Explaining BBC "neutrality".

It is no consequence that the BBC is often lauded as the best news source on the globe. It is the BBC's organizational structure which derives so much respect for the station all over the world, portraying the BBC as a publicly funded network, independent of the government.

The BBC is funded by the tax payer through TV licensing and Foreign Office funds. According to Wikipedia, "The licence fee represents approximately 75% of the BBC's income with most of the rest coming from the sale of its programming overseas and other business allied to broadcasting such as publishing."

The BBC has to justify receiving public funding, and showing (or pretending to show) neutrality its a primary way of doing so. Failing to do so jeopardizes their justification for charging the British public a TV licensing fee. If BBC bias is brought to widespread public attention, they would face extreme difficulty in procuring continued funds from the public. This is why the BBC spent £200,000 of Tax Payers money to quash independent reports of anti-Israel bias.

This is elaborated by BBC Watch's home page statement:

...the BBC consistently fails to adhere to its legal obligations to produce impartial and accurate reporting. Our systematic, objective and rigorous research points to the firm conclusion that the BBC frequently displays marked and consistent pro-Palestinian bias...

If the BBC were to provide a pro-Hamas charity with free advertising space, it would run the risk of being too anti-Israel to justify its public funding. Furthermore, as a result of not allowing this advertisement, the BBC is enjoying being publicly lambasted by pro-Hamas activists all over the country. Such complaints act as a counterweight against reports showing its consistent anti-Israel bias, and are therefore awarding the BBC with an illusion of neutrality and help justify its continued use of public funds.

On another note...

Israel is still being attacked by Hamas - but the world is silent. The message: Israel can be attacked, but must not fight back.

What is to come unless things change - Malmo, Sweden

On Israelly Cool's website, I can across a rather disturbing video of what happened in Malmo, Sweden on January 25, 2009. It was on this day that a peaceful demonstration of support for Israel was interrupted by a violence mob of Arabs who threw rotten eggs, glass bottles, rocks, and even rockets/fireworks at the peaceful lovers of Zion. The peaceful supporters of Israel had a permit to demonstrate, and the violent rocket throwing Arabs did not have such a permit. In response, the police dispersed the entire crowd, including the peaceful and permit-carrying supporters of Israel, shutting down the demonstration. The heckler's veto won, and silenced the force of good in this world. There was of course no condemnation of what happened, and silence in the world media. Likely many in the media believe the peaceful Jews "had it coming" by "daring" to simply show support for the one state in the Middle East which believes in human rights. Or maybe they had it coming by "daring" to be Jews at all. Please see the video yourself to see what hysterical moral relativism and postmodern ideas disbelieving a "right" and a "wrong" exist will ultimately result in. This is where America is heading unless things change.

In response to those who believe the BBC is being 'unfair' in refusing to air a video calling for aid to Hamas...

The BBC recently announced it will not air a commercial asking for aid money to be sent to Hamas. In response - as you can imagine, shoes were thrown at the BBC, and all sorts of claims of 'human rights violations' were screamed about.

The BBC is a cesspool of anti-Israel sentiment, yet it happened to do one right thing in refusing to air a call for funding Hamas. That's about the only thing to say. This action does not mean the BBC suddenly has become a pro-Israel institution.

The reality is that the "appeal for aid" was an appeal to fund Hamas, and nothing less. The BBC, for once, decided it has principles (I know, shocking!) and does not want to air an ad requesting funds to go to a jihadist terror organization.

Anyone who thinks this is a "human rights violation" or that the BBC is being unfair should ask themselves why exactly appeals for aid to Hamas should be aired on the BBC. I will ask a follow up: should the BBC air appeals to aid for Al Queda? At what point do they have even a minimal responsibility to protect the public? Or should the BBC air every terrorist propoganda video on earth, and/or every video on earth calling for aid to terror organizations?

Given the history of the BBC's craven capitulation to jihad, I expect they will cave on this soon, and air a commercial asking for aid to be sent to Hamas. I find the whole thing pathetic, that people have the shocking gall to believe this renders the BBC somehow biased in favor of Israel. The reality is that this means is that the BBC has at least a tiny vestige of principles left, but nothing more. It should be a given that it is wrong to air an appeal to aid a jihadist terror organization.

