Trains Rolling Along And ‘Jews Living Happily in Auschwitz’

Trains are moving efficiently toward the new homes of the Jews and many hundreds of thousands of them are now ‘living happily in Auschwitz’ and the other ‘holiday camps’ we have set up for them said moderate Nazi minister of Public Enlightenment, Joseph Goebbels.

How would that be for a headline and first paragraph of a story?

Lets try another one:

Obama’s administration presents a ‘forged birth certificate’

In response to demands that he prove he was not born in Kenya, Obama’s administration has released a clearly forged ‘Certificate of Live Birth’ said leading campaigners for truth and justice.

This is fun, I’m on a roll here.

Bombing attacks on trains and buses in London ‘completely justified’

A leading Muslim cleric in London today claimed blowing up British ‘citizens on their way to work’ was completely justified because of British participation in killing Muslims in Afghanistan.

Oh wait, I haven’t done Israel yet! How stupid of me:

Israeli strikes on Syria ‘co-ordinated with terrorists’

Israeli strikes on Syrian army targets show co-ordination with ‘terrorists’ including al-Qaeda linked militants, the Syrian foreign ministry has said.

No serious, credible news agency would ever write headlines and first paragraphs as inflammatory and so obviously based on ridiculous sources right?

They’d be acting as a mouth piece for the worst murderers and despots in the world if they did. Right? Of course they wouldn’t.

Which is why, of course, the last one is (as I write this) still on the BBC’s website hours after I first saw it.

Balance? If you live in the UK you pay for this evil.

And this is from the actual home page of the entire BBC News site:

Elder of Zion also has a post on this. Honest Reporting is correctly pointing out that the rarely used word “terrorist” is being thrown around with gay abandon when it is Israel in the frame for cavorting with “terrorists”.

The film-maker behind a BBC4 documentary about ancient Jewish history that was shelved last week has accused the corporation of a “mixture of incompetence” and “political naiveté”.

Ilan Ziv, the Israeli-born documentary maker behind Jerusalem: an Archaeological Mystery Story, which questions the scale of the exodus of the Jewish people from Jerusalem in AD70, also said the official reason given by the BBC for pulling it from the schedules contradicts the one made to him in private.

The Guardian report draws from the blog post of the film maker, Ilan Ziv, (linked).

It’s a longish report based on a long blog post and without seeing the film I have no real idea if the BBC dropped it for acurately showing how strong Jewish ties to Jerusalem are and (obviously) how tenuous the ties of Islam are to the city.

Any reasonable exploration of the history of Jerusalem will show how the city is overwhelmingly Jewish in origin, nature and character and that even during the times when Jews were physically excluded from living there, they still lived there in large numbers. In fact, it’s most likely that there has rarely been a time when Jerusalem didn’t have a Jewish majority.

The film may well be anti-Zionist in some senses but could it be that anything showing strong Jewish connections to Jerusalem is to tricky for the BBC?

But that’s not quite how the BBC would like to show things today is it?

Here’s a sample of the documentary:

And one little note: if the documentary seeks to show peaceful co-existance with the Romans that’s all well and good. It’s 700 years before Muhammad showed up.

At Tapuach junction (Samaria / Shomron), connecting traffic from Jerusalem, Ariel and Tel Aviv, an Arab  terrorist on Tuesday morning stabbed and killed an Israeli man (32), grabbed his gun and started shooting at the nearby IDF Border Police.

The victim was a resident of Yitzhar, and the father of 5 children.The IDF Border Police unit shot back hitting the terrorist in the leg. The terrorist was transported to Beilinson hospital.

The Jewish Press » » BREAKING: Palestinian Terrorist Murders Israeli in Shomron.

Update : It looks like the murdering terrorist was only recently released from prison. At some point are we going to hold accountable those who take these decisions?

Of course the lying, smear machine of the media is already picking up speed using all their dirty tricks: the murdered Jew was obviously a “settler” so he had it coming is the implication of the BBC headline already:

From the BBC Report:

Palestinians and Israeli troops have clashed recently in the West Bank, but attacks on settlers there are rare.

Just so you know as well, there have been 4 thwarted attacks at this very junction already this year!

According to Reuters news agency, nine Palestinians have been killed in various incidents with Israeli forces in the West Bank since the start of this year.

Ahhh so you’re trying to say it’s OK if a Jew dies this time because we’ve killed nine already this year?

And the terrorist wasn’t killed, he’s now receiving the finest medical care in the world in an Israeli hospital.

The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.

The French courts aren’t so sure.

They never stop trying to kill us.

Update: The murdered man is 32 year old Evyatar Borovsky, father of 5, from the Yitzhar community.

