"If You Only Look At Israel Through The Prism Of The Palestinian Conflict You Don't Understand Israel [and] Its Motivations": BBC Man (video)

Like colleague Jeremy Bowen before him, the BBC's Paul Danahar has written a book in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring.  A few days ago he spoke to an audience at the left-leaning journalistic Frontline Club in London about his impressions of "the new Middle East" and afterwards answered questions from the floor.

Naturally, the talk focused largely on Egypt and Syria, but inevitably Israel was mentioned at some length, notably from about 27:47 when Danahar was invited to discuss "the impact of all this change on Israel" and then en passant at about 1:07, 13:03, 47:00, and right at the end of this 82-minute video.

Knowing that, as the BBC's Middle East Bureau chief, Danahar (who's now moved from Jerusalem to Washington) has sometimes evinced that bias against Israel which characterises the BBC, I was prepared for the worst, but (praise where it's due) I was pleasantly surprised.  Unlike the pedestrian Jeremy Bowen, Danahar obviously possesses an incisive mind, and, again unlike Bowen, he made what appeared to be a genuine attempt to be fair.  He noted that Israel is "genuinely nervous and has got genuine reasons why it's nervous," observed that Israel is (unfortunate phrase, this) "not a bunch of Europeans plonked" in the region but in many respects strongly Middle Eastern, and that in his book he tries to show readers aspects of this "very very interesting country" that go beyond the one that's usually presented.

See what you make of it!