As an aside, here is a link to an article which discusses money from a UK Islamic 'aid' society going to Hamas.

UPDATE: This is a must read article which details exactly why the BBC is right - for once - in its refusal to air the disgusting "appeal to aid" for Hamas.

Here is an excerpt:

Who adjudicates on which victims to support via such charitable aid - and according to whose political morality? Why did the BBC not launch an appeal for the victims of collateral damage during Nato's bombing of Serbia in 1999 during the Kosovo campaign? And had it done so, would it have given money to ethnic Serbs as well as to Kosovars and Bosnian Muslims, all of whom were “cleansed” during the Balkan wars of that decade? What about the victims of insurgencies and counter- insurgencies in Sri Lanka, Kashmir, Chechnya or Georgia? Or Israeli victims of the next Hamas suicide attack? Indeed, what about the Palestinian victims of Hamas's hideous human rights abuses, still so shamefully under-reported by the British media as a whole?

And who are these supposedly impartial charities who are attacking Mr Thompson's (albeit belated) attempt to uphold the Corporation's traditional standards? While groups such as the British Red Cross and Christian Aid are generally impartial in other areas of the world, that cannot be said to apply to their role in the Israeli-Palestinian struggle, where they regularly view the conflict through a deeply partisan lens.

In the months prior to the decision by Hamas to end the six-month ceasefire and resume rocket attacks, these charities issued a flood of one- sided denunciations aimed at Israel. Their campaign repeated tendentious and often highly inaccurate terms such as “collective punishment” and “violation of international law”. On March 6, 2008, CARE International, Cafod, Christian Aid and Oxfam (among others) published a widely quoted report under the headline “The Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion”. The authors did not bother to hide their political bias against Israel, repeating standard Palestinian political rhetoric and including claims that Israeli policy “constitutes a collective punishment against ordinary men, women and children” and is “illegal under international humanitarian law”.

Read it all.

Ceasefire Hopes

Hamas supporters are in celebration that Israel has announced a cease-fire as Hamas continues to fire at Israeli civilian centers. Is everything that simple, or is the Israeli government using a card up its sleeve?

Consider the protests around the world defending Hamas and demanding a ceasefire. Their voices have been so loud. Imagine how impotent their voices will become if and when Hamas continues to fire at Israeli civilians after Israel announces a unilateral cease fire.

If Hamas continues to attack Israeli civilians, how long will Israelis allow that to happen before they demand military actions to resume? If the Israeli government is wise, this ceasefire will give Hamas two options.

1. Continue to attack Israelis, and invite reprisals.
2. Stop attacking Israel. (This may be the best solution to prevent Fatah taking power.)

Time will tell.

What are your thoughts?

A brief history of the conflict between Israel and the Arabs

This post has been inspired by a column I read on Gay Conservative Liberal's website. He believed there must be a reason Israel is hated, because it is hated so much! This is what I replied to him in a comment...

You are far off the mark in this one. Think of it this way. Six million Jews died in the Holocaust. According to you, there "must have been a reason." You fail to realize some people hate just because they are taught to hate from birth. That is the only reason, and the reason why we have an intractable problem with regards to the Israeli Arab conflict.A longer time frame of the conflict can be found on the Myths and Facts website.

To give you a long story short: there have been pogroms and attacks against Jews for thousands of years. But specifically, these attacks increased during the 20th century, under the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. After the Holocaust, Israel was offered a state, as were the Palestinians, by the UN. The Palestinians, under the Mufti (who was an architect for Hitler's Final Solution), rejected the partition plan. This plan was to have an Israel on land which was majority Jewish due to immigration before and after the Holcaust.

Instead of accepting this state, the Palestinians (a people which did not exist at the time, and are not a seperate ethnicity from Jordanians any more than New Yorkers or New Jerseyians are seperate ethnicities) waged war upon Israel, and attempted a genocide after the Holocaust...and lost. Prior to the Israeli Arab conflict, 'refugees' were not defined as people who are part of a group that attempted a genocide and then lost.

