the brilliantly leaping gazelle

Whilst the fatal attack on the synagogue in Manchester was bad enough, the response to it of the media has been utterly duplicitous, brazenly shameless and hypocritically judgmental. Not that the media are alone in all of this. There’s enough guilt to be had so that everyone can have their share. Politicians, both within government and those aspiring to one day be in it. Charities, pressure groups and NGO’s. Organisations, sporting bodies and businesses. 

Of course the ultimate blame for what happened lies with the man who did it. But it could be argued that had the media been just a bit less hasty in amplifying the lie that a genocide is happening in Gaza, never mind questioning who was claiming it, why were they doing so and if their claims were supported by any actual evidence, had they been a bit more sceptical in reporting the claims of the Hamas run Gaza Health Ministry, been even slightly critical of the failure of Gaza’s neighbour Egypt to open its border and allow Gazans to flee the war zone, or practiced due diligence before reporting as fact that Israel was not only deliberately targeting civilians but starving them as well, then possibly a disturbed mind might not have become a murderous one.

But since the 8th October 2023, most of the British media has become if not an uncritical outlet for Hamas propaganda, then certainly one that abandoned any pretence of impartiality. The result of two years of the ceaseless demonisation of Israel and by extension of that, a belief in some peoples minds that all Jews share a collective responsibility for Gaza, goes some way to explain Manchester.

But politicians are culpable also. They have not staunchly and robustly refuted the claims of the keffiyeh wearing fuckwits, have not called out the pro-palestinian protest marches for being the rabid anti-semitic grotesquery’s they are. The government has calculated that given the UK only has a Jewish population of less than 400,000, whilst the Muslim population is 10 times bigger and that a significant proportion of them will vote based on how pro-palestine and anti-Israel the government is.

Lesser political chancers, from the ex-has been – Corblimey, to the never will be – Raisin, can also spot an electoral opportunity, but as recent comedic revelations have highlighted, each has their own idea as to what that opportunity is. The Groans have, to no-ones shock, seen a passing bandwagon and jumped on it, attempting to create the impression that they can do more than telling us what we can’t do by also telling foreigners what they can’t do as well, as long as those foreigners are Israeli’s. The Non Dems have done something, but it probably needed a stunt involving a paddle board or a zip line before anyone took any notice.

Assorted charities, pressure groups and other vested interest parties gave done what charities, pressure groups and vested intent groups do; raise their profile, influence, status and funds by reinforcing what all of them say. Business’s prostitute their ‘ethical’ stance by proving that they don’t have one whilst sporting bodies imagine that should.

All have been complicit to varying degree’s of promoting, amplifying and legitimising an insidiously corrosive narrative, one that they seem to have no awareness of its ultimate manifestation. It’s like leaving matches, a few gallons of petrol and a flamethrower next to a house and then being surprised when someone torches it.