Hate speech in The Times today - Melanie Phillips

[HiggleDyPigGeldy]

In The Times today, Melanie Phillips page 26 article: “a small Jewish child, alone and bewildered, being tormented on a Gaza street by Palestinian children who are all taught to hate and murder Jews”

The thought of this poor child being tormented is beyond heartbreaking to me as a mother, and as a Jew.

BUT, how can it he acceptable for a major newspaper to print that Palestinian children are all taught to hate and murder Jews?
It’s not true for one (my son’s closest friend is a little Palestinian boy who is lovely, and his family, who are from Gaza and still have relatives there, are horrified by the violence that unfolded this week. We regularly spend time together and actually have a lot in common.)

By blanket painting all Palestinians, even children, as evil terrorists, the writer is inciting hatred. Which is exactly the opposite of what is needed now to stop the bloodshed on both sides!

AIBU to think that the media are inciting hatr

Muslim extremists so teach their children this because they hate the Jews. Note that I said EXTREMISTS.

As Golda Meir said "If Palestinians laid down their weapons there would be no war. If Israel laid down their weapons there would be a massacre."
And "There would be peace if when Palestinians love their children as much as they hate the Jews."

So means do ^

The media does this all the time.

Off topic I know, but I often wonder how we would deal with / report on the 'Irish' problem now if the IRA were bombing Canary Wharf and Harrods like they did in the 70s/80s. I guess it's a lot easier to deal with 'terrorists' when they aren't on your doorstep, it's not like we could fire a few missiles into Ireland to 'teach them a lesson'.

MariePaperRoses I wouldn't say that Golda Meir was an entirely unbiased commentator, would you? 🙄

I understand that support for Hamas amongst Palestinians comes at least partially from their investment in social projects and the things they do for the average person. This seems to be a common way for Islamic fundamentalist groups to gain popular support in the Middle East. Fateh lost support because they are seen as hopelessly corrupt, siphoning development funds into their own pockets, etc.

PIRA were on our doorstep! 🤦‍♂️

It's easier dealing with one on your doorstep than if they were thousands of miles away in another part of your territory too.

Long story short for now, PIRA were defeated and got NONE of their long held key core demands in the Belfast Agreement in 1998. The UK Government achieved theirs though.

Although it's erroneously referred to as "The Canary Wharf bomb", PIRA didn't bomb Canary Wharf. It was actually South Quay near the DLR station they bombed. That was still a futile action and led to PIRA not getting any of their objectives into the Belfast Agreement. 🤷‍♂️

The Times continues to publish the endlessly hateful things that woman writes for reasons I do not understand. I stay sane by simply scrolling on by whenever I see anything with her name on it.

@RobynRB Off topic I know, but I often wonder how we would deal with / report on the 'Irish' problem now if the IRA were bombing Canary Wharf and Harrods like they did in the 70s/80s.

Why would it be reported any differently? The IRA were referred to as terrorists. Many catholics were lumped in and categorised as terrorists too by default.

it's not like we could fire a few missiles into Ireland to 'teach them a lesson'.

Is the term collusion new to you?

And if the UK had done that they would have radicalised a lot of Irish people who never supported the IRA.
Thankfully they did not. Their response was restrained and the two countries are on good terms today. Inflaming such situations by murdering ever larger numbers of innocent people never did and never will help anyone.

This is where the Northern Ireland conflict is again very, very different to the Israeli-Palestinian one.

Northern Ireland was and remains an integral part of the UK. Gaza, on the other hand, is NOT part of Israel.

It really doesn't make sense to compare the two and generally only those who are ignorant or Republicans would link them.

This was the rhetoric of the time. The media have always been complicit.

This and everything @DownNative said.

There is a concerted effort to encourage hatred of Jews in the population and that is deeply concerning. Hamas would not have been able to parade jewish captives, let alone a naked, unconscious woman through the streets, and to be able to do it to cheering crowds, if there was not a deep rooted hatred of Jews throughout a huge section of the population. They were absolutely confident of being hailed at hero's whilst parading their barbarous dehumanisation of their Jewish captives. And they were right to be confident of that.

There was a Jewish man on the television today saying that even if Hamas were wiped out, the education system would need to change to effect long lasting change. Because otherwise the next generation with continue to be brought up in hatred too.

Well said @DownNative
Always coming with the facts👏 👏

If it's an opinion piece, that changes everything op.

Something is definitely wrong when you can parade a dead body around the streets and people come out and cheer. Barbaric animals, imagine having those kinds of people as your neighbours or having to live amongst them in silence because they’re the majority.

We have no idea as an island nation what it is like to have a neighbouring country where some of the population hate you so much that they would actually cross the border to KILL you and your family.

I’m not ignorant but thanks for that.

And if the UK had done that they would have radicalised a lot of Irish people who never supported the IRA. Thankfully they did not. Their response was restrained and the two countries are on good terms today. Inflaming such situations by murdering ever larger numbers of innocent people never did and never will help anyone.

I wasn't suggesting they should have done... and I wasn't trying to compare this with the current situation either.

I wasn't actually referring to YOU, @Coughingdodger. But speaking generally.

You are, of course, correct that the British Army was pretty restrained, especially in comparison to the Republican and Loyalist terrorists. 👍

What I meant was, given that we've had years of politicians telling us over and over that terrorists must be 'dealt with' and not 'negotiated with' it would be difficult to explain why these particular 'terrorists' should be 'negotiated with'.

When you remember she's called Mad Mel, things make sense.

That is a horrifically racist quote. Palestinians love their children as much as any other humans do.

Which particular terrorists are you referring to in your 'negotiated with' bit?

But in 2021, support for Hamas dramatically increased as AP News reported:

By '21 the Palestinians in Gaza had been living under embargo for more than 10 years. We can imagine the impact on the ground of that.

So Hamas do what the narc gangs do in Latin America or what mafia did/do - "help" people on the ground, get supplies in, get jobs, lend money and so on.. Bit by horrible bit they start to own the people.

Civilians are always between a rock and a hard place. There is nowhere to turn. If your child needs meds, and the hated Hamas guy has them, you ask. You don't want to but you do.

It means you do not have to wait for a full day to cross the border, be strip searched and so on.

YABU OP. You can't generalise that the entire media is inciting hatred on the basis of one opinion piece from Melanie Phillips.

Congratulations on your son having a Palestinian friend, but you can't make generalisations about all Palestinians based on one family either.

Amazing posts DownNative. Thank you.

@DownNative

Do you think Israelis are brought up to hate Palestinians? And defend Israel no matter what, as you do?

The loss of life is far far greater to Palestinians and always has been.