Update:  The terrorist belongs to “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah.

After the recent UN report expressed the likelihood that the 10-month-old son of a BBC employee was killed by a Hamas rocket – and not by Israel as many (like Silverstein himself) claimed – I tweeted the following:

. @richards1052 On Nov 15, u claimed Israel was behind the death of 10 mth old son of BBC Arabic staff member: ht.ly/iLwCw

— Aussie Dave (@israellycool) March 11, 2013

.@richards1052 recently released UN report found he was killed by Hamas rocket: ht.ly/iLxc6 How about issuing a correction?

— Aussie Dave (@israellycool) March 11, 2013

Despite the findings, Silverstein refused to correct his post or issue a correction, instead focusing on the fact that the report mentioned the likelihood of the baby being killed by a Hamas rocket and did not issue an unequivocal statement.

Despite IDF apologists claims, UN rpt “cannot unequivocally state” Palestinian rocket killed baby of BBC reporter nytimes.com/2013/03/12/wor…

— Tikun Olam (@richards1052) March 12, 2013

In other words, Silverstein has chosen to leave unaltered his original post – which unequivocally states the IDF killed the baby – despite the fact the UN report thinks the likelier scenario is Hamas killed the baby.

Now fast forward not even a day,where Silverstein has this to say about a BBC report about the efficacy of the Iron Dome rocket system.

BBC reports on pathetic 5% success rate of Iron Dome system…1 wk after I did. bbc.co.uk/news/world-mid…

— Tikun Olam (@richards1052) March 12, 2013

Here is what the report actually said:

Mr Postol says that while he cannot say what the performance of Iron Dome was in Operation Pillar of Defence, “all the available evidence unambiguously indicates a drastically lower level of performance than the 84% claimed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).”

His view is that the successful hit rate on incoming warheads could be as low as 5-10%.

In other words, here we have a report quoting someone who mentions the possibility of a 5-10% hit rate and Silverstein translates this as an unequivocal statement of a 5% hit rate.

See the double standard? Where something paints Israel in a not negative light (I won’t even go as far as to say positive), Silverstein is not willing to accept it unless it has been unequivocally found to be the case (and even then, he doesn’t accept it). But where something paints Israel in a negative light, a lower standard of proof suffices.

So there you have it, folks. Yet another in a litany of examples demonstrating that no-one in their right mind should be taking this guy’s rantings seriously.

I’ll post a simple summary. In a piece about the torture of African migrants in Sinai by Egyptians, Mike Thomson wrote and broadcast the following line:

“Egyptian security forces do operate in this region but only in limited numbers because of a long-standing peace agreement with neighbouring Israel.”

He’s talking about the 1979 Camp David accords which gave Sinai back to Egypt in return for security guarantees.

It’s a complex agreement with zones, troop levels and so forth. I’ll make it very simple.

The Egyptians can’t put large numbers of tanks in Sinai next to Israel.

That’s it. They’ve got more than enough troops to stop the torture if they want to.

I’ll tell you a real story I heard first hand from an IDF reserve. About this time last year his unit fired into Egypt over the heads of Egyptian soldiers to stop African migrants getting shot in the back by Egyptian troops. I don’t think this is ever reported but it’s not a unique event.

If you want the details, read the BBC Watch post. But if you think that the only way Egypt could police the Sinai properly and stop the torture of Africans is with few thousand tanks, you must either be delusional or a BBC reporter.

Here are some of their impartial, balanced and fair reporting:

Bodes ill for any chances of peace when even veteran centre-left Labour Party in #Israel ignores the issue in elex campaign 1/2

— katya adler (@BBCkatyaadler) January 22, 2013

Centrist There Is A Future Party promotes a 2state solution between #Israelis and Palestinians yet insists Jerusalem must stay Jewish 2/2

— katya adler (@BBCkatyaadler) January 22, 2013

Obviously, not one word on Israel’s peace partner Mahmoud Abbas’ latest interview, where he lies about Israel agreeing to let the PA take 150,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria. Also in that interview, his paranoia about Israel wanting to assassinate him, and him urging people to prove his dissertation – of the ties between the Zionist movement and the Nazi party – wrong.

Also on their agenda today is some geography, insisting on the term “West” Jerusalem, when even “East” Jerusalem residents who have an Israeli ID can vote. Did someone say delegitimization?

Steady steam of people here at W Jerusalem polling station. #Israelis have day off on elex day. Party atmosphere but serious issues at stake

— katya adler (@BBCkatyaadler) January 22, 2013

President Peres #Israelelex is “demonstration of democracy and freedom” as he voted West Jerusalem twitter.com/YolandeKnell/s…

— Yolande Knell (@YolandeKnell) January 22, 2013

I’m sure there will be more shenanigans later on today, stay tuned.

