Are the Israelis that incompetent?

Many anti-Israel protesters make the claim that Israel is 'trying to empty the land of Palestinians'. Are they?

The Palestinian population in the West Bank has increased from 462,000 in 1948 to 2.38 million in 2005.

The Palestinian population in  Gaza has increased from 82,000 in 1948 to 1.37 in 2005.

The Muslim population of Jerusalem has increased roughly 5 fold from 1967 (when Israel re-unified the city) to 2009, from 58,000 to over 278,000.

The Jewish population of Jerusalem increased only by a factor of only 2.8, from 196,000 to 480,000 over the same period.


Either the claim that Israel is 'trying to empty the land of Palestinians' is untrue or the Israelis really are incredibly incompetent in their pursuit of that aim.

Another site that will try to hold the BBC to account

I spotted on Twitter this morning that the excellent Guardian Comment Is Free monitor has now been joined by a sister service - BBCWatch.

BBCWatch's first post runs thus:

'Welcome to BBC Watch

BBC Watch is a sister project of CiF Watch (founded in 2009 to monitor the Guardian’s ‘Comment is Free’ website) with the independent support of CAMERA (the Committee for Accurate Middle East Reporting in America). 

Its aim is to monitor BBC output on the subject of Israel with the object of ensuring adherence to the BBC’s own editorial guidelines and its legal obligation to provide accurate and impartial news, information and analysis to its funding public.  

The BBC is the largest broadcasting organisation in the world today and also one of the most influential. However, the BBC’s coverage of the Arab-Israeli conflict has long been a source of frustration to many, with severe criticism of its standards of accuracy and impartiality being voiced.

When the BBC fails to meet standards of accuracy and impartiality, it matters not only because of the effect this has on public opinion in the UK and worldwide, but also because the BBC is in fact neglecting its duty to increase the understanding of the people who fund it. As the former Chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, once wrote:

“The day the BBC accepts reporting that is mostly true is the day we no longer deserve the licence fee.” 

The BBC Watch website includes background information on the BBC itself and its editors, on the editorial standards to which it aspires and on existing reports about, and critiques of, BBC content. It also provides information to the general public about the different ways of getting involved and on complaints procedures. 

Our regularly updated blog page will examine BBC output and provide complimentary information.  
We welcome public participation in alerting us to BBC errors or distortions. Please contact us at contactus@bbcwatch.org.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the different areas of the website and follow us on Twitter at @bbcwatch and like us on Facebook.'

That the BBC's reporting is anti-Israelis accepted as beyond reasonable doubt, so BBCWatch will have much material to report on.

Maybe BBC Watch along with blogs such as mine will manage to increase the pressure on the BBC to such an extent that they have to make their coverage of Israel fairer. Of course I know that won't happen, the BBC is irredeemably anti-Israel, but that shouldn't stop people trying to hold them to account, documenting the bias and spreading the word.

It's BORIS

Highlights from his speech to the Conservative Party Conference



Thanks to Guido Fawkes for the video.

The one hundred and sixty fourth weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's award derives from a tweet I saw yesterday:

'Aides admit Kirchner is using the Falkland Islands as a smokescreen to mask domestic failings #Falklands http://t.co/vZtkUlDM -- Falkland Islands (@falklands_utd)'

 Argentina's Kirchner is using the Falkland Islands as a smokescreen to mask domestic failings - "No shit, Sherlock"

The BBC view would seem to be that Turkey responding to being shelled from Syria is fine but ISrael responding to being shelled from Gaza is not.

The way that Israel is criticised for responding to the regular rocket and mortar fire indiscriminately aimed at its population from Gaza has always struck me as unfair. This has been brought into especially sharp focus by the way that Turkey has been given a free hand to respond to similar fire from Syria. Rather than post myself, here's what regular Biased-BBC commenter Pounce had to say on this subject this morning - I couldn't have put it better myself:  

'Pounce says:

October 8, 2012 at 7:59 pm

Compare the anti-Semitite@bBC.Com
Turkey
Turkey responds to Syrian mortar fire in Akcakale
Turkish artillery has returned fire on Syria for a fifth day after a mortar landed in a border village.Five people were killed in a similar incident, reportedly in the same street in the village, Akcakale, last week.
So the bBC reports impartially when Muslims shell…Muslims. In fact the bBC goes to great pains in which to say that Turkey is actually quite justified in returning fire to those idiots across the border who like to lob mortars into the neighbours back year. I quote:
Sunday’s shell in Akcakale landed in the grounds of a public building near the centre of the village, but there were no casualties as people had already been evacuated, Turkish NTV said. Media and local officials said Turkey immediately returned fire. An Associated Press journalist said at least six mortars could be heard.
Wednesday’s incident in Akcakale triggered international condemnation. The UN Security Council said the incident showed the “grave impact” of the Syrian crisis on “regional peace and stability”.Turkey’s retaliation was the first time Ankara had taken military action across the border since the Syrian uprising began. And on the next day, Turkey’s parliament authorised troops to launch cross-border operations and strike at Syrian targets for a period of one year. On Friday, Turkey moved tanks and anti-aircraft missiles into Akcakale, though Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country did not want war.

Pounce says:

October 8, 2012 at 8:10 pm

Now read up on how the bBC reports the same thing when Jews are the victims:
Israel launches strikes on Gaza after rocket fire
The Israeli military has carried out strikes on the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants fired about 50 mortar rounds and rockets into Israel.Several children were among those injured when Israeli forces shelled areas east of Khan Younis.Earlier, rockets launched from Gaza landed in Israel’s Eshkol region and near Kerem Shalom. No-one was hurt
Notice the more condemning reporting style from the bBC when the jews hit back, Oh and those strikes from the IDF 20 tank shells and 1 airstrike.
Turkey on the other hand is on its sixth day of firing back. Yet nowhere in the bBCs turkish article do they show a picture of a man running with a baby in his hand.

The bBC, the traitors in our Midst'

"hug a hoodie"

The BBC report that:

'BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the Conservatives, under Mr Cameron's leadership, had gone from a party promising to "hug a hoodie" to one willing to allow the public to "bash a burglar".'

There's a problem with that line and that is that as the BBC admit here:

'...David Cameron never says 'hug a hoodie'; that famous phrase was in a press release issued by Labour'

So why is Nick Robinson perpetuating a falsehood?

The NHS - 'envy of the world'

I know I have posted this sort of article before but the stories and statistics are depressingly regular. This time it's The Telegraph that reports:

'Forty-three hospital patients starved to death last year and 111 died of thirst while being treated on wards, new figures disclose today. ... The Office for National Statistics figures also showed that: * as well as 43 people who starved to death, 287 people were recorded by doctors as being malnourished when they died in hospitals; * there were 558 cases where doctors recorded that a patient had died in a state of severe dehydration in hospitals; * 78 hospital and 39 care home patients were killed by bedsores, while a further 650 people who died had their presence noted on their death certificates; * 21,696 were recorded as suffering from septicemia when they died, a condition which experts say is most often associated with infected wounds. The records, from the Office for National Statistics, follow a series of scandals of care of the elderly, with doctors forced to prescribe patients with drinking water or put them on drips to make sure they do not become severely dehydrated . Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said the statistics were a grim and shaming reflection of 21st century Britain. "These are people's mothers, fathers, and grandparents," she said. "It is hard enough to lose a loved one, but to find out that they died because they were not adequately fed or hydrated, is a trauma no family should have to bear." Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director of Age UK, described the figures as "deeply distressing" given that such deaths were avoidable. '

The last time I spent a night on a NHS ward, I barely slept as the nurses chatted at the nurses station all night long. They didn't walk the ward, they didn't see if anyone was wide-wake (me) or in need of pain or comfort (the chap in the bed opposite me), they just chatted about boyfriends, clubs etc. Previous to that, at another NHS hospital, I had a drip put in by a nurse who spilt some blood as the drip went in... and wiped the blood off of her hand onto her apron and wandered off to the next patient. I was too weak to comment on the lapse in hygiene at the time. It seems to me that up until the late 1980s, nursing was seen as a caring profession for (mostly) girls whose educational levels were maybe not of the highest level but who wanted to care for people. They cared and they did their best for the patients, the matrons kept them up to the mark and the doctors provided the medical expertise. Hospitals were clean, run well and patients needs came first. This all changed and under Labour it changed vastly. Now nurses see themselves as health professionals, too grand to clean up a patient's vomit or excrement, there are nursing auxiliaries for those menial tasks. So patients see less of the nurses and more of all but untrained staff whose English is often poor and who are on very low wages. Nurses earn more and patients have worse care.

You can shower on an airplane!

Emirates is the only airline to offer in flight showers. This chap gives you a tour of the facility during an Airbus A380 flight at 39,000 ft.

