Gary Lineker - foot in mouth again

[onegrumpyoldwoman]

I wish this guy would stick to football or selling crisps

Most recently, he gave an interview to Medhi Hassan (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/12/lineker-appears-to-call-oct-7-attacks-the-hamas-thing/ ) where he appeared to minimise the October 7th Hamas attacks as “the Hamas thing”, whilst falsely stating of the war in Gaza “I can’t think of anything that I’ve seen worse in my lifetime”. This statement is absurd hyperbole given that Mr Lineker was born in 1960 and has hence lived through major wars such as Vietnam, Iraq, Iran-Iraq, the Soviet and Western interventions in Afghanistan, and the Syrian Civil War, all of which have cost hundreds of thousands, in some cases millions, of lives.

I do not believe that it is compatible with Mr Lineker’s role as a presenter on Match of the Day, and hence an employee of our national public broadcaster, which is supposed to be politically impartial, for him to take such outspoken stances.

😂😂

I think it's a bit tone deaf to make jokes about a post talking about kids being killed, each to their own I guess 🙄

Laughing at the slaughter of children just about sums up this ridiculous thread.

Feel free to jump on the hamster wheel of performative outrage, it's sustainable energy.

@Underthinker

1. If Hamas could have killed 30000 civilians on October 7th, do you think they would have? Yes-because they are unspeakable bastards.
2. If Israel could eliminate Hamas as a fighting force without killing a single civilian do you think they wouldn't? I don't know. I hope so.

Your smiley faces says everything

Good for Gary Lineker. We need more people speaking out.

And, tedious though it is to have to keep repeating it, I am neither anti semitic nor anti Israel. Like many Jewish people and many Israelis I am anti the actions of the IDF, anti Netanyahu and anti the Israeli government propaganda machine.

It wasn't a joke about kids being killed.

What are you talking about?

Where did that occur?

You lost me,

@Underthinker we don’t really have to speculate on that though do we? Hamas have explicitly stated their aim is to repeat October 7 again and again until the s
State of Israel no longer exists.

I’m genuinely amazed that people think Gary Lineker’s comments on this could help the situation in any way.

Meanwhile Israeli government ministers call for the complete displacement of Gazans, the building of Jewish settlements in Gaza, and watch silently while Palestinian homes in the West Bank are destroyed and their land stolen.

Read my post. I specifically said
to make jokes about a post talking about kids being killed
Which it was

**
Such gravitas. Such moral seriousness. How is the man not our prime minister????😂”

Because we’ve had 3 highly moral, serious PMs, one after the other.
Not.

@Teddleshon "I’m genuinely amazed that people think Gary Lineker’s comments on this could help the situation in any way."

Pretty sure the discussion is about whether it was OK for him to say it rather than whether it would help the situation. Personally I think the more people talk about the situation the better.

I think it’s more about GL then helping

He’s decided he needs to speak on various things. What the public think in return will be mixed.

I never made a joke about kids being killed, where did that come from?

@AhNowTed yes, the attack on October 7th certainly has had many horrific consequences.

As have the decades of apartheid.

Yes, repeated terrorist attacks, rocket launches and suicide bombings have horrible consequences for everyone.

💯

Imposing an apartheid regime, dehumanising millions of people, bulldozing their homes and stealing their land can have unfortunate outcomes.

They do when they try to justify October 7th

@YaMuvva "They do when they try to justify October 7th"

Ah, right. I've only seen actual Hamas supporters do that. Who are obviously despicable. As sure as I can be that Linneker isn't a Hamas supporter.

Hamas on October 7th ‘unfortunate’

Surely you can consider the reality for those brutally attacked more than that

@EasternStandard

My post was responding to another poster describing the "consequences" in Gaza as "horrible".

I was merely mirroring the casual language being used to describe an atrocity.

I'm sure you would agree what is happening in Gaza is more than "horrible".