The BBC's Birthday Present to Israel

What do you expect from the BBC, fair reporting on the Middle East. It is a public body staffed by the We are all Hisbollah Now leftie do-gooders. Jeremy Bowen has NEVER reported fairly on the situation and is probably actively supported by the production team!

Posted by: Anthony Garland at May 7, 2008 8:16:48 PM

Jeremy Bowen should spell his name as
Joseph Goebbels.

Posted by: Arthur Palgon at May 7, 2008 8:41:21 PM

Bowen's program continues his own and the world's anti-Jew spin on the situation in the Middle East.

The Palestinians have way less history in the region and yet they are held up as the rightful "owners" of the land that is the home of Jewish State.

Bowen was a very poor selection to host this "documentary" AND his placement is indicative of the BBC becoming the European equivalent of FOX News!

It is all appauling. I am surprised Bowen did not try to deny the Holocaust itself! That's usual direction the spin heads.

I am an American Jew and I feel that much of Europe has turned its back on Israel. Considering the victims of the Holocaust were killed on their land/their watch it makes it even harder to fathom.

Jeremy Bowen: You are not a true journalist. Maybe you are more of a novelist! You are an enemy of the Jewish people.

Posted by: Fred Schnitzer at May 7, 2008 8:44:32 PM

An excellent 'fisking' of Bowen's documentary. It is a shame that he will get away with his omissions and distortions as he has in the past - simply because the Beeb is untouchable in its lofty arrogance and the complaints procedure is woefully inadequate.

Posted by: Lyn at May 7, 2008 8:49:26 PM

Well its time to sue the BBC, and to uncover who is in control of this network, could it be that some Arabs have their way with what is produced on the BBC. Maybe the government needs to be investigated to find out who is being influenced by in Arabs in an illegal manner!

Posted by: Fedrucj at May 7, 2008 8:57:12 PM

Perhaps Honest Reporting members will not be surprised that thirteen people of my acquaintance had to be asked before one of them came even close to knowing either the world population of Jews today or the overall percentage (50% )of the Jewish population annihilated during the holocaust. While this may seem incidental to your efforts, I believe the numbers could be used positively to affect the perspective of many people who are not hostile but who sit indifferently on the fence on the Israeli question. Thanks. JM

Posted by: Joseph Mitlof at May 7, 2008 9:01:48 PM

You expected maybe HONESTY from the BBC, the product of unwed canine mothers?

(I think I cleaned that up pretty well)

Here in the good old USA, most of the people with whom I converse with concerning Israel are a thousand percent PRO-Israel and view disgusting and repulsive "reports" as just that, disgusting and revolting.

Each individual that had a part in that lying production should be sued by the State of Israel for slander. Only when those people begin to feel it in their pockets will that kind of tripe come to a screeching hald.

I fault ISRAEL AND EVERY OTHER ENTITY THAT REFERS TO THOSE ARABS AS PALESTINIANS!

They are ARABS...get it? They are NOT Palestinians, never were, never will be no matter what they call themselves.

Arafat was a blasted EGYPTIAN! Most of the Arabs who call themselves what they do were from Syria, Jordan, Egypt and other parts of the Arab world.

Any so-called "reporter" who pukes out screed should be stripped of their credentials and be banned from the State. Why is that not happening?

The Arabs are wonderful in one respect ONLY...lying. Their religious books tell them that lying is not only permissible, but it is a saintly thing to do whenever possible.

lying formed the basis of their PR campaigns while Israel just sat back on their high and mighty rear ends and did nothing to counter it. Repeat THEY DID NOTHING TO COUNTER THE SCREED THAT WAS TOSSED IN THEIR FACES AND NOW THEY ARE REAPING THE REWARD FOR THINKING THAT BY KEEPING THEIR YAPS SHUT THEY WOULD WIN THE UPPER HAND.

Angry? Me? You bet your booty I'm angry. My blood pressure just went from 120/60 to 190/78, too high for a post-stroke patient.

But MY getting angry won't do a blasted thing except let me blow off some steam here. ISRAEL has got to learn to scream louder and longer and with PROOF of what is happening: And they've got to get rid of the offspring of unwed mothers.

