Monday, November 11, 2002

BBC Reports the News

By Naomi Ragen

This morning, we awoke to the horrifying news that the Al Aksa Marytrs Brigade, Yasir Arafat's own personal scum army of Al Fatah, was responsible for the following: Sometime Sunday night, one or two (they are still not sure) terrorist scum walked into Kibbutz Metzer.They shot two people standing outside the kibbutz dining room. Forty-two year old Tirza Damri was killed instantly, her companion fled. Hearing the shots, the head of the Kibbutz's board came to investigate. He was murdered on the spot. Not satisfied, the terrorists, armed with machine guns, walked into the home of a young, divorced mother of two. In cold blood, he (they? Did it take two Palestinian "martyrs" to murder a defenseless young mother and her two children?) murdered her, then shot to death her four and five year old children.

The way this was reported on BBC: Five "people" were killed." (not murdered, you get killed in a car accident, BBC).No mention that among the "people" murdered was a young mother two small children. BBC did, to their credit, not call the scum militants or activists. This time, they actually said "alleged terrorists," so I guess we are making some progress, all things considered. Although what the "alleged " is doing there, I don't know. Could we mistake such an act for anything other than terrorism? The report didn't mention that it was Mr. Arafat's organization who took reponsibility, for this and for the car bomb headed for Kibbutz Metzer the day before which was apprehended, the two bombers blowing themselves to smithereens before they could enter the Kibbutz, probably saving dozens of lives. " Two Palestinians were killed in a car bomb" was how BBC put it. This, after Israel had blown up an "alleged" bomb factory in Jenin. As for the report's interest? How was this going to effect the Likud primaries? How would the candidates react?

The death of a young mother and a four and five year old child by Yasir Arafat's "military" wing (real soldiers these, taking on four and five year olds.) is interesting, BBC, for several reasons. Mr. Arafat is a signator to an agreement called the Oslo Accords, for which he won a Nobel Peace Prize, in which he commits himself and his organization to cease all terror activities. I think people need to be reminded of that little nugget of information and its relevance, don't you? The fact that the murder of noncombatants is a crime against humanity, was not in the report, not considered interesting or essential information for viewers. I think it should have been, don't you? Particularly since Human Rights Watch pointed this out just the other day.

In the end, let this stand as a record of the crimes committed against the Jewish people, post Holocaust, when once again Jewish women and their small children are murdered in cold blood, while an indifferent world stands by and watches. Perhaps calling a young mother and her two small children "people" makes such a report easier for the BBC audience to swallow and allowing them to continue their sympathetic attitude towards Mr. Arafat and his marytrs.

Naomi Ragen