Believe nothing from the BBC

I started to write about the coverage we’ve been getting all across the board, radio, TV, newspapers, but then came word about the IDF casualties in the snake pits of Gaza and nothing made sense any more. A nation mourns. Evil had a good day. But Amalek will fall. Israel will prevail.

This is Israel. These are all our children.
I remember a park on Aliya Street in Haifa outside the Naval base. It was tranquil and some old-timers were reading the paper. A child ran out from somewhere and nearly ran into the traffic. The elderly man with whom I’d been gabbing rushed over, sternly brought the child to safety, disciplined him, and then lovingly caressed the child and kissed him on the cheek.

“Your grandson?” I asked.

“No. This is Israel. These are all our children.”

So to any one with a Jewish heart, this hurts, the news we’ve been getting. They are all our kids. I summon Christian hearts as well as you too suffer from this plague.

As for the coverage, it has been strange. I have been reading about writers in the Arab press siding against Hamas and rooting for Israel.

So they too have awakened to the pestilence that has invaded their borders, “tribe against tribe, greedy, barbarous and cruel.” (Lawrence of Arabia)  

What, then, is to be said of the non-Arab press? I could give you the grand tour, but prefer to focus on the BBC – the BBC because it reaches millions around the world.

When I turned from journalism to writing novels, the work, of course, was called fiction. That’s what you’ve been getting from the BBC. Fiction.

The man who created “60 Minutes” for CBS, Don Hewitt came up with a simple guiding principle for this most successful news program:

“Tell me a story.”

So forget news. You’re getting stories.

For the BBC, the stories coming out of Gaza are shaped to inflame the world against the Jewish State because it is a Jewish state.  

Only yesterday I read that the Israeli government warned journalists covering Gaza that they are on their own. Israel cannot guarantee their safety.

Well it’s about time…but why not take the next step and forbid journalists from access altogether? Many are “journalists” in name only. They are enemy combatants.

Instead of guns, they use words. Instead of rockets, they use pictures. They have perfected the “dead baby strategy” to inflame public opinion against Israel.

In particular I am thinking about that British mieskeit who in the midst of Gaza can only find “suffering civilians” but not a single terrorist. The place is crawling with them but this BBC reporter can’t find a single one. The Jews are to blame. That is her story.

I don’t recall this klafteh saying a word during all those years when Jewish parents and their children were being bombarded from Hamas rockets.

Neither do I recall a similar tararum when the UK went to war against Argentina to recapture the Falkland Islands back in 1982. Not a single British child was being threatened from inside the UK…no bombs were falling on London…and still Margaret Thatcher sent troops a thousands miles away.

During that 74-day war 649 Argentines were killed. Britain suffered 225 casualties, and for what? British honor. Nothing more.

For crying out loud – Israel is fighting a bloodthirsty enemy directly at its doorstep! Israel is fighting for its life.

The BBC and now other “experts” talk about this conflict being so complicated. Nothing about this is complicated. Ask anyone in Israel.

If they don’t shoot at us, we don’t shoot at them.

Simple enough?

Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva.