Llewellyn On The Lobby & Loewenstein On The Laxative: Pushing A One-State Solution At London's Frontline Club

Antony Loewenstein (see my previous post) participated in a session of London's Frontline Club. a fiercely leftist journalistic outfit that frequently bashes Israel, and which in consequence has featured on this blog several times. As Loewenstein enthuses on his blog (which has photos of the event) he found "a refreshingly young audience".

The session, on the subject of a one-state solution, was chaired by an ex-BBC Middle East correspondent, Tim Llewellyn (as I've observed before, certain current Al Beeb employees, notably Jeremy Bowen, have participated in Club events despite their obligation to be neutral).

Llewellyn's antipathy towards Israel is long-established.  To quote a post from CiF Watch earlier this year, for example:

'There was also a letter by Tim Llewellyn, the former BBC Middle East correspondent who has advanced the idea, not least in the Guardian, that the BBC is tainted by pro-Israel bias. He is also an advocate for Hamas and Hizbollah, believes that Zionism is a “calamity”, and has occasionally written obituaries for terrorists in the Guardian.

Here’s the winning passage from his Guardian letter:

What is more sinister than the reactions of Israel’s representatives and placemen to Jenny Tonge is that, in this third intervention against her over her candid remarks in recent years, the leaders of the Lib Dems, encouraged by senior figures in the two other main political parties, have disempowered a British parliamentarian under pressure from the backers of a foreign state – Israel. '

The bias of the Frontline Club can be seen in the fact that, to quote an enthusiastic attendee, Nigel Wilson, who notes on the Club's website that, before a "buzzing sell-out crowd," "the debate opened with a panel-wide wave of support for the single state solution."

Wilson tells us that

'Tim Llewellyn stressed the power of the Israel lobby in the West and argued that this has led to a tame approach from press outlets.

"If you read the best newspapers in the West, we don’t attack the problem in Palestine the way we attack the problem in the Arab world. We should be exposing this."'

Wilson also writes, inter alia: 

"Australian journalist Antony Loewenstein sprinkled a touch of humour to make a serious point, stressing the need for the Jewish community to adapt to modern reality. 

“The Jewish community establishment is so constipated, knowingly constipated about this question. And until there is a laxative used, forcefully… until there is an understanding that the Jewish community in the US, the UK and Australia has allowed the situation to continue. The establishment needs to realise that by backing blindly what they’ve done for 60 years, they have contributed a view that Judaism and Zionism are the same thing. And they’re not.”

Dismissing the long held idea of a Jewish state in the Middle East, journalist Ahmed Moor argued.

“While the idea of Jewish statehood could be somehow workable on the moon, to the extent that it’s got to occur in Palestine and to the exclusion of Palestinians or whomever, well that’s unworkable. There’s no good argument for that.”

Hat tip: reader Shirlee

With the BBC's Connivance, Fledgling Journalists Are Fed The Anti-American Line

On 27 June John Pilger gave his sold-out talk at the Frontline Club, which as I mentioned here was promoted by the BBC's College of Journalism (CoJo).

Pilger began by explaining how and why he first departed Australia's shores, recalling that he left for Europe on the return voyage of one of the passenger ships that, during the immediate postwar decades when "Populate or Perish" was the country's watchword, had brought Italians and Greeks to Australia.

(It's quite true, as he implies in passing, that Australia had hitherto preferred northern Europeans, especially Britons, as immigrants; this antisemitic cartoon, which appeared in 1947 in the Sydney Bulletin, shows Holocaust survivors being welcomed by Immigration Minister Arthur Calwell, apparently depicted as their Pied Piper.)

At the Frontline Club, as seen here,  John Pilger, that legend in each lefty's lifetime, seems to have wowed his audience with his reminiscences, film clips, demonisation of the United States, and advice.

Towards the very end of the video, in response to a question by a young woman regarding Syria, he declares:

"No peace will happen in any of the countries of the Middle East ... until Palestine gets the justice that is due to it, that is the central, almost, the cockpit of Middle East difficulties, problems, injustices and so on ..."

