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BBC Bowen’s Insidious ‘Analysis’ of Israel’s Media Battlefield
The BBC logo is seen at the entrance at Broadcasting House, the BBC headquarters in central London. Photo by Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images/Sipa USA.
The BBC’s international editor Jeremy Bowen barely conceals his disdain for Israel these days.
This is his latest “analysis“:
Let’s break this down.
Israel’s borders with Gaza are shut. Period.
Foreign journalists were previously able to enter the Gaza Strip through the Erez Crossing, which has been closed since October 7 for obvious reasons. There is no “business as usual” for passage between Israel and Gaza for anyone, including journalists.
The international media do, however, have the ability to attempt to enter Gaza through the Rafah Crossing on the Egyptian side.
But Bowen believes that Israel is preventing foreign media from entering because “there are things they don’t want us to see and that they want to master the media battlefield.”
It is arguably not to Israel’s benefit that foreign journalists are absent from Gaza. Because Palestinian stringers and agenda-driven Arab outlets such as Al Jazeera are currently the only ones supplying all of the coverage from inside the Strip.
HonestReporting has, on numerous occasions, documented how some Palestinian media workers in the employ of foreign media are, at best, clearly invested in promoting the Palestinian narrative, and at worst, expressing antisemitic views and support for Hitler.
Despite a steady flow of damaging footage from Gaza showing injured women and children while suspiciously never showing Hamas terrorists, Bowen still believes Israel is “controlling the media.”
Such conspiratorial thinking is dangerously close to a classic antisemitic trope.
But is Israel also controlling its domestic media in the cause of ensuring its people don’t see any Palestinian suffering?
Israel’s government may wish it had some semblance of control over the country’s newspapers and TV stations, but the reality is that Israeli media is fiercely independent.
The Israeli media also unsurprisingly caters to its domestic audience. And like any country at war, the nation, including its media, rallies behind the flag.
Jeremy Bowen might point out that UK and US media were highly critical of wars conducted by their own countries such as in Iraq. But Israel’s war against Hamas isn’t being conducted in a faraway land. It’s on the home-front, and it’s mostly Israeli civilians, not foreigners, who have been murdered, raped, and kidnapped on October 7 in their own homes and on Israeli soil.
Israel is a country still traumatized by those events, and for Bowen to expect Israeli media to be broadcasting the same sympathetic content on Gaza as his own BBC or other foreign media is both unrealistic and meant to portray Israelis as somehow immune to the suffering of ordinary Palestinians.
How dare Bowen make such a judgment. Israelis are still processing and trying to come to terms with October 7 and the resulting impact on the country.
Israeli TV news is now broadcasting footage of the funerals of Israeli soldiers, many of whom were reservists who left their families and day jobs to defend their country. Many may have lost their lives because the IDF has used ground troops rather than airstrikes precisely to avoid causing Palestinian civilian casualties.
But when the war ends, most Israeli media outlets will swiftly change tack, harshly criticizing the Israeli government as they did before October 7 and perhaps even more so. And that criticism will extend to how the war was conducted, including the military tactics and whether Palestinian (as well as Israeli) casualties could have been avoided. Israeli media outlets aren’t subservient to the Israeli government or considerations of patriotism.
The time for criticism and self-reflection will come in the Israeli media. But not right now, while Israeli soldiers are risking their lives, Hamas still holds hostages, and Israeli civilians are still under attack.
Jeremy Bowen is correct: there is a media battlefield. Israel has every right to fight on that battlefield especially when foreign journalists like himself weaponize their news reports to assault the Jewish state.
The author is the Editorial Director of HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post BBC Bowen’s Insidious ‘Analysis’ of Israel’s Media Battlefield first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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North London Synagogue, Nursery Targeted in Eighth Local Antisemitic Incident in Just Over a Week
Demonstrators against antisemitism in London on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: Campaign Against Antisemitism
A synagogue and its nursery school in the Golders Green area of north London were targeted in an antisemitic attack on Thursday morning — the eighth such incident locally in just over a week amid a shocking surge of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the area.
The synagogue and Jewish nursery were smeared with excrement in an antisemitic outrage echoing a series of recent incidents targeting the local Jewish community.
“The desecration of another local synagogue and a children’s nursery with excrement is a vile, deliberate, and premeditated act of antisemitism,” Shomrim North West London, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group, said in a statement.
“This marks the eighth antisemitic incident locally in just over a week, to directly target the local Jewish community,” the statement read. “These repeated attacks have left our community anxious, hurt, and increasingly worried.”
Local law enforcement confirmed they are reviewing CCTV footage and collecting evidence to identify the suspect and bring them to justice.
This latest anti-Jewish hate crime came just days after tens of thousands of people marched through London in a demonstration against antisemitism, amid rising levels of antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In just over a week, seven Jewish premises in Barnet, the borough in which Golders Green is located, have been targeted in separate antisemitic incidents.
According to the Metropolitan Police, an investigation has been launched into the targeted attacks, all of which involved the use of bodily fluids.
During the incidents, a substance was smeared on four synagogues and a private residence, while a liquid was thrown at a school and over a car in two other attacks.
As the investigation continues, local police said they believe the same suspect is likely responsible for all seven offenses, which are being treated as religiously motivated criminal damage.
No arrests have been made so far, but law enforcement said it is actively engaging with the local Jewish community to provide reassurance and support.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, condemned the recent wave of attacks and called on authorities to take immediate action.
“The extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green is utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing,” CST said in a statement.
“CST is working closely with police and communal partners to support victims and help identify and apprehend the perpetrator,” it continued.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) also denounced the attacks, calling for urgent measures to protect the Jewish community.
“These repeated incidents are leaving British Jews anxious and vulnerable in their own neighborhoods, not to mention disgusted,” CAA said in a statement.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, the United Kingdom has experienced a surge in antisemitic crimes and anti-Israel sentiment.
Last month, CST published a report showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.
In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism despite being an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.
In previous years, the numbers were significantly lower, with 1,662 incidents in 2022 and 2,261 hate crimes in 2021.
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Germany to Hold Off on Recognizing Palestinian State but Will Back UN Resolution for Two-State Solution
German national flag flutters on top of the Reichstag building, that seats the Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Germany will support a United Nations resolution for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but does not believe the time has come to recognize a Palestinian state, a government spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
“Germany will support such a resolution which simply describes the status quo in international law,” the spokesman said, adding that Berlin “has always advocated a two-state solution and is asking for that all the time.”
“The chancellor just mentioned two days ago again that Germany does not see that the time has come for the recognition of the Palestinian state,” the spokesman added.
Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Belgium have all said they will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.
The United States strongly opposes any move by its European allies to recognize Palestinian independence.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems.
Those who see recognition as a largely symbolic gesture point to the negligible presence on the ground and limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, India, Russia, and many Arab states that have recognized Palestinian independence for decades.
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UN Security Council, With US Support, Condemns Strikes on Qatar
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned recent strikes on Qatar’s capital Doha, but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed to by all 15 members, including Israel‘s ally the United States.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack on Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance US and Israeli interests.
The United States traditionally shields its ally Israel at the United Nations. US backing for the Security Council statement, which could only be approved by consensus, reflects President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the attack ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by Britain and France.
The Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority,” the Security Council statement read.
The Security Council will meet later on Thursday to discuss the Israeli attack at a meeting due to be attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.