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Showing posts with label Sinai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sinai. Show all posts

Friday, 10 June 2011

I have complained about this morning's Today programme's deliberate omission of a salient fact regarding Israel's size post 1967 and now


Complaint type: Radio
Location: England
Radio station: Radio 4
Programme title: Today
Transmission date: 10/06/2011
Complaint category: Bias
Complaint summary: Deliberate omission of relevant information form a report
Full complaint: The piece just after the 8:30 news explained that Israel trebled in size after the 1967 war. It then went on to say thus the idea of exchanging land for peace was born and that that was the way forward. The piece did not explain that Israel exchanged the Sinai peninsular with Egypt in return for peace in 1982. Thus any listener who did not know the history might think that Israel was still that much larger than it was pre-1967 and was still over treble the size it was in 1967, when it is not. Was this a deliberate omission? If not why was this extremely relevant fact omitted?
Receive a reply: Yes
Contacted us before: Yes
Complaint related to previous contact: No
Title: Mr
First name: NotaSheep
Surname: MaybeaGoat
Email address: notasheepmaybeagoat@gmail.com
Under 13: No

Israel trebled in size after 1967 war

The BBC Today programme just after 08:30 pushed the 'fact' that Israel gained so much land (three times the size of Israel) in the 1967 war and that exchanging land for peace is the way forward. If you did not know any better you would be excused for believing that Israel was still three times larger than it was before the 1967 war. In fact Israel handed the Sinai peninsular back to Egypt, in exchange for peace in 1982.

The Sinai peninsular covers an area of around 23,000 square miles, Israel today covers just 8,522 square miles. The truth is that Israel gave up almost all of the land it captured in 1967 in return for peace with Egypt. Why did the BBC not report that?

Instead the BBC reported that some Israelis on a march through East Jerusalem taunted some Muslims; when was the last time the BBC reported the vitriolic attacks on Jews made by Hamas and Fatah leaders almost every day?

This sort of omission helps the BBC and the other haters of Israel to create a narrative of Israeli expansion and intransigence. This narrative is at variance with the facts that of the land promised to Israel by the Balfour Declaration, 78% was used to create Jordan and of the lands captured by Israel in the 1967 and 1973 wars almost all was returned to Egypt in return for a peace treaty.

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

Tuesday morning catch-up

Too many tabs open and not enough time to do them all justice so:

1)
'Britain’s public spending cuts are less severe than those in other European countries, an analysis has found.

As a percentage of national output, public spending in the UK will fall by less than the average for the 17 Eurozone countries.

The news that the cuts are less harsh than those our neighbours are experiencing has fuelled criticism of the BBC, which has often been accused of exaggerating the extent of the cuts without explaining why they are necessary.'
for more read this Mail article but don't bother waiting for the BBC to report it.


2) Sila explains why she had to pretend to be a Muslim, in Germany, but now has to show she's not because she posed nude for Playboy - Isn't multi-culturalism marvelous.


3)
'Refugees fleeing conflict in Libya are gathering in Calais in an attempt to enter Britain. '
That's the unsurprising news in The Telegraph. Now why would these people be so keen to come to the United Kingdom?
'“It is very difficult to get on the train, but I dream of England,” said Mohammed, who arrived in Calais on Tuesday after fleeing the war in Libya, where he was a migrant worker from Chad.

“Maybe I will hide, but I hope to find a way to get there somehow. England is a great country where I can have my human rights.”'
And, presumably, benefits.


4)
'A convicted terrorist banned from Britain for being a risk to national security has been stopped from being deported by the courts.'
Because a convicted terrorist's rights seem to trump those of innocent British people. The Telegraph has more, I doubt that the BBC has.


5) A cartoonist has discovered that lampooning George W. Bush was fine but lampooning Barack Obama is not so easy to sell:
'Ted Rall's cartoons and opinion pieces were all the rage when he was attacking George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and American soldiers.

But now that there's a man in the White House the press absolutely adore, the once syndicated polemicist claims he's having a hard time getting anyone to publish his work:

In the past, editorial rejections had numerous causes: low budgets, lack of space, an editor who simply preferred another creator's work over yours.

Now there' s a new cause for refusal: Too tough on the president.'
News Busters has the details.


6) It seems that college students might be getting brighter in the USA:
'A recent informal survey of 500 post-grads primarily between the ages of 22 and 28 — 83 percent of whom voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 — found just 27 percent of Obama’s previous youth supporters plan to vote for him again, The Daily Caller reports. That’s a drop of almost 60 points.

In contrast, of those who voted for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in 2008, a vast majority — 80 percent — said they would vote GOP again. An 80 percent majority of those newly disillusioned by Obama said they would consider voting for a Republican in 2012, too.'
Hot Air has more details.


