Tomorrow morning I am going to pre-record a half hour interview with Mark Regev, the Isaeli Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman. Last year, Regev was very active in explaining Israel's actions in its conflict with Hizbollah in Southern Lebanon and Palestinian insurgents in Gaza through media outlets in the English-speaking world. Do feel free to suggest any questions in the Comments.UPDATE: The programme can now be seen HERE. I found it a truly fascinating conversation.
At 8pm 18 Doughty Street is broadcasting a special programme on the scandal of junior doctor training. Joining me will be Dr Michelle Tempest, Dr Shazia Ovaisi, Dr Philip Lee and Vicky Ford. Again, let me have your questions.Blogger TV at 9 will be with Rachel North, Mike Denham, Michelle Tempest, Helen Szamuely and Vicky Ford.
38 comments:
Anthony Daniels is typically trenchant on the subject of junior doctors at the SAU: http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/001435.php
Well, the obvious one is what the heck are the Israeli's doing bombing innocent civilians, and continuing to occupy land that doesn't belong to them...
Does he think it is good PR to have replaced the 'Berlin Wall' as the most hated example of division and disunity in the modern world ?
What state is the 'roadmap' in these days ?
Perhaps he would care to apologise to Rachel Corrie's parents that they will never see their daughter again?
http://www.rachelcorrie.org/
Would they still have been able to bomb Southern Lebanon without the implicit consent of the United States and their billions of military 'aid'?
Glad to hear you are covering the junior doctor government disaster.
Given the current events in Northern Ireland, isn't it long overdue that Israel accepts a peace settlement with its neighbours and doesn't try to avoid jaw-jaw by reverting to war-war ?
Ask him what he thinks of my idea that Israel should be allowed to join NATO.
Is it not a fact that the Israeli state's attacks on Southern Lebeanon were long planned and nothing to do with the official premise of kidnap of a couple of soldiers?
We are not all Hezbollah here in the British Left. In fact we abhor their ideas of religious states being force-formed at the expense of existing populations on the ground.
Many of us also abhor many of the actions of the State of Israel without for one minute sympathising with those who deny her right to exist.
Why is everyone anonymous on this one?
I may be about to find out ....
Should Israel pay reparations for semi succeeding in their aim to bomb Lebanon back 20 years?
I'd be more surprised if Israel had no advance plans for attacks on Lebanon (or Syria, SA, Egypt, Jordan, Iran and a whole host of other countries). It's called contingency planning and all militaries have them.
Well, less than 90 minutes and someone mentions the Nazis. Pretty good I suppose, considering the density of leftists who've materialised...
So it's not just Iain who sucks up to the Israelis round here.
Beau, I have deleted that comment and the subsequent ones commenting on it. I can't moderate 3 or 400 comments a day. If something is pointed out to me that is offensive I then take action.
Verity, that comment was beneath contempt.
Iain Dale dijo...
"Verity, that comment was beneath contempt."
Can you send me an email and let me know which comment that was that was beneath contempt? I cannot imagine how far I must have sunk to be beneath the anomymongs.
I have no precise questions for Mr Regev, I would simply like to convey to him in broad terms (as I'm sure you will do in your own way) my support for Israel, and my desire that Israel should continue to strike back and be victorious against the inhuman, evil, civilian-targetting terrorist barbarians who seek the annihilation of the only democatic State in the Middle East. Long live Israel.
"Well, the obvious one is what the heck are the Israeli's doing bombing innocent civilians, and continuing to occupy land that doesn't belong to them..."
When Palestinians stop blowing up innocent civilians? When Hamas stop calling for an Islamic Fundamentalist state? When the Arabs accept Israel's right to exist? When the Arabs admit that they didn't do anything about the Palestinian refugee probably because it suited them to have an army of malcontents and a distraction from their own oppression?
"Can you send me an email and let me know which comment that was that was beneath contempt? I cannot imagine how far I must have sunk to be beneath the anomymongs."
Honey, if you have to ask...
Can you ask Regev...
How many countries has Israel attacked for whatever reason in the last 30 years? How many has Iran attacked in the same period?