And just afterwards the final questioner, novelist James Thackara, asks him:

"Can I ask you to say what you really think of America? ... How bad is it? How bad will it get? And can it be contained?"  

This unleashes an amplification of the evening's underlying anti-American theme: condemnation of "rapacious America" and its foreign policy, its influence on the foreign policies of other western powers, and the observation that he feels lucky not to have been "blown to bits" owing to nuclear America's stance during the Cold War... 

Thus, with CoJo's connivance, are fledgling journalists indoctrinated.

Unabashedly Plugging Pilger: The BBC flaunts its bias

"[E]xiled and despairing" is how the BBC website described the Palestinians in the caption to one of the cartoons in a slideshow in this set, and that value judgment informs most of the British national broadcaster's output relating to the Arab-Israeli dispute.

Indeed, despite a (rare) rap over the knuckles from the BBC Trust for bias on the part of its Middle East editor (who remained defiant) in 2009, the BBC, with honorable exceptions among its reporting team,  has carried on regardless.

After all, like the senior BBC figure (author of a book on the PLO) who wrote this article decrying the Trust's verdict, the present head of the Trust has a background of overt partisanship with the Palestinian cause.

Al Beeb's leftist anti-Western mindset (of the type identified by David Pryce-Jones, whom I've quoted in the preceding post), which informs its view of the Palestinians vis-à-vis Israel, and of the world in general, pervades the BBC's College of Journalism (CoJo), which is (to quote its website)

"part of the BBC Academy, oversees training for the BBC’s entire editorial staff.

This website focuses on best practice in core editorial skills, and offers an overview of specialist areas as well as legal and ethical issues.

It is a site about BBC journalism for BBC journalists, but is available to everyone."

On the CoJo website there are earnest, self-righteous, and self-indulgent sections on a number of themes, all for the edification of novice or intending journalists.  A sturdy leftist strand dominates, and is evident in the accordance of guest posts (guest posters are a privileged group indeed, for most of the posts appear to come in-house, and there appear to be none that reflect a rightwing perspective).

There's a curious spin on the subject of impartiality (which by the terms of its Charter and Producers' Guidelines the BBC is obligated to manifest but palpably does not).  In fact the section is risible, indeed seemingly delusional, since the BBC does not present all sides of all issues, and effectively censors developments that do not fit its leftist, politically correct agenda by omitting to report them (certain race hate crimes are a notable case in point):

'Impartiality is one of the hallmarks of the BBC’s journalism.... 

Impartiality is also a matter of trust.

Impartiality is not the same as objectivity or balance or neutrality, although it contains elements of all three. Nor is it the same as simply being fair – although it is unlikely you will be impartial without being fair-minded. At its simplest it means not taking sides.

Impartiality is about providing a breadth of view....

Impartiality is about enabling the national debate – assuring that people, over time or the course of a debate, will hear all significant opinions and have access to the information they need to make an informed choice....

Audiences turn to the BBC to help them to make sense of events through disinterested analysis and by hearing a range of relevant facts, views and opinions....

 Reporting around the world

Being an impartial witness to events does not mean being mealy mouthed about them. Due impartiality does not require absolute neutrality on every issue or detachment from fundamental democratic values....

Some stories, such as with wars or election campaigns, unfold over weeks or months. It’s the responsibility of the editor in charge of a particular section of output to ensure that over time all significant and relevant voices have been heard. '

The BBC's political bias is clearly discernible in  the cosy relationship it enjoys with the journalistic Frontline Club, which is well left of centre, a fact that shows in the topics it presents for discussion, and the discussants it selects.  See here for its past events concerning Israel: they are in content and personnel notably pro-Palestinian.  In fact, many appear to demonise Israel in the way that Amnesty International does.

As I've remarked before:

"BBC employees have been judges on journalistic awards given out by Amnesty International (a controversial organisation these days, and certainly one not particularly enamoured of Israel).  Even if the BBC employees concerned have the best of motives, in my view this involvement is not in keeping with impartiality."

And BBC employees, such as Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, appear as guests of the Frontline Club.

