Shocking interview with Deputy Editor of The Jerusalem Post.

Flukey

On RTE Radio on Tuesday, Caroline Glick, Deputy Editor of The Jerusalem Post, discussed Israel's handling of the conflict with Rachael English, on 5 7 Live. Ms Glick believes that the UN should have been ignored and fought on. The interview was unbelievable and provoked a lot of reaction. Some of you don't click links so I'll give you a flavour of the kind of things she said.

When asked about the clamour from the international community for a ceasefire and the amount of civilians being killed in Lebanon, Ms Glick replied "Who cares?" She then followed with the usual line of how the Israeili army tries not to kill civilans.

When asked what she would say to governments saying that Israel's actions were disproportionate she replied: "I would say shame on you. I would say how dare you say that?"

When asked about how the last month's events and Israel's response might have radicalised more young muslims in Britain she said: "Oh that's ridiculous, that's absolutely ridiculous. These people teach their children from the moment that they are born to value death, not to value life, to say that the most important thing to them when they grow up is to become a suicide bomber. And to say that you can even more radicalise somebody who doesn't value their own life is just insane."
When put to her following that comment that surely the majority of muslims don't teach their children that she said that the majority of the supporters of Hizbollah do.

That is just a journalist. The dangerous thing is that there are people in power who think the same as her. The full interview is about 7 minutes long and you can hear it here:

dynamic.rte.ie/av/228-2165442.smil

Karoma

It's appalling, but not "shocking" to be honest.

Flukey

Yes, I suppose thinking of where it is coming from, that would be so Karoma.

InFront

Maybe this would be a lesson to people who link proof of certain claims to the Jerusalem Post.

It it is shocking that she's given the airwaves to expound this rubbish. I think there would be far more articulate, learned and representative commentators out there to speak for the Israelis.

Flukey

Shocking was the wrong word in my thread title. It doesn't surprise me either. Comments from listeners made the same point InFront, as to her being allowed to be heard on the public airwaves. There were some that supported her views though. Apparently it ran about 4 or 5 to 1 against her. RTE are good in that they do give a more balanced view in allowing people like her to be heard as well as other points of view. In some quarters you'd only get views like hers and no other viewpoints or even hard questions being asked of her by an interviewer.

rlogue

Are you not shocked that Iran and Syria have got off scot-free from this business Flukey? The two nations that would dearly love to see Israel sent packing off to Utah are no doubt rubbing their hands in glee thinking what other mess they can drive us all into.

I am pleased the fighting is over but Hezbollah's backers seem to have won this one hands down.

the_syco

We are in a safe little country.

Not one bombed by someone since the 1940's/1950's. One who lived in the country, being bombed left right and centre, would certainly like to see whomever supplyed funding for these terrorists wiped off the map.

rlogue

I certainly think it was RTÉ's intention to shock people by choosing Caroline Glick. After all she works for the Jerusalem Post, which itself is quite hardline and she herself is well known in Jewish circles as being a particularly hard line commentator.

Let's put it this way; if RTÉ chose to only use Fox News reporters or right wing talk radio hosts as their commentators on US opinion, we would probably all spot that as a deliberate spin on the news, wouldn't we?

oscarBravo

Better suited over here, methinks.

For the record, I was shocked - not surprised, but shocked - by this interview.

santosubito

Here's a biog of her:

http://israeloncampuscoalition.org/speakers/cglick.htm

In the National Review of Augist, 2006, Mark Steyn, late of the Irish Times, writes: "Earlier this year, I chanced to be at a public meeting with the great Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post."

By, the way, I did a quick LexisNexis on her. She seems to be a columnist rather than a journalist, per se. It certainly would have been even more shocking if a reporter had made those (ridiculous) comments.

Flukey

rlogue wrote:

I am pleased the fighting is over but Hezbollah's backers seem to have won this one hands down.

Are you sure? Check the amount of casualties again, and the state of Lebanon after all the bombing.

syco wrote:

One who lived in the country, being bombed left right and centre, would certainly like to see whomever supplyed funding for these terrorists wiped off the map.

Now come on. How on earth would a small group like Hizbollah wipe America off the map? They may want to, seeing the backing they gave to Israel to do what they did to Lebanon over the last month, but it is not going to happen.

flogen

People, please stay on topic; take any discussions on the actual conflict to Politics.

FlutterinBantam

lets put it this way... RTE use Robert Fisk..... and in my opinion he never misses an opportunity to have a go at Israel and the US... so why do I not hear any criticism of this????

rlogue

Because you simply won't hear criticism. RTÉ isn't as neutral as it should be when it comes to coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Its sympathies are certainly closer to the Palestinian cause, and that is probably because Irish public opinion usually sides with the underdog.

Israel's bad attitude towards UNIFIL (and our troops) in Lebanon in the past hasn't helped Israel's cause either. Certainly "official" Ireland, of which RTÉ is an intrinsic part, has long been cool towards Israel. Even in the past, during the second world war, we refused to take in Jewish refugees because they weren't Christian!

