Excellent commet article in The Sunday Times

[blackcherryconserve]

Matthew Syed has written a very interesting piece today which is well worth reading in full but these two paragraphs spoke to me in reference to the Middle East currently:
'And what of Israel, beset on all sides by terrorist groups, each backed by Iran, a nation ruled by a millenarian cult that beats women for lifting the hijab and boasts about expunging Israel from the map and perhaps history itself. I am no fan of Binyamin Netanyahu or right-wing elements in his cabinet, nor the indefensible settlements in the West Bank, but I see in Israel a nation that has given much to civilisation and incubated remarkable prosperity despite its precarious position, while Hamas has spent billions in aid on tunnels, weapons, hotel suites for its leaders and indoctrination camps that turn the next generation of children into fanatics who crave death rather than life, annihilation rather than hope. If you doubt this, watch the documentary Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again, a classic of the genre, despite film-makers excising the description of Hamas as terrorists at the behest of the BBC.........
When the US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweets that the brilliantly targeted attack on pagers by the Israel Defence Forces is a war crime, despite a stunningly low attritional ratio of innocents to combatants, while failing to condemn the thousands of rockets fired from southern Lebanon into Israel, I hope you see my point. She has drunk the propaganda, titrated into western consciousness from bots across the autocratic world, that the US is evil, Israel a colonialist oppressor, and their actions are inherently tainted. By this estimate, the Normandy landings were a violation of international humanitarian law, since innocent people died, never mind that the operation was central to the defeat of Nazism — a secular fanaticism whose psychological contours are not so very different from the fundamentalism of Hamas, Hezbollah and Isis.

It’s a really good article, shame that the people who would benefit from reading it probably won’t…

Good piece, with some intelligent perspective. Much needed.

Exactly

So many have drunk the propaganda from the terrorists. The BBC is one of the worse for failings.

Israel has no choice. It has given much to the world and the terrorists just won't leave it alone.

I think the article summarises the view of the silent majority in this country. I think we are cowed by a left leaning media which feels that showing how dangerous the situation is for Israel is perversely politically incorrect.

I am really glad the BBC commissioned a documentary about the nova festival so at least some in the BBC have a spine. There really does seem to be a drive in certain quarters not to mention the brutality of Islamist terrorism as they don't want to cause offence.

I agree that many silently support Israel. Its difficult to slugs with a terrorist organisation that is very intolerant of many different groups. Naturally, people are worried about the innocents caught in the middle

There is an increasing reluctance of the press to criticise the barbaric nature of Ismlamist terror and cruel regimes like Assad's as it does not want to look Islamaphobic. There is not the focus on the way Hamas and Hezbollah have treated the Muslim populaces of Gaza and Lebanon respectively that leads in some areas for Islamist terror groups to be portrayed as heroic resistance fighters. The press any away from Hezbollah's role in the Syrian conflict or Hamas brutal suppression of internal opposition as it fears losing its left wing credentials.

Both terror groups obviously use their populations as human shields and the BBC in particular need to make this a little more aware. There was a horrendous piece in the BBC yesterday which seemed to suggest Lebanese hospitals weren't safe when there is absolutely no evidence of Israel targeting them......is this simply to stir up anti Israel.feeling?

I think the West has the luxury of never having to had to live cheek by jowl with terrorists hell bent on their eradication. I think most Western governments are extremely glad that Israel is doing its best to wipe out Hizbollah, and I think quite a bit of the Middle East is not too disappointed either. The Saudis will be thrilled that the Israelis are targeting the Houthis, to the point where I think it’s a bit of a”I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” going on.

The Iranian regimes are indefensible, and it’s inexcusable that the left wing is happily allowing Lebanon to be a sock puppet of Iran, because it’s taken against the Israelis. I don’t see how the Islamist culture in that part of the world is defensible by anyone.

It seems so.

Ot needs calling out. Its not islamophobic to call out extremists

It was interesting to see some Iranians cheer the defeats inflicted on Hizbollah and yet this narrative is missed in the press. The suppression of human rights in Iran and other states seems to be neglected when you have so many wanting to press on with the false narrative of Israel being the uncontrolled aggressor. We need and deserve fair reporting.

There was a ballistic missile earlier that hit an Israeli village yet these details tend to either go missing or are minimised.

Sad isn't it.

I feel for the ordinary Iranian people. They also deserve better.

There are millions of people throughout the middle east who deserve to be governed by people who have their best interests at heart. Currently they don't.