Report on Panel Debate: Israel and the Media

I attended an interesting Panel Debate last night hosted by the American European Institute at Norris Lea Synagogue. Panelists included Melanie Phillips, Louise Ellman MP and Eric Moonman. There was a lot of implicit criticism (from both the audience and some panelists) of how 'organised Jewry' failed to argue Israel's case effectively during the recent war. There was pressure on the representatives from both the Board of Deputies and the Zionist Federation to defend themselves against the accusation of doing nothing (with the exception of the ludicorously misconceived ‘JFS Rally’ which was deservedly ridiculed by just about everyone). For the ZF Eric Moonman muttered on about all the ‘behind the scenes work’ being done around the clock and also made a bizarre statement about how ‘quality’ newspapers like the Times did not publish biased or inaccurate articles (what planet is he living on - he should take a look at some of the cases like this that I have documented previously on this blog). But the most ridiculous comment of the night came from Vivian Wiseman of the Board of Deputies; when challenged to provide examples of specific things the Board had done to address the media assault on Israel he clearly struggled to think of one but then came up with a single example which, bizarrely, was the BBC interview with Smadar Haran. He did not say what ZF’s claimed role was, if any, in setting up the interview but he stated that this was an example of how they had helped Israel get its case across. He clearly was unaware that this turned out to be an example of exactly the opposite, namely the BBC cynically finding a way to ensure that the Hezbollah terrorists got their view across instead (as revealed on my blog and followed up by Honest Reporting)

Notwithstanding the fact that the ZF and Board of Deputies were confirmed to have been pretty useless during the War, the event suggested that there are a lot of people sufficiently angry at the media lies to be motivated now to do something about it. There were also some interesting anecdotes. Shmuel Ben Tovin told the story of a friend who wanted to book a holiday in Dubai and phoned the UAE embassy to ask if it was OK to bring his girlfriend who was black. The embassy person ridiculed his friend for even thinking that it might be a problem given their determination to make Dubai the number one holiday destination. But then the friend said that his girlfriend was a black Israeli originally from Ethiopia. At this point the Embassy person was silent before hanging up the phone.

Another interesting discussion point during the evening was the role now played by NGO’s like Christian Aid, Save the Children and War on Want in demonizing Israel. I believe there is actually something very simple people can do about this and it is related to Ben Tovin’s story. A lot of these charities ran campaigns during the war asking for money for the suffering refugees/children in Lebanon and Gaza. I rang all these charity hotlines to offer a donation on the condition that it went to the suffering/displaced children in Israel (incidentally the Red Cross was one notable exception in that they explicitly included Israel in their appeal). The responses I got were quite amazing. The people I spoke to were never hostile in any way but were simply ignorant. They had no idea that there were any people suffering in Israel during the war. Interestingly, although I always left my number for somebody more ‘senior’ to call me back to clarify why Israel was excluded from the Appeal I never got a single call back. The point I am making is that if 500 people made similar calls it might at least have an impact.

If 9/11 was reported the way the media reports attacks on Israel

I wrote this on a previous anniversary of 9/11.

Let’s look at how that day’s events might have been reported by the BBC, CNN or the Guardian if they used the same approach as they used to reporting terrorist attacks against Israel.

Headline to story: “Thousands of Arabs and Americans killed in day of tit-for-tat violence on east coast of America”

The cycle of violence in America reached a new crescendo today when a series of violent incidents left thousands dead. The dead are believed to include many Arab civilians and a number of American military personnel. Al Jaziera has revealed that many of the Arabs killed were refugee children who had fled from oppression. Although an American spokesman claimed that they too suffered “many civilian deaths”, this has been denied by the Al Quaeda organisation.

The violence started when a member of a group of five unarmed Arab civilians, who boarded a 767 aircraft in Boston, was refused permission to fly the plane, despite having a valid flying licence. The American authorities have been imposing increasingly tight restrictions on the freedom of movement of Arab civilians within the US. This humiliation to their dignity has created, not unsurprisingly, deep anger and resentment among even moderate Arabs. When the fully qualified pilot was denied the opportunity to work in his chosen profession, he became angry. It is reported that the outnumbered Arab men engaged in fighting with members of the crew, but what really happened next may never be known. What is certain is that all of the five Arabs were killed, along with the plane’s other occupants (believed to be primarily military and intelligence personnel) when the plane crashed into the North tower of the World Trade Center. Al Jaziera quickly confirmed that the building housed many Arab refugee children, who were all killed in the attack along with a number of Muslim workers. A number of illegal American immigrants dressed as businessmen may also have perished.

