# 414 BBC & Decent Democracy

BBC and Democratic Decency

Anjana Gadgil’s interview with Naftali Bennett was a disgrace – and pisses me off. Why? Because I’m a proud ex-pat. Still support and listen to a lot of what it is to be British. (Check out my book – https://www.ourboox.com/books/why-i-love-marmite/). BBC is still my ‘go to’ for news, sport and so on. My connection to my background.

Yet I have so often been shocked and saddened by the Beeb’s anti-Israel bias, and this latest episode just adds to the pile.

So why do I continue to ‘use’ BBC? I’m lazy.

Quality and extreme bias are common allies. NY Times, Guardian, Ha-Aretz (here in Israel) are excellent newspapers, with many first-class journalists. Does that make them extreme Left wing? Perhaps. Either way, that ‘lean’ makes them anti-Israel in many ugly ways, certainly close to anti-Semitism.

Gadgil’s ‘crime’, for which BBC has publicly apologised, was her ‘badgering’ of Bennet about Israel’s army tactics in the recent operation in Jenin – ‘Israel military happy to kill children’.

These neighbouring countries, plus the wonderful UN, through it’s utterly ridiculous UNRWA division, has created a 1984-like industry: keeping the Palestinian refugees in the camps. (This is while the other Palestinians – the silent majority – the ones quietly living as decent citizens of many countries – including the 2 million in Israel – get on with their lives).

I am pissed off at the blind apathy of the international community. The subject of ‘how can Israel be Jewish and Democratic at the same time, often arises. Well….there’s a well-known left wing activist here called Gershon Baskin.  He’s dedicated his life to ‘Peace Now’, and in many ways can be admired for his persistent efforts. He’s been involved in most peace attempts, including the Oslo Accords. He was one of the chief negotiators to get the release of Israeli soldier, Gilad Schalit, involving a prisoner exchange: 1 against around 1200, many of whom continued terrorism, continuing killing). He writes weekly in the Jerusalem Post, ALWAYS resulting in heavy complaints.

He was supposed to give a talk here in the neighbourhood. I bought tickets. I contacted him; arranged to be his transport to the location (he lives in Jerusalem). And we were going to have ‘coffee’ together afterwards. (You see, I may disagree, but I want to discuss, to delve…). Bad weather postponed the talk. After 3-4 months, no re-arranged talk yet. But one of his latest articles was so blatantly anti-Israel – another self-hating Jew? – that I have now demanded my money back.

Why do I now bring this up? Can you imagine his equivalent on the other side? A peace-loving Palestinian who spends his life shouting out how wonderful the Israelis are, how they want peace, how the Palestinian leaders are the ones standing in the way of peace etc. etc. I think we only need to contemplate in which cemetery he would now lie. Gershon Baskin lives in one of the most masochistically democratic countries of the World. It’s as if we wrote the American First Amendment.

Oh, and don’t forget to praise the Israeli U-20 and U-21 football teams by recently reaching 3rd place in the World Cup and the semis of the Euro Championship respectively, beating countries like Brazil, Germany and hosts, Georgia, on the way.

Stephen