That nice Jeremy Vine (updated)

I never had much of an opinion about Jeremy Vine. I have not listened to his radio show although I believe his taste in music is  not too shabby. I know who he is, could recognise him if I saw him on television and to be honest had no idea of his politics. In fact the only time I had mentioned Jeremy Vine on this blog, it was in this post where I commented:
'If you'd like to hear Ed Miliband making the same points on the Jeremy Vine show and being taken apart by Jeremy Vine then you can here for the next 7 days. It is nice to hear a BBC presenter actually tackle a Labour politician about their economic policy past, present and future.'

However this weekend it all changed when I was made aware of this tweet from Jeremy Vine..

Here's the brief Twitter conversation that ensued...

As you can see, my response was polite and clear. Jeremy Vine's response to me was disingenuous. My response picked him up on this and as a result 'that nice Jeremy Vine off of the radio' got personal and insulting.

I did respond...

As did Peter Martin, a tweeter new to me...

As well as Red Karateka...

To whom I responded...

I wasn't around much yesterday so didn't see the following responses to my tweet checking if this really was Jeremy Vine...

 This morning I have responded...

 I await Jeremy Vine's response.

UPDATE:
It would appear that Jeremy Vine has responded by blocking me on Twitter. Note that I just asked him a reasonable question and he was the one who insulted me. I wonder if he will respond to an email now?

Cuddles - The Big Bang Theory style

Sheldon and Amy 'getting it on' - well as much as Sheldon and Amy can.

I have come late to The Big Bang Theory but I am rather enjoying it. I suppose I will have to find the early series to watch as well as so far it's just been Season 5.

Yahoo! Video Detail for Team Obama facing donor scandal?

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/play;_ylt=A2KLqIHra3BQbg0AnVP8w8QF;_ylu=X3oDMTB1a3ZwNWRpBHNlYwNjZC1zcgRzbGsDdmlkLXNlYXJjaAR2dGlkAw--?c=29&l=6%3A09&p=obama&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fscreen.yahoo.com%2Fteam-obama-facing-donor-scandal-014702805.html&sigr=126vda1bf&tit=Team%20Obama%20facing%20donor%20scandal%3F&turl=http%3A%2F%2Fd4.yimg.com%2Fsr%2Fvideo%2Fthm-300x300%2F3f549ebc-9d87-3f1a-808e-9f3b3a05a4e4&vid=00011217095&sr=lt&mid=798460693&pid=3f549ebc-9d87-3f1a-808e-9f3b3a05a4e4

The Forrest Gump of Israeli Advocacy | Jewish & Israel News Algemeiner.com

Just read this...
http://www.algemeiner.com/2012/03/14/the-forrest-gump-of-israeli-advocacy/

The gadget Show's Suzy Perry caught stripping on camera

Yes I think it's a setup too!

If you're going to go 'Back to the future' then beware other more well connected time travellers

Thanks to BuzzFeed for the spot.

The greatest orator of our generation?

Ezra Levant's review of the first presidential debate held in Denver on October 3, 2012.

I am so pleased that Barack Obama has finally been caught out for the fraud that he is. I know that the BBC and most of the US media have been protecting Barack Obama for years and won't stop now but it seems that the US public have finally been exposed to the truth.

"I'll fix it, I said I'll fix it, OK!!!"

Sorry, Mrs NotaSheep!

Barack Obama having to listen for a change

The Commentator - Cheering? For Gordon Brown?

Q) Why did 80,000 people boo George Osborne?
A) Because that's the capacity of the Olympic Stadium.
It would have been more accurate to say
A) Because they are utterly ignorant of public finance.
http://m.thecommentator.com/article/1635/cheering_for_gordon_brown_

The two faces of Barack Obama

http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=LKTtr_XuEP8&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DLKTtr_XuEP8%26feature%3Dyoutu.be&gl=GB&client=mv-vf-uk&safesearch=always

This is the face of the Religion of Peace and Tolerance, or at least the face of the actions of the Religion of Peace and Tolerance

Pastor Umar Mulinde (a former Muslim) was doused in acid by Muslims after a Christmas Eve church service last year in Uganda.

Have the BBC ever reported the story of Pastor Umar Mulinde?

As in the above video, Pastor Mulinde not only discusses the acid attack and his conversion from Islam to Christianity, but also his view of Israel, and the Christian attitude towards persecution, I doubt that the BBC will be interested.