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There were two more hopeful news items recently. Gordon Brown inserted the word economic before the Israeli/ Palestinian roadmap. That does make sense. Until the Palestinians are given a chance economically there will never be peace. But we will have to wait and see.
Then I heard that the BBC will be looking to create better balance in all its output. Let’s hope that this means a balanced view of world news, not the present total preoccupation with what really amount to neighbourhood gossip. It would appear that first thing in the morning the newsroom chooses 3 or 4 pieces of tittle tattle and they become the news stories of the day on every BBC news channel. You have in the UK to wait for the World Service at 1.00 am to hear what has happened in the rest of the world.
I have now got to the point where I cannot bear to watch the TV news. In a sense the nightly reporting from the frontline is an intrusion and a trivialisation of the suffering.
Man’s inhumanity to man.
I have been trying to think of any major program or initiative which this government has proposed which has come to a successful conclusion and so far I have failed.
Education, the NHS, Law and Order, police reform, welfare and benefits. None of these have really shown the improvements we were told would happen. And on top of that, we are involved in the disasters of Iraq and possibly Afghanistan with now an unpopular stance vis-a-vis Israel. The Daily Telegraph yougov poll must make dismal reading for our government, that is if Tony reads the papers on holiday, and the Israelis.
And many things are unravelling. The target of 50% of school leavers going to university has not been reached as young people have realised that many degrees are not worth the paper they are printed on. Far from guaranteeing better jobs, they are only guaranteed a large debt. For all the money poured in, education standards have improved only slightly.
The NHS was at one time underfunded by comparison with other countries, but with massive extra money it still does not compare for service with some European neighbours. By fudging the true cost of capital spending in PPP deals and the like, Gordon Brown has actually diverted those extra funds into paying the private partners’ dividends.
And recently it would seem that all sorts of government plans are being rolled back.
I have just been watching BBC Newsnight. The only person who seemed remotely connected to this planet was Terry Waite. His argument was similar to my own. Give the areas surrounding Israel some degree of prosperity, stop persecuting the ordinary populations of Gaza and the West Bank and there might be some hope of isolating the extremists.
For Malcolm Rifkind MP to talk about a stabilisation force in South Lebanon is fantasy island stuff. Do they fight their way in or are they expecting Hezbollah is throw them a welcome party?
Meanwhile I am appalled at the seeming total indifference to the suffering and destruction.
I have to say that whatever the rights and wrongs of the present confrontation between Israel and Lebanon, it is a human tragedy.
But what I do ask is why no one on either side seems to understand that nobody ever wins a war. They may appear to but unless they also win the peace it will only flare up again. Contrast the treatment of Germany after World War I with the Marshall plan after World War II.
The only chance for Israel to live in peace is for her Palestian neighbours to have money poured into them to give them similar prosperity. Do that and the majority will not want to jeopardise that by encouraging extremists. Every bullet and ever bomb smashing into Gaza is postponing peace and recruiting more fanatics. Hamas and Hezbollah in the North will never run out of recruits.