In this particular case, I believe RTÉ chose Caroline Glick as they knew she has hardline views and would reinforce the popular Irish stereotype of the Israelis as bloodthirsty.

flogen

rlogue wrote:

Certainly "official" Ireland, of which RTÉ is an intrinsic part, has long been cool towards Israel. Even in the past, during the second world war, we refused to take in Jewish refugees because they weren't Christian!

Sorry, but how can that be classed as anti-Israeli when the modern Israeli state didn't even exist at that time?
That was, IMO, partly due to fear of the Germans turning on us, the control of the Catholic Church over the Irish Government at the time and possibly a degree of anti-semitism.

I do think there's some point to the argument that getting a nut-job on as the voice of Israel is the perfect way to reinforce your anti-Israel bias though; it's basically what Fox News do with everything

chekov

flogen wrote:

I do think there's some point to the argument that getting a nut-job on as the voice of Israel is the perfect way to reinforce your anti-Israel bias though; it's basically what Fox News do with everything

Yep, that's the strange thing. No matter how obviously deranged the commentator, it seems to be effective in terms of propaganda. It probably works on some sort of subliminal - Pavlovian level. If you repeat something often enough (Hizbollah terrorists, Israel defending itself) it'll eventually sink in with the substantial proportion of the population who have only a glancing interest in the news.

flogen

chekov wrote:

Yep, that's the strange thing. No matter how obviously deranged the commentator, it seems to be effective in terms of propaganda. It probably works on some sort of subliminal - Pavlovian level. If you repeat something often enough (Hizbollah terrorists, Israel defending itself) it'll eventually sink in with the substantial proportion of the population who have only a glancing interest in the news.

I think you misunderstood my point...
Fox News, a right-wing channel, believe that left-wingers are commie-loving pinko's etc. etc.; in order to re-inforce this belief while appearing "fair and balanced" they get the most extreme left-winger they can find on; one that reinforces their views... they then present this person as an example of all left-wing ideology...
The same tactic may have been used here by RTÉ, where the supposed pro-Lebanon, pro-Palestine and thus anti-Israel bias they purport was reinforced through getting a rabid and extreme spokesperson on to represent the Israeli side... they seem balanced because they got an Israeli on and their bias seems justified because said Israeli was a nutjob.

I'm not as sure as others that RTÉ is all that anti-Israel to be honest but I would agree that they're more anti-Israel than anti-Lebanon at this moment... I don't think they're pro-Hezbullah though and it is possible to be pro-Israel and pro-Lebanon in the current conflict.

chekov

flogen wrote:

I think you misunderstood my point...
Fox News, a right-wing channel, believe that left-wingers are commie-loving pinko's etc. etc.; in order to re-inforce this belief while appearing "fair and balanced" they get the most extreme left-winger they can find on; one that reinforces their views... they then present this person as an example of all left-wing ideology...
The same tactic may have been used here by RTÉ, where the supposed pro-Lebanon, pro-Palestine and thus anti-Israel bias they purport was reinforced through getting a rabid and extreme spokesperson on to represent the Israeli side... they seem balanced because they got an Israeli on and their bias seems justified because said Israeli was a nutjob.

I'm not as sure as others that RTÉ is all that anti-Israel to be honest but I would agree that they're more anti-Israel than anti-Lebanon at this moment... I don't think they're pro-Hezbullah though and it is possible to be pro-Israel and pro-Lebanon in the current conflict.

Ah, okay. But I really don't believe that fox news actually does search for the most extreme left wingers. Who are they? Why have I never seen any of them? I'm not an expert in Fox by any means, but whenever I've seen it, it's been wall-to-wall wingnuts. And, despite the obviously deranged nature of most of the commentators, it does the propaganda job pretty darn well.

I also doubt a lot that RTE seeks out the most extreme zionists to speak for Israel - you can get well out into the far reaches of lunacy and hatred by talking to a few settlers. Furthermore, it is, by itself an interesting and informative piece of information to learn that a person with such unpleasant views is in such an influential editorial position in Israel.

It seems to me that the big problem Israeli media spokespeople have is that they are focused on US public opinion and thus they assume that the audiences will automatically agree with them on their core assumptions and that they will appear moderate and reasonable in comparison to much of the commentary. (invade their countries, kill their leaders, convert them to christianity)

flogen

chekov wrote:

Ah, okay. But I really don't believe that fox news actually does search for the most extreme left wingers. Who are they? Why have I never seen any of them? I'm not an expert in Fox by any means, but whenever I've seen it, it's been wall-to-wall wingnuts. And, despite the obviously deranged nature of most of the commentators, it does the propaganda job pretty darn well.

One last point on Fox (as it is off topic); another tactic they use is the one in Hannity and Colmes, where they get a quiet and meek liberal against a loud and abrasive conservative so that anything the liberal says gets shouted down thus proving that the right-winger is right

chekov

flogen wrote:

One last point on Fox (as it is off topic); another tactic they use is the one in Hannity and Colmes, where they get a quiet and meek liberal against a loud and abrasive conservative so that anything the liberal says gets shouted down thus proving that the right-winger is right

Yep, that's more their style I think. You give 5 seconds to somebody sane who will get shouted down by a whole pack of wingnuts who will interrupt her every word, calling her a terrorist sympathiser, anti-semite, etc.

I really don't think RTE has any parallel though.