Sky News and its new found anti-Israel bias

After watching Sky News this morning to try to find out about today's suicide attack in Israel I felt compelled to write the following self-explanatory letter. There has clearly been a recent change for the worse in editorial attitude at Sky, because they used to be reasonably fair and honest in their reporting. Today's report would have embarrassed even Al-Jazeera.

Sky News Editorial
British Sky Broadcasting
Grant Way
Middlesex TW7 5QD

Dear Sir/Madam,

Misleading anti-Israel reporting on today’s news

The lead story on Sky News today reported on the kidnapping of the Britons in Gaza by Palestinian gunmen. The reporter listed a number of possible reasons for the kidnapping, one of which was “Israel’s declaration of a security zone inside Northern Gaza which Israel was now shelling despite having supposedly withdrawn from there in October”. This report was misleading and sloppy on two accounts:

1. Not even the most fanatical anti-Israeli Palestinian would argue that these kidnappings were in any way connected to Israel. These, and similar kidnappings which have taken place since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, are the work of local Fatah gangs for political and financial extortion from the ruling Palestinian Authority.
2. Israel’s declaration of a security zone was reluctantly imposed only after weeks of unprovoked missile shelling by Palestinians from the area into Israeli towns.

This sloppy anti-Israel reporting is closely related to Sky News’ reluctance to report on the brutal and sustained terrorism being suffered by Israelis at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. If Sky had, for example, been reporting on the daily rocket attacks on Israeli towns, there might at least have been some context for the story about the security zone. But Sky has not been reporting these attacks. What is even more concerning is that Sky seems to have a policy now not to report even major suicide bombing attacks against Israelis, such as the one this morning, which killed at least three people. Any rational and honest news reporting agency would have reported that attack alongside the story from Gaza, but Sky News chose to ignore it completely. For a 24-hour news channel this seems strange to say the least, and can surely only be attributed to an anti-Israel agenda by your editorial staff.

update: Since the British media never show the faces or mention the names of Israelis killed by terrorists here is something you will not see in tomorrow's newspapers: below is Uri Binamo, 21, from Nesher who was killed in today's suicide bombing. His actions in stopping the bomber almost certainly saved dozens of lives.

Response from LBC re Hizb ut Tahrir

I have received the following response to my letter (posted here 10 Dec 05)

***********************************************************************
Dear Mr Davidson

Thank you for your letter of 10/12/05 regarding Hizb ut Tahrir.

You made some interesting and valid points which I have noted. Obviously I do not accept LBC is a 'propaganda platform' for the organisation, but any point of view which we air should be challenged and balanced with a counter argument. I will remind my team about the importance of this.

Thank you for listening to LBC News 1152, it is a unique format which I am very proud to be a part of.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Richards
Eitorial Director
Chrysalis News - LBC, Heart & Galaxy.

Muslims are protesting

Isn't it incredible that, despite the terror reaped on civilians by their co-religionists, there has NEVER been any kind of public demonstration by Muslims in the UK to protest against terrorism. Yet on Saturday they were out en masse to protest against laws (already massively watered down because of their objections) intended to protect us from terrorists. And isn't it even more incredible that, in all the hours and pages of media exposure about this event not one commentator raised a question about the irony of this.

LBC: a platform for the propaganda of Hizb ut Tahrir

Here is a self-explanatory letter I have just written to Jonathan Richards, Editorial Director, News LBC Radio Ltd

Dear Mr Richards,

I am an occasional listener of LBC News and have been shocked to hear two lengthy ‘interviews’ in the last month (13 November and today) with spokesmen from the Islamic terrorist supporting organisation Hizb ut Tahrir. I say ‘interviews’ in inverted commas because these were actually unchallenged publicity pieces by the organisation and the spokesmen were in both cases treated as if they were revered diplomats presenting well accepted viewpoints.

Maybe your editorial staff and presenters are simply unaware that Hizb ut Tahrir is banned throughout much of the rest of the world, that it disseminates racist material, is pledged to establish a Caliphate, in which non-Muslims would be politically disenfranchised, in which women would be constitutionally prevented from holding senior political office, and in which apostates and homosexuals would be executed. They are dedicated to the destruction of the state of Israel and support suicide bombings against civilians not only in Israel but also in Iraq, Kashmir and Chechnya.

If LBC is going to continue to provide a platform for this organisation I would like to know why your reporters do not at least challenge the vile propaganda and lies presented and probe their views on issues such as those listed above?

What makes this kind of lengthy Jihadist propaganda even more unacceptable is that, for a supposed 24-hour news channel, LBC News spends scant time reporting on real news that could better inform people to be wary of the likes of Hizb ut Tahrir. For example, people would be less likely to accept their standard clichés about “the occupation of Palestine” if LBC actually reported about the brutal and sustained terrorism being suffered by Israelis at the hands of the Jihadists. Only this week, for example, LBC chose to either ignore completely or report in the most minimalist way a number of terrorists attacks inside Israel including the massacre carried out by a suicide bomber at a shopping mall in Netanya, relentless rocket attacks from Gaza into Southern Israel and fatal stabbings at checkpoints. When I have asked before why these events go unreported the answer is always that there is insufficient time to cover such stories. It is strange how you always find the time for Jihadist propaganda that is not news at all.

The next time you hear a wishy washy liberal criticising Israeli checkpoints..

We now know that the suicide bomber in Netanya this week was identified as he approached the shopping mall as suspicious and was actually stopped by police. Although the police had the opportunity to kill him before he exploded they did not since they could not rule out 100% that he was deaf and in any case were prepared to take the risk of arresting rather than killing him. With hindsight this was negligent but it confirms the extreme lengths taken by Israelis to avoid any unnecessary deaths (and is only the latest in a long line of cases where individual Israelis lost their own lives by showing compassion to the bombers). This destroys the myth perpetuated in the UK media about the Israeli shoot first and ask questions later policy.

And the next time you hear a wishy washy liberal criticising Israeli checkpoints, think about the following that happened today (from the Jerusalem Post - another story you wont hear about anywhere in the UK media):

An Israeli soldier was stabbed to death Thursday by a Palestinian attacker at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Jerusalem, police said. The soldier was identified as Sgt. Nir Kahane, 20, of Kiryat Tivon. The Palestinian approached the checkpoint at around 3:45 p.m. and suddenly pulled out a knife, which was hidden in his clothes, and slit the soldier's throat. The al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the deadly attack. The checkpoint where the attack took place is the point of entry for thousands of West Bank Palestinians from the Ramallah area into Jerusalem on a daily basis.

The local IDF commander said that Israel would be forced to further increase security checks at the checkpoint, which has been the scene of previous attacks in the past, as a result of the latest attack.

"This incident hurts all our attempts to improve the quality of life of the Palestinians and we will have to decrease it in order to provide the greatest security to our forces," Col. Miki Edelstein told Israel Radio.

EU taxpayers funding families of Palestinian suicide bombers

Here is a letter I sent to the Sun newsdesk today:

On December 5, 2005 Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas approved financial aid to the families of every Palestinian suicide bomber and terrorist killed 'in action'. The order was signed on the very day a Palestinian Arab blew himself up at a shopping mall in central Israel, slaughtering five people and wounding more than 50. The bomber's family, along with those of every other deceased killer, will now receive at least $250 a month in direct government aid (which is significantly more than the average wage), according to the new law.

And guess where the bulk of the money the PA is dishing out comes from? The EU taxpayers as you can see from the EU's own website: www.eufunding.org/

Full details of this story can be found here:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20445

The Sun did not even mention the suicide bombing today. Perhaps you think its readers are not interested. Well I think they would be interested in the above story.

Unbelievable Islamic indoctrination of children

Check out this clip on Saudi TV (thanks to Harry's Place for finding this on the excellent MEMRI site - I understand that the clip is not new). What hope is there for the future when Muslims indoctrinate their children with such hatred?

The Western ignorance of Palestinian terrorism

Palestinians continue their murderous terrorist campaign (5 Israelis killed and dozens critically injured in yesterday's suicide bombing at a shopping mall in Netanya) and the Western media continues to ignore it. The latest terrorist attack was barely covered on any TV news channel and was completely missing in most of the newspapers. Yet the barrage of anti-Israel propaganda continues (see for example Honest Reporting's story about this) . How can intelligent, uninformed observers make a rational judgement about, for example, Israel's security fence, if they are not given the information about the context for it?

And the news at the moment is truly depressing. It turns out that at about exactly the same time as the terrorist attack yesterday the Palestinian PM Abbas announced that the families of suicide bombers would recieve a monthly income of $250 from the PA (see my letter to the Sun above. Meanwhile, despite Abbas's pathetic 'condemnation' of the terrorist attack (he says it is 'not in the interests of the Palestinian people' but note he never actually condemns it as immoral) the glorification of suicide bombers and indoctrination of children continues to be official PA policy (see HonestReporting update on this).

And just to complete the depressing news we are now finding out about what went on at the so-called 'Islam Global Unity Conference' on 4 Dec in London. Carol Gould reorts "It was shocking and terrifying. It had been advertised as a celebration of the MiddleEastern/Asian community in music and culture, but was a disgraceful Jihadists' rally. 25,000 angry young Muslims were whipped up to cries of 'Allahu Akhbar' by the likes of Yvonne Ridley, Imran Khan, various crazed Israel-loathing sheikhs and, of course, George Galloway."

How Western Democracies are inviting their own destruction

Robert Spencer (of the excellent Jihad Watch website) has written a report of the speech by Oriana Fallaci in New York this week. As usual Fallaci provides a brilliant analysis of the Jihad threat and the way the Western democracies are succumbing to it. Fallaci, a veteren ant-fascist campaigner, has been vilified by both the right and left, and has also of course been subject to the usual death threats from muslims. Here is an extract from the report about the threat to Europe:

“I do not see Islamic terrorism as the main weapon of the war that the sons of Allah have unleashed upon us. It is the bloodiest, but not the most pernicious or catastrophic aspect of this war.” Far more dangerous to the West in the long run is unrestricted Muslim immigration, which already has brought at least 25 million Muslims to Europe (not counting, Fallaci said, the huge numbers of illegal aliens). That number will double by 2016 and, as Bernard Lewis and others have predicted, almost certainly create a Muslim Europe by 2100.

Yet all this immigration has not been accompanied by integration and assimilation – not because of European racism, but by the Muslims’ own choice. Fallaci noted that many other groups have assimilated into European societies, but Muslims have not. “They dont even care to learn our language. They only obey the rules and laws of Sharia.” They do not want to learn European ways; rather, “they want to impose on us their own habits and way of life. They have no intention of integrating with us. On the contrary, they demand that we integrate with them.” Today’s Islamic expansionism, therefore, does not need the armies and fleets with which the Ottoman Empire once terrorized Europe. It only needs the immigrants, whom short-sighted politicians and befuddled multiculturalists continue to welcome. Fallaci said that Europeans – French, Dutch, Germans, English, Italians – are about to reach the status of the Comanches, Cherokees, and Sioux: “We will end up on their reservation.” She noted that some Muslim spokesmen, confident of their imminent supremacy, already refer to non-Muslim Europeans as “indigenous people” or “aboriginals.”

What to do about all this? Establish dialogue with Muslim leaders? Try to strengthen moderate Islam? Fallaci was dismissive of both options. Muslims have no intention of entering into genuine dialogue with non-Muslims, she said, and “I do not believe in moderate Islam. What moderate Islam? Is it enough not to cut heads off? Moderate Islam is another invention of ours.” Adopting Western dress, she said, was easy; adopting Western values was not.

Then Fallaci threw down the gauntlet to the multicultural, politically correct, and fearful. “There is not,” she asserted, “good Islam or bad Islam. There is just Islam. And Islam is the Qur’an. And the Qur’an is the Mein Kampf of this movement. The Qur’an demands the annihilation or subjugation of the other, and wants to substitute totalitarianism for democracy. Read it over, that Mein Kampf. In whatever version, you will find that all the evil that the sons of Allah commit against themselves and against others is in it.” As jarring as such language is to contemporary sensibilities, Fallaci here made a statement of fact that can be verified or disproved. And indeed: Islamic terrorists such as Osama bin Laden, Zarqawi, and others have never hesitated to quote the Qur’an copiously to justify their actions. It remains for those who identify themselves as moderate Muslims to convince violent Muslims that they are misusing the Qur’an – if indeed they are – and should lay down their arms. They have had no notable success in this so far.