As news of the Arab civilian deaths became known, it is believed that Arab civilians on another aircraft reacted with understandable passion, battling with military and security personnel. This plane soon crashed into the south tower of the Word trade center. After this second crash the US military ordered an unprecedented grounding of all civilian flights over US airspace, thus denying all Arabs living in the US the right to travel. On hearing news of this attack on their livelihood a group of Arab militants mounted a daring tit-for-tat strike. With nothing else to lose, and in sheer desperation, the militants crashed the plane they were travelling in into the very heart of the US military machine – the Pentagon, killing scores of soldiers. In an escalation of the violence the US military responded by threatening to shoot down any airplane still flying that was piloted by Arabs. This led to the final, and most outrageous act of violence of the day, committed by a group of self-styled American vigilantes aboard flight 93 to San Francisco. On learning that their airplane was being flown by Arab pilots, the Americans took it upon themselves to massacre all the Arabs on board. In the ensuing struggle the Arab pilot was savagely killed and the plane crashed into a field, killing all the occupants, many of whom are believed to have been Arab refugee children. The US military is likely to have to accept full responsibility for the final massacre, since they had given messages to the passengers on board flight 93 that the Arab pilots were planning to crash the plane into the White House, even though no proof of such a wild claim had been presented to the United Nations. The French and German leaders have already demanded a UN enquiry into the massacre.

BBC's disgraceful conduct in Israel

Remarkably few people know that the key prisoner that Hezbollah seeks to release from Israel is Samir Kuntar who is guilty of one of the most despicable terrorist acts in history - he killed the family of Smadar Haran including her 4 year-old daughter by smashing her head against a rock - and who has never expressed remorse for it. I have written about this before and there is plenty of information on the internet about it (see here for example). It just so happens that a colleague of mine in Israel is a good friend of Smadar Haran. While I was in Israel in August he told me the following story that exposes the BBC as a corrupt terrorist-loving anti-semitic organisation (Smadar Haran has read this text and has approved it being published here):

At the end of July Smadar Haran was contacted by the BBC to ask if she was prepared to be interviewed for her views about the Lebanon war (which were presumably of general interest because of the stated Hezbullah intention to secure the release of Kuntar). She eventually agreed to the interview which was to take place at the Dan Accadia Hotel in Herzlia. When she arrived there the interviewer informed her that immediately prior to her own interview (which was to be shown live) the BBC was going to interview Kuntar's brother Basem Kuntar in Lebanon. Not suprisingly Smadar was not at all happy with this 'set-up' as the BBC had had ample time to let her know this beforehand. Still, as she had made the effort to come to the interview she reluctantly agreed to continue with it. Basem Quntar's interview took place in full and then the BBC switched to the interview with Smadar. But seconds into the interview the production team were told that the interview had to stop because of 'technical issues'. The BBC team at the hotel could not understand this as there had never before been 'technical' issues to stop doing such an interview. So the BBC ran an interview with the terrorist's brother but 'for technical reasons' were unable to provide an interview with the terrorist's victim.

What is almost certain of course is that the BBC never intended to interview the terrorist's victim but only ever wanted to interview the terrorist's brother. This was their despicable way of getting away with such a ploy while being able to claim 'even-handedness'.

Smadar Haran wanted to make the following additional comments about the 'interview':

1. "I want to mention that after describing the killer's actions, I felt a kind of mockery from the reporter saying: We have just heared a graphic description of the murder which was brought by Mrs. Haran...
2. A Short time after, the producer called and said that he has received many angry mails from listeners who were not willing to accept all this kind of behaviour.
3. When I have called the Israeli Foreign Office for consulting, the response I got was that this is a typical and everyday behaviour of the BBC ."

Hezbollah cash

Last night CNN reported (with film) that Hezbollah officials were handing out $12,000 in cash (note: in US dollars) to every single Lebanese whose household was destroyed in the war. That's more money than many of these people earn in 10 years. Since the Lebanese have been claiming that at least 100,000 households were destroyed (we know that's complete bullshit but let's take them at their own word) then that means Hezbullah officials are walking around now with some $1.2 billion in cash. I'm not sure how this ties in with them being the downtrodden, impoverished underdogs as portrayed in the Guardian and Independent (or by supporters like these in London yesterday). It also raises interesting questions about banks channeling funds to terrorist groups. But more likely is that most of the cash is counterfeit (although curiously CNN did not raise this as a possibility).

Islamafascists in the UK are now suppressing free speech

There is a truly alarming story on Harry's Place about how an employee at Orange has been suspended after writing what seem to me to be pretty accurate satirical statements on a web site. I've fired off the following self-explanatory letter to stuart.jackson@orange.co.uk (I encourage others to do the same).

Dear Mr Jackson

I was very disturbed to read about the suspension of Orange employee Inigo Wilson for harmless/satirical comments he made on a website that has nothing to do with Orange. This is a clear denial of freedom of speech. What makes this suspension particularly disturbing is that it appears to have been prompted by protests organised by the Islamic fascist organisation MPAC. This organisation has consistently promoted genuinely racist material and is a known front organisation for a number of groups who seek to replace democracy in the UK with Islamic Sharia law. It is therefore especially despicable to give in to an organisation like this on an issue of free speech. Their agenda is all about suppressing information about the true nature of Islamic Jihad.

