The Middle East

"The BBC has a political agenda that says it is fine to headline a made-up, inflated figure of the dead in Iran because our leaders have defined Iran as an Official Enemy. While the BBC has a converse political agenda that says it’s fine to employ endless caveats to minimise a death toll in Gaza that is already certain to be a huge undercount because Israel is an Official Ally.

"This isn’t journalism. It’s stenography for western governments that choose enemies and allies not on the basis of whether they adhere to any ethical or legal standards of behaviour but purely on the basis of whether they assist the West in its battle to dominate oil resources in the Middle East.

"Notice something else. This news segment – focusing the attention of western publics once again on the presumed wanton slaughter of protesters in Iran earlier this month – is being used by the BBC to advance the case for a war on Iran out of strictly humanitarian concerns that Trump himself doesn’t appear to share."

Jonathan Cook

“I cannot believe that Israel has any real desire to remain indefinitely a garrison state surrounded by fear and hate.” Senator John F. Kennedy on August 26, 1960, addressing the Zionist Organization of America convention in New York.

“She [Damascus] has looked upon the dry bones of a thousand empires, and will see the tombs of a thousand more before she dies. Though another claims the name, old Damascus is by right the Eternal City.” Mark Twain in 1867. I love it much more than Jerusalem and it seemed much closer to the 1st century AD. Now it is ruled by Al Qaeda, who came to power with the support primarily of Nato member Turkey but also of the US and UK. The elder and younger Assad and Al Qaeda are part of a long series of men (and at least one woman, Queen Zenobia of Palmyra) who ruled the city, many of whom were even worse.