Update 1: Here we go, Jon Donnison pulling a JonDonnison in his latest report, ending with:

… and as Israel goes to the polls, that does not bode well for those hoping for peace in the middle east any time soon.

Nine Palestinians arrested for pummeling ultra-Orthodox with snowballs.

The suspects allegedly hurled insults and snowballs relentlessly at the two ultra-Orthodox men; investigation opened despite victims’ refusal to lodge complaint.

The Jerusalem District Police on Sunday arrested six Palestinian youth suspected of pummeling two ultra-Orthodox men with snowballs during the heavy storm a week-and-half ago. Three other Palestinians were arrested over the incident last week.

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court extended the six suspects’ house arrest, after extending the remands of the other three by four days over the weekend. The Jerusalem Police say these nine are the only suspects in the incident.

The group allegedly attacked the ultra-Orthodox men near the Nablus Gate leading to the Old City of Jerusalem. The suspects allegedly cursed at the two and hurled snowballs at them relentlessly, forcing the two to flee for safety.

Leave it to the disgraced BBC Middle East Bureau Chief Paul Danahar to abuse this situation, and sway attention away from the case in hand.

Really Paul? Did you see Haredi youths kick, punch, grab, shove and heckle Arab youths? Did you hear any Jew shout “Elokim is great” at Muslims? Did you see any snow-Hellfire, or snow-Merkava built in a holy place by Jews?

Stay the pathetic, sad excuse for a journalist that you are.

h/t @CiFWatch

Update: The retraction:

I want to remind you that he blocked me from following his account after I asked if he only retweets Haaretz articles. I’m glad to know that he bothers to check the whole story only after he tweets it, and rightfully gets outed for the vile man he is.

But did Haaretz really underplayed this story? well, no. Danahar just underplays his incompetence.

So with all of Israel flooded, what photo does the BBC decide to use? The only one with an ultra-Orthodox Jew, of course.

That’s right, a group that is about 6% of the total population, is overrepresented in media coverage of every day life scenarios in Israel. They could have used one of the many human-less images, but they didn’t.

Stay classy biased BBC.

Afterthought: It doesn’t appear to be raining, and his umbrella is dry. Could this be a staged image?

Ramat Shlomo:

Ramat Shlomo was built in the 1990′s, on a JNF forest that demarcated the outline of the Jordanian occupation of the Jerusalem hinterland. The new housing project in the neighborhood is planned on the southern slope of the hill, on a sliver of land locked between the current buildings and a major highway.

Ramat Shlomo – the planned building project outlined in red. Click for larger image

Needless to say, this expansion of some 1500 housing units is not only inside Jerusalem municipal lines, it doesn’t encroach on any field or pasture.

Furthermore, even the far left Geneva Initiative lists Ramat Shlomo as being inside Israeli territory in the event of a future land swap.

And as a prelude to the errors to come, this is the image the BBC used to portray Ramat Shlomo. That isn’t Ramat Shlomo, but Ramot, which eastern edge can be seen in the previous image. Per BBC, it’s all the same, just like Nottingham and Birmingham, both are inghams.

Giv’at Hamatos

Literally hill of the air-plane, where on June 6, 1967, an IAF plane was shot down by occupying Jordanian forces. It is located on the southern edges of Jerusalem, and is currently the site of caravan houses for Ethiopian immigrants, and has long since been on the planning board.

This is how clueless Harriet Sherwood reported it:

Givat Hamatos, across the pre-1967 Green Line between southern Jerusalem and Bethlehem, will be the first new discrete settlement created since 1997. Critics say it will become part of a chain of settlements in the area, further impeding access between the two biblical cities.

European diplomats in Jerusalem have warned that the construction of Givat Hamatos is a “game-changer” which could destroy the chance of a viable Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital. A diplomatic source said the approval of the new settlement was “a devastating development for all those who believe in a two-state solution”.

Sherwood and others clearly didn’t even open a map to see where it is. If they did, they would’ve seen that: A) the access between Jerusalem and Bethlehem will not be changed, and B) that the area is in no means an empty desert (unlike E-1), and that the division between Jews and Arabs in it, are already a fact on the ground, never mind any future development.

Givat HaMatos and adjacent areas. Click for larger image

As you can see in the above map, courtesy of B’Tselem, Giv’at Hamatos is engulfed by the Arab neighborhood of Beit Safafa from the north, west and south, while on the east, there’s road 60 – the millennia old path between the cities, and Kibbutz Ramat Rachel. The 500 meter gap between Beit Safafa and Ramat Rachel, were the main road passes through, also houses the southern public transport hub of the Jerusalem metropolitan area.