Edgar Davidson

Back from Israel

We have arrived back from Israel. We never made it to my brother's house in Zichron Yaacov as planned because, despite it being 70 miles from the Northern border, it was targetted by katyushas and the people there were in shelters or had fled south. We stayed in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv - on the day we arrived in Tel Aviv Hezbollah sent an explosive-laden drone there but fortunately it was shot down before it reached its target. I bet you never heard about that incident on the BBC or Sky or read about it in any British newspaper. I bet you also never knew about the stuff we witnessed when we were in Jerusalem. While at my sister-in-law's house in Pisgat Zaev there was a firework celebration taking place in the neighboring Arab village. It turns out that the village (like many on the West Bank) routinely celebrate with fireworks when there have been lots of Israelis killed (apparently they go really wild after each suicide bombing in Israel). On this particular night they were celebrating a particulary large number of civilian deaths. Nice to have neighbours like that.

A lot of Israelis feel betrayed that the Western media has not only mis-reported the war (with the exception of Fox News) but has brazenly taken the side of the Islamafascists. When I get the chance I am going to report the story of a disgraceful BBC set-up in Israel related by one of my Israeli friends.

The way that Hizbollah-reported 'news' and 'casualties' are always accepted as the truth while Israeli statements are only ever 'claims' is something that is made all the more ridiculous now that there is proof of widespread doctoring of photographs and film of Lebanese casualties (also you should check this out). As far as the media is concerned Israeli suffering doesn't exist. Yet far more Israelis were displaced than Lebanese (some two million in the North who had to leave their homes or remain in bomb shelters); far more Israeli businesses have been ruined than Lebanese; and the much reported 'catastrophe' to the Lebanese tourist industry is actually tiny compared to the effect on the Israeli tourist industry when you consider it in terms of cancelled bookings. But, most importantly, when the final genuine casualty figures are known it is likely that there will be more civilian deaths on the Israeli side than the Lebanese, given that almost all of the Israeli soliders who were killed were reservists (i.e. civilians like you and me) or conscripts (who are mainly teenagers who would rather be studying or travelling like other teenagers fresh out of high school). Of the "850 civilian" deaths reported by the Lebanese not one Western media source has acknowledged how many of these are Hezbollah terrorists. The Israeli media is reporting at least 500. Unlike the Israeli reservists and conscripts these are fully signed up Islamafascist soldiers whose sole aim in life is to destroy Israel. And many of the genuinely non-fighting civilians who died were willingly in the houses of Hezbollah from which rockets were being launched.

Contrary to the Western media obsession with Israel's 'disproportionate' response it turns out that almost all Israeli soldier casualties were due to an obsession to minimise civilian casualties - fighting door-to-door when they could have flattened the places. Just read this eye-witness report from a soldier and compare it with the impression given by the BBC and Sky.

What is also disgraceful is the way the BBC and Sky News (which has in the last year inexplicably become obsessively anti-Israel) report Israeli deaths differently to Lebanese. I was especially struck by the ticker tape text that were directly adjacent on 6 August on Sky. The text was saying:

"Israelis kill 7 civilians in village in Lebanon"

"15 die north of Kiryat Shemonah"

Even people with a detailed knowledge of the area would be hard-pressed to realise that, in fact, 15 Israelis had been killed in separate katyusha rocket attacks (including 12 at a kibbutz north of Kiryat Shemonah). But note that Israelis explicitly "kill civilians" (even though they are actually targetting known terrorist launch sites) whereas the other way round (when the Islamafascists genuinely target civilians) apparently people of unspecified nationalities in inspecified countries somehow 'die'. Maybe the person who presented the text in this way believed that these people died of shame when they heard of the civilian killings on the other side? But in fact whenever the BBC and Sky mention casualties it always Israelis killing civilians while unspecified Israelis simply die.

Anyway so now we are back to find the Muslims of the UK are again calling for a change of foreign policy to "stop the rage" of young Muslims from leading them to blow up aircraft. Strange how nobody is concerned about the foreign policy that continues to appease an Iranian regime that is committed to the nuclear obliteration of the state of Israel. If one group has a genuine grievance it is the Jews. We watch Israelis being killed day after day because the international community allowed and encouraged the build up of Hezbollah in Lebanon against UN resolutions. But it isn't Jews who feel that the way to respond is by blowing up aircraft and using blackmail.

