As a long-time visitor to, and student of, Israel and the Occupied Territories, I can't disagree with much of what you've said here. On mainstream media's decline I strongly concur. I've been a freelance journo for almost 30 years and I've largely given up working with the editors that now gatekeep the narratives we are supposed to use to understand our world. Hence my own substack. On the Israel-Palestinian issue, I agree that the current govt, and much of the 75 year history of the state of Israel is, and has been, catastrophic for most Palestinians. However, I have researched Palestinian politics and can only conclude that that series of Palestinian leaderships/elites have summarily failed their people. From the sale of lands to pre-Israel Zionists by wealthy Palestinian families, to the PLO/Fatah and to Hamas and so on, Palestinian leaders have focussed on armed resistence at the expense of actual social welfare and, perhaps, progress. The PLO, whom I spent some time researching in the 90's, was a military-political organisation that largely eschewed its role in areas of education, employment, healthcare, social welfare etc. Fatah, as its remnant, is ill-equiped to govern based at least to some extent on this foundation. As a result Pal NGOs were forced to take up the slack and when groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad came along, working at ground level, it was clear to me in the early 90's that these groups would become political tenable. In the case of the latest boil over at Al-Aqsa, I have some intelligence that there was an informal deal between Israeli and Pal groups (not sure which) that Muslims would vacate the mosque at night to allow access for Jews during Pesach. While, this doesn't make what happened in Al-Aqsa right, such a deal would represent something like a sensible - not neccesarily fair, and likely with gritted teeth - arrangements between people, at a human, eye to eye level, that might have worked in the interests of overall harmony. I understand the politics, but such agreements can work and might allow human scale solutions to emerge, perhaps to become more influential. Naive maybe, but politics as normal isn't working. For anyone. Would be interested if anyone has any intel on that al-Aqsa arrangement. I first heard it on an early report on Al-Jazeera english. Thanks all. Keep thinking. Keep talking.
Wow Jonathan once again you have brilliantly parsed out the diabolically clever language manipulation of the BBC and made ever so clear the nature and intent of western media as it pertains to the Palestinian struggle
Wow Jonathan once again you have brilliantly parsed the diabolically clever deceptive language manipulation of the BBC and made ever so clear the nature and intent of western media as it pertains to the Palestinian struggle. Bravo please continue your amazing work - la lucha continua!
Why does any self respecting journalist want to work for any of the main media outlets?
Money! They are willing to leave their conscience at the door. They know full well what they are doing, but do they? They are creating and perpetuating the racist, unjust, unequal world we live in. A world that is at crisis point on so many levels and their culpability and responsibility for it will surely come back to haunt them. Thank goodness journalists like Jonathan Cook are trying to forestall them.
Excellent article! The corporate and government-funded/government-allied media should never be used for anything other than sports scores and crossword puzzles. The fact that anyone listens to a word these stenographers say is the great tragedy of our times, as without their insidious propaganda the mass of people could easily see who their real enemies were!
History's DARKEST irony. WHILE the U$/UK-lead 1945/6 Nuremberg Nazi War Crimes trlals were in-progress. U$/UK-backed white EUROPEAN Ashkenazi Jews began 7-decades ongoing - KILLING brown semite-Muslim PALESTINIANS! PERSECUTED in their own land - like Jews in Nazi Germany!!
As a long-time visitor to, and student of, Israel and the Occupied Territories, I can't disagree with much of what you've said here. On mainstream media's decline I strongly concur. I've been a freelance journo for almost 30 years and I've largely given up working with the editors that now gatekeep the narratives we are supposed to use to understand our world. Hence my own substack. On the Israel-Palestinian issue, I agree that the current govt, and much of the 75 year history of the state of Israel is, and has been, catastrophic for most Palestinians. However, I have researched Palestinian politics and can only conclude that that series of Palestinian leaderships/elites have summarily failed their people. From the sale of lands to pre-Israel Zionists by wealthy Palestinian families, to the PLO/Fatah and to Hamas and so on, Palestinian leaders have focussed on armed resistence at the expense of actual social welfare and, perhaps, progress. The PLO, whom I spent some time researching in the 90's, was a military-political organisation that largely eschewed its role in areas of education, employment, healthcare, social welfare etc. Fatah, as its remnant, is ill-equiped to govern based at least to some extent on this foundation. As a result Pal NGOs were forced to take up the slack and when groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad came along, working at ground level, it was clear to me in the early 90's that these groups would become political tenable. In the case of the latest boil over at Al-Aqsa, I have some intelligence that there was an informal deal between Israeli and Pal groups (not sure which) that Muslims would vacate the mosque at night to allow access for Jews during Pesach. While, this doesn't make what happened in Al-Aqsa right, such a deal would represent something like a sensible - not neccesarily fair, and likely with gritted teeth - arrangements between people, at a human, eye to eye level, that might have worked in the interests of overall harmony. I understand the politics, but such agreements can work and might allow human scale solutions to emerge, perhaps to become more influential. Naive maybe, but politics as normal isn't working. For anyone. Would be interested if anyone has any intel on that al-Aqsa arrangement. I first heard it on an early report on Al-Jazeera english. Thanks all. Keep thinking. Keep talking.
Wow Jonathan once again you have brilliantly parsed out the diabolically clever language manipulation of the BBC and made ever so clear the nature and intent of western media as it pertains to the Palestinian struggle
Thank you keep on writing the world needs you
- la lucha continua!
Wow Jonathan once again you have brilliantly parsed the diabolically clever deceptive language manipulation of the BBC and made ever so clear the nature and intent of western media as it pertains to the Palestinian struggle. Bravo please continue your amazing work - la lucha continua!
Why does any self respecting journalist want to work for any of the main media outlets?
Money! They are willing to leave their conscience at the door. They know full well what they are doing, but do they? They are creating and perpetuating the racist, unjust, unequal world we live in. A world that is at crisis point on so many levels and their culpability and responsibility for it will surely come back to haunt them. Thank goodness journalists like Jonathan Cook are trying to forestall them.
Excellent article! The corporate and government-funded/government-allied media should never be used for anything other than sports scores and crossword puzzles. The fact that anyone listens to a word these stenographers say is the great tragedy of our times, as without their insidious propaganda the mass of people could easily see who their real enemies were!
History's DARKEST irony. WHILE the U$/UK-lead 1945/6 Nuremberg Nazi War Crimes trlals were in-progress. U$/UK-backed white EUROPEAN Ashkenazi Jews began 7-decades ongoing - KILLING brown semite-Muslim PALESTINIANS! PERSECUTED in their own land - like Jews in Nazi Germany!!
Where the hell is United Nations ???
Is it not United Nations' objective to facilitate peeace in the world ???
Why is there not a United Nations peace-keeping force on the border between Israel and Palestine ???
It was ever thus. Growing up in Belfast during the conflict here, one rarely heard a balanced report on the BBC.