Ray Cook - As I See It

Israel, Zionism and the Media

Category: Israel and Gaza (Page 9 of 14)

BBC reverts to type as predicted: flotilla headline a disgrace

02/06/2010 / / 1 Comment

As predicted the BBC couldn’t keep up the good work for long in their little run of fair play.

Yesterday they ran a headline on the ‘eye-witness’ accounts aboard the flotilla: Witnesses cast doubt on Israel’s convoy raid account”, which was emblazoned across their home page.

Robin Shepherd had it absolutely spot on:

So, members of a virulently anti-Israeli convoy whose friends, colleagues and soul mates launched a violent attack on Israeli soldiers which ended in bloodshed have a different version of events from the Israelis, their sworn enemies? That’s a quotable lesson in BBC propaganda: people whom the average 11 year old could see have a conflict of interest are passed off as objective “eyewitnesses”.

But this is par for the course. And why not when the UN itself treats actors in the conflict who are terrorist organisations (Hamas)  as if they were UN members, giving them credence, legitimacy and succour whilst they actively seek to destroy an actual UN member (Israel).

Please read Robin Shepherd’s article, he is at his brilliant best.

Flotilla: what are the Con-Dems thinking?

01/06/2010 / / 3 Comments

Downing Street reports on Prime Minister Cameron’s cosy chat with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu:

“The PM also stressed the importance of urgently lifting the blockade of Gaza, and allowing full access for humanitarian aid.”

William Hague:

“I call on the Government of Israel to open the crossings to allow unfettered access for aid to Gaza, and address the serious concerns about the deterioration in the humanitarian and economic situation and about the effect on a generation of young Palestinians.”

Nick Clegg (Deputy Prime Minister)

“… unjustified and untenable blockade of Gaza… what is going on in Gaza is a humanitarian catastrophe”

Yet all three also say Israel has a right to defend itself against attack. They do not see the contradiction.

Clearly none of them is prepared to even mention Hamas and its genocidal intent. None of them is prepared to do the slightest research into the organisers or con-dem the Turkish government for allowing the provocation. In other words, Israel must allow ‘unfettered access’ so that its enemies can supply its other enemies with rockets and weaponry to further persecute their war of terror against Israel.

So you now know what you voted for, guys, more craven surrender-monkeys who are quite happy to see NATO or the US flatten a few villages in Afghanistan or for the Sri Lankan government to cover up massacres or the North Koreans to sink ships or for the Turks to bomb Kurds or the Americans to detain people illegally and torture them, to target Al Qaeida leaders… you get the idea. But Israel must surrender to Hamas.

If Nick Clegg (Deputy Prime Minister – why does that sound so strange still) actually believes there is a humanitarian disaster in Gaza then why does he not attack the prime cause of that disaster, namely Hamas. No-one is starving in Gaza (see my post here)

And why do none of them ask Egypt to open ITS borders? Are they so new in office that they are not aware that Egypt lets in absolutely ZIP!

Update: The Egyptians have decided to open the Rafah crossing.  But what exactly is coming through?

Update: David Miliband is no better just to be politically balanced on this. Politicians say what they think they should say, that’s why they are politicians.

BBC reports flotilla incident fairly (well more or less)

01/06/2010 / / 0 Comments

Have you noticed the BBC News website’s reporting of the flotilla incident? It’s so good (relatively speaking) that Israel’s enemies have noticed (see my previous post). They are actually reporting the Israeli side with impartiality – for an example see this from Paul Reynolds

OK, there have been the occasional lapses but overall this is much better – keep it up Auntie.  Somehow I don’t think they will.

BBC bias complaints: contrasting reactions

01/06/2010 / / 0 Comments

When pro-Israeli groups in the UK  believe the BBC to be biased they write in, make phone calls, blog, write letters to newspapers.

When the anti-Israel elements think the BBC is biased they resort to violence.

BBC studios in Manchester have been attacked by a mob of 800 protesters.

More than 800 people marched through the city centre and down Oxford Road, where the crowd surged at the BBC’s entrance, smashing its front doors.

One man climbed to the top of the building to plant a Palestinian flag and there were at least three arrests.

Protesters said they were also angry about the BBC’s coverage of Israel.…

Protesters from the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, who organised the demonstration, chanted slogans including: “BBC tell the truth.”

