Monday, 12 July 2010

 

Paddy Goes Peacemaking

>> SUNDAY, JULY 11, 2010

For some unknown reason Paddy O’Connell of Radio 4’s B.H. went to Jerusalem and spoke to Saeb Erekat and Gilliad Sher, the chief negotiators ten years ago, at Bill Clinton’s Camp David summit.

Erekat was in negotiating mode: “if I can’t offer the Palestinians the removal of Jewish settlements, Hamas will win” he declared, a tactic which requires Hamas to play bad cop to the PLO’s good cop, adding “I’m being honest” (thus implanting the opposite notion into this listener’s head.)
80,000 - 130,000 Jewish settlers will eventually have to be uprooted said Sher.

The issue of Jewish settlements is the only obstacle to peace that is ever mentioned on the BBC. Nobody brings up the Palestinians’ refusal to recognise Israel or renounce violence. If settlements are *Israel’s* obstacle to peace, the Palestinians’ obstacle to peace is that they don’t even want peace.

Jewish settlements in ‘Palestinian designated areas’ are universally considered an outrage and provocation while a considerable number of Arabs are citizens of Israel, not to mention the fact that entire Arab countries reject any Jewish presence whatsoever, an anomaly that is almost universally accepted without the raising of half an eyebrow.

Jews have evicted fellow Jews and have stated that they’re prepared to do so again for peace, whereas there’s little indication that Palestinians are prepared to accept Israel’s existence or cease attacking Israelis.
Jews have coexistence as their goal. Many Arabs have the elimination of Israel as theirs.

Just let’s have the BBC discuss that situation realistically for a change.
Another gripe I have with such reports is the continual subliminal imagery they carry. This might seem trivial, but if you know how advertising works you’ll admit it’s not.

At the beginning of the item Paddy paints a sound picture. Up close and personal, a Palestinian market trader, stereotypical variety, speaks sadly of his dwindling hopes for peace, for him and his little son, five years old. (aaahhh) The ceramic tiles he sells are decorated with multiculturally religious symbols, denoting that he’s the good guy.
The Israeli counterpart, on the other hand, is an awkward looking bar mitzvah boy, distant and impersonal, not very aaahhh, and not very sympathetic. A mention of CCTV cameras in the background is thrown in for good measure.

See what they do here? They make Palestinians appear sympathetic, hard-done-by and tolerant, and Jews distant, aloof and surveillant. This happens too often for it to be accidental.

I’m paranoid, you’ll say. But just because I am, it doesn’t mean they aint out to get me.

WORLD CUP CRAZY

As we approach the final for the World Cup this evening, the BBC is boasting what a terrific success it has been and one in the eye "for those" who said South Africa couldn't produce such a high quality tournament. (Meme, ANC = good) Throughout the tournament the BBC coverage of the games has had a fair smattering of cultural awareness reporting spliced amongst it aimed at making us feel good about the new South Africa. The BBC are drooling at the prospect that Saint Nelson Mandela may actually be at the Final tonight - cementing the multicultural fairytale the BBC seek to construct. Frankly, had we got rid of the BBC panel and had an Octopus and a Parakeet, the coverage would have been less cloying.

MISSING...

Richard Black ploughs on with his eco-scares. Today he yells 'fire!' about fish - they are going to become extinct by 2050 thanks to our greed. He frames the topic entirely in terms of the agenda of greenie fanatics, and fails to deal properly with the real villain of the peace, the EU. Its insane Common Fisheries Policy (under which millions of dead fish are slung back into the sea), combined with rapacious buying up of African fishing licences, have combined to create scarcity from plenty. 

Meanwhile Mr Black and the rest of the legion of BBC greenie reporters studiously avoid the real environment stories of the day. First, as Richard North has masterfully shown, IPCC claims about the impact of climate change on the South American rain forests were the worst kind of unsubstantiated bunk; second, the Muir Russell committee's so-called investigation of Climategate, which the BBC thought proved that the scientists involved had been exonerated, failed to deal properly with the main issues and made judgments about the science involved which were clearly outside its competence; and third, Lord Oxburgh's report - which the BBC has claimed showed that the science of climate change was vindicated - also failed to do its job properly, to the extent that the one scientist on the House of Commons Science and Technology committee has bravely said that parliament was misled. 

Meanwhile Roger Harrabin, that other doyen of BBC environment reporting,here treacherously claims to address sceptics' concerns about Oxburgh, while sticking to the ludicrous BBC line that 98% of climate scientists believe in man-made global warming so it must be true, and - the corollary - that sceptics must be idiots.