Since 1948 (the founding of the state), the Palestinians and Arabs in general have refused to accept any state of Israel on any land at all. Instead, there has been constant terror attacks against Israel.

In 1967, there was an attempted annihilation of Israel, which was defeated in the Six Day War. This is how Israel won the Sinai, Judea and Samaria, and Gaza. In response, Israel attempted to give this land - won in a defensive war - back. All they wanted was peace and recognition. Instead, in Khartoum, they got the famous "three Nos" - no peace, no recognition, no negotiations. source Since then, the jihad has not ceased. The 'two state solution' was proposed first in Oslo, only to find out that Arafat did not truly intend two states - he wanted jihad. (Abbas has not proven different) And Hamas is even further radical.The past eight years have witnessed eight years of rockets against Israel, and nary a response. Finally Israel is defending itself, and doing so in the most pinpointed way possible.

I say this war is not only justified, but necessary. If Israel does not go after Hamas in Gaza, and fails to defend the South of Israel, they lose all right to call themselves a state. The primary duty of a state is to defend its citizens.

To sum up, if you want to know the root of this conflict, read about the history of jihad. That is what this conflict is about.

As an aside, for gay reasons to support Israel, I highly suggest you read the attached link, which discusses why it is the gay thing to do to support Israel!

My reply to those who do not believe Hamas uses human shields

Somehow the fact that 'Palestinians' use human shields does not sink in for everyone. So I will supply yet more links:

Video 1: video evidence of Hamas using human shields

Video 2: Hamas TV officially calls on children to be human shields

Link 3: Human Rights Watch (an organization extremely biased against Israel) nonetheless wrote of the extensive use of human shields, including human shields who voluntarily try to become 'shahids,' aka, martyrs.

link right here

Link 4: Hamas themselves discuss the use of human shields

To those who still doubt the use of human shields, I believe I have presented irrefutable proof they in fact do exist. To claim that Israel should give up and commit suicide, rather than fight against jihadists simply because they use human shields, contravenes every norm of international law. It is a biased and offensive double standard against Israel that you do not have against any other nation on earth.

I will go on. Israel uses missile technology which has the capability of changing the missile paths to avoid hitting civilians. a link right here

The IDF does everything it can - far and above what every other nation on earth does - to avoid hitting civilians. There is, as I have said, literally nothing more they can do.

The blood of every single 'civilian' in Gaza is on Hamas's hands. Caleb, if your friend actually cared for the well being of his fellow travellers, he would be anti-Hamas. But he does not care about their well being. He just cares about demonizing Israel.

There have been violent demonstrations against Jews in major cities around the world. It has gotten so bad, that now synagogues are being fire bombed and vandalized. I can assure you there was no equivalent against Muslims after 9/11 - a crime that actually was Islamically perpetrated. I have seen - with my own two eyes - open calls for the mass murder of Jews. In Golders Green, roving gangs attacked Jewish stores. In Chicago, synagogues were defaced with swastikas. On Long Island, a Jewish wedding was interrupted with calls for jihad. In France, by Strasbourg, a synagogue was firebombed. In Antwerp, roving gangs terrorized the Jewish neighborhood. In Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (more Holocaust survivors per capita than anywhere else on earth, outside Israel), there was a call for Jews to be sent to the ovens and for Israel to be nuked.

It has gotten so bad that in NYC, there now is self defense training for Jews, and the start up of a CST-equivalent (CST is a volunteer security service for Jews in the UK). Many people appear to not care or recognize these attacks, but I am deeply troubled. I have had the displeasure of personally seeing a Hamas rally and calls for the annihilation of Israel. This rally went violent. I went to a rally for Israel, and it was all about how Israel wants peace.

To claim a moral equivalence between the two is ludicrous and offensive and strips morality of all meaning.

Getting things straight.

I recently wrote a response to Lisa Goldman, which I present here for the record and for your consideration.

Let me correct a glaring mistake in this article.

Doing [half a] job and not eliminating Hamas, will strengthen the extremists. Therefore if we go with the advice advocated in this article, we would end up strengthening Hamas.

Doing a full job and eliminating Hamas, will eliminate the extremists ability to act - and therefore weaken them operationally. Anyone who doesn’t think that eliminating the operational capacity of an openly genocidal terrorist network is a positive thing needs to check themselves into a ward.