Protesters smashed glass doors and there were at least three arrests…

Talat Ali, 40, organizer from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: “This is a peaceful demonstration against the attack that has taken place on the Gaza flotilla.

Yeah, about as peaceful as the terrorists who ambushed Israeli commandos.

“We are not happy with the way commanders boarded vessels and butchered people.

“We are not happy with the biased news given by the BBC.”

Is it not ironic that when the BBC finally becomes more even-handed in its coverage this upsets those with a mindset that is impervious to truth and evidence.

This is intimidation of a free press. The protesters should know that this is not Iran – not yet, anyway.

Flotilla: disaster for Israel, victory for Hamas

31/05/2010 / / 3 Comments

This morning I awoke to the worst possible headlines and yet another depressing chapter in Israel’s history of PR disasters. My belief that Israel had the ‘perfect answer’ was wrong.

They messed up badly.

We don’t yet know how many died or will die, but  one thing is certain: Israel will be blamed and vilified and this will be another martyrdom to be added to litany of hate against Israel. All we know is that Israeli commandos intercepted and boarded the flotilla that was sailing from Turkey to break the maritime blockade and deliver aid to Gaza. On one of the boats, it appears, that an ‘activist’ grabbed a weapon from an Israeli commando and shot him in the stomach. Bearing in mind this is at night amid chaos it appears that other commandos opened fire and several were killed. It also appears that this was a planned attack and the activists who had previously claimed that they would not resort to violence did just that.

The Jerusalem Post got it right:

For the international media and its consumers, the reasons behind Israel’s decision do not make much of a difference, since what Israel is doing fits the way it is already widely perceived – as a violent aggressor abusing a weak and poor Palestinian people.

The article then goes on to state that the flotilla of aid was unnecessary because thousands of tons a week enter Gaza via the Keren Shalom crossing and in an attempt to improve its PR image the Israeli government invited journalists to witness this. What hasn’t been reported widely is that:

the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), the Turkish organization that is behind the flotilla, described as a “radical Islamic organization” that was outlawed by Israel in 2008 for allegedly serving as a major component in Hamas’s global fund-raising machine

In other words, under the cover of an aid convey, the real intention was to provoke Israel to some precipitate action.

And as far as the hostile world is concerned, this is exactly what happened. On BBC News this morning Mark Regev, the Israel spokesperson, was asked if there were any illegal arms on board, to which he, of course, answered that he had no such intelligence.

And so the waters are immediately muddied: why did the Israelis have to stop the flotilla? If they had let it through there would have been no deaths. In other words Israel is the provocateur, not the IHH. The deaths are Israel’s fault and caused by the blockade, not by an activist who recklessly grabbed a weapon and actually used it.

As I have said in previous posts, this was a win/win for Hamas and a lose/lose for Israel. If the flotilla were allowed through, as the JP also points out and as Danny Ayalon, Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister described here and in his press conference this morning, the floodgates would be open and Iran would succeed in delivering missiles to Gaza that would be used against Israeli towns and cities.

This is why there is a maritime blockade and why all ships which wish to deliver anything to Gaza have to pass through an Israeli port for inspection .

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has now published this account.

1. Numerous warning were given to head for Ashdod where the aid would be delivered after inspection

2. This was refused

3. The Israeli commandos boarded the ships and on one ship they were, apparently, fired on by weapons already on board (2 pistols)  which had been taken but one of which was then grabbed back.In addition the activists had knives and clubs. This is despite prior protestations that they would not use violence.

4. This seemed to be a planned ambush by a section of the activists. So it is clear.

The aid flotilla was a sham. Its intention was to provoke violence and it succeeded. If it was just and aid convoy it could have docked at Ashdod. The organisers are a Turkish NGO (IHH) which has connections with terrorist organisations including Hamas But none of this will matter. The forces of terror have had a clear victory. The Palestinian Authority has already declared 3 days of mourning and Hamas call it a ‘massacre’.

Could Israel have handled it better? I’m sorry to say the answer has to be ‘yes’.

Israel finds perfect response to ‘Freedom Flotilla’

28/05/2010 / / 0 Comments

Yesterday I wondered how Israel would react to the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ which purports to be bring ‘vital’ aid to Gaza.

