British Left: degenerate and ignorant

Great bit of tv this evening on channel 5 most of which i missed! We are long overdue a bit of thundering realism on the issue of how elements of the left have jumped into bed with islamic terrorists. So to hear these apologists revered as 'sewage' certainly made me pay attention.

As a taster: Hitzbollah and its 'cause' represent an apologists 'indignant fantasy' and the apologists are the 'sewage of the fringes of the far right and far left..which have contaminated general discussion, the media and even crossed into the mainstream left'. Oh and: The current left wing thought process is 'degenerate and ignorant'.

OK. Time to pay attention.

The prog documented Saddams iraqi war graves and its effects on those who uncovered them but i missed most of the Iraq war commentary to be honest. I picked up where they examined the recent Israeli Lebananese conflict: It described Hitzbollah in all its 'glory' and referred to Hitzbollah led media outings and skewed journalism which sought to perpetually slam - 'outright condemn' Israel for disproportionate use of force and 'dismissal' of civilian lives. Israel it countered had 'at least attempted to distinguish fighters from civilians' whilst Hitzbollah 'lobbed missiles from behind schools and hospitals'. 'Once again', Aaarnovich concludes, 'its big bad zionists against good muslims theory'. Resistance to Hitzbollah is seen as some hideously misaligned resistance to imperialism and young stoppers start sporting ludicrous 'we are all hitzbollah now' t shirts and waving Hitzbo flags. 'They think hitzbo', an anti semitic terrrorist outfit, are a 'sort of muslim freedom fighters sans frontieres'. It interspersed clips of Galloway calling Hitzbollah terrorists 'martyrs and heroes whose name now rings in joy around the whole world' as he glorified the head of Hitzbollah.

The British Left (no distinction as 'elements'), it warned, are glorifying this leader and falling into bed with the terrorists - 'not a healthy culture'. It harked back to Michael Moore who made it cool to lambast Bush for a terrorist problem Moore denies even exists -"Michael Moore is an idiot".

Other clips were equally damning of our Ken- showing his nazi NBF in full rant mode. There were some very poignant observations from an Iraqi Trade Unionist -Abdullah Musshin- and from the mother of July 7 victim, Rev Julie Nicholson, who resigned her position in the church earlier this year. Abdullah made an impassioned plea calling for support "solidarity in their pursuit of democracy, social justice, equality. Please support us stop supporting these extremists - in the future they will haunt you. They are your enemy". Rev Julie Nicholson concluded that attempts to excuse and 'understand' suicide bombing or blame the victims is the 'beginning of the end of humanity'.

Hard hitting stuff for the uninitiated. Preaching to the converted here - nonetheless, its about bloody time. Cool comments at Harrys Place, who provided the heads up:

"The fight-back for decency is gathering force, the moral point that humanity itself is lost if we begin to blame the victims of terror (any and everwhere for all time) for what is done to them was absolutely uncompromising"

"I caught the last twenty-odd minutes and was literally open-mouthed at some of it. I never
imagined I would see on a British TV channel, someone actually spelling out what Hizballah are and what they stand for, but this programme had that"

(FYI - It was billed as David Aaronovitch: No Excuses For Terror. Who is really responsible for the suicide bombers that target us? Is it the fault of George Bush or Tony Blair? Are we all somehow to blame? David Aaronovitch, journalist and commentator, has had enough of this argument. He asks how we've got to the point where British Socialists support Islamofascist Terrorism. Aaronovitch explains where the left have gone wrong on Israel, Palestine, the War in Iraq and the War on Terror) . It is apparently also screening at the Frontline Club in London on October 9.