Personally I think as long as both sides accuse you of bias you're probably not going far wrong!
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That's not a bad axiom.Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C.S. Lewis -
Letter from David Soul to the BBC
Regarding the BBC's unwillingness to support the appeal for relief to the people of Gaza:
It is unconscionable that the BBC refuses to make a distinction between "unbiased reporting" (which apparently means, bending to lobbying pressure) and supporting the humanitarian action that is so urgently needed in GAZA ... whoever may be responsible for causing the destruction.
Over 3,000 innocents in GAZA caught in the cross- fire are dead or wounded ... families have been decimated ... whole communities have been leveled ... infrastructure has been destroyed ... and you refuse to join humanitarian efforts to bring aid to them.
What is the matter with you people? Are you blind or just spineless?
Innocent people urgently need supplies of food, water, medicines, shelter ... yes, and limbs too ... as a result of the annihilation of GAZA. Meanwhile, the BBC puts its corporate tail between its legs and hides behind the thinly-veiled excuse of "impartiality".
What's the difference between supporting an appeal for aid to the victims of a Tsunami and supporting a relief effort to the innocent victims of war ... any war?
As an independent broadcaster, the public mandate of the BBC should be to place it squarely on the side of HUMANITY. That being so, the BBC should be at the forefront of reporting the whole story even as it supports the greater cause of HUMANITY.
Shame on you! You have lost my respect and until the BBC can show me true "impartiality", the BBC can have my TV license back.
David Soul - ActorComment
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Would that be David Soul the wife batterer? Isn't it a little difficult to take lectures on humanity from someone like that?Originally posted by Lambros View PostIs God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? - EpicurusComment
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So they should show appeals for every war and humanitarian crisis in the world? They'd have to launch a new channel "BBC Charity" otherwise there'd be no time left for "Cash in the Attic".Originally posted by Lambros View Post
Personally I don't see what's so special about Gaza as a humanitarian crisis. Isn't it relatively small scale compared to countries suffering oppressive regimes and chronic drought?Originally posted by MaryPoppinsOriginally posted by vetranComment
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Drivelling in TPD is not a mental health issue. We're just community blogging, that's all.
Xenophon said: "CUK Geek of the Week". A gingerjedi certified "Elitist Tw@t". Posting rated @ 5 lard pointsComment
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That's what I thought. I made that point earlier.Originally posted by BlasterBates View PostThere aren't any illegal settlements in Gaza
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The following is the complete text of Labor Member of Parliament and former government minister Sir Gerald Bernard Kaufman's speech, made during the January 15, 2009 House of Commons debate on Gaza:
I was brought up as an orthodox Jew and a Zionist. On a shelf in our kitchen, there was a tin box for the Jewish National Fund, into which we put coins to help the pioneers building a Jewish presence in Palestine.
I first went to Israel in 1961 and I have been there since more times than I can count. I had family in Israel and have friends in Israel.
One of them fought in the wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973 and was wounded in two of them. The tie clip that I am wearing is made from a campaign decoration awarded to him, which he presented to me.
I have known most of the Prime Ministers of Israel, starting with the founding Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Golda Meir was my friend, as was Yigal Allon, Deputy Prime Minister, who, as a general, won the Negev for Israel in the 1948 war of independence.
My parents came to Britain as refugees from Poland. Most of their families were subsequently murdered by the Nazis in the holocaust. My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town of Staszow. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed.
My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The current Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt among Gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians. The implication is that Jewish lives are precious, but the lives of Palestinians do not count.
On Sky News a few days ago, the spokeswoman for the Israeli army, Major Leibovich, was asked about the Israeli killing of, at that time, 800 Palestinians-the total is now 1,000. She replied instantly that "500 of them were militants."
That was the reply of a Nazi. I suppose that the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants.
The Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni asserts that her government will have no dealings with Hamas, because they are terrorists. Tzipi Livni's father was Eitan Livni, chief operations officer of the terrorist Irgun Zvai Leumi, who organized the blowing-up of the King David hotel in Jerusalem, in which 91 victims were killed, including four Jews.
Israel was born out of Jewish terrorism. Jewish terrorists hanged two British sergeants and booby-trapped their corpses. Irgun, together with the terrorist Stern gang, massacred 254 Palestinians in 1948 in the village of Deir Yassin. Today, the present Israeli government indicates that they would be willing, in circumstances acceptable to them, to negotiate with the Palestinian President Abbas of Fatah. It is too late for that. They could have negotiated with Fatah's previous leader, Yasser Arafat, who was a friend of mine. Instead, they besieged him in a bunker in Ramallah, where I visited him. Because of the failings of Fatah since Arafat's death, Hamas won the Palestinian election in 2006. Hamas is a deeply nasty organization, but it was democratically elected, and it is the only game in town. The boycotting of Hamas, including by our government, has been a culpable error, from which dreadful consequences have followed.
The great Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, with whom I campaigned for peace on many platforms, said: "You make peace by talking to your enemies."
However many Palestinians the Israelis murder in Gaza, they cannot solve this existential problem by military means. Whenever and however the fighting ends, there will still be 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza and 2.5 million more Palestinians on the West Bank. They are treated like dirt by the Israelis, with hundreds of road blocks and with the ghastly denizens of the illegal Jewish settlements harassing them as well. The time will come, not so long from now, when they will outnumber the Jewish population in Israel.
It is time for our government to make clear to the Israeli government that their conduct and policies are unacceptable, and to impose a total arms ban on Israel.
It is time for peace, but real peace, not the solution by conquest which is the Israelis' real goal but which it is impossible for them to achieve. They are not simply war criminals; they are fools."A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves and traitors are not victims, but accomplices," George OrwellComment
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If the BBC "bends" to this, then what next will it be expected to "bend" to ?
The BBC will then become expected to broadcast appeals for every other charity, because "well, you did it for Gaza, why not us ?"
If the BBC goes ahead with the appeal, they will be opening a bigger can of worms for the future.
They need to draw a line and say NO.
And the people clamouring for them to broadcast an appeal need to realise that they are being unreasonable in their expectations.Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C.S. LewisComment
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A very moving speech from Gerald Kaufman. You can certainly find many Jews (possibly the world's most civilised people) who think something like that. That is one of the worst things about the Israeli government's behaviour: in the name of preserving a people and a culture, they are doing things that are contrary to what that people hold most dear.
Amen.The great Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, with whom I campaigned for peace on many platforms, said: "You make peace by talking to your enemies."Comment
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Originally posted by Paddy View Post
Labour
I found five pages with this text. Where did you copy it from?Down with racism. Long live miscegenation!Comment
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