does not tell the full story of Palestinian losses’). The classic example was the BBC. The story led the six o’clock news on Radio 4, the serious programme with the bongs of Big Ben, always considered the gold standard. Because of its statutory duty of impartiality, it then proceeded in effect to knock down its own story, pointing out that the figure could not be independently verified. Splashing with the Hamas claim is fake news because the truth is simply not knowable at this stage. Even if it were, Hamas would not reveal it unless it favoured their cause. Israel gives no figure for deaths because it says it has no accurate means of counting, a statement which has the merit of being true. In propaganda terms, though, big headlines are the main thing, and the big headlines trumpet the deaths and omit the caveat. Perhaps no comparison works, but it seems worth noting that the OHCHR estimate of civilians killed in the Ukraine war is 11,520. That figure covers 30 months rather than the ten months of Gaza, and it refers to a conflict in which the Russian aggressor often deliberately targets civilians. In Gaza, the entity which deliberately puts civilians in harm’s way is Hamas.
One little gleam of pleasure for Israel in these otherwise dark times must be the news that the Scottish government now refuses to meet its representatives. The SNP decision follows a public apology by Angus Robertson, Scotland’s ‘External Affairs Secretary’, for having met Israel’s deputy ambassador to Britain. Could there have been anything more time-wasting for Israel than discussing the situation with hostile and stupid politicians who have no locus standi since foreign policy is not a devolved matter? Nevertheless, the Scottish action may be a straw in the wind. How long, for example, before the government of the Irish Republic does something similar? One run by Sinn Fein would certainly do so. There’ll be more of this.
Good news that Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has received a £13,000 payout from West Midlands Police. They had twice arrested her for praying publicly, but alone and silently, near an abortion clinic. She was the victim of mild persecution. I do not agree, however, with those who say the law should never impede public prayer. It can be an extremist political weapon. Once upon a time, this featured in Christian conflicts. Nowadays, it is a feature of militant Islam, whose activists sometimes like to occupy public places in considerable numbers to perform the salah. In such circumstances, prayer can be a threat to public order.
There were many criticisms of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris. Why has no one reported that made by the Comte de Sèze? As president of L’Association entraide de la Noblesse francaise, the count has written to President Macron. He expresses ‘a great deal of sorrow and surprise’ at a scene in the show where ‘in the windows of a blood-red Palais de la Cité, Marie-Antoinette or other noble women, decapitated, [were] singing the revolutionary tune “Ah, ça ira!”, while a ship carrying a radiant woman, raising her fist, passed on the Seine.’ In its reprise, the song uses the famous phrase ‘Aristocrats à la lanterne!’ The count wants to know ‘What would Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who initiated the revival of the Olympic Games in 1896, have said about this?’ and pointedly asks: ‘In a country that does so much to promote women’s rights, is it really normal to present the beheading of a woman in such a positive light?’ Besides, the kings of Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium and the sovereigns of Luxembourg and Monaco were all guests at the opening ceremony. What must they have thought of this celebration of a queen, ‘leur lointaine parente pour la plupart’, being beheaded? Look what happened next: ‘The results were not long in coming: while our members were expressing their amazement on social networks, many users were hurling insults and death threats at them. Despicable comments and dehumanising insults demonstrated the deeply racist nature of this hatred, which must be described as aristophobic.’ The noblesse ‘represent a great cultural, heritage and economic force’, but ‘we have been treated as if we no longer existed’. The count leaves Macron with a question: ‘On 26 July 2024, our country put on a show for the whole world to show that it was proud to have murdered its aristocrats. What can we say to the French people of aristocratic origin who have placed their trust in the Republic?’ So far as I know, the President has not replied, but surely de Sèze’s Burkean words deserve an answer. ‘Aristophobia’ is all the rage, rage being the right word.
Mike Lynch and I were due to have lunch next month. When we last communicated, he was buoyant after vindicating his innocence in the Californian courts. Now he is the victim of a horror out of classical myth, almost of Charybdis itself, and with him his dear daughter Hannah. How can his poor wife, Angela, who survived the shipwreck, bear such losses? Mike’s yacht Bayesian was named after Thomas Bayes, the 18th-century Presbyterian minister whose theorem Mike admired. According to Wikipedia, the theorem ‘gives a mathematical rule for inverting conditional probabilities, allowing us to find the probability of a cause given its effect’. What on earth is the probable cause of this brilliant man’s fate, with its triumphs and its weird tragedy?
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