In Conan Doyle's story "Silver Blaze", Sherlock Holmes has this exchange at the crime scene with Gregory, the Scotland Yard inspector:
Gregory : "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."
On Friday 8th January, there occurred riots between Palestinians, the British-led Viva Palestina group, and the Egyptian police at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza. One Egyptian was killed, with several others injured. Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said in remarks published on Saturday, that members of Viva Palestina, the last convoy allowed through, had "committed hostile acts, even criminal ones" on Egyptian soil. Following this incident, the leader of the Viva Palestina group, British MP George Galloway, was deported from Egypt.
This episode understandably made headlines on most foreign and some British-based news channels. (See Aljazeera's take.) That is, on most TV channels - with the glaring exception of the BBC – for whom it was largely a non-story. One would have thought that the involvement of a British MP in foreign riots, followed by deportation, would have been headlined non-stop throughout several days.
Imagine – if you will – had the riots occurred at one of the Israeli crossing points, involving death and injury, and “peaceful” humanitarian aid workers as well as a British MP…. Questions would have been asked in Parliament, protest marches in the streets, “understandably aggrieved British youth” would have explained that this is the sort of behaviour which leads to suicide bombers, etc. etc. It is not beyond possibility that the United Nations General Assembly would have met.
So the BBC obsession is not with the Middle East – it is with Israel.
The fact that the dog did not bark, now that was the curious incident.
Gregory : "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."
On Friday 8th January, there occurred riots between Palestinians, the British-led Viva Palestina group, and the Egyptian police at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza. One Egyptian was killed, with several others injured. Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said in remarks published on Saturday, that members of Viva Palestina, the last convoy allowed through, had "committed hostile acts, even criminal ones" on Egyptian soil. Following this incident, the leader of the Viva Palestina group, British MP George Galloway, was deported from Egypt.
This episode understandably made headlines on most foreign and some British-based news channels. (See Aljazeera's take.) That is, on most TV channels - with the glaring exception of the BBC – for whom it was largely a non-story. One would have thought that the involvement of a British MP in foreign riots, followed by deportation, would have been headlined non-stop throughout several days.
Imagine – if you will – had the riots occurred at one of the Israeli crossing points, involving death and injury, and “peaceful” humanitarian aid workers as well as a British MP…. Questions would have been asked in Parliament, protest marches in the streets, “understandably aggrieved British youth” would have explained that this is the sort of behaviour which leads to suicide bombers, etc. etc. It is not beyond possibility that the United Nations General Assembly would have met.
So the BBC obsession is not with the Middle East – it is with Israel.
The fact that the dog did not bark, now that was the curious incident.
1 comment:
Excellent comment, as usual ! The dog not only does not bark, it does not listen either...
Cheers ! Richard
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