At least you got a response. I complained about how Newsnight always begins with an Israeli who spends 5 minutes prevaricating, a Palestinian is then given about 15 seconds. The piece is then rounded off by a pro-Israeli American. This has been quantified by the Glasgow Media Group in Bad News from Israel.

I think there are some strange foreign policy allegiances in the centre left. For much of the time there is very little difference between the centre left and conservatives on foreign policy - or in the US the hard conservatives (republicans) and less hard conservatives (democrats). This has been true of the Labour post second world war pretty much, where other than the early 1980s foreign policy has been indistinguishable from the conservatives. This is not true for domestic policy where there are significant differences between the conservatives and social democrats.
I think the centre left has not fully extended the boundary to which it applies human rights beyond its own country. The same was true of the left in the past for women and other “racial” groups.
Patrick | Homepage | 09.13.05 - 10:25 am | #

Some guy some time back got some kind of court order or something or other, compelling the BBC to respond to his complaints. Sorry about the lack of specifics. I read it in the JC some time ago and I may have blogged it. Look down the right margin for PicoSearch and put in BBC and see what comes up.
Mark Elf | Homepage | 09.13.05 - 11:15 am | #

Here - http://jewssansfrontieres.blogsp...bc- buckles.html
Mark Elf | Homepage | 09.13.05 - 1:19 pm | #

You have certainly caught the BBC out in a double standard. But if they got the 'retaliation' angle from the Israelis it amounts to self-incrimination.

In effect Israel admits that the house demolitions in Rafah were a form of collective punishment [banned by the Geneva Conventions], and not on grounds of military necessity [permitted by the GCs] - and therefore constitute a war crime.

In other words, Israel admits Almog is 'guilty as charged'.
stephen marks | 09.13.05 - 6:59 pm | #

This is getting better. C4 and some MP whose name I didn't catch are now asking "who tipped the Israelis off?" and "why wasn't he arrested on the plane?"
Mark Elf | Homepage | 09.13.05 - 8:10 pm | #

We get the BBC World News on PBS (Public Broadcasting System) in the States and while in many ways it's fairer than the U.S. media there are some real blind spots. In the runup to the coup d' etat against President Aristide in Haiti their program spun every report to make Aristide look like a dictator. Their on-air presenter Mishal Hussein was interviewing Jeffrey Sachs and she made the mistake of predicating one question on propaganda that Aristide was the stumbling block to resolving the crisis.

Sachs blew up! He read her the riot act and told her she should be ashamed to mouth such ignorant tripe. It was marvelous. The only thing she could do was go on with the interview as if nothing had happened, because she had been shown up for the mindless duckspeaker (Orwell, bless his heart!) that she was.
Montag | 09.14.05 - 1:51 am | #

Towards the end of August just gone, there was a suicide bombing. It came two days after Israel killed five unarmed Palestinians.

Terrorist groups don't really care that much about innocent civilians getting killed. (Kind of obvious when you think about it...) There was a far bigger fuss when some group founder (I think it was of hamas of hizb'allah) was killed than over this.

Suggesting that this suicide bombing wouldn't have occurred if the Palestinians hadn't been killed would be nothing more than speculation.
Andjam | Homepage | 09.14.05 - 2:58 am | #

And the suggestion that Israel only retaliates is worse than speculation. It's a lie. And to imply that Israel cares about killing civilians is ridiculous.
Mark Elf | Homepage | 09.14.05 - 6:13 am | #

And the suggestion that Israel only retaliates is worse than speculation. It's a lie. And to imply that Israel cares about killing civilians is ridiculous.

So in response to what you suspect is bogus reporting about Israel's motives ... you want what I've argued is similarly bogus reporting about militants' motives.
Andjam | Homepage | 09.14.05 - 1:03 pm | #

Eh?
Mark Elf | Homepage | 09.14.05 - 10:14 pm | #

You lobbied the BBC to imply that the Palestinian deaths influenced the suicide bombing.

I argued that that the deaths played no role.

You decided that your claim being false didn't matter.
Andjam | Homepage | 09.15.05 - 1:02 pm | #

My point is that the BBC and the rest of the media often portray Israeli violence as retaliatory and Palestinian violence as coming from out of the blue or shattering a "period of calm."

You asserting that my "claim is false" does not make it false.
Mark Elf | Homepage | 09.15.05 - 1:20 pm | #

You responded to my comment that it'd be incorrect to imply that the Palestinians were retaliating by saying that it's incorrect to imply that the Israelis were retaliating. That is a non sequitur.
Andjam | Homepage | 09.16.05 - 2:54 pm | #