We're off to Israel for a couple of weeks

The Davidsons are off to Israel for a couple of weeks. Thanks to Hezbollah and their Iranian/Syrian paymasters we had to change our plans a bit (we were due to stay in the Carmel Forest) but in any case it will be a relief to get away from the endless and vicious anti-Israel campaign being mounted by the bulk of the UK media. Some recent things I'm trying to get my head round are:

• The so-called 'peace movement', which actually campaigns for the destruction of Israel by force. Despite being run by an alliance of the Islamafascist Muslim Association of Britain and the Trotskyists, the media continues describe these people (and the useless idiots who go along with them) as 'peace activists' , even while they chant "Bomb, bomb, Tel Aviv" in Trafalgar Square. And not one person ever questions why the 'peace movement' has no objection to the war of genocide going on in Darfur (conducted by Islamafascists), nor the one in Somalia (conducted by Islamafascists) nor the myriad of other places (India, Iraq, Indonesia, Phillipines, Malaysia, Afghanistan) where the Islamafascists are massacring civilians as a matter of choice.
• The obession with civilian casualty numbers - providing it is non-Muslims who can be blamed. The fanatical outcry over the Kana bombings (where every report totally ignored the facts that Hezbollah had fired dozens of rockets from the very spot AND had clearly manipulated the media images) has probably been the most hysterical reaction to any single wartime bombing in history. In war civilians are likely to get killed especially if, as is the case here, the 'hosts' use them as human shields from which to fire. Given the scale of the operation the number of civilians killed by the IDF is remarkably small compared to other campaigns (think Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and World War 2). The most obvious proof of Israel's obsession to minimise civilian casualties was in their decision to go 'door-to-door' in the south Lebanese Hezbollah villages which cost so many Israeli soldiers lives.
  
• The fact that a 60 year-old Israeli doctor is adbucted, killed and burnt by Islamic Jihad to the usual proud Palestinian rejoicing is totally ignored by the UK media.
  
• The fact that an Islamafascist goes on a rampage to kill as many Jews as possible in Seattle USA is totally ignored by the UK media
• The fact that George Galloway has still not been prosecuted despite this outrage and his funding of Hamas terrorists as exposed here.
• The fact that WH Smith will not stock Melanie Phillips' book Londonistan (exposing the Islamafascists in London) even in their Brent Cross store, presumably for fear of Muslim 'retribution'.
  

Watch the whole of the film Obsession to see the nature of the Islamafascist threat facing us all. If you need a simple reminder of what it is really all about read Melanie Phillips.

Letter from Israel

The following is from a friend in Jerusalem


Everyone keeps asking what life is like here for us now, what our experience is, so I decided to write this.

It is indeed an extremely distressing time for our country, one that we have been thrust into with no notice. Yes, admittedly, we saw the Hizbollah's gradual arms and outpost accumulation in southern Lebanon across our northern border, but we were unprepared for the bold border crossings and kidnappings of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, who were abducted by Hizbollah in the north, and of Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Palestinian militants on Israel's border with Gaza. These soldiers are not POWs who fell into enemy hands while invading others' territories – they were audaciously kidnapped from our own land where they were guarding our internationally-recognized borders!

We had no time to prepare for this war, like we did before the Gulf War. The civilian population is still reeling from the shock of the rocket attacks' very existence, shock at the jarring interruption of our seemingly routine lives, shock at the casualties that will undoubtedly intensify as this continues. I say "seemingly routine lives," because the threat of attack from the terrorists around us is always lurking underneath the surface, as you know.

Perhaps what is hardest to accept is that no one the world over has adequate solutions for the threat of terrorism, not in Lebanon or Gaza, not in Afghanistan or Iraq, not in western countries where covert terrorist movements thrive underground. The only way to wipe out Hizbollah in Lebanon is to harm countless innocent Lebanese citizens who have been infiltrated and victimized by the terrorist organization for years. We could not live with our conscience if we caused such massive bloodshed to our Arab neighbors; although the Hizbollah has no compunction doing so. If the Hizbollah cared for its Moslem "brothers" as much as they say, then the organization would not put blameless children and families in jeopardy by launching rockets from their homes and hiding in bunkers underneath them. Of course, we ourselves are also not willing to pay the high price of losing countless soldiers in this war.

Another difficult aspect of the current conflict is the involvement of areas of Israel that have not been directly hit since the Yom Kippur War or beforehand. That means that many parents of young children have never experienced anything like this, although seasoned grandparents are pulling their old war stories out of the dust.

Faced yet again with another war we did not seek, Israelis are buckling down for an unknown period of hostilities simultaneously on four fronts – the thunderous northern border with Lebanon that is now at the focus of international media, but also the ongoing turbulent border with the Gaza Strip in the southwest, and the quieter but still volatile West Bank, and, finally, the long-term battle against suicide bombers in our cities.

Millions of citizens in northern Israel, like their counterparts in Sderot, are now experiencing daily bombardments of haphazard rocket shelling into their cities, kibbutzim, and neighborhoods. They sit, cramped, in long-unused, stifling air raid shelters, for those who have them. Or in specially-constructed "safety rooms" if their homes were built more recently. Or in basements away from windows and doors, if neither of the other options are available. They have been told to lie prone, to minimize injury from shrapnel. They await the sirens, they await the deafening "boom," up to 100 each day, and they pray that the katyusha rockets will fall into open areas and not directly hit their homes. They await fate.