Posted by: Beverly Kurtin at May 7, 2008 9:06:19 PM

If the Jeremy Bowen documentary has been shown on British TV, certainly somebody must have recorded it? I must see it before I can submit a criticism to the BBC complaint section.
Does anybody know where it can be seen?..........David Most

Posted by: DAVID MOST at May 7, 2008 9:10:37 PM

ve have the FCC and could possibly obtain equal time to dispute these falsehoods and possibly obtain a judgement for libel. The Hon. Mr Gillerma should present this to the UN which is busily engaged being a propaganda outlt for Ior Israel^s enemies. Lets point out home times Jerusalem Apeears in our Bible as opposed to the Koran. Our job is to act and not React, Kol Tov

Posted by: Milton Adler at May 7, 2008 9:20:11 PM

This article should be reprinted in major newspapers around the world!

Posted by: Gerald Smith at May 7, 2008 9:30:13 PM

I saw Bowen's report on Israel's 60th independence day. Mr. Bowen is very reluctant to consider facts that are inconvenient for him (the ultimate intellectual dishonesty).
The facts that he ignores are: 1)Regarding Jerusalem, it became a "holy" city for Christians and Moslems ONLY BECAUSE IT had been THE CAPITAL and religious center OF ISRASEL AND JUDEA. IT BECAME OUR CAPITAL OVER 1000 YEARS BEFORE THE EMERGENCE OF CHRISTIANITY WHICH WAS PRESUMABLY INITIATED BY JEWISH SEPARATISTS. Jerusalem preceded the Arab conquest of Palestine by over 1600 years. It became important to the Moslems only because it had been the first center of monotheism and a religion whose essentials were adopted by Islam. And there has been a continuous Jewish community in Israel throughout the 2000 years following the defeat to the Romans in 70AD. You can easily verify this fact.
2)We accepted in 1948 the partition of Palestine as decided by the UN. This partition WAS NOT accepted by the Arabs who lived there (and did not consider themselves a separate entity from Syria and Jordan). Instead they tried to annihilate us with the help of the armies of the Arab states. By the way, the British mandate was very pro-Arab abd actually supported the Palestinian attempts to defeat us. The Palestinians and their Arab allies were repulsed in 1948-9 to the chagrin of the british and the Arabs. The ensuing 60 years have thus seen a constant attemts by the Arabs to defeat us without success. But to say that we are the aggressors is a lie and a transparently biased opinion of Bowen and the BBC.
I suggest that you stop for a moment and review all the facts before you continue this incredibly dishonest campaign agaisnt Israel. Or at least do not hide behind a righteous facade and assert your bias openly. It will do you a lot of good. Your anti-Israel campaign encourages radical elements that even bomb the trains in London. Or is there perhaps Saudi or Gulf money behind your ion of hate mongering against Israel?
We can assure you that we will celebrate the 100th anniversery despite the attempts of the BBC to harm us.

Posted by: David Gershon at May 7, 2008 9:42:04 PM

as a non-jewish dutch woman I combat Ilan Pappé, a lier about history, the inventer of etnic cleansing bij Israel. Bowen is influenced by him, I suppose, for Pappé promotes this sort of boycots against Israel. Perhaps the BBC needs money and is payed as a traitor? If not then the BBC retires from this kind of stuff immediately.

Posted by: van der spek at May 7, 2008 10:00:45 PM

Bowen's claim that Haganah's "Plan D", concluded during the British Mandate had anything to do with "ethnic cleansing" is but a malicious lie. I participated in it, scouting the village of Saffouria in the Galilee (the Jewish fortress that, according to Josephus Flavius, stood in Rome's way 2,000 years ago) There were plans for all levels of Arab threat. Plan D was the worst case scenario, where a contiguous territorial enclave was to be held in order to survive. No one ever anticipated this to happen during the British Mandate but it did, starting November, 30, 1947, the day after the UN passed the Palestine partition resolution. As a member of the Palmach I participated, since December, 1, 1947, in convoy running between Jerusalem and the coast, passing through a string of Arab villages whose armed militias did, in the end, close the noose around Jerusalem's 100,000 Jews, denying them water, food and means to defend themselves.
How would Bowen relieve Jerusalem's Jews without holding the strip along the Jaffa-Tel Aviv road after almost six months of siege ?
Familiar with the British Mandatory policy's "zig-zags", I do believe that war could have been averted, were Britain to stick to the word and spirit of its own Balfour Declaration of November, 2, 1917, that became, in 1922,the Mandate bestowed upon it by the League of Nations.
Would Bowen describe the WWII allied bombing of German cities "ethnic cleansing" ?

