Downward Spiral

Downward Spiral

The so-called ‘Palmer report’ has finally been published. Publication was held back for various reasons.

The BBC says because of fears that issuing it sooner would jeopardise reconciliation between former allies Turkey and Israel - “which didn’t happen”. It seems, as well, that both Turkey and Israel had contributed to the delay by intervening with various demands and objections.

The likelihood of a reconciliation seems somewhat far-fetched.

The conclusions boiled down to: a) Israel’s blockade was legal, but: b) they used excessive force on the Mavi Marmara.

The BBC’s headlines, needless to say, presented these two the other way round.

They said the report stated that Israel used excessive force ‘when they boarded a ship taking “supplies” to Gaza.’

They didn’t say what the supplies were, perhaps because there weren’t any.

The next time round they modified the wording, along with, of all people, Barbara Plett’s more accurate terminology, that the flotilla was intended to ‘break the blockade’.

However the headline has currently reverted to “aid”.

They’re saying the flotilla was taking aid! Everybody knows that

1) Gaza may need various kinds of help, but taking ‘aid’ isn’t one of them, and

2) the Mavi Marmara was taking a mob of activists and useful idiots on a publicity stunt devised simply to demonstrate their Israel-hating politics.

Israel takes issue with the “excessive and unreasonable” part of the report. Before saying ‘they would say that, wouldn’t they” it’s worth asking what else they could have done under the circumstances.

Turkey, of course, also takes issue. With everything else in the report.

That raises questions about the usefulness of commissioning these reports in the first place.

So, talking of Israel-hating politics, that brings us to the next headline, the disruption of the Israel Philharmonic orchestra’s performance at the Albert Hall.

The triumph of the so-called pro Palestinian activists was that radio 3 had abandoned the live broadcast.

Only they could believe that doing so was any help to the poor Palestinians.

The BBC initially reported that the performance was disrupted by pro Palestinian protesters shouting and booing the orchestra.

So excited was the BBC scriptwriter that he/she forgot to notice that the booing came from the audience and was directed at the protesters.

They’ve been featuring an interview with Deborah Fink, without mentioning the unpredictable, volatile outbursts which show her to be demonstrably unhinged.

Many of us will be familiar with Deborah Fink’s other-worldly performance on a similar occasion, courtesy of Youtube.

The BBC is reflecting, creating, reflecting, creating the public’s hostility to Israel in a downward spiral, whose momentum seems unstoppable.