On that basis, why should Iran not be regarded as a more responsible, peaceable nation, and why should Israel be allowed nuclear weapons if Iran is not?
I see 4 postings out of 25 have been deleted, including one I made myself.
As my own contained no foul language, nor racist remarks, was not defamatory nor intemperate, I have to say I find this all very strange.
I've no doubt that the comment would have been posted by the BBC, and indeed if it could be criticised in any way, it would be because it was scarcely original.
That others may have disagreed with it or even been offended is by the by.
So much for the free speech of the blogosphere.
I repeat, O tempora O mores
Hows he feel about using cluster bombs and the apparent Murder of UN observers, Israel has a right to exist and defend itself but not to act like barbarians.
Anonymous at 10.28. I deleted the post by Verity and all those that related to it. Without her post being there the other three didn't make much sense. I also deleted one equating ISrael to the Nazis.
I was probably the first one to use the N word; and let me assure tonemcd that I consider myself centre-right in political terms.
My point was that the military superiority of Israel in comparison to its enemies and the inability or unwillingness of other states to intervene means that she can and does behave in a way that I find shocking.
The latest trashing of Lebanon, including the use of cluster bombs is a prime example (which could not be justified by the kidnap of the 2 Israeli soldiers, as such actions did nothing to aid their recovery).
I recall Mr Regev's appearances on BBC at the time and his total rejection of any criticism whatsoever.
I found his attitude towards the death, displacement and suffering [and nearly all commentators thought the Israeli response to be disproportionate -including William Hague, I believe]to be callous and unpleasant and I stand by my earlier post.
However, it appears that I must truly be a facist (or if tonemcd is right a closet lefty) or be in some other way morally repugnant to my fellow men, if what I have to say is so dreadful that it cannot be posted. In the circumstances, I realise that this blog would be happier to see the back of me and so I promise that this will be my final posting of any kind on Iain Dale's Diary.
Ask him if anything depresses him.
one more anonymous, 12:00: If you mess with a 800lb gorilla, it is going to sit on you.
I don't suppose you got to ask him if he's a friend of Tzuriel Raphael?
Regarding the post by me that Iain deleted, he has agreed that I can make a correction.
When I referred to Rachel Corrie as a pancake (which was an epithet that was all over the internet when she first got run over by a tank), Iain was under the impression that she was a little girl of 12. He was understandably shocked that anyone would refer to a dead child as a pancake and deleted my comment.
Iain was mistaken. Rachel Corrie was 23 years of age and was a vicious and well-known "peace activist" who supported Palestinian terrorism against Israel. She died because she was grandstanding in front of an Israeli tank, presumably unaware that the driver couldn't see her, to stop the Israeli army from demolishing a house.
Far from being the innocent 12 year old girl that Iain had understood her to be, Rachel Corrie was a 23-year old professional hater.
Rachel Corrie was run over by a bulldozer, not a tank.
There's a reasonably good one-woman play about Rachel Corrie. It's very biased, and as naive as she was, but I would still recommend seeing it if you have the chance.
As to whether or not she was a "professional hater", I think that is a loaded expression, and is unhelpful.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031201640.html
How would you spin this ?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2032492,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
How is this improving international relations ?
verity - 'professional hater' It takes one to know one - go and crawl back under the stone you came from - Iain puts it far better than I can - 'beneath contempt' - Yup.
One thing I should add is that I don't consider that the Israeli army not the driver of the bulldozer were culpable in her death. I do recall the ISM publishing some photos to make it look like they were, which was extraordinarily dim even by their standards.
Jeremy - You are right. She was flattened by a bulldozer. Catapillar, IIRC.
Did you ever see any photos of her, her face contorted with hatred? Did you ever see her grandstanding to Arab children, burning her own country's flag? And dressed in a hijab, for God's sake. She was a hysterical self-promoting lefty Israel-hater and should not have had the arrogance to think she could stop a tractor by force of personality.
anonimo 3:03 - Iain, as explained above, had been under the impression that Rachel Corrie was a child of 12.
Not only was she an adult, but a very fine candidate for the Darwin Award.
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