Israel: declining interest?
By Richard North - October 30, 2023
Throughout yesterday, Gaza barely registered on the BBC website’s list of “most read” articles, and the “most watched” list of video clips wasn’t any better. If this is any guide, then it has to be said that public interest in the war is on the slide.
It is probably not a good idea to read too much into this, though. The IDF is keeping its cards close to its chest as to its intentions and has not been making it easy for photo-journalists and TV camera teams to cover the war. On the other hand, the pictures coming out of the bombed areas have a certain sameness to them (see above), which rather reduces their impact.
Not only that, wherever you go, nationally or internationally, the media reports have a certain sameness to them, even if some are more thorough than others, and there is a limit to the number of times one can read about tunnel warfare.
One thing that sparked a certain interest were the reports of Gaza residents raiding UNRWA warehouses, to steal supplies, provoking squeals of anguish from UN officials that “civil order” was starting to disintegrate.
Like so many things in Gaza though, it is impossible to judge whether this warehouse raid was a real event. It could have been engineered by Hamas for PR purposes, which may or may not have got out of control, especially when it is common knowledge that UNRWA is heavily infiltrated by Hamas, and nothing much goes down without a nod of approval.
Much the same could go for the claim – carried by the BBC for most of the day – that doctors in the Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City had been told by Israel to evacuate their buildings, entailing a move for 400 patients and an estimated 14,000 people sheltering in the grounds.
It was interesting to see Red Crescent officials stepping out to denounce the claimed demand to the press as “impossible”, variously dressed immaculately in crisp, ironed shirts, spotless gilets, white coats and scrubs, despite doctors being said to be performing surgeries without anaesthetic. Deprivation and hardship in Gaza only go so far.
Either way, they and the rest of the residents are getting little sympathy from Israel. Daniel Hagari, spokesman for the IDF, declared that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had imposed “such a terrible disaster on them”, adding: “He has lost control and he is the individual responsible for the collapse and devastation of Gaza”. Hagari also claimed that the people of Gaza have said he “no longer cares” about them, which is probably not true. Chances are he never cared for them.
Such a sentiment may not register with Al Jazeera, which has “media experts and Arab journalists” tell us that: “Publishing unsubstantiated claims, telling only one side of the story, and painting Palestinians as nothing more than objects in Hamas’s hands are all unprofessional mistakes Western media makes while covering the conflict between Israel and Hamas”.
The experts and journalists who spoke toAl Jazeera said the systemic “bias in favour of Israel” is “irreparably damaging” the credibility of news agencies considered “mainstream” in the eyes of Arabs and others.
As Western media organisations “dehumanise Palestinians” and “legitimise Israeli violations of international law” as Israel bombs Gaza, it is glaringly obvious that the vital historical context of the trauma Palestinians have been through for the past 75 years is being left out, the “experts” say.
Meanwhile, to compensate for the “systemic bias” and the “unsubstantiated claims”, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn has reported Hamas claims that it had destroyed an Israeli tank and two bulldozers in an ambush east of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
Earlier, the Turkish English language paper, Turkiye, quotes Hamas leader Ali Baraka claiming that Israeli forces “suffered heavy losses” in terms of soldiers and equipment.
“The enemy fell into an ambush prepared by the Palestinian resistance on many fronts”, he says. “Cornet missiles and Yasin missiles were used to repel the attack, and we expect the enemy to try again. The occupying Israel used helicopters to evacuate the wounded and the dead from the battlefield”, he added.
The lying pig-dogs of the Western media put this somewhat differently, the Telegraph reporting that Hamas had ambushed Israel from tunnels near Gaza border, and the IDF had killed several terrorists after spotting them “exiting the shaft of a tunnel in the Gaza Strip”.
Even less trustworthy was the Times of Israel which went so far as to claim that the IDF had destroyed Hamas anti-tank positions as well as killing the tunnellers. But the paper does acknowledge that an IDF officer was seriously hurt by a mortar impact and a soldier was moderately hurt during a battle with Hamas gunmen. the pair were taken to a hospital for treatment.
Away from the front, things are getting truly bizarre. When a flight came from Tel Aviv into the Makhachkala Airport in Dagestan, Russia, late Sunday night and early Monday morning, we are told, the aircraft was rushed and attacked by those on the ground after protesters had rushed through airport security and raced onto the tarmac.
According to Aviva Klompas, the former head of speechwriting at Israel Mission to the UN, what unfolded was like a “modern-day pogrom”. The Times of Israel confirmed the incident and cited a security official saying the incident was “ongoing” after the plane was attacked by a “local pro-Palestinian mob”. To give the incident a truly biblical ring, though, it should have been a flight from Egypt.
Nevertheless, things don’t look any more sane in the People’s Republic of Islington, where The Times has it that Keir Starmer’s authority is being threatened as his frontbenchers demand a Gaza ceasefire.
As we know, Starmer has said Israel has a right to defend itself and has only called for a “humanitarian pause”, allowing water and other essential supplies to enter the Gaza Strip, rather than a full-blown ceasefire.
The frontbenchers who have defied Starmer include loyalists such Jess Phillips, the shadow domestic safeguarding minister. Phillips, as MP for Birmingham Yardley, is one of several rebel frontbenchers whose seats include large Muslim communities.
Unsurprisingly, she is joined by Naz Shah and Imran Hussain, who represent seats in Bradford. Yasmin Qureshi, the shadow women and equalities minister, and Afzal Khan, a shadow exports minister, also join the throng.
Naz Shah, from crime-ridden Bradford, is a shadow crime prevention minister. With a strong Kashmiri following, she has issued the most direct challenge to Starmer’s position, declaring that Israel’s response did not amount to “defence”. Instead, she stated: “It is disproportionate attacks on a civilian population”, adding: “I continue to call for a ceasefire to stop the killings of innocent civilians. We cannot be silent”.
Qureshi, apparently, struck a similar note when she used prime minister’s questions last week to condemn what she called Israeli “collective punishment”.
Other rebels include the London MPs Andy Slaughter, the shadow solicitor-general, Rushanara Ali, a shadow investment minister, and Flo Eshalomi, a shadow democracy minister. A number reposted a statement from the Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.
The others are Mary Foy, a parliamentary private secretary to Angela Rayner, the deputy leader; Sarah Owen, shadow local government minister; Rachel Hopkins, a shadow veterans minister; and Paula Barker, a shadow devolution minister.
Barker, the Liverpool Wavertree MP, said: “We need humanitarian cessations of military activity to ensure aid and essential utilities reach Palestinian civilians as their need grows ever more critical and colossal”.
Then, last night, Kim Leadbeater, the MP for Batley & Spen – where Muslim voters hold the balance of power – and an opposition whip, shared Guterres’s call for a ceasefire. She appears to be the 13th person bound by collective responsibility to have defied the party’s position.
Starmer isn’t the only one in the UK who is threatened. The Times is also telling us that Ministers will hold an emergency Cobra meeting today amid fears that the Israel-Gaza conflict has “accelerated” the threat of terrorism in Britain.
We cannot rule out, therefore, the prospect of Gaza coming to Britain, visiting the Hamas savagery on an unsuspecting community. Perhaps that is what it will take for Gaza to rise in the ranks of BBC watchers.
