Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Friday 15 July 2011

Rupert Murdoch, Friend of Israel

In a characteristically searing piece, Melanie Phillips likens the present "witch hunt" in Britain against a certain media mogul to
"an insurrectionary frisson that we last saw in the wake of Diana's death in a car crash, when for a moment the monarchy itself seemed to be in danger at the hands of those who believed the Royal Family had effectively (and in the minds of not a few conspiracy nuts, actually) killed her.
This time round, the frenzied mob consists not of the public but members of Parliament, the BBC and the left-wing media baying for the blood of Rupert Murdoch. http://www.melaniephillips.com/murdoch-derangmeent-syndrome
You have only to see the wall-to-wall coverage of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal on Al Beeb, and the way in which the glint-eyed correspondents, politicians, and their accomplices have transformed the scandal into all-out warfare on Murdoch and his media empire, to realise how the Left have turned the scandal to their advantage.

It's no accident that as soon as the scandal broke members of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other elements within the anti-Israel fraternity (perhaps I should say "sorority," given the numbers of militant feminists who improbably fill its ranks) were tweeting each other to contact David Cameron and Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt opposing Murdoch's bid to acquire BSkyB

For Rupert Murdoch is a good friend of Israel.

As I observed last year http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2010/10/unheavenly-twins-ground-troops-in-in.html:

'It’s long been a fiction among antisemitic groups in his native Australia and elsewhere that media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s mother Dame Elisabeth (née Greene) is Jewish. We can no doubt expect the conspiracy theorists to be buzzing afresh with that line, in view of the robustly pro-Israel speech that Murdoch delivered before the ADL in New York on 13 October. How very true is Murdoch’s observation that: “We live in a world where there is an ongoing war against the Jews. For the first decades after Israel’s founding, this war was conventional in nature. The goal was straightforward: to use military force to overrun Israel. Well before the Berlin Wall came down, that approach had clearly failed."  As he continued:
“Then came phase two: terrorism. Terrorists targeted Israelis both home and abroad – from the massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich to the second intifada. The terrorists continue to target Jews across the world. But they have not succeeded in bringing down the Israeli government – and they have not weakened Israeli resolve.
Now the war has entered a new phase. This is the soft war that seeks to isolate Israel by delegitimizing it. The battleground is everywhere: the media … multinational organizations … NGOs. In this war, the aim is to make Israel a pariah.
 The result is the curious situation we have today: Israel becomes increasingly ostracized, while Iran – a nation that has made no secret of wishing Israel’s destruction – pursues nuclear weapons loudly, proudly, and without apparent fear of rebuke.”'  Read the entire speech here: http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/rupert-murdoch-anti-semitism-and-israel_508697.html
In complete contrast to the BBC, with its overt left-wing bias, Murdoch has consistently presented a pro-American, pro-Israel viewpoint in his newspapers, as on Fox TV, but in the context of being fair and balanced.

Again, unlike the BBC, which conscripts its revenue from hapless licence-payers, Murdoch's media outlets pay for themselves by selling newspapers and getting subscribers to Sky.  Despite the fact that 39% of it is owned by Murdoch, Sky TV has covered the current "hacking" debate completely fairly and objectively.

Most of Murdoch's newspapers, such as The Times, The Australian, and The Wall Street Journal, have obviously never engaged in unethical "hacking" but represent the best of the world press.  Murdoch, who of course switched The Sun's allegiance from Tory to Labour during the Blair years, has basically allowed The Times - Britain's venerable newspaper of record dating to the eighteenth century - to survive despite the fact that it is losing money.

The now defunct News of the World (its final issue was last Sunday's) was a notorious scandal sheet that revelled in salacious stories, and which engaged in unethical behaviour for many years.  But it was not representative of the Murdoch empire as a whole.

Clearly, much of the present row, although obviously justified by the News of the World's unconscionable behaviour, has aspects of lynching against Murdoch.

Friends of Israel should pause for reflection before joining in the clamour for his blood.

14 comments:

  1. Here is a hypothetical question: IF Israel knew FOR CERTAIN that all hatred had ceased and every non-Jew was willing to accept all the Jews who moved to Israel, as their neighbours, would the majority of Israelis be willing to create one truly democratic state where Jews could live in EQUALITY & harmony again with their non-Jewish brothers and sisters? Would they be willing to share the Holy Land, which is Holy to all three great religions?

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  2. Agree entirely Daphne. There is something very ugly going on here from people who can get very ugly indeed. Here's part of an opinion piece from the ABC that someone linked here:

    http://webdiary.com.au/cms/?q=node/3186#comment-93643

    "'But to really set things right, we'll need more than Brooks' head on a pike. The abuse of media power that lies at the heart of the phone hacking scandal can be seen in News Corp media in other parts of the world, including Murdoch's Australian tabloids and the national broadsheet, The Australian. Indeed, part of the horror generated by the News of the World scandal is its exposure of how unchecked media power can corrupt the foundational institutions – and so the very workings – of democracy ..."

