Hillel Neuer schools PLO's Diana Buttu & a HRW representative

What's fascinating is that the Al Jazeera anchorman is less sneering and openly anti-Israel than most BBC 'journalists' I see performing a similar role.

Watch "CAMERA Video Brief Exposes Economist and al Jazeera Anti-Israel Bias" on YouTube

The Economist -- and al Jazeera following suit -- took biased treatment of Israel to new depths with a segment claiming Israel, in its apparently diabolical attempts to torment Arabs, resorts to setting traffic lights so that Arabs must wait longer than Jews. The absurdity of this false charge led to this video alert, aired on Jewish Life TV, and prompted CAMERA to prepare a detailed video of its own exposing the bogus claims, which can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ectEf4...

Not surprising news, so what's the BBC's excuse?

Frontpage reports that 'Al Jazeera Dedicated to the Service of the Muslim Brotherhood, says Arab Newspaper'. Here's some more detail:

'Qatar’s relations with the Muslim Brotherhood are multi-pronged. On the media front, Qatar has dedicated Al Jazeera, the country’s most prized non-financial asset, to the service of the Muslim Brotherhood and turned it into what prominent Middle East scholar Alain Gresh calls a “mouthpiece for the Brotherhood.” The channel has in turn been repeatedly praised by the Brotherhood for its “neutrality.”'

Well that's not surprising, but what's the BBC's excuse?

A complete misnomer?

What would you expect from a website called 'Cross-Cultural Understanding'? I am prepared to believe that it is not articles like this one from 2007:

'Did UK Israel Lobby Destroy Life of Jenny Tonge?

By Woodrow Gillian

ccun.org, September 4, 2007

I read the article Why Does The Israeli Lobby Have Its Grips On The Western World? By Ali Al-Hail. The article had the following quote.

"For example Baroness Jenny Tonge, a British Liberal Democrat, exclaimed, according to the BBC during September, 2006 that, the Israeli Lobby in the West has its grips on Western Foreign policies. The British Baroness was responding to the 'presumably' Western democratic governments in failing to, at the minimum condemning Israel for its obvious wrongdoing against the Palestinians."

Here is some additional information about Jenny Tonge that is interesting.

in January 2004, Tonge was sacked as liberal democrat leader by Charles Kennedy the Liberal Democrat leader "after saying she could understand why a Palestinian would become a suicide bomber"

In 2004, Tonge led pro-Palestinian activists and several Lib Dem MPs to stand for a two minute silence in honour of the deceased Hamas leader; Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

In 2004, the daugher of Jenny Tonge died of "accidental" electrocution.

Jenny Tonge left politics in 2005 to care for her grandchildren, and was replaced by Susan Kramer.

Jenny Tonge voiced support for Palestinians. After voicing that support for Palestinians, Jenny Tonge's daughter died. Jenny Tonge then quit politics which prevents her from supporting Palestinians. Jenny Tonge's political seat was taken over by a Zionist person.

Quit an array of interesting coincidences.'

I wonder how CCUN have reacted to Jenny Tonge's latest outburst and subsequent sacking from the Liberal Democrats?

'Oh NotaSheep you mustn't take the rantings of obscure websites to heart, just ignore them' - I hear the murmurings from those who defend the indefensible day after day, so long as the indefensible is said by or on behalf of Islam. Well CCUN is actually part of Al Jazeera

In case that image is too small, the text reads 'Al-Jazeerah was founded and has been edited by Dr. Hassan Ali El-Najjar since January 24, 2002, and ccun.org since May 23, 2007 '

Should Jerusalem stay Jewish?

Mordechai Kedar says yes, explains why and takes on al-Jazeera. It would be nice to see him explain Middle East history to the anti-Israel lobby at the BBC.

The one hundred and forty ninth weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's award is presented to to Al Jazeera for this Tweet

'Op-ed: Conflict in #Israel-#Palestine could take generations to resolve, says @ahmedmoor aje.me/njO8fD'

I don't think that I could say anything other than "No shit, Sherlock"

And the missing factor is?

English Al Jazeera  are running a season of reports on slavery 'A 21st century Evil'. The reporting is by Rageh Omaar, I wonder if he will find the time and space to put the slave trade into context by mentioning the Arab traders that ran much of the African end of the slave trade from the 16th to the 19th centuries. I wonder if he will also find the space to mention the white slave trade as practiced by Arab slave traders from before the 8th century.

Will Rageh Omaar also explain for context that whilst slavery was outlawed in the western world from the start of the 19th century and across much of the rest of the world over the next century, the Muslim world only officially abolished slavery much later, for example Saudi Arabia and Yemen in 1962 and the United Arab Emirates in 1963. This inconvenient truth seems to be something that western self-hating liberals often ignore as they castigate the west for its part in the slave trade and cal for reparations to be paid to the victims of the slave trade.

Al Jazeera's odd choice of word

Al Jazeera Tweet:

'Israeli soldier spends fifth year detained http://aje.me/lYJKGQ'

Yes that's right, according to Al Jazeera Gilad Shalit has been detained! Funny, I thought he had been captured by Hamas terrorists and held for five years without any contact with the outside world, without any communication with the Red Cross in contravention of the norms of international law and civilized behaviour.

For more about Gilad Shalit please read these articles as youwon't learn much from Al Jazeera or the BBC.

