In a grotesque error of judgement, I found myself listening to Radio 4’s Today programme at 8.30 this morning for its BBC news bulletin. I expected #fakenews but was shocked by what I heard as the state broadcaster turned to events in Israel.
I was informed that Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza were exchanging very heavy bombardment. Okay so it is a morally equivalent conflict, right? Of course it is not. The BBC refuses to report what is actually happening.
In Gaza, Hamas locates rocket launchers in the most densely populated civilian neighbourhoods. It is using those rocket launchers to send missiles into Israel targeting not military installations or personnel but civilian districts. It just wants to kill Jews and in the past day, despite most folks sleeping in bomb shelters, five civilians, one a child, were indeed murdered.
Israel is responding by specifically targeting those rocket launchers and military control personnel. It is trying to defend its civilians by taking out those who are actively engaged in killing Jews, just because they are Jews. Hamas uses civilians to protect its military and when they are killed it screams about Israeli atrocities and folks like the BBC, and Keir Starmer, buy that line and regard the actions of both sides as morally equivalent.
They are not. Hamas operatives are butchers who like killing Jews and are happy to see their own folks killed as collateral damage and so that they can turn those deaths into PR opportunities. Israel is defending its civilian population because it does not think that random murdering of folks just for being Jewish is acceptable.
I stand with Israel. If the facts were broadcast by the BBC, so would most people other than the usual Jew-haters. But the BBC is not presenting the facts which is yet another reason why it is outrageous that, under threat of jail, I am forced to fund it. #DefundtheBBC