    Crazy

    You could say the same thing of the ABC and Fairfax.

    A reply here:

    http://webdiary.com.au/cms/?q=node/3186#comment-93643

    So here we see what is at the heart of this nasty hypocritical little frenzy. Murdoch is an octopus whose tentacles threaten to corrupt the very foundations of society. Where have I heard that before?

    What is known to have happened at the NOTW is quite literally criminal and from memory at least one man has already gone to jail for it. Others have been arrested and more arrests are likely and if I were a betting man my money would not be on many of them seeing much daylight for quite a while. In the meantime there is the small matter of the trials. Remember those?

    Whatshername from the ABC doen't seem too fussed about that particular "foundational institution" by the way. Just as she isn't real concerned about getting all the facts before convicting everybody. Of what by the way? Certain individuals have been charged with certain crimes and there are a bunch of investtigations going on back in the home country. How sweet of the ABC to care.

    There are a lot of people who hate Murdoch. Everybody knows that. Business competitors. Left/liberal ideologues who hate America. Academics. Islamist lunatics who think he is a Jew. A few governments probably.And to be sure I would not want to get in his way if there wasn't a need. But read that piece again. Whatsherface wants blood. Now. Never mind the trials.

    The left/liberal media and their allies among left wing politicians are on an electronic pogrom over this.

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  3. "...Friends of Israel should pause for reflection before joining in the clamour for his blood..."

    Even before I remembered Murdoch's ethical stand towards Israel and the Jewish people, I was quite sickened by the feeding frenzy of the pack here in OZ. The ABC would forget to inform us about the end of the world itself, were it to occur now, so enthusiastically are they into Murdoch-bashing. The Fuehrer of the Greens, Bob Brown has even explicitely asked for an "investigation into the Ethics! of Australian journalists" (he ain't speaking ABC, SBS, the AGE or SMH here) and his 2IC, Julia Gillard, has obendiently indicated, at the Canberra press club, that she would gladly approve of such a step.

    The lecherous glee of the chattering hounds is truly sickening and I expect that now, the few courageous voices in our media that are either conservative or pro-Israel (the two seem to go together these days)will be more and more silenced by the pack!

    And yes, I agree with you, Melanie Philips writes searingly!

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  4. Adam, the Israelis are surely entitled to their state - they safeguard the holy places of the other faiths, and it's no accident that the Bahais have there HQ in Israel.

    Many thanks for your long and informative comment, Geofff - also Rita.

    "The Australian" is of course the most pro-Israel of all Oz newspapers.

    I thought the ABC had been purged of BBC-type elements by John Howard, who brought people like Keith Windschuttle onto its board - obviously the cleansing of the Augean Stable didn't go far enough!

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  5. The smugness of the M.P.'s makes me sick. At last they think they have a distraction from their recent exposure as expense fiddlers.

    It's like the muggers, burglers and assorted criminals that all look down on the sex offenders in their squalid world.

    And as for the gloating of the BBC, I have two words BALAN REPORT.

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  6. And now that the BBC Trust keeps assuring viewers in ads that it would like to hear from us, perhaps we should start swamping the Trust (chairman, Patten, of course) to do the honourable thing and release the Balen Report!

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  7. Usually agree with your content, but break here. Murdoch may be a friend to Israel, but if he committed crimes, he deserves what he will get. He may claim to be fair and balanced, but that is from the perspective of someone who has shown a lack of scruples when it comes to news and politics.

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  8. Thank for the comment, Eric. There's no doubt that the News of the World's behaviour has been an absolute disgrace, and many people will no doubt react as you have.

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  9. Quite right Daphne. There is nothing so deeply unedifying as the British people in one of their occasional fits of morality. As for the Left, the noise of all those chickens coming home to roost is deafening.

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  10. Great comment - it has the ring of Macaulay or someone about it!

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  11. Great anti-BBC piece from Melanie here:

    http://www.melaniephillips.com/the-real-media-oligarchy-that-has-corrupted-britain

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  12. The news of the world hacked into the phones of innocent murder victims (including a 15 year old girl). They are an absolute disgrace. Murdoch is ultimately responsible as he is the head of the organisation. Shame on you!

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  13. I wholeheartedly agree that hacking into Milly Dowler's phone etc was atrocious.

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  14. More on Murdoch and Israel here - son James seems less attached

    http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/07/18/3088599/pro-israel-leaders-watch-warily-as-murdoch-defends-empire:

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