This was a clear attempt at provocation and a wonderful publicity stunt: bring some aid, break the ‘blockade’ and hopefully prompt Israel to take some precipitous action that could be used to beat Israel with.

But according to Ha’aretz Israel has found a response which diffuses the situation and draws the teeth from any attempt to get Israel to respond inappropriately:

Israel will attempt to block the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ of pro-Palestinian demonstrators heading toward Gaza with humanitarian supplies, the forum of seven senior ministers decided on Wednesday. Humanitarian cargo, however, would be unloaded and inspected at Ashdod and sent to Gaza via the United Nations.

So the aid goes through but the propagandists don’t Ha!

The activists would be arrested and expelled from the country.

And:

The ministers decided that foreign journalists would be allowed to be present on Israel Navy ships during the operation in a bid to produce more favorable coverage abroad.

I’d take a hefty bet that coverage will NOT be favourable.

Problem will be that the ships will not turn back voluntarily, so how Israel handles towing or forcing 9 boats to Ashdod with 800 people aboard, including nationals of friendly countries and its own nationals, will be an interesting spectacle.

Postscript: I couldn’t have been more wrong

A tale of two flotillas: Dunkirk and Gaza

27/05/2010 / / 3 Comments

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the retreat of British forces from the beaches of Dunkirk. A heroic flotilla of small ships left English ports to rescue as many troops as they could whilst under fire and bombardment by Nazi forces.

On this day 70 years later a smaller flotilla of just eight or is it nine boats is heading for Gaza with the expressed aim of breaking the blockade and bringing much needed relief to one and a half million starving Gazans. Unlike the bravehearts of Dunkirk, this flotilla will succeed whatever the outcome.

But it’s a big lie, a huge con trick whose underlying intent is not to help Gaza but to demonise Israel and provoke it to take action which will will further damage its reputation. To that extent, it’s little different than a missile fired at Sderot.

Yesterday IDF Colonel Moshe Levi declared “No Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip”

We do not know of a shortage in any field, and we enable the entrance of various different goods, and also the export of agricultural products from the Gaza Strip. Anything that would help Hamas to increase its military power is obviously not permitted to enter,” said Col. Levi. In addition to that he demonstrated the data collected by the Gaza DCO that shows that 6,000 Palestinians exited the Gaza Strip to receive medical treatment in Israel and Jordan..

Some blockade but it gets better: take a look at the IDF blog for 25th May 2010. I’m sorry, but it’s worth quoting in almost its entirety, it’s just too good to miss:

Food Products and Clothing:

  1. Most types of food are allowed into the Strip, and are transferred by the private sector or by international organizations.
  2. During 2009, 30,920 trucks containing 800,000 tons of supplies were transferred into Gaza. This included fruits and vegetables, meat products, poultry and fish, dairy products, sugar, rice and legumes, flour and yeast, oil, and more. Furthermore, 10,871 heads of cattle were transferred for the Muslim holidays of Ramadan and Eid al-Adha.
  3. In the first quarter of 2010 (January-March), 94,500 tons of supplies were transferred in 3,676 trucks to the Strip: 48,000 tons of food products; 40,000 tons of wheat; 2,760 tons of rice; 1,987 tons of clothes and footwear; 553 tons of milk powder and baby food.
  4. In 2009, 572 trucks containing approximately 5,000 tons of medical supplies entered the Strip.
  5. In the first quarter of 2010 (January-March) 1,068 tons of medicine and medical equipment were transferred in 152 trucks.
  6. In 2009 two elevators were transferred to hospitals in Gaza, as was a CT imaging system (to the Red Cross hospital), and equipment for a mammography machine (which checks for breast cancer).
  7. During the first quarter of 2010 four trucks with special supplies for a project of the “Al Quds” hospital were transferred to the Gaza Strip, and an additional 13 trucks are scheduled to cross.
  8. Due to fears of a swine flu outbreak, three Israeli hospitals were assigned to treat cases in the Gaza Strip and 44,500 immunizations were transferred to the Strip.