The article demands “an immediate and permanent ceasefire”, but if we have an immediate ceasefire it will not be permanent. Hamas has no interest in ceasing in its goals of annihilating Israel. Any declared ceasefire will only be bound to Israel. Advocating this immediate ceasefire is simply an attempt to limit Israel’s ability to act against Hamas and will enable Hamas to grow in strength. Furthermore, calling for an immediate ceasefire at this point shows complete hypocracy. Where was this call while Hamas was repeatedly firing at Israeli civilians? It was nowhere.

I also want to mark out the elephant: this article equates Israeli and Palestinian deaths - not noting the fact that Hamas instigated this round of fighting by attacking Israeli civilians, not noting the fact that Hamas is an opnely genocidal terrorist network, and not noting that Israel may have made history in its efforts to avoid civilian casualties through its warning of population centers of attack through leafleting and the phone (despite the fact this alerts Hamas to Israeli targets), and its utilization of precision attacks that reduce collateral damage as much as humanly possible.

I look at loss of life as a terrible thing, however I understand quite clearly that responsibility for lost life on all sides rests with Hamas as demonstrated by their refusal to distinguish their forces from any non-combatants, their refusal to renounce their [founding] exterminationist charter, and their constant attacks which coincide with their exterminationist agenda… for starters.

Lisa Goldman, by advocating that Israel stop military efforts in Gaza you are leading Israel towards being a failed state - for what is a nation that is unable to defend its own people?

Ps. Where is the letter addressed to Hamas?

Answer: "Of course there is no letter addressed to Hamas because we are hypocrites."

Red, naturally, beat me to the punch though.

Here is her response to the same article.

This letter shows a deep lack of understanding of the conflict, as well as international law. Lisa, you need to do more research before espousing this belief *which harms Am Yisrael.* I know for a fact that you already have had a negative influence upon Sandmonkey.

Now, let’s get to the facts. Firstly, Hamas refuses any offer of a ‘ceasefire.’ Secondly, should Hamas accept a UN-imposed ‘ceasefire,’ they would ironically not be bound by it according to international law. I am an attorney, but any common sense person would realize that the UN can only ‘bind’ (to the extent they bind!) MEMBER STATES. Hamas is not a member state! As such, a ‘ceasefire’ would only mean what it has meant since the dawn of the conflict: we cease, they fire.

Lisa, you appear to believe in ‘negotiations.’ I recently went to a Hamas rally (counter-demonstrated) where genocidal chants were said. Do you not know the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict, wherein ‘negotiations’ have only led to hudnas with the Palestinians - i.e., reloading. Why do you want to impose such a horror upon the people of Sderot and Southern Israel? Honestly, what are you thinking? Are you even thinking?

Finally, I realize the people of Gaza are suffering. Yet it is a self-induced trauma. The Palestinians receive more aid per capita than anyone else on earth. Yet they continue to suffer because Hamas squanders this aid on guns and bombs. There are hundreds of tunnels between Gaza, Israel, and Egypt. Yet these tunnels are not used for food smuggling, but rather solely weapons smuggling. This shows the priorities of Hamas. Furthermore, as you must know, 100% of all deaths in Gaza are Hamas’s fault. They started this war and are firing from civilian locations and using women and children as human shields. Moreover, there even have been cases of women and children running to be ’shahids.’

Israel has every right to defend itself, and yet you, as an Israeli, are waging a public relations campaign against your very country in this hour of need. Shonda, is all I can say.

In short, short, your support for this letter, as well as your previous article, deeply disappoint me. They show me that you are not the interesting and informative writer I thought you were. I used to be a big fan, and now I am not. With the past two columns, I see you are part of the problem.

Since I am not going to bother checking any responses at Lisa's blog, feel free to respond here.

Objectively, worse than the Nazis.

No, I am not just throwing around the word Nazi for effect - lets look at this objectively.

While the NSDAP (Nazi Party) did not make the extermination of worldwide Jewry a founding principle, Hamas has. Hamas is an organisation that openly declares its intention to wipe out the Jewish people all over the world, and they made this intention clear in their founding charter.

