Daphne Anson: Pimping Hamas Propaganda: BBC's Bowen Blows Khaled Meshaal's Trumpet

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)

Wednesday, 1 April 2015

Pimping Hamas Propaganda: BBC's Bowen Blows Khaled Meshaal's Trumpet

For the BBC's scandalously biased "Middle East editor" Jeremy Bowen, as for other employees of Britain's bloated left-leaning "national broadcaster" including members of Bowen's equally biased team, the Guardian and Ha'aretz are clearly the go-to newspapers for opinion pieces regarding Israel.

Those two newspapers typify, of course, the jaundiced opinions of the Beeboids (as the Biased BBC website terms the Corporation's hacks) themselves.

Bowen, Danahar, Donnison and the rest of the bunch can be relied upon to tweet and bignote (without any countervailing balance) articles in those papers that present Israel in a bad light.

Bowen and his cronies give far too much publicity to Ha'aretz, which is after all a newspaper with a comparably small circulation in its own country, and one widely despised by pro-Israel opinion as a propaganda rag that is helping to undermine and demonise Israel, especially Netanyahu's Israel, abroad.

The BBC aids and abets that undermining and demonising by serving up to viewers, listeners, and, in particular, Twitter followers, such partisan items as these (eyes, er, left) which appear among Bowen's currently visible tweets.

Not surprisingly, many people who do not share the Beeboids' hostility to Israel, people who believe that the BBC should honour its obligations to present news untainted by political slant, half-truths, and factual errors, are fuming over its Today radio broadcast in which Khalid Meshaal of the genocidal terrorist group Hamas was allowed by Bowen to get away with propaganda and falsehoods.

See http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32060613

Thus (and this is not an April Fool's Day "joke"), under the headline 'Hamas leader Meshaal Warns of Israeli "extremism"after elections' we learn from the BBC:

'The political leader of the militant Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas says the results of Israel's elections will further diminish hopes for peace.

Khaled Meshaal told the BBC the victory of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and its right-wing allies meant there would be "more extremism".'

He said Hamas was not looking for any escalation, but would defend itself....

In an interview with BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen in Qatar, Mr Meshaal said attacks on Israel would continue "as long as there is occupation, aggression, war and killing". But he stressed that Hamas was "careful to respect international humanitarian law and to target only military targets.'

And we also find (same page) "Analysis" from the execrable Bowen (remember this howler from him regarding the Muslim Brotherhood?):

'Khaled Meshaal looked to be in good health. "Keep fit to keep on resisting," he joked before the interview.

He was noticeably slimmer than when we last met in Damascus, before he relocated to Doha with his staff. For years, President Bashar al-Assad gave Mr Meshaal an HQ and protection. But he said "when we were asked to side with the regime against the will of the people, we refused."

Most of the armed rebels in Syria are, like Hamas, Sunni Muslims. Mr Meshaal rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's accusation that Hamas was the same as the jihadist groups Islamic State and al-Qaeda, condemning them as un-Islamic.

He seemed to be calibrating his comments on the conflict with Israel to catch the prevailing mood of anger towards Mr Netanyahu in the White House, after his sharp turn to the ultra-nationalist Israeli Right in the last days of the election campaign.

Mr Meshaal called for a sovereign independent Palestinian state and an end to the occupation of land captured in the 1967 Middle East war. So did the White House chief of staff earlier this week.

The Palestinians, he asserted, had shown that they were "flexible, serious and keen to achieve a just and rightful peace".

"But Israel killed the peace process," he added, blaming Mr Netanyahu's outgoing government, along with "extremist forces" in Israel, for the collapse of the US-brokered direct negotiations last year.

"Israeli policies have always been bad, but today the Israeli Right is on the rise, and that produced Netanyahu's victory in the last election. So it is going to get more difficult and we will see more extremism in the Israeli mentality."'

Although Hamas has opposed years of on-off peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, Mr Meshaal said he and the group had agreed to accept the boundaries which existed before the 1967 Middle East war as the basis for those of a future Palestinian state.

Mr Meshaal urged the international community to grant the Palestinians full recognition at the United Nations. He noted Mr Netanyahu's pre-election vow not to allow a Palestinian state, which was criticised by US President Barack Obama.

The Israeli leader has since insisted that he was not rejecting a two-state solution outright, but that he believed it was impossible right now.'

He cited the Palestinians' refusal to recognise Israel as a Jewish state and last year's reconciliation deal between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement and Hamas, as well as the rise of Islamist extremism in the region.

Following his re-election, Mr Netanyahu said: "Our hand is held out in peace to our Palestinian neighbours and the people of Israel know that real peace - and our future - will only be assured if Israel is strong."

In his interview, Mr Meshaal dismissed statements by Mr Netanyahu and others in Israel that compared Hamas to jihadist groups like Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

'"This is an obvious Israeli game," he said. "They are trying to be on the same page as the West and the US administration - that they are together in the 'War on Terror'."'Hamas, he added, was "an active resistance with a just cause, battling the occupier."

"Others practice violence under the name of jihad, which we condemn. And this is not Islam. Islam encourages its followers to fight those who occupy their land and their sacred places. But Islam does not allow killing innocent people, civilians, or killing based on identity, belief and different views, political or religious."

(The above is also available here)

Prominent among the critics of this disturbing piece of propaganda for and from a genocidal terror organisation is Arnold Roth, whose fifteen-old-daughter Malki fell victim to terrorism in Jerusalem in 2001.

Begins Arnold Roth in an indignant, heartfelt post:

"Jeremy Bowen and his minders at the BBC today provides the sleek arch-terrorist Khaled Meshaal with an invaluable platform (not for the first time) for marketing the jihadist program of his outlawed Hamas terror organization to an international audience, safe from the threat of incisive or even semi-informed questions. Despotic, thuggish 'militant' terrorists world-wide must be green with envy."

Read the rest of Arnold Roth's post here

And as someone has pointed out privately, Meshaal in this slimy, infuriating interview

"claimed to be following in the footsteps of World War Two resistance movements in Europe. Bowen did not point out that the various resistance movements did not go after the civilian population, the women and children, of the occupying power."

Update: Don't miss BBC Watch's analysis of this latest outbreak of Bowenitis

7 comments:

rlandes2 April 2015 at 01:35
And BBC director danny cohen worries that rampant anti-semitism in England endangers even "good jews" like him. http://www.timesofisrael.com/bbc-chief-anti-semitism-makes-me-question-jews-future-in-uk/
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Eliyahu m'Tsiyon2 April 2015 at 05:25
Daphne, I ran into Bowen once upon a time before so much blood had flowed under the bridge.as has up till now. That was some 20 years ago when concerned Israelis were protesting against the disastrous Oslo Accords. I think he is worse now than then.
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Daphne Anson2 April 2015 at 08:00
The wonderful Hadar Sela is on the case:

http://bbcwatch.org/2015/04/01/bbcs-bowen-facilitates-hamas-pr-binge/
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pounce_uk2 April 2015 at 10:53
A few years back I decided to read up on the 6 day and the Yom Kippur wars. One of the books I picked up was Abu Bowens version. Now here was I non the wiser of who was who and for what aims they were fighting and I could not only pick holes in his story telling but I could drive a tank through them.
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