Equipment for Essential Civilian Infrastructure:

  1. In 2009 Israel transferred 41 trucks of equipment for the maintenance of the electricity grid, and the state continues to provide approximately 60% of Gaza’s electricity.
  2. In 2009 over 105 million liters of fuel were transferred to Gaza’s power plant and over 3.2 million liters of gas were transferred for UNWRA operations.
  3. In 2009 127 trucks containing more than 3,000 tons of hypochlorite entered the Gaza Strip for water purification purposes. Moreover, 48 trucks of equipment for improving the sanitation infrastructure led to a substantial reduction in the Beit Lahya facility’s waste levels.
  4. As part of the preparations made for winter, 3,607 tons of glass was transferred to the Gaza Strip. According to UN reports, windows in all education and health institutions were repaired.
  5. In the first quarter of 2010 Israel transferred:
    • 250 trucks with equipment for the UNWRA summer camp, including: arts and crafts equipment, swimming pools, inflatable toys, ice cream machines, musical instruments, clothing, sports equipment, etc.
    • Seven trucks with equipment for upgrading the sewage pumping station, which was carried out by UNWRA.
    • 74 empty containers for UNWRA for use in classrooms and bathrooms
  6. Certain types of materials, such as cement and iron, are more restricted. These products are openly used by Hamas for developing its arsenal, building bunkers and launching sites, and making rockets and mortars.
  7. Despite the risk, the transfer of these items is also permitted under supervision, once it has been cleared that these materials are for civilian purposes only. Already in the first quarter of 2010, 23 tons of iron and 25 tons of cement were transferred to the Gaza Strip.

Movement of Residents in and out of the Gaza Strip

  1. Despite the inherent dangers involved, Israel permits Gazans and visitors to travel between Gaza and Israel, from Gaza to Judea and Samaria, and abroad for medical treatment, religious pilgrimages, and business trips. Whenever possible Israel allows for diplomatic activities as well as trade and commerce with the Gaza Strip.
  2. Here are a number of examples from 2009:
  • Delegations from abroad: 21,200 activists from international organizations from over 400 diplomatic delegations were permitted entry into Gaza, and 2,200 Palestinians employed by international organizations were given exit permits from the Gaza Strip.
  • Education, Vacations and Pilgrimages to Holy sites: 147 permits were given to Palestinian students for academic studies around the world. During the Christmas holiday approximately 400 permits were given to visit Bethlehem from Gaza as well 100 permits to travel abroad.
  • Business: 257 permits were given to businessmen from Gaza to facilitate business operations.
  • Sports: Special permission was given to Gazan footballers to train in Judea and Samaria and compete in international matches abroad.

Trade and Commerce

Israel has taken measures to support  trade and commerce, the banking system, and the existing financial market in the Gaza Strip:

  • In 2009 1.1 billion NIS was transferred to the Gaza Strip for the ongoing activity of international organizations and to pay the salaries of Palestinian Authority workers.
  • 40 million damaged bank notes were traded for new bills, and at the request of the Palestinian Monetary Fund, 282.5 million shekels were transferred from Gazan to Israeli Banks.
  • In February 2010 an agreement was reached with the Palestinian Authority’s National Insurance Department to ensure that pensions reached those formerly employed in Israel. The funds were deposited in banks in Judea and Samaria, while the Palestinian Authority was given the responsibility of distributing the funds to the pensioners in Gaza.

    • So, you see, there is no blockade of real essentials. And add to this little lot the stuff still coming through the Rafah tunnels. If you want to see real poverty and starvation take a look at Sudan or Zimbabwe.

    And if you want more proof then take a look at the Roots club website and the video therein.  Someone is doing well in Gaza.

    As I’ve said before, there is still hardship and suffering, I do not deny or belittle it, but it’s no worse than many other countries in the Middle East and elsewhere, and it would be a whole lot better if Hamas were not in charge. But they were democratically elected, of course, just like a certain Austrian who was responsible for Dunkirk.

    But according to the Viva Palestina website:

    [Israel] has turned Gaza into a prisoner [sic] camp and has been carrying out a genocide. This camp and genocidal acts very much resemble Hitler’s actions in history.

    So there you go. You can have a slap up meal in a top-class restaurant in Gaza City just like the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto.

    Surely they can hardly believe their own blatantly anti-Semitic rhetoric.  Israel is committing genocide just like the genocide the Palestinians deny ever happened. Sure takes some warped thinking and an egregious view of history to come to that conclusion. More like quadruple-think than double-think.