So in the current state of affairs, it’s in no way a “game-changer” that threatens the viability if a future Palestinian state. But build 2600 apartments, with some 600 intended as an expansion of Beit Safafa that doesn’t change anything that doesn’t already exist, and all of a sudden you have a powder keg. The planned expansion is roughly 0.3 Km², making it 0.004% of their intended state. It’s not about the viability of it, it’s about Jerusalem.

B’Tselem and BBC fail Geography

I saw the aforementioned failed BBC article a few days ago, but didn’t have time to write about it. What struck me more, apart for the wrong picture, was the inclusion of The Hebrew University Mount Scopus campus in the settlement blocs.

BBC map of the settlement blocs in and around Jerusalem, Mount Scopus campus in green.

The BBC simply erased the Israeli exclave that existed there during the Jordanian occupation between 1948 to 1967, and relabelled the university campus and Hadassah hospital, two renowned institutions there since the early 20th century.

Serendipity has its ways, and Jessica Montell of B’Tselem tweeted their online map:

Where exactly did Israel just approve 2,600 new homes? See Giv’at Hamatos on B’Tselem’s interactive map: btselem.org/map?title_op=c…

— J Montell, B’Tselem (@JessicaMontell) December 19, 2012

This interactive map has the exact same layers as the BBC, including university and hospital as settlement, but does indeed demarcate the Israeli exclave on mount Scopus.

I can assume, that just like the EU clerk misused the intersection tool, so too did the group or company responsible for the BBC’s and B’Tselem’s geographic data.

Old City of Jerusalem

Another one of those “settlements” listed in the BBC’s and B’Tselem’s maps is the Jewish quarter in old Jerusalem.

Yes, that’s right, per B’Tselem and BBC, the millennia old Jewish presence in Jerusalem is but a footnote to the 19 years of Jordanian apartheid and ethnic cleansing of Jews from Jerusalem.

Update: I pointed out the Mt. Scopus error to Jessica Montell last week, and today as well, and she promised it’s being corrected. We’ll wait and see.

@judgedan48 @hebrewu Yes, it’s being corrected in the next version of the map. It’ll take a few weeks. Thanks

— J Montell, B’Tselem (@JessicaMontell) December 29, 2012

As we reported, the BBC staff might have their licenses revoked today for lies, bias, and all round stupidity. So when disgraced BBC Middle East Bureau Chief Paul Danahar had an Haaretz Twitter spell this morning, I asked him a simple question:

@pdanahar I couldn’t help but notice you only share articles from @haaretz. Is that a @bbc job prerequisite? or are you just biased?

— Judge Dan (@JudgeDan48) November 28, 2012

Typically, when faced with truth, the knee-jerk reaction is to block me.

And what was that he was praising? Why, the typical whiny Haaretz op-ed by Carlo Strenger about how the democratic Likud Primaries are undemocratic, will bring about totalitarianism in Israel, and how Tzipi Livni is Israel’s only hope:

But they [Yehimovich and Lapid] will now have to rethink their position: They might still argue that they will be able to safeguard Israel’s democracy from within the coalition. But they may well have to consider whether Likud-Beitenu has now crossed the line between Liberal principles and totalitarianism, and whether they would not serve Israel’s democracy better by creating a viable fighting opposition. They might join Tzipi Livni who has announced her return to politics and made clear that she will not join Netanyahu under any circumstance.

I am of two minds in this respect: on the one hand Netanyahu’s moderate coalition partners have so far averted the anti-liberal forces’ worst excesses, and Labor and Yesh Atid might play a similar role in Netanyahu’s next government.

On the other hand, Israelis should be finally faced with two clear alternatives: if Labor and Yair Lapid will refuse to join the next Netanyahu government, the fiction that Israel’s right wing is moderate will be dismantled. Such a government would run into head-on conflict with the world at large, and four such years of conflict will make Israelis realize the price of the occupation.

They will realize that they have to choose between a political ideology that will turn Israel into an internationally despised Pariah state and the forces of moderation that seek compromise with the Arab world.

Spoken like a true modern-day doomsday prophet, just like he did 4 years ago. And like the proverbial leftists knowing best, he knows who they we (!) should vote for.

So when Danahar posts clearly biased and replace-the-people kind of opinions while he represents the BBC, it’s our responsibility to out him, and others, as the propagandists they are.

Turth hurts, doesn’t it, Paul?