Yeh, I wouldn’t even know where to begin unravelling the twisted thought processes and crazy delusions that led to that conclusion. But there was definitely an effort by Sneh in that interview to frame Israel’s repression in the paradigm of the “war on terror” (in his repeated description of Hamas as the “Taliban”, for example), for obvious reasons. The attempt to explain Iran’s actions as simply the consequence of some fanatical Islamist ideology, which hates Israel because Israel is so damn brilliant that it lets its women wear t-shirts, could simply be part of that.

Why PJs of course – what were YOU thinking?

That’s so weird he actually said that!

Sneh (who has in the past threatened Iran with military action) basically launched a defence of Israel’s policy of collective punishment, but deceptively putting the blame for Gaza’s misery onto Hamas as opposed to the Israeli siege (as most human rights organisations would have it). He claims that Palestinians in Gaza “hate Hamas” because Hamas has turned Gaza into a wreck whereas those Palestinians living in the West Bank under Fayyad and Fatah are doing much better. What he neglects to point out – and what Esler neglects to put to him – is that this is no accident: that Palestinians in the West Bank are not suffering as much as those in Gaza (although they’re still suffering horrendously, a point Sneh understandably fails to mention) is a direct and intended result of U.S./Israeli policy.

It’s fascinating the way Israeli officials manage to twist reality so completely as to portray themselves as the victims. A brutal military occupation is one thing, but a brutal military occupation carried out with such shameless self-pity and moral piety is really nauseating.

Sneh did admit, at least, that Israel’s objective is to topple the Hamas regime in Gaza. That is why Israel has rejected Hamas’ offer of a ceasefire in favour of military escalation, and that is why Israel and the U.S. engineered an internal Palestinian conflict that resulted in the Hamas takeover of Gaza that Sneh now so self-righteously denounces.

For an example of another pathetic Newsnight ‘journalist’ prostrating himself before power check this episode of ‘Hardtalk’ (oh please):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b0090sdl.shtml?filter=azgroup%3Ahijk&start=1&scope=iplayeratoz&version_pid=b0090sdj

It’s the head of the Labor bloc in the Israeli kenesset in this case, so it’s not even all that much power. Pathetic. Esler essentially lets him repeat the standard Israeli propaganda line for 25 minutes, practically uninterrupted.

Sneh is even let off with some totally surreal comments, including the idea that the Hizbillah leader assassinated with a car bomb in Damascus this week was the “quaterback of evil” and that Iran’s Ahmedinejad hates everyone in the west because he “hates the clothes we wear”. WTF????

Also interesting that he does not deny Israel was behind the car bomb. Presumably (although I’m not sure) as former deputy defence minister and because of his current position in the kenneset, he is privy to Israeli intelligence briefings. I’m not saying that it was definitely Israel (although I’d be surprised if they weren’t involved in at least an intelligence role) but probably the only thing Esler did right in this interview was to ask him straight if Israel was involved in the car bomb, and Sneh doesn’t deny it (also note the implied acknowledgement that Israel has nuclear weapons).

Ahem, anyway, sorry for long post. The interview is not really interesting apart from the weird comments and the bit about the car bomb at the beginning

Sayeeda Warsi is not an MP, btw she’s a Baroness, appointed to the Lords by the Tory leader – my own experience of Tory voters suggests they’d never stomach a Muslim woman, but she didn’t half try to fit in with the bigotry. Here’s an example of her election literature in 2005: “Labour reduced the age of consent for homosexuality from 18 to 16, allowing school children to be propositioned for homosexual relationships. Labour has let down our children.”

As for Matt Frei, he was on the Beeb’s 10 o’clock news gleeful that Bush had chatted with him off camera for as long as the interview. Probably because US journos have the decency to throw in the odd challenging question. Best interview I’ve seen with Bush was this one from Irish TV which really shows Bush up for the war criminal he is:

* CAROLINE FLINT MP
* SAYEEDA WARSI MP
* BISHOP OF HULME
* CLIVE JAMES
* MELANIE PHILIPS

I didn’t watch it but that’s basically a recipe for an hour of unrestrained Muslim-bashing.