Posted by: Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto at May 7, 2008 10:06:35 PM

Maybe instead of explaining ourselves to these modern nazis who would like nothing better than to klll the mainder of the Jews, we should "go on the offensive" and drag them through every court in Great Britain and elsewhere. Keep them so busy that they would not have time to vent their hatred of Jews. Great Britain should look inside itself. the Empire is slowly but surely sinking into oblivion. Wait till Sharia Law takes them over.Who's going to have time to diss the Jews??

Posted by: Martin Lackner at May 7, 2008 10:15:44 PM

Shall we in the US write to BBC using your disection and observations?
Will it help or do we wait until it is shown here?

Posted by: Ronnie Pleet at May 7, 2008 10:19:33 PM

As a Brit who loves Israel I just want to apologise for the BBCs constant bias against Israel. This has been going on for a long while now and is becoming more blatant.

Please don't think all Brits think or speak this way. There are many who care a great deal for Israel and her people.

Posted by: Ali Waite at May 7, 2008 10:31:33 PM

You are really sick people. First, you occupy some one else's land, drive its inhabitants away, kill them, plunder their wealth, make them pay for no fault of theirs; then you call your airstrikes and bombings as defence and their faltered rocket attacks as terrorism. If you quote history to claim a right over this land, then you should know that you would be driven out once again, as has been the norm throughout history. You are the chosen people, not for anything good, but because you are the chosen tyrrants that history has never come across.

Posted by: abdul aziz khattak at May 7, 2008 10:39:40 PM

The summary didn't mention (so I assume the program didn't mention) that the mandate was given to Britain to form a Jewish homeland. Britain then gave more than 80 percent of it to the arabs, forming Jordan.

Posted by: chava at May 7, 2008 10:40:18 PM

It is interesting that you should quote Benny Morris when attacking Jeremy Bowen's report (which, to my shame I missed).
In his book "Rightous Victims" Benny Morris describes the Massacre of Deir Yasin just as what it was, a massacre of innocent civilians. Let my cite (page 208 in the Vintage edition of his book): "Whole families - were riddled with bullets and grenade fragments and buried when houses were blown up on top of them, men, women and children were mown downs as they emerged from houses, individuals were taken aside and shot...". Indeed there was fighting in Deir Yasin, but there was also slaughter of innocents. In his book Benny Morris mentions several other occasions were innocent Arab civilians were massacred,
It is also rather risky to cite Benny Morris as a witness to the fact that there was no plan to evict the Palestinians from their homes. Morris actually states that there was no general plan, but that there were many occasions where the eviction of Palestinians were planned; as late as 1951 (Ashkelon) and even 1967 (the Latrun area settlements).
Honest Reporting is known as a propaganda tool of the Likud, and your description of the events is certainly distorted as well,

Posted by: Gil Stamberger at May 7, 2008 10:43:00 PM

You all forget that billions of Muslim Arab $ are at work in GB and the BBC has a propaganda role to play to keep this money coming to GB.

Posted by: steven L at May 7, 2008 10:44:16 PM

It sounds like Jimmy Carter wrote the story with the usual slant and blame game. It is too bad that the BBC allows itself to be used or does the story follow BBC policy; I suspect that latter. Abba Eban said: the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss and opportunity and they have done so over and over in the last 60 years.

Posted by: Mike Kurtzig at May 7, 2008 10:48:52 PM

At 9AM in Raleigh, NC, the local NPR station broadcasts BBC news with its frequent anti-Israel bias. How disheartening for our own NPR to air this!

Posted by: at May 7, 2008 10:54:16 PM

The BBC lost all credibility on any issue involving an Islamic exponent many years ago. As far as the BBC is concerned it is far more important to understand the motives of an Islamic terrorist than report their attrocities.

Posted by: Matthew Shostak at May 7, 2008 10:59:16 PM

Mr. Bowen, all I can say is you have a lot of hate pent up inside of you. If you have been mistreated by an Israeli please show some mercy. It's the arabs that do not want peace. They are vindictive and extremely jealous. It's a shame no one criticizes their leaders as the real culprits. It easy to cast blame but hard to forgive. Thank you, Richard

Posted by: richard mallin at May 7, 2008 10:59:56 PM

Bowen also forgets that the Jews were expelled from England in 1290. Who knows how many of those Jews ended up in what is today Israel.
Miles Pinedo, Tulsa, OK

Posted by: Miles Pinedo at May 7, 2008 11:00:00 PM