7) Before you visit the Maldives for your 'holiday in paradise' please read this:
'Keep in mind that the Maldives constitution does not permit citizenship to non-Muslims and a U.S.-based Muslim group gave Maldives FM the “Muslim Democrat of the Year” award in part for denying non-Muslims citizenship. Upon receiving the award, the FM stated:

I’m very happy to be named Muslim Democrat of the year.

For now I’m very happy to be in a 100 per cent Muslim country having achieved homegrown democracy.'
Creeping Sharia has more, I doubt that the BBC has.


8) Next Big Future reports that:
'Harold Vinegar, the former chief scientists of Royal Dutch Shell, has devised an ambitious plan that would, if successful, turn Israel into one of the world’s leading oil producers. Now chief scientist for Israel Energy Initiatives (IEI), Vinegar maintains that the 238 sq km Shefela Basin holds the world’s second largest shale deposits outside the United States, from which around 250 billion barrels of oil – about the same as Saudi Arabia’s proven reserves, could be extractable. IEI estimates the marginal cost of production at between US$35 and US$40 per barrel. That, says Vinegar, would be cheaper than the US$60 or so per barrel it would cost to extract crude oil in more hospitable locations such as the Arctic, and even favourably with the US$30-US$40 in Brazilian deepwater. '
It always seemed a bit unfair that Israel had hardly any oil reserves when its neighbours dis. Of course Israel did have oil reserves whilst it had the Sinai peninsular but gave that back to Egypt in return for peace. I wonder how long before Egypt, Lebanon and the Palestinians claim the gas/oil is theirs?


9) The Mail seem shocked that female teachers are human beings outside of the classroom.
'Disgrace of the six drinking, pole-dancing primary school teachers who published the pictures on Facebook'
Seems like a complete non-story to me as the teachers were not in school, in loco parentis at the time or in any way linkable with the school at the time the photos were taken.


10) if you watched Gordon Ramsey in Malaysia last night; yes she did say "clittoral plant" and yes they do exist. To save you looking one up on Google, where the plant is not the first image returned, here's a picture
Here's what Herb Exploration have to say about the plant:
'Butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea, Fabaceae) has large, deeply blue flowers that are used to give a bluish hue to desserts in Thailand (anchan, anjan [อัญชัน]) and Malaysia (bunga telang). In our days, it is mostly substituted by synthetic food colourants. '

Friday, 25 March 2011

Wiping Israel off the map

Wiping Israel off the map was formerly the aim of Iran's President Ahmadinejad but it seems that Egypt Air has got there first. The Telegraph report the story thus:
'Israel has quietly dropped off Egypt Air’s route map this week.
The airline’s explanation is that “flights to Tel Aviv are operated by Air Sinai, which is a separate company.” It explains that “our website exclusively show destinations to which our own EA flights travel to.”
I’ve been unable to find a phone number, website or postal address for Air Sinai. That’s because it doesn’t seem to exist.  Wikipedia states it “ceased airline operations in its own right in 2002 and operates as a ‘paper airline’ for its parent company, Egypt Air.”
Like a fair few other people, I suspect, I’m wondering if this is a sign of things to come in the Egypt-Israel relationship, because of the growing influence of people who would like to see Israel erased from maps, not just route maps.'

 The trouble with that explanation is that Egypt Air's route map purports to include 'code shares'. 
Maps of the World  says this about Air Sinai:
'In order to run scheduled flights between Egypt and Israel, EgyptAir launched its subsidiary, Air Sinai, in the year 1982. This route was previously served by the Nefetiti Aviation. Presently Air Sinai, operating under EgyptAir, also runs a number of charter flights to various destinations. Air Sinai also runs wet lease services for other airlines.

The central hub of Air Sinai is Cairo in Egypt from which it operates Flights to Tel Aviv in Israel. Therefore, the only destination of Air Sinai, besides Cairo, is Tel Aviv. The airline runs three weekly flights from Cairo to Tel Aviv. Air Sinai also runs a number of charter flights between Egypt and Israel.

The fleet of Air Sinai consists of only one aircraft namely Boeing 737-500. This sole airplane of Air Sinai has served the airline for years without a mark on its body.

The airline offers several in-flight services and facilities. The services of Air Sinai include complementary food and drinks, various articles for in-flight shopping, newspapers, magazines and special facilities for old people and for the sick.

Contact: (Main Office)
Address:
Nile Hilton,
Cairo,
Egypt'
It looks as though Egypt Air was ashamed of its flying to Israel even before the recent revolt; I wonder why?


It should be remembered that Israel captured the whole of the Sinai during the 1967 war and gave it all back to Egypt in return for peace. The Sinai being larger in area than Israel and containing oil fields.