Tag: israel

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BBC Verify is a velvet hammer for smashing inconvenient truths

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What has happened to the BBC?

What happened to the state system that garnered cross-party political and general public support? Once heralded as a bastion of anti-bias news and public education and entertainment has turned into the Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda run by a veritable army of Goebbels.

Baroness Stowell, the chairman of the Lords communications committee, told Ms Turness that “BBC Verify is not necessarily seen universally as something that is helping the BBC’s reputation or building trust and confidence”.

Sir Keir Starmer claims BBC has backed him over inheritance tax raid on farmers

“Die beste Propaganda ist jene, die sozusagen unsichtbar wirkt, das ganze öffentliche Leben durchdringt, ohne dass das öffentliche Leben irgendeine Kenntnis von der propagandistischen Initiative hat.” Joseph Goebbels

Goebbels would be proud of the BBC, his quote in English is a confirmation of BBC Verify’s aspirations “The best propaganda is that which, as it were, works invisibly, penetrates the whole of life without the public having any knowledge of the propagandistic initiative.”

The new BBC Verify department must be approaching it’s first anniversary and I confess I did not believe the former government would allow it to continue for more than a few weeks. It was, after all, offering it’s opinion as fact and opposing opinion’s as “misinformation” or “disinformation”.

I am thinking of writing a paper on BBC Verify but as I am in the middle of a real project have decided it will have to wait, nonetheless, for those fans of Michael Connolly’s “Lincoln Lawyer” Mickey Haller (my current alter-ego) here’s what I think he would think of Goebbels pride and joy, BBC Verify:

BBC Verify? That’s rich. More like a velvet hammer for smashing inconvenient truths. It’s not about finding facts; it’s about dressing up bias in a sharp suit and calling it gospel. If you can spin the lie well enough, package it with enough polish, folks will believe the sun rises in the west if you tell them it does. It’s like hiring a defence attorney not to prove your innocence but to convince the world that guilt is a virtue.

The real irony? They call it ‘Verify,’ but it’s got the credibility of a used-car salesman swearing that a lemon is a Ferrari. It’s not about truth—truth’s messy and inconvenient. It’s about control, about shaping the narrative so the big fish stay big, and the little ones keep swimming in circles. In my line of work, we call that a con. But when you’ve got the money and the power, you call it journalism.”

With my sincere apologies to used car salesman.

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Turning Away

In the heart of the storm, where the winds cry for peace,
The land of the people who’ve long sought release—
Israel, surrounded, stands firm in the fight,
But shadows grow darker; the day fades from light.

Once friends now fall silent, their voices grown cold,
While the flames of injustice take root and grow bold.
Politicians, once steadfast, bow low to the crowd,
Drowning the truth in the noise, false and loud.

They court the few voices that scream with disdain,
Turning from justice, embracing the pain.
Forgotten are those who stand silent, but strong,
For their courage and reason, no place they belong.

“Silence in the face of evil is evil itself,”
Bonhoeffer warned us, though left on the shelf.
His words, like a beacon, call out from the past—
Yet still, we allow wrongs to amass.

The people of Israel, their history profound,
Are left in the cold as their cries are unbound.
A people of strength, through centuries long,
Yet betrayed once again by a world gone wrong.

Golda once asked, “Where is the shame?”
When good men are silent, we’re all to blame.
“Our task is not to curse the darkness, but to light a candle,”
But instead, we let fear our resolve dismantle.

We watch and we wait, as history repeats,
While the fire of injustice consumes the streets.
And what of the leaders who turn away now?
Shamed beyond words, but they still take a bow.

We must remember, as the dark curtains fall,
That a voice raised for truth is a voice raised for all.
The cries of the weak, the pleas of the strong,
Will one day break through the silence, lifelong.

So to those in the shadows, who cower and flee—
History will judge what you neglected to decree.
When the world turns its back and refuses to stand,
We betray not just Israel, but every land.

Quotes Referenced:

  1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
    “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”
    – Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian and anti-Nazi dissident.
  2. Golda Meir:
    “Where is the shame?”
    – Golda Meir, fourth Prime Minister of Israel, referring to the global indifference to Jewish suffering.
  3. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel:
    “Our task is not to curse the darkness, but to light a candle.”
    – Abraham Joshua Heschel, Polish-born American rabbi and Jewish theologian, emphasising action in the face of injustice.

Note

Every Saturday, we witness crowds marching, not for justice or peace, but in twisted support of murder and rape—their chants reverberating around the globe. Even more alarming is the sight of weak politicians, crumbling under the weight of these cries, giving in to demands drenched in hatred. This is not the 1930s, but once again, the stench of treachery spreads, no longer confined to Europe—it metastasises like a cancer, poisoning hearts and minds across nations.

Here in the UK, our own government, rather than standing resolute against terrorism, has instead chosen complicity. By resuming payments to the UNRWA, an organisation that brazenly supports terror, they act in the interests of those who seek Israel’s destruction. And now, they move to restrict arms sales to Israel—stripping a nation of its right to defend itself against the forces of evil encircling it. These are not mere policy decisions; they are acts of betrayal, paving the way for further violence, leaving Israel defenceless while terror is emboldened.