What's going on at Fukushima and/or Al Jazeera

I have noticed that whilst most of the world's media have stopped covering the problems at the Fukushima nuclear power station following the earthquake and tsunami, there is one media outlet that seems obsessed - Al Jazeera. I am receiving several near apocalyptic tweets a day from Al Jazeera. Recent ones include:

Fukushima: It's much worse than you think http://aje.me/mTe6U5

#Fukushima: At least 966 square kilometers of #Japan will be uninhabitable due to the #nuclear disaster. http://bit.ly/jgPTsn

Officials have finally admitted that 3 #nuclear reactors at #Fukushima experienced meltdown. http://bit.ly/jgPTsn

Study: There is an unexplained 35% spike in infant mortality in the U.S. northwest after #Fukushima. http://bit.ly/jgPTsn

Like BP's #oilspill last year, officials initially underestimated the extent of the #radiation calamity at #Fukushima. http://bit.ly/jgPTsn

So-called 'hot particles' of radiation, emitted from #Fukushima, have continued to fall internationally. http://bit.ly/jgPTsn

These hot particles of radiation can lodge in the lungs and digestive tract - leading to cancer. #Fukushima http://bit.ly/jgPTsn

The problems of #Fukushima are 'infinite' because the melted #radioactive cores must be stored 'forever.' http://bit.ly/jgPTsn

We're still within a crucial period post-#earthquake. A 'very big' aftershock could further exacerbate #Fukushima. http://bit.ly/jgPTsn

The question will always be: Why weren't #Japan's systems redundant enough? Whose fault was #Fukushima? http://bit.ly/jgPTsn

So are Al Jazeera the only news agency telling the truth about Fukushima? Are all the rest hiding the truth from the world's populace?  Or does Al Jazeera being based in Qatar, where oil and gas account for 50% of GDP, roughly 85% of export earnings, and 70% of government revenues, account for the negative attitude towards nuclear power?

Coming to an American TV soon

That's a trailer for 'Saladin' an animated series that the new English-language Al Jazeera Children’s Channel is scheduled to launch with by the end of 2012. Watch the start of the above video and you will hear Saladin say that he would 'lead his people in a fight for freedom... a Crusader King who would enslave my people, he would take our lands and our lives.' Interesting.... Saladin fought and defeated the Third Crusade but let's look at why the Crusaders came to the Holy Land...

Let's skip the Jewish history of Israel that predates Christianity; by definition, Jesus having been born and dies a Jew. The Holy Land had been Christian since the Roman Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity and had been the centre of the Byzantine Empire after the partition of the Roman Empire. The Holy Land had become a predominantly Christian region for many years before the birth of the religion of Islam. The rise of Islam lead to the invasion of Syria in the 7th century AD and later of Israel. Islam being a conquering religion, in the year 1009 the Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem although in 1039 his successor, after getting large payments for the right to do so, allowed the Byzantine Empire to rebuild it. This was a time of Islamic conquest and so the First Crusade was an attempt by Christian armies to reconquer the Holy Land from the Islamic armies who had only just been recently turned back from their conquest of various parts of Europe including Northern Spain, for it was Islam that had invaded Christian Europe first.
During the 11th Century the Norman Robert Guiscard had reconquered Calabria and was holding what had traditionally been Byzantine territory against the Muslims of Sicily. Pisa, Genoa and Catalonia were all actively fighting Islamic strongholds in Majorca, freeing the coasts of Italy and Catalonia from Muslim raids. So it was against a background of losing territories to Islam that lead to Byzantine Emperor Alexius I's call for holy war to defend Christendom, and to recapture the lost lands starting with Jerusalem.

When I tell people about this story of The Crusades they are shocked as it seems that the Islamic narrative that the Crusades were about invading Islamic lands has become the chosen narrative in the West as well as Islamic lands. You can imagine the confusion on their faces when I tell them that in 1683 Islamic armies laid siege to Vienna at a time when Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe.

I am sure that the showing of Saladin on American TV will help to ensure that the Islamic narrative of being a religion under attack, not being the aggressor religion, will continue to prevail in the USA.

if the BBC won't interview Hillel Neuer at least Al Jazeera will

UN Watch's Hillel Neuer being given airtime by Al Jazeera and accorded more respect than the BBC tend to accord others who stand up for Israel.

The eagle eyes of (not Action man) but Israelly Cool and his contacts

Israelly Cool has made two good spots recently. The first is about Al Jazeera's recycling of Mosque burning images and the second is a bizarre Star Wars related one. Take a look a these and whilst there have a browse around an interesting site from a prolific blogger.

The Gaza flotilla debated on Al Jazeera

An interesting debate on Al Jazeera between Ghada Karmi (described as a Middle East analyst in fact 'she has been writing in favour of the one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1990') and Jonathan Sacerdoti of the Zionist Federation.

What is interesting is how polite the interviewer is to Jonathan Sacerdoti, especially when compared with the treatment Israeli spokesman normally get from the BBC or Channel 4.

Would an al Jazeera owned ITV be any less anti Israel than the BBC?

The Standard reports that:

"Rumours persist that the Arabic station based in Dohar, Qatar, might make an audacious bid for the beleaguered British broadcaster. ITV announced losses of £2.7billion last year and looks to cut 600 jobs. Al Jazeera, which was first started in 1996 with an $150million grant from the Emir of Qatar, has established itself as a global news force with regular bulletins from Osama Bin Laden and it has won praise for its coverage of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Emir continues to bankroll the Arabic station with annual subsidies. But what lends plausibility to the notion of an Al Jazeera tie-up is that many of the staff at the Arab network are old timers at the BBC and ITN. "

The best quote in the article is from Peter Mandelson who is quoted as saying:

"My Lords, I have not heard any information about such an exotic proposal as Al Jazeera taking over ITV, and I will be keeping my ears open...I will be eternally vigilant in pursuit of the powers that I have, but they are necessarily limited powers."