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.

The Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to the realisation of Allah's promise, no matter how long that should take. The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said:

"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).

Read the full charter. Read more about Hamas.

This founding decoration is objectively worse than the Nazis founding documents. Hamas is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, and have ties to Iran - a nation which is also open in its genocidal hatred.

Despite this fact, I am sitting here watching the news coverage on Israel and the Arabs, astounded at how low our media can be in its coverage, presenting Hamas (and the Palestinians who elected Hamas) as victims.

Perhaps I should not be surprised. Hamas may be an openly genocidal, but so are Hezbollah. The mass media did so much to support Hezbollah during 2006, they went past the point of manipulating the news to outright fabrication. Why should I be surprised at the double-standard when we see Ahmadinejad of Iran being invited to present an "Alternative Christmas Message" to the Queen this year?

We can see the hypocracy of people through their double-standards. Notice that there have been no global outcry while Israeli families are being terrorised from barrages of rocket attacks aimed at their towns, cities, schools, hospitals and kindergartens, for years. Notice that right now, there is no talk demanding Sri Lanka halt its operation on the Tamil Tigers, yet Israel is told to stop firing so Hamas can rebuild. These hypocritical double-standards are regularly applied to the Jewish nation.

As far as I am concerned, the way Israel is treated reeks of anti-Semitism. If it makes it any better, I suspect the vast majority of those equating Israel to Hamas, or those calling for Israel to stop defending itself are simply "useful idiots", sheep for the policy makers.

The conflict in Gaza in a nutshell

During the present war between Israel and Hamas, there has been a great deal of misinformation. As such, Culture for All aims to bring you as many FACTS in an easy to understand format as is possible. As such, I thought you, dear readers, would appreciate the following:

1) FACT: Israel did not break the 'ceasefire', rather, there never was a working 'ceasefire.' In November, Israel sent a few missiles to simply go after rocket launchpads in Gaza. Israel did this because Hamas and Islamic jihad were launching rockets, ceaselessly, at Sderot and Southern Israel (over 10,000 since 2001).

2) FACT: Israel operated with both hands tied behind its back for eight years on end, letting about 10,000 rockets get lobbed at Sderot (and making life intolerable for the citizens of Sderot). The country failed in its duty to protect its citizens, and this fact alone made me cynical about the leadership of the Israel. It is the absolute duty and obligation of any country to defend its citizens, which, for eight years Israel was not doing. NOT ONLY did Israel fail to defend the citizens of Sderot for EIGHT YEARS, it was called a 'warmonger' when it took only small steps to eradicate the rocket attacks! Moreover, Israel left Gaza, including leaving greenhouses for the Gaza 'Palestinians' to use to set up an actual economy, and these greenhouses were destroyed in order to use these greenhouses as rocket launch sites. Let me repeat this, just so you have a deeper understanding of exactly how far Israel went to appease 'Palestinians' in the name of 'peace': The IDF went to Gush Katif (the Jewish-run 'settlement' in Gaza) and forced out about 7,500 Jews out of Gaza, all in the name of 'peace.' In response, there was a threefold increase in rockets towards Sderot. Here is a great timeline - well documented - of rockets and statistics from 2005 ('disengagement') to the present day.

3) FACT: Hamas operates its rocket launch sites next to 'civilian' areas on purpose, hoping to maximize their own 'civilian' (and I use the term 'civilian' loosely) casualties, for the world press. By doing this, and by using human meat shields against Israel, it has the blood of all those 'civilians' who have died in Gaza on its hands. Now, you might ask why I use the term 'civilian' loosely. That is because Israel, in my opinion counter-tactically, flies leaflets over areas it intends to bomb, asking 'civilians' to leave. In response, Gaza 'civilians' have actually run to the very bomb targets, hoping they will either prevent the IDF from attacking a military target, or will die as martyrs. As such, these 'civilians' often are not 'civilians' as you and I define the term. A Soldier's Mother writes more of this right here.

Israel goes out of its way to kill as few 'civilians' as they can, even to the point of decreasing their military effectiveness. What army in the world informs their target where they are going in advance? No army but Israel! And yet Israel still gets blamed as killing all these 'civilians'? That only shows the bias of the world press and world governments.