So, life is mostly at a standstill for millions of regular citizens as they remain close to, or inside, shelter. No work, no summer camp, no shopping malls, no amusements for children on summer holiday. They only make fearful sprints to the local grocer (mandated to stay open by the homefront security agency) for minimal provisions. A friend of mine in Haifa hazarded a shopping excursion on a relatively "quiet" day after a week of ransacking her cupboards, but found herself standing helplessly with other shoppers as three rockets fell close by. She returned home safely, but stunned and shaken.

In the rest of Israel, however, we are, surrealistically, living our lives almost as usual! Except for ardently keeping an ear to the media, and carrying our heavy hearts, we continue to work, our children attend camps and go to movies, we meet with friends, we go out. Metropolitan Tel Aviv was put on rocket alert a few days ago, under the assumption that, when desperate, Hizbollah leader Nasrallah will unleash his long-range missiles of destruction for one last stand. But, for now, in typical Israeli "sabra" style, all of us in central and southern Israel are moving about in our regular routines, living our lives, motivated by the desire to show all terrorists that they cannot succeed in diminishing our morale and cannot bring us to an economic and social standstill.

Yet, despite the stark contrast between the hard-hit areas being shelled and the rest of Israel, an amazing thing has happened. For the first time that I can remember in all my 25 years in this country, people from all walks of life and political orientations, including those who are now being exposed to the relentless threat of violent attacks on their pastoral countryside up north, are today united in their support of the government's and the IDF's actions, both military and diplomatic. We even see injured Israelis climbing out of rubble from rocket attacks on their homes, who, despite their personal losses, immediately cry out their support of the current IDF airstrikes on Hizbollah nerve centers and operation bases in Lebanon.
Israelis generally have a very positive attitude toward the Lebanese people and their beautiful country. We have no ill will toward her citizens, unless they collaborate with the Hizbollah guerrillas trying to attack us. We are grateful to the many Lebanese who helped us for years to combat terrorism in southern Lebanon (many of whom received sanctuary here in 2000). But now, across the board, we are all committed to the notion of eliminating the terrorist threat that has been constantly looming over our northern border since we pulled out of Lebanon six years ago. We all want the Lebanese government to stand up for itself against Hizbollah's Iran- and Syria-based infiltration of its land. We want the Lebanese government to take control and evict the terrorists from their midst, like they ejected the Syrian army last year. Unfortunately for the Lebanese, many are frightened of the fanatic Hizbollah and cannot refuse the terrorists' demands to use their homes and workplaces as launching pads for their rockets. They are in danger of harm from our air strikes then, yes. But to protect innocent citizens as much as possible, Israel announces its attacks beforehand (via the electronic media and dropping flyers from the sky) to warn residents to evacuate, and provides humanitarian aid to Lebanese victims. (Unfortunately, our public relations experts are not sufficiently getting this point across over the media.) For comparison, you should know that the rockets being launched into Israeli residential areas are loaded with tiny steel balls, nuts, bolts, bearings, etc., which aim to exacerbate the deadly effect of the explosions – to kill and maim more civilians, much like the suicide bombs.

Israel is sick and tired of being attacked without provocation on our northern border and on our border with Gaza. How would U.S. citizens feel if rockets were being launched into Texas from Mexico and into Montana or North Dakota from Canada? Or if Mexican or Canadian terrorists crossed over into the U.S. and kidnapped soldiers on border patrol? The U.S. would surely act to try to eliminate this threat once and for all. And for once, during the current conflict, George W. Bush has shown real backbone in supporting our operations in Lebanon. As have so many other world leaders, especially the powerful G8. We've been surprised but very pleased to gain the world's overwhelming support of (or at least quiet acquiescence with) our fight against Hizbollah and Hamas terrorism. Especially encouraging have been the voices of moderate Arab nations like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia criticizing Hizbollah and calling for a return of our kidnapped soldiers.

It seems that, as many newspapers have been commenting over this past fortnight, the world is realizing that our fight is the free world's fight, against totalitarian regimes who want to destroy the western way of life. Iranian president Ahmadinejad has made it unmistakably clear that he wants to annihilate Israel. The world agrees that he and his associates are behind this entire conflict, trying to distract the world from Iran's nuclear proliferation, with the ultimate goal of eradicating Jews and Christians alike in the name of "Allah's holy war" against heretics.
I hope that you have been attending the rallies in your cities in support of Israel, and doing your part over the web, in online polls, and in private or public conversations, to prevent supportive world opinion from eroding, as it inevitably will. The pictures from Lebanon are heartwrenching, and our own citizens' suffering looks minute in comparison. Without knowing the whole context, the world will not understand why we do what we do.