    Hamas have killed more Gazans than Israel ever did and the only genocide in the region under contemplation is the one that Hamas and Hizbollah want to commit against the Jews of Israel and beyond, and the first step in this plan is to destroy Israel by all and any means military, propaganda and legal.

    The flotilla knows it is in a win-win situation: if Israel blocks it they have their propaganda coup and if they get through they have a victory against Israel.  No doubt this flotilla will be followed by several more. It’s lucky for the Palestinians that Israel isn’t North Korea or they might have their boats torpedoed; all Israel will do is impound them or let them through.

    Palestinian homes demolished – by Palestinians

    18/05/2010 / / 1 Comment

    Well, as they say, you couldn’t make it up. The BBC reports that Hamas have demolished at least seven, and maybe as many as forty, homes near Rafah in the Gaza strip.

    So where are the demonstrators? Where the UN? Where Goldstone? Where the outrage in the blogosphere? Where the BBC news headlines? Where the anger of the Arab street or even the Palestinians on the West Bank? Where, indeed, Barack Obama and George Mitchell? Where Human Rights Watch who condemned house demolitions as ‘collective punishment’?

    Hamas says the homes were built on ‘government land’ and without permits. Sound familiar? When Israel demolishes homes in Jerusalem because they are built illegally and without permits the entire world condemns Israel.

    But it gets even more ironic:

    Club-wielding Hamas policemen – and some female police officers wearing face-covering veils – forced people from their homes and then brought in bulldozers.

    Bulldozers. That icon of Israel ‘brutality’ used against their own people by Palestinian Hamas.

    It seems that Palestinians can do what they like to each other, it’s only when Israel exercises its legal rights that the Muslim world and the world at large is bothered.

    Tells you something, doesn’t it?

    Hamas closes smuggling tunnels – no-one notices

    15/04/2010 / / 0 Comments

    Hamas effectively closed the smuggling tunnels from Egypt. No-one is sure why yet. Happened yesterday. ‘Stop using them or else’ was the order. Egypt has half completed the steel barrier which is already causing disruption to supplies. It’s very strange that the UN have not publicly rebuked Egypt for cutting off this lifeline. Maybe they are only interested in the legal crossings not the illegal ones. Maybe they just like to single out Israel. The blockade, so called, has caused the tunnel smuggling, so the story goes, and without it Gazans would starve. So that means Hamas has decided to starve Gaza and is actually working with Egypt and Israel to starve Gazans, because as we ‘know’, according to John Ging head of UNWRA in Gaza, it’s a ‘siege’, a mediaeval one, in fact.

    So where is Ging? Where is the UN Secretary General? Where is Mahmoud Abbas? Why are they not crying out for the lifeline tunnels to be reopened? Simple. Because they all know that enough food gets in without them. They all know that no-one is starving in Gaza, but it makes a nice story to bash Israel with.

    Like I’ve said before, it’s no picnic in Gaza, but no-one is starving either. Food and fuel gets through and all from Israel, not Egypt.

    Rumour has it that the tunnels were closed because of a possible kidnapping in the Sinai of an Israeli tourist who would then be taken into Gaza through a tunnel.

    So Hamas do not want a kidnapped Israeli, or I should say, another kidnapped Israeli. Why not?

    And no-one has really worked out the affect of Egypt blocking these tunnels either.

    One good thing to note: the BBC News website now finally admits that the ‘blockade’ is administered by Israel AND Egypt. But no-one cares about this. As the psalmist said: they have eyes but cannot see. Or don’t want to.

    Gaza, the blockade and Egypt. Did I miss something?

    22/03/2010 / / 0 Comments

    Er.. Did I miss something with all the hoo-ha from the UN and Quartet urging Israel to open all the Gaza crossings, to ease its restrictions and allow EVERYTHING in? This will end the smuggling culture, says Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the UN. This will allow economic recovery and undercut extremism.

    Apart from the naivety of this belief, why didn’t he go to Cairo and ask them to open up the Rafah crossing? Israel has no control of that crossing. Why does the Quartet not ask Cairo to ease restrictions? If you remember, Egypt is actually building a metal barrier across the entire border with Gaza. No-one is condemning this. No-one mentions it.

    Just thought I’d mention that.

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