"This Was A Studied Insult": In Australia, The BBC's Counterpart Offends Jews On Rosh Hashana

Unconscionable, isn't it, how two of the world's most politically correct leftist broadcasting organisations cavalierly discard their sensitivity to the needs and feelings of minorities when it's Jews who are the group to be offended?

Can you imagine either broadcaster knowingly risking offending Muslims in similar fashion? 

Just as the BBC's "Middle East editor" Jeremy Bowen went ahead with a question and answer session on Twitter regarding the Middle East fully aware that he was doing so on Rosh Hashana, so ABC presenter Tony Jones interviewed visiting Israel demoniser Ilan Pappé on that day.

The following speech in Federal Parliament by Michael Danby, MHR for Melbourne and a veteran defender of Israel and Jewish rights, sums up the situation:

"On Monday and Tuesday I had leave for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. I thank the whips and the parliament. For 120,000 Australians of similar background, even the most secular families, this is like Christmas, a time for the gathering of the clan.

Tony Jones, the host of Q&A, explained to that segment of Australia's population that Q&A focusing half of its program on Monday night on Israel was because he could not get his guest Mr Pappe other than that night. Irving Wallach did a brave job on the program. But I question Mr Jones; the ABC managing director, Mark Scott; and indeed the new chairman, Jim Spigelman. This was a studied insult. Having an academically undistinguished extremist on Rosh Hashana is like having someone from Hizb ut-Tahrir advocate the abolition of Christianity and Australia on Christmas Eve.

Nearby to Israel, a prosperous, peaceful, democratic country, 25,000 Syrian civilians have been murdered by their own government. Come on, Tony Jones! When are you going to have a program of half an hour on the situation in Syria? Stop putting Uncle Toms like Ilan Pappe and Antony Loewenstein on your program. Let some people who speak for the mainstream, either Left or Right, both of which support peaceful evolution of the Middle East, appear on your program."

(Hat tip: reader Ian)