I don't know what the consequences will be of the battles raging around us. The Hizbollah has prepared well for this day and is deeply entrenched in a labyrinth of bunkers and underground tunnel systems for their arsenals and militants. It's hard to say how effective the IDF will be at disarming the Hizbollah or how successful the diplomatic channels will be at finding a feasible peaceful solution for southern Lebanon. But I do know that we have to try.

And in the meantime, the Israeli people's conduct during this 10-day-old war has strengthened and inspired me to no end. Homes all over the country have been opened up to displaced families from the north. Volunteers are slipping up north to entertain bored children, confined for days in crowded public shelters. Recreational parks have offered discounts and free activities to northern children. Psychological agencies, welfare organizations, charities, non-profit organizations, and the like have coordinated efforts to provide hotlines, treatment, support as well as food and other staples to families cut off from normalcy.

A friend of mine, a professor at Haifa University, described to me the funeral she attended of one of the soldiers killed in the tank ambush on that first day of fighting (his mother is an educator who works with my friend). She told me that she didn't expect anyone to venture outdoors to the military cemetery, but she found that hundreds of people braved the air raid sirens and possible rocket strikes to attend. They must have all felt that the family who had suffered this ultimate tragedy needed their caring and support, and they were all willing to put themselves at personal risk to grant the family that support. Indeed, just as the rabbi was singing the soulful "El male rachamim" (Merciful God) traditional prayer over the fresh grave, sirens started to wail, and the soldiers broke out of ceremonial position to try to move the mourners under cover, but no one would budge. They wanted to give that family, and that soldier who died for his country, the last respects he so deserved. Fortunately, that time, the rockets landed at a distance. But this story touched my heart because it epitomizes the strength of our community and of our people. In day to day life, we may each be preoccupied with personal concerns, but at times of need, the true underlying strength of the Israeli people emerges.

Take care, everyone.
Love and kisses from Jerusalem

What hope of understanding with reporting like this?

This morning I saw Andrew Marr the supposedly intelligent political analyst on BBC1 interview the Palestinian 'spokeswoman' Hanan Ashrawi. He allowed her to state a string of complete lies like "Israel still occupies part of Lebanon" without challenging her once. I'd like to think it was through timidity, but I think it was more ignorance and bias; he probably agreed with everything she said. Wherever you turn to in the media in this country there is no respite in the ignorance and ingrained anti-Israel agenda. Especially worrying is today's Sunday Telegraph (one of the only papers supposedly sympathetic to Israel's position . The following is a letter I've just written to them that is self-explanatory.

"Having got fed up with the Sunday Times's ill-informed coverage of the Middle East I decided to try the Sunday Telegraph today. I was disappointed to find that the newspaper, while more balanced in its reporting, still contained several blatant factual errors whose impact is to try to create the impression that Israel had overreacted in launching its attacks in Lebanon. The article by Con Coughlin (the "Defence and Security Editor") contains some quite stunning errors. For example, he talks about the "abduction of their soldiers in Gaza and Southern Lebanon" whereas the abductions both took place inside Israel and in both cases several other Israeli soldiers were killed. In the case of the unprovoked attack by Hezbullah last week the invasion by Hezbullah was also preceeded by an unprecedented barrage of rockets fired into Israeli towns as a diversionary tactic. This is what Coughlin refers to as a 'minor incident'. He also talks about the Israelis "destroying the country's international airport" whereas in fact they only destroyed the runways to stop further supplies of Iranian missiles coming in and to stop the hostages being transported to Iran.

The article by Niall Ferguson is simply ridiculous on many levels. It states that "Hezbollah responded ..by firing yet more of its home-made rockets into Israel." I am not sure if the reference to home-made is supposed to infer that they are harmless. The fact that most are neither home-made (being made in Iran) nor harmless (as the example of the rocket which killed 8 people in Haifa this morning as well as those that killed 5 Israelis in the previous three days) should warrent an apology. But I guess I should have expected nothing different in Ferguson's article; his bizarre explanation for the fact that across the world we are witnessing unprecedented terrorism is simply that, in the countries where it is happening the weather is very hot and the mostly young male population is poor and unemployed. It seems to have escaped his attention that politically motivated Islamic fundamantalism is a slightly more significant common factor among the perpetrators of these atrocities."

Sunday Times obsessive anti-Israel bias

In recent weeks the Sunday Times has been trying to outdo the Guardian and Observer in its obsessive anti-Israel bias. Every week now there is usually at least one anti-Israel article in the News section (today there are two) and two weeks running recently there were anti-Israel articles in the magazine. I fired off the letter below which is self-explanatory.

****************************************************************************

Dear Sirs

The article by Marie Colvin "Girl killed as Israel tightens grip on Gaza" is not only brazenly anti-Israel but is factually incorrect. The photograph caption states "A Palestinian man carries the body of Rawan Hajaj after she was hit by an Israeli missile". The article itself actually says about the explosion: "witnesseses said was caused by Israeli tank shells". Of course the 'witnesses' were Palestinians and there is no Israeli view of what happened. In fact initial investigation by the Israel Defence Force today has revealed that the explosion could not have been caused by an Israeli tank shell (the Sunday Times made the same mistake two weeks ago by leading with the 'fact' that an Israeli tank shell killed a family on the beach in Northern Gaza, whereas subsequent investigations revealed that this was not possible).

