Gary Lineker - he really had to go and a warning t against virtue signalling

[mids2019]

Maybe Gary Lineker's departure acts as a warning for this not acquainted with history to go around randomly reposting pro Palestinian links though I suspect he is not the only one. In a way it is a sad demise to a career but an absolutely necessary one and a timely warning that a proportion of P Palestinian supporters are anti semites.

for to say I didn't like the Gaurdian 's take that the BBC were looking to sack Gary anyway and he just have them an excuse.

As is being silent in the face of Hamas' evil

I think the vast majority of people I know where very vocal about the horror and distress they felt about the attack on 7/11. I don’t know where you are in the world but in the uk it was publicised and discussed.

You can defend him to the end by saying he didn’t know. No racist ever says “yeah hands up I am a racist twat”. They always plead ignorance, say they didn’t mean it, claim that what they did was justified etc. All you have to go on are his words and actions over the years, which have consistently been at or over the line.

It’s important because there are anti-semites in the pro-Palestine movement. You can’t just say that it’s a side issue and what really matters is the pro-Palestine message, because the conflict will never be solved if anti-semites continue to have a seat at the table.

7/10

This.

Lineker won't apologise for his use of antisemite symbols, of course, he's a powerful and arrogant narcissist who's been further enabled by the BBC and the football establishment.

But I do expect the BBC to apologise, but of course they won't either - first multiple occurrences of CSA, starting with Savile, and now antisemitism. Auntie Beeb is really serving licence fee payers, isn't it?

Lineker isn't knowingly antisemitic or misogynistic; his posts on October 7th or on men in women's sports show that Jewish people and women are so insignificant they aren't even on his radar. There is no money or kudos in being pro-Jewish or pro-women (in fact, the opposite) so men like Gary don't waste any time thinking about them. It really is as shallow as cost-benefit activism.

He shouldn't have said that. Also, people
shouldn’t describe bombing hospitals as “self defence”

It’s really telling when a person never has an opinion that slightly surprises you. I think it’s a sign that they don’t think much for themselves and they tend to regurgitate what they see on SM or hear from their close circle. If GL came out with an opinion that was not mainstream leftist we could perhaps have faith in his ability to think and judge for himself. Maybe he’ll come out pro nuclear power or against critical race theory and I’ll be proved wrong.

If the IDF had been hiding weapons or troops in bunkers under the music festival, ready for an attack on Gaza, people would 100% be calling the Hamas attack self-defence.

You're right, @EsmaCannonball . Plus, men like that like to stay on the right side of countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia, don't they, for the opportunities. It would be a brave person in the football industry to speak out against them.

He’s just another over opinionated old bloke that thinks because he is on tv he can spout off about everything.
I don’t actually think he is antisemitic; but obviously doesn’t know enough to understand the rat symbolism.
Im glad he’s lost his job, might be a warning to other people who talk about things they don’t know enough about.

Hamas is a terrorist group. The IDF isn’t. They have-or should have-different standards.

Right. So, how would you tackle an antisemitic, homophobic, misogynist, nihilistic, fascist group who would rape and kill and take hostages, even babies?

You're right. I don't think he understands it at all. It's just for the clicks and - I suspect - to keep in the good books of certain regimes.

I'm not that poster but the answer clearly isn't raping, taking people into administration detention and torturing them and killing more children than anyone else in the world right now which is what they have been doing.

The same individuals outraged by Gary Lineker are often the ones indifferent to the mass killing of tens of thousands of children. Instead of showing genuine concern, they go to great lengths to justify Israel’s actions and deflect attention. They can spare me the performative moral outrage.

So. Stand by? Not try to rescue the hostages? Wait for the UN? I'm not having a go at you and I'm not defending the IDF actions, but I was genuinely wondering how on earth any nation could respond to this.

I assume in saying that the bombing of hospitals isn’t self-defence, you are saying that it’s a war crime (ie the equivalent of Hamas terrorism). My point is that if weapons had been hidden at Nova, people wouldn’t be calling Oct 7th terrorism, they’d be calling it legitimate self-defence. Or at the very least regrettable but necessary.

How is raping and torturing people going to get the hostages back? What has been the most successful way of getting the hostages back so far?

.... indifferent to mass killings of tens of thousands of children ...

What were you saying about performative outrage?

I never said that. You will note.
Perhaps massive protests down Whitehall every weekend, perhaps celebrities tweeting about it, perhaps badges and flags everywhere?
I don't know.
Maybe there isn't the global will to free hostages taken in Israel.

I think it's quite right that Gary Lineker resigned. The horrors being inflicted on Gaza by Netanyahu should not be an excuse for a British broadcaster with decades of experience to reshare an anti-semitic trope (it's hard to believe he honestly didn't realise). The rise in anti-semitism in the UK over the past year is horrendous and the BBC needs to be absolutely clear in standing against it.

Before this I'd absolutely have stood by his right to use his platform to speak out when so many haven't but I don't follow him and didn't realise he had also minimised the 7.10 Hamas attacks in that way - shocking, and even more reason why he should go.

53000 Palestinian civilians have been killed in Gaza since October 7. 70% of them women and children. 260 aid workers have been killed since October 7.

I think what I said was I wasn’t aware of that image being particularly focused and antisemitic (and it’s fairly likely I am more experienced than the average uk citizen) so to me it could have been missed by GL. I think he’s consistently been clear on his opinion despite pressure to hide his views on many topics which I admire. There are of course antisemites in all walks of life and racists and xenophobia etc etc. Obviously with Israel behaving as it is many of the people abhorring Israel’s brutal killing of tens of thousands in Gaza will also have views that are anti Israeli, some may even be antisemitic. I don’t think it’s a majority or even a very large proportion though.

Conversely there are Jews around the world horrified by what Netanyahu’s Israel is doing and I am sure Israeli’s who hate all Palestinians or even all Arabs and would happily see them removed from their land if not killed. Hate is not the way. Time to change.