Tuesday, November 27th, 2012
It rains rocket from Gaza, never bombs from Israel
Alistair Burt is the UK
Foreign Office minister in charge of Middle East affairs. He is also a former
officer of the Conservative Friends of Israel lobby group. He resigned from that
position when he became a minister, but leopards don’t suddenly change their
spots.
Judge for yourself.
I sent a question through my MP asking why
Government ministers such as Burt quote exact numbers of rockets fired from Gaza
without also giving the corresponding numbers of bombs, rockets, shells and
other ordnance poured into Gaza by the Israeli military.
In his letter of reply Burt says
“there are no reliable statistics on the number of bombs and other ordnance fired by the Israeli Defence Force on Gaza and Israel does not make public this information”.In that case, should he not make it clear when quoting Gaza’s rocket numbers that Israel refuses to provide numbers of their own vastly superior missiles used to bombard Gaza?
Yesterday in Parliament David Amess, another
officer of the Conservative Friends of Israel, was playing the familiar game of
planting Parliamentary questions designed to deflect attention from Israel’s
malodorous reputation. He asked Mr Burt what recent reports the Secretary of
State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs [William Hague] had received on the
number of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel since 30 October; what recent
discussions he has had with the government of Israel on such attacks; and if he
would make a statement.
Mr Burt obligingly replied: “We have received
reports that 287 rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel between 30 October and
14 November. According to Israeli Defence Forces figures, 1,443 rockets were
fired during the period 14-21 November.” He added that Mr Hague spoke to Mr
Lieberman on 17 and 21 November and he, Burt, spoke to him on 21 November and
again on 22 November.
Such precision is of course commendable but
grossly lopsided and plainly calculated to mislead Parliament and public. It is
astonishing that in all its discussions with Israel’s ministers the Foreign
Office hasn’t managed to extract data on Israeli bombing and rocket attacks.
Mr Burt, I venture to suggest, ought to paint a
balanced picture and not simply regurgitate Israeli propaganda without caveats
and facts from the other side. He should inform the Israeli authorities that
British ministers will not in future quote figures for Palestinian rockets
unless accompanied by corresponding numbers of Israel’s. These should then be
cross-checked with Palestinian and independent sources for proper
monitoring.
The same goes for any remarks about Iran’s so far
non-existent nukes. There should be equal emphasis on Israel’s vast arsenal of
WMDs.
Uprooted Palestinian 
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!
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