The article then goes on to focus on examples of Palestinian women and youth under 18, all of whom the Hamas government wants released in exchange for the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Again, ignoring the fact that almost all of these prisoners have been involved in terrorist acts (including many who were caught before carrying out suicide bombings) the article chooses to give only the Palestinian family's story of two such women. We are expected, for example, to feel sympathy for Sheikh Kalil who "has written in letters home of how the mice and cockroaches terrify her". Yet no such expected sympathy (nor mention of) the Israeli who was kidnapped and slaughtered by the gang she was part of.

The article is, above all, simply shoddy journalism because it fails yet again to put into context the Israeli actions in Gaza. The attack inside Israel on 25 June by Hamas, which is after all the elected government of the Palestinian Authority, was effectively a declaration of war. This is coupled with more than 1000 missile attacks launched from Gaza into Israel since the Israelis withdrew last August (including in the last week an attack that struck a school in Ashkelon with a twin-engined Qassam missile). None of this provocation ever gets mentioned in the Sunday Times, which continues with its obsessive anti-Israel agenda week in week out.

Edgar Davidson

Bizarre BBC response to today's terrorist attack against Israel

The BBC has surpassed itself in breathtaking anti-Israel bias in its report of the Hamas-led terrorist attack today. The following a self-explanatory letter of complaint I have just written to the BBC:

The report on the10.00pm News this evening regarding the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel was extremely biased against Israel and contained a major factual error. The report claimed that the attack was revenge for Israel "killing 13 Palestinian civilians" in the last week. In fact most of those civilian deaths were a result of an explosion at a Gaza beach, which was originally claimed to be from a stray Israeli shell, but has since proved to be almost certainly from a mine (probably planted by the Palestinians themselves). The other civilian deaths resulted from an Israeli air strike that targetted terrorists in the act of travelling with Qassam rockets to fire at the Israeli town of Sderot. The fact that Palestinian have been firing these rockets (at the rate of dozens every day) from densely populated areas suggests that they, not the Israelis, are to blame for such civilian deaths.

It was extremely unbalanced and unprofessional of the BBC to present the news in this way, especially as the BBC has been silent in its news broadcasts about the continued indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israeli towns.

Yours

Edgar Davidson

Demonisation of Israel

The following is a self-explanatory letter I sent to Metro (the freebie daily London newspaper):

Dear Sir/Madam,

The Metro on 26 May contained a theatre review (by Claire Allfree) of a play called "The Daughter". According to the review the play looks at how an 'ordinary young Palestinian woman' is driven to 'suddenly turn to martyrdom' (meaning she decides to become a suicide bomber). The review goes on to say: "Horrified, her drunken father decides to go instead, only to get caught at the border. The Israeli police demand his daughter's virginity in exchange for his life..." The review then states that the Director "deliberately refuses to give .. much of a political or religirous argument".

If your reviewer genuinely believes that a play that portrays Palestinian suicide bombers as heroes and Israeli police as rapists and blackmailers is "non political" then she has clearly been fooled by the casual, but incessant, demonisation of Israel that has been promoted by the media over the last few years. The notion that Palestinians are suddenly, out of sheer desparation, driven to become suicide bombers is a media myth. No Palestinian suicide bombing has ever been anything other than intensely well planned and financed, with willing recruits always available because of the long-term indoctrination of hatred practiced by all Palestinian political organisations. Your reviewer (and the Director) also appears to be unaware that, rather than expressing "horror" the parents of Palestinian suicide bombers inevitably rejoice publicy in their child's 'martyrdom' and the Palestinian Authority has always bestowed the highest respect on both the 'martyrs' and their parents. It is also worth pointing out that there has never been a single recorded instance of an Israeli policeman raping a Palestinian woman. In contrast, here is a recent example of the kind of brutal act perpetrated regularly by Palestinians: on 4 May 2006 a Palestinian (Anwar Ahdush) working illegally in Israel raped and murdered an 8-year-old Israeli girl Lipaz Himi from Beit Shemesh. Not surprisingly, like most terrorist acts against Israel incuding the daily rocket attacks from the Gaza strip and more recently from Lebanon) this news item was never reported in the Metro.

Sending our money to the terrorists

So the EU is again pouring money (that's yours and my money) into the Palestinian Authority despite the supposed ban from funding the terrorist organisation Hamas. It is now clear that the Palestinian Authority, even when run by the 'non-terrorist' Fatah, spent almost all of its foreign aid on weapons and that it did this in collaboration with Iran and Hizbollah. And the Palestinians, remember, receive more foreign aid per capita than any other people in the world. When are the idots of the EU going to stop funding terrorism in this way. And when will the Palestinians ever have any incentive to actually build a country and do some work, while they can simply continue to plead poverty and have money poured at them.