Later this month, John Pilger will be addressing the Club on the topic "Reflections".  But the Club is not his sole host.  Its website reports of the fully-booked event:

"In association with BBC College of Journalism

Renowned investigative journalist, author and documentary film-maker John Pilger will be joining us in conversation with broadcaster, journalist and writer Charles Glass to look back on half a century of reporting from around the world....."

Pilger's longstanding hostility towards Israel is notorious.  This is the man who, for instance, declared in an execrable piece in the Daily Mirror a couple of years ago:

"Is Israel now a rogue state? ....

 Like so much of the language that journalists use about Israel, ever frightened of being called anti-Semitic, “rogue” is soft. Israel is a criminal state."

The Frontline Club can invite Pilger, or whoever else it pleases.

But that the BBC is sponsoring a talk by such a demoniser of Israel, so partisan an individual, is reprehensible.

That the BBC gets away with such conduct is more reprehensible still.

Negative Reports Bring Negative Results. Yet, “Impartiality – something that interests me greatly” says the BBC’s Middle East editor!

A member of an Israeli medical team in Sri Lanka

The BBC World Service asked people in 27 countries their opinion of 16 nations: “Please tell me if you think each of the following countries is having a mainly positive or mainly negative influence in the world?”

The 27 countries from which answers came were: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States.

The 16 nations selected for appraisal naturally included the one that’s subject to Al Beeb’s scrutiny night and day, year-in, year-out, and here, in descending order of popularity, are the results: Germany, UK, Japan, Canada, France, USA, Brazil, China, South Africa, India, South Korea, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, North Korea, Iran.

To quote the pollsters: “While overall views of Israel have not moved substantially over the past year, there have been significant increases in negative views of the country among Americans (negatives rising from 31% to 41%) and Britons (from 50%  to 66%)” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/05_03_11_bbcws_country_poll.pdf

Yep, folks, the demonization of Israel in which the BBC is a master, both at home and abroad, is doing its nefarious work.

Imagine how different things could be – if the BBC (and other influential media outlets) would carry reports on the technological and medical breakthroughs that happen in Israel, and on the humanitarian initiatives that the world so rarely gets to see. There are no lack of videos in the latter area alone: http://www.youtube.com/user/IsraelMFA#g/c/DC43001A3FBF67DA

Meanwhile, a video has recently surfaced, in which Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, whose slanted reports and biased commentaries on the BBC News website (where they can, of course, be read all over the world) have undoubtedly had an impact on the public attitudes leading to the poll results –  has expressed his interest in impartiality, to which as a BBC reporter he has "to cleave" (but doesn't)!

I venture to suggest that Jezza has not half as much interest in "impartiality" as do hapless BBC licence-payers, who wonder how it is that Al Beeb’s Middle East editor can get away with flouting impartiality rules again and again, and how it is that he (and Al Beeb’s College of Journalism cronies) are permitted by their employer to regularly appear before the Frontline Club, a brazenly leftist journalistic outfit.

In this video Jezza interviews the execrable anti-Israel, anti-Western reporter Robert Fisk, of The Independent newspaper, to whom he makes the above comment. He also tells Fisk that he considers him “a great reporter of what goes on there” ( the Middle East). Fortunately, these comments – the one so risible, the other so partisan – occur towards the beginning of the video, which contains much wind-baggery from Fisk (who's plugging a book he wrote) and Fisk's inevitable mockery of the roles of Britain and the United States in the Middle East as well as his equally inevitable denunciations of Israel. 

And if you’re in masochistic mood and would like to see an interview with Jezza himself at the Frontline Club, you’re in luck: http://www.bbc.co.uk/journalism/blog/2009/09/reflections-with-jeremy-bowen.shtml

Snow Business Like Shmo Business – Jon Snow treads the boards with Gideon Levy

If, like me, you’re owned by a cat or dog, chances are that you associate Frontline with a veterinary product which with super-efficiency zaps fleas and tapeworms. However, for metropolitan champagne socialists, whether scribes or non-scribes, Frontline is just as likely to signify the Frontline Club, motto: “Championing Independent Journalism”. The club seems particularly fond of inviting as speakers journalists known for their harsh criticism of Israel – inevitably, therefore, Jeremy Bowen of the BBC and Jon Snow of Channel 4 have both featured on its guest list. (Al Beeb’s College of Journalism website has links to both resultant videos – funny about that, eh?)  And not only journalists – Frontline also hosted, on one inglorious occasion, that professorial trio of Jewish Israel-loathers Jacqueline Rose, Shlomo Sand, and Avi Shlaim.

