British Broadcasting's Mr Pompous Diagnoses "Humankind's Most Grievous Cancer"

Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow (for more on the 2013 event shown in the video see here), he of the  repellently pompous manner and the noisome habit of addressing the ever-courteous Mark Regev as if the latter is a prisoner in the dock of a criminal court, has been pontificating about the current situation in Gaza, to which he paid a visit.  (See here and here)

Among the inevitable and numerous Israel-demonising comments his Snowblog here has garnered, such as

Israel is officially indefensible, regardless of the history of the Jewish people.

The suggestion that the abused often become the abusers has never been more obvious than it is right now.

there are very occasional voices of reason:

Dear Readers,

 Have any of you taken a tour of Syria, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, and Egypt lately? Because the anarchy in those Countries is what you advocate that we accept in Israel. Could Jon have taken his comfortable BA flight out of Syria, Iraq, Sudan, or Libya? No, because ISRAEL is the ONLY Country in this locale, that is NOT in total Chaos.

 Hamas has sworn to annihilate Israel. Instead of helping the people of Gaza, for 9 years they have amassed rockets to shoot at Israel, diverting all available funds for that purpose. You hold Hamas out as a viable partner in peace? No, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, and ISIS have all vowed to wipe Israel off the map. Living is a better option than peace after annihilation.

and

‘Two peoples living in an area far smaller than England, one of which besieges the other, both of which target each other’s civilians.’

Ah! Who besieges whom, Jon, in this one-way street (of your making)? Jon Snow over a barrel (head buried in a sand tunnel?). A most mysteriously evasive and uneven-handed statement, but one thing’s for sure: it wouldn’t cut it with the author of C4′s beloved Masters of War, who also wrote Neighborhood Bully:
Well, the neighborhood bully, he’s just one man
 His enemies say he’s on their land
 They got him outnumbered about a million to one
 He got no place to escape to, no place to run
 He’s the neighborhood bully

 A Tweet (Pat Condell) says you are virtually Hamas’s new spokesman. But you gotta love Yigal Palmor’s Tweet about you, which whips your game-of-drones (and hectoring-and- lecturing) butt 7-1: ‘You don’t know anything Jon Snow’

 Except how to panda to Hamas propaganda, media manipulation, international emotional blackmail and (your own) bad spelling, bad logic and poor grasp of the nature of Islamist extremism.

Most of the people raving about your wonderful journalism have Arabic names, but a good journalist actually LISTENS and is able to do two-way conversation. But you are a one-way tunnel. Palmor had very clearly already admitted the school hit could have been Israeli ‘response fire’ when you sanctimoniously accused him of having left that out of the possibilities. Now did anyone with an Arabic name point that out to you? Ironically, Al Jazeera had already suggested the hit could have been from Hamas. Perhaps Al Jazeera is more biased than C4?

and

'I find you also have to see the conflict in a far bigger, historically and politically, picture – in the picture of the beginning under the British mandate, the following first years of the lonely Israeli state who tried to defend its existence and the growing radicalism of islamic groups in various countries and their leaders who all have their own interests to have this soup simmering endlessly.

 To avoid inner conflicts like democratization of their own societies, to avoid moving in the end and instead fueling on and on antijudaism.'

In the blog Snow pontificates that the Israel-Palestinian conflict

“is humankind’s most grievous cancer, for its cells infect conflicts in every corner of the world".

This fallacious claim reminds me of some rather good points author and US State Department adviser Jared Cohen made during Operation Cast Lead:

'At times, I have remarked to friends that the further one goes from the epicenter of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the angrier people seem to be about it....Why are Bangladeshi and Pakistani immigrants living in the UK angrier about the Arab-Israeli conflict than events in their home countries or the integration and inclusion challenges that more directly affect them? ....

How does one account for the double standards, inconsistencies, and lack of similar activism around local issues that are illustrated by these questions? There is no single answer, but perhaps certain trends and contexts that help explain the phenomenon. The media is an obvious starting point. Al-Jazeera, Al-Manar, and other Arab media outlets are flooding the airwaves throughout Muslim communities with images from Gaza and the West Bank. The media plays on identity presenting these images to touch the hearts and minds of Muslims and non-Muslims throughout the world. ...

The barrage of images in the media, particularly during a period of fighting, ensures that the Arab-Israeli conflict is at the forefront of people's minds. There is no shortage of entities that seek to exploit this. Governments like Syria and Iran face serious economic, political, and social challenges at home. Fearing that any of these vulnerabilities could catalyze rebellion, insurrection, or protest, these regimes employ corrupt, autocratic, and repressive tactics to deprive their populations of rights and opportunities to mount any serious challenge, including a viciously controlled media. It is not surprising that these regimes view the Arab-Israeli conflict as an opportune issue that can divert attention away from their domestic shortcomings. The repressive leadership of these countries actively distract from their domestic deficiencies by pushing their population to focus anger, frustration and rage externally....

Where States do not stoke the organically felt sentiments in Muslim communities, non-state entities play the role of flame-thrower, agitator, and mobilizer on what they view as a winning issue. In places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Indonesia, groups like Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and Jamaa Islamiyya use the global outcry in ungoverned spaces, urban slums, and impoverished rural areas to piggy-back on the emotion and recruit new members. They care not for the Palestinian people, nor do they advocate a peaceful solution; their sole interest is in seizing an opportunity for exploitative recruitment.

An amplified global outcry has led to a misperception that all the world's problems will be solved if the Arab-Israeli conflict is resolved. While this would be a tremendous achievement that would allow the world to move forward beyond a conflict that has perpetuated for decades, it is not the silver bullet solution. A Palestinian state will not create jobs in North Africa, it will not reduce poverty in South Asia, and it will not help Muslims in Europe integrate. By making the Arab-Israeli conflict a lynchpin for all the world's problems, we only fuel an inclination to use Israel and Palestine as the scapegoat for unrelated and local challenges across the developing world.'

 Malmo:

Montreal:

Regarding the possible impact on Al Beeb of protests see here 

Click here for Israel's ambassor to the USA, Ron Dermer, reminding CNN of its responsibility to report on Hamas's seminal role in the agony of Gaza.