Media idiocy

There is little worse in the media than presenters whose notion of 'even-handedness' is to believe that any two sides of any story must always be treated as absolutely equal. The epitomy of this idiocy is Nick Ferrari - the voice of LBC. So, for example, in a discussion about the July 7 bombings enquiry last week he cut short a very eloquent caller who was citing some statements made by members of the Muslim Parliament glorifying suicide bombers. The pompous idiot Ferrari said he was not going to allow Muslims to be defamed without similar defamations being made about other religious groups. If you can work out the logic of that good luck to you, but the implications are that he will not allow valid criticisms of Muslims unless there are equal criticisms made of members of other religions. So, until Jews and Christians start blowing people up in London I guess that's goodbye to any rational arguments. And just think this was the day after Nick Ferrari's show was voted the best radio phone-in in the UK.

So it's hard to think that UK media is much better than this classic example (courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch) of a popular Egyptian music video. You must see it.

Funding the fanatics

The anti-Zionist (and supposedly ultra-orthodox) Jewish Group Neturai Karta have been much in the news recently. For example, on Purim they burnt Israeli flags outside the (Jewish) Simon Marks Primary School in Hackney and they recently went to Iran to praise that country's attempts to wipe Israel off the map and deny the Holocaust. The fact that it turns out that the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations has recently given grants worth some £60,000 to this group is a bit hard to stomach. Especially as the most recent grant was given this March, about the same time as their visit to Iran. Courtesy of MEMRI here are two of the Rabbis interviewed in Iran. This is a video you must watch. Nice to know that we are funding these guys.

Iran at the UN

Iran, not content with trying to build a nuclear weapon for the sole intention of destroying Israel, are masterminding Islamic Jihad who carried out the murderous attack in Tel Aviv. They have also apparently recruited 40,000 suicide bombers to unleash on the West if their nuclear facilities are attacked and they recently recruited several hundred British Muslims to volunteers as suicide bombers in Israel. And, of course, they are formenting and funding much of the violence in Iraq.

So guess who the UN have elected to be the vice chair of the UN's disarmament commission? Yes you have guessed it the Iranian ambassador to the UN Mehdi Danesh-Yazdi.

Getting tough with the bombers

As the rocket attacks against Israel intensify (ignored of course by the entire UK media) Israel has been striking back in the last two days with targetted strikes against terrorists who had just launched rockets or who had been training to do so. In one of the attacks senior bombmaker Iyad Abu Aynayn was killed with his seven-year-old son and four other armed men as they actually left a terrorist training camp. Of course you can guess how the BBC teletext ran this story - focus on the child killed without any mention of who he was with or why he was there. In fact it appears that, apart from this terrorist's son, every single death has been of a terrorist. Sounds like something the West should be applauding, not criticising in the usual way.

And there is a classic video clip from Al Jaziera TV of an Arab/Danish student conference dialogue here. Especially amazing is the bit at the end where the Sudan representative says "I would like to say that tomorrow America will pass a resolution in the U.N. Security Council calling for international military intervention in Sudan. Among these forces, obviously, there will be Danish forces. I would like to inform you that because the Sudanese people are so angry over this affront, they will kill the Danish soldiers before they kill the others.". The Arab Students Union Chairman then says: "Don't translate that word for word. Just say that the Sudanese will put up resistance against them." Sums up everything about the Arabs (and these are the most intelligent among them) - lying, bloodthirsty fanatics.

More on Dubai

Yet another reminder of the kind of regime the Brits are pouring all their holiday money (and money for second homes now) in Dubai. Here is a recent sample of the kind of anti-semitism that dominates their mainstream media.

Another massacre of Jews - another silence

Four Israelis -- an elderly couple Rafi and Ilana Levy (pictured left) of Kedumim and and two teenagers -- killed in yesterday's suicide bombing sponsored by the mainstream Fatah movement of Abbas. You would have thought that might have been big news? Not a word about it on any of the news channels or newspapers in the UK. Yet every Muslim interviewed, no matter what the subject, can still casually assert (without ever being challenged) that Palestinians are being massacred daily by Israelis.

The Left and Guardian readers

Anybody who doubts the ferocious anti-semitism (disguised as anti-Zionism) that is typical of the new left in its alliance with the Islamafascists should check out some of the following:

• A report with photographs of a rally in San Franciso last week. It contains, the 'smash the Jewish state' guy again who cropped up last year here.
• The responses to Oliver Kamm's article in the Guardian in support of the Iraq war, like this and this. And to think I used to read the Guardian a few years ago.

For a sensible left view of Tony Blair's speech today see this article at Harry Place. Personally I thought it was a decent speech, but as usual, he was still not entirely spelling out the true nature of the Islamafascist threat and its basis in the Koran.