It’s been said of Bowen that he comes across as a thwarted thespian, but I reckon that it’s Snow who’s the actor manqué. Yes, he really ought to be in show business, did histrionic Jon. Authoritative voice raised in pompous indignation, arms flailing to emphasise a point, the well-connected university drop-out (actually, he was rusticated when his leftist political activism went too far ) who admits to getting his start as a television reporter owing to nepotism, has almost become a pastiche of himself. A few years ago, around Remembrance Day, with the dismissive phrase “poppy fascism”, he announced his refusal to conform to etiquette (some might say "decency") and wear a British Legion poppy in honour of Britain’s fallen service personnel – the people who gave their lives so that democracy and free speech might endure. His hammiest performances have included shouting in self-righteous anger at Israeli media spokesman Mark Regev regarding Cast Lead and the Mavi Marmara affair, performances that reinforced Snow’s cult status in anti-Israel circles and made him the darling of those hateful types who post nasty judeophobic messages on YouTube whenever a video of Regev appears there.

Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist writing for Ha’aretz, where he has a column called “Twilight Zone”, is of a decidedly thespian disposition too. He’s an assured and accomplished speaker with a flair for the dramatic and an instinct for working an audience that many a budding actor at RADA would envy. A “hate-mongering post-Zionist” is the veteran international Jewish leader Isi Leibler's assessment of him (Jerusalem Post, 8 December 2008).  Levy demonises his own country, saying how ashamed he is to be Israeli, how brutal and indifferent to human suffering his countrymen are, and how he appreciates the boycott movement – all the usual obscenities and maybe a little bit more. Here’s how Leibler described him more recently: http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=2359

'For those who are unaware, Levy is regarded as one of the most extreme and outspoken of the Israeli anti-Zionist journalists, notorious for demonizing Israel and supporting the most anti-Israeli groups. He repeatedly brackets Israeli behavior with that of the Nazis, accuses Israel of practicing apartheid and committing war crimes, and defines himself as anti-Zionist. He accuses Meretz, Peace Now and others on the far left in Israel of lacking the courage to open "the 1948 file."'

Levy came Britain to appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and to promote his tome The Punishment of Gaza, an anthology of his Ha’aretz screeds, and he’s had plenty of opportunities to do so outside the Scottish capital, and to carry on the task of spreading hate against Israel, having (to quote Snow) “played to packed houses at last minute events in both Manchester and London”.

This evening both Snow (as interviewer) and Levy (as speaker) are appearing before the Frontline Club, reprising the roles that they filled last evening when they appeared, at the premises of Amnesty International UK's Human Rights Action Centre and under the auspices of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Jews for Justice for Palestinians (a motley collection of idealistic naive Jews, hard left Jews, as-a-Jews, and conveniently-for-the-purpose-of-bashing-Israel-halachic-but-not-raised-as-Jews/practising-a-religion-other-than-Judaism-Jews [delete as appropriate]). Seeing the 350 persons present (who judging from their questions proved in the main to be every bit as hostile to Israel as the speaker himself ), Levy wryly remarked "No-one would show up if I spoke in Tel Aviv", and then launched into his usual charm offensive and demonisation of Israel and its (Jewish) inhabitants.

Snow made it easy for him, gushing “How brave you are!” and being – in the words of a pro-Israeli present, one of the few people in the audience to pose a tough question – “cloyingly obsequious” and an "unctuous sycophant".

And in his Snowblog posted this morning, headed “An increasingly lone Israeli voice”, Snow continues his adulation of Levy, appearing to have swallowed his canards hook, line, and sinker. Just as well, then, that better informed voices, such as those of Jonathan Hoffman and Yisrael Medad, have been commenting over on that blog to set the record straight.
http://blogs.channel4.com/snowblog/an-increasingly-lone-israeli-voice/13494#comment-21856