Without exception, the death of every single 'civilian' in Gaza is the fault of Hamas. There would not be a war if Hamas did not send over 10,000 rockets into Southern Israel, with the intent of killing as many ACTUAL Israeli civilians - women and children - as possible. Then, when Israel dares to fight back - after EIGHT YEARS (and making Gaza Jew free in the process) Gaza 'civilians' are used as human shields. As such, every single death - both Israeli and 'Palestinian,' is the fault of Hamas.

4) FACT: There is a distinction between killing and murder. Not all killing is murder, and this has to be understood. Killing someone in self defense is not murder. Killing a baby in cold blood is in fact murder. As such, given every single 'Palestinian' killed by the IDF in Gaza was killed in self defense, none of these deaths were murder. Every single Israeli killed was killed in cold blood - THAT is murder. Moreover, Hamas just murdered 35 'collaborators' (i.e., Fatah members) in Gaza. THAT is murder.

5) FACT: The majority of Gaza 'Palestinians' support jihad against Israel. I am speaking of a majority of these 'Palestinians,' according to public opinion polls, as well as the blatant actions of 'Palestinians.' As a recent example, at least 300,000 Gazan 'Palestinians' recently showed up for a "Death to Israel, Death to America" hate rally in Gaza City. A 'Palestinian' dressed up as Gilad Shalit, the IDF soldier being held prisoner in Gaza, and 300,000 'Palestinians' in the crowd laughed and jeered. That shows a sick and diseased society. The fact that the society is sick and diseased means that you will see such sickness as 'Palestinian' 'civilians' running to be bombed by the IDF, you will see Pallywood productions of fake deaths, you will see bombs/rockets/missiles being launched from schools, you will see children recruited as homicide bombers, and you will see schools/mosques/media besieged by the worst form of hate education.

If you would like to see true 'peace' in the region, the only way for this to happen is for Israel to take over Gaza, throw out Hamas, take over the schools, and send an army of teachers, teaching non-hate education. This will not happen, as Israel has made it clear that this is not the goal of the IDF. As such, the most I am hoping for is for Hamas to be crippled substantially enough that they will not be sending thousands of rockets a year into Sderot, claiming they are abiding by a 'ceasefire.' This is all that I can sadly hope for. 'Peace' is utterly impossible unles the hate education is dismantled, and Israel refuses to do that, as it would require an extreme amount of casualties for it to occur. The 'two state solution' will not accomplish 'peace,' and is dead in practical terms. Meanwhile, the world (specifically, the UN and the 'quartet') continue to fund hate education and villify Israel. Those who think they are being 'generous' and 'open-minded' and think 'both sides are wrong,' do not realize that sometimes there is a right and a wrong.

This is the world we live in. In this world, there is absolute truth and right and wrong, whether people want to acknowledge this or not. When I go to 'pro-Palestinian' demonstrations, I see open calls for the murder of Jews and Israelis. That is wrong. Supporting Israel against the jihadist onslaught is right.

Rally in NYC today by the Israeli Consulate

Below is a link to pictures that I took at the rally for Israel by the Israeli Consulate. This rally, not a counter-protest but an affirmative rally, occurred today in NYC during my lunch hour. It was so crowded, it was very hard to take pictures. At least 3,000 came out to brave the cold. Am Yisrael Chai!

http://picasaweb.google.com/redtulips/RallyByIsraeliConsulateAllProIsraelPeople

There was no significant counter-protest to this, just some random Neturei Karta 'Jews.' It was so wonderful to see the Jewish people united behind a common cause, and speaking out about what is right. This pro-Israel rally, whereby the speakers spoke of how the Palestinians themselves are victims of Hamas, contrasts with what was seen a week ago, with open terror support. Every speaker I heard said how war was not desired, but was simply necessary for self defense. Moreover, none of the other rallies I attended had this level of attendance. I am so proud to be a Jew, a New Yorker, and someone who loves and appreciates humanity itself. The message was so clear: Israel wants peace and security. These are basic needs. Rest assured; the truth WILL win out in the end. And I will continue going to rallies and doing what I can to bring out the truth amidst so many lies.