The Ugly Face Of Bigoted Britain
Tremendous piece by Andrew Roberts in the Times today, making the crucial point that the charities involved in the now-famous humanitarian appeal for Gaza (on which I have written today for the Mail) are not in fact motivated by humanitarian concerns as much as a visceral hatred for Israel:
People assume that charities such as these merely do good works for all who are in need. Not so. For years, they have been a fount of virulent hatred against Israel, recycling the lies and distortions of Arab propaganda as fact while ignoring or minimising Israeli victimisation. Because people assume the charities are a dispassionate voice of altruism, they have absorbed these lies as unchallengeable truth. The contribution that these charities have made in helping form the monstrous view that Israel is a demonic aggressor rather than the historic victim of exterminatory aggression – a viewpoint which has unleashed the current wave of Jew-hatred in Britain and the west – cannot be exaggerated. What is particularly vile about this controversy is the ‘Jewish conspiracy’ theory being bandied about, with the demonstrably risible suggestion that the Israeli government has somehow pulled the BBC’s strings – even though it is clear the Israelis have had absolutely nothing to do with this, and many Jews, including supporters of Israel such as the Labour MP Louise Ellman, think the BBC should have broadcast the appeal. Yet Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said:
The report was wrong on many counts, including allegations over the availability of food and basic necessities, which were later contradicted by both the World Bank and World Health Organisation, neither of which are exactly Israeli stooges. The fact that Hamas chose to pursue war with Israel rather than the welfare of its people, was not covered in these reports. There was no sense that any of these claims might be disputed by the other side or by genuinely neutral observers... Violence against Israelis, including deaths, are virtually ignored by Oxfam officials, who have referred to ‘collective punishment illegal under international humanitarian law yet tolerated by the international community’. For those of us who reject such gross ideological bias, which absolves the Hamas leadership for a confrontation which they openly sought, such statements by charities are unacceptable and should not be rewarded by the BBC.I'm afraid the BBC has to stand up to the Israeli authorities occasionally.
Comedian Alexi Sayleopines:People don’t really think about the Israeli propaganda machine, which is swift and remorseless and well connected. They [the BBC] have done us a favour in that they’ve shown that at work.
And in its opinion column this morning the Daily Mirror said:Timid Mr Thompson and his jelly-legged executives have allowed it to be beaten up by vested interests. They have already lost the faith of their staff. Now growing numbers of licence fee-payers are wondering why they consistently bow to every hysterical headline from the usual suspects.
‘Vested interests’? ‘The usual suspects’? Now who on earth can they mean? But in any event the only ‘hysterical headlines’ for the past three weeks have been screaming about the alleged perfidy of Israel. So what on earth are they talking about? Truly, an utter madness has consumed Britain with anti-Jew bigotry now an established feature of the national debate.
Monday 26 January 2009
In the months prior to the decision by Hamas to end the six-month ceasefire and resume rocket attacks, these charities issued a flood of one- sided denunciations aimed at Israel. Their campaign repeated tendentious and often highly inaccurate terms such as ‘collective punishment’ and ‘violation of international law’. On March 6, 2008, CARE International, Cafod, Christian Aid and Oxfam (among others) published a widely quoted report under the headline ‘The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion’. The authors did not bother to hide their political bias against Israel, repeating standard Palestinian political rhetoric and including claims that Israeli policy ‘constitutes a collective punishment against ordinary men, women and children’ and is ‘illegal under international humanitarian law’.
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