by Josh Howie, spiked
The Beeb has helped fuel the very anti-Semitism a new Panorama doc feigns to understand.
I’m not going to pretend to have approached the BBC’s recent Panorama documentary, Anti-Semitism: Why British Jews Are Afraid, with any degree of impartiality. The title alone triggered me. ‘YOU! YOU, YOU UTTER BASTARDS! YOU’RE WHY WE’RE AFRAID!’ Alas, the BBC has declined to make a 30-minute documentary about itself.
Okay, maybe I’ve gone too far. The host is Jewish. The programme is decently produced, made somewhat in good faith, and valid points are raised by experts who I respect. And it’s not like there was ever any chance of the BBC actually embracing accountability. Even so, the bad outweighs the good.
First of all, the title – ‘why British Jews are afraid’ – reeks of appeasement, timidity and victimhood. The poor Jews. Please be nice to us while we whine about people murdering us. And kidnapping and torturing us. And blowing up ambulances. And firebombing our places of worship. And continually plotting to murder more of us. Yeah, we’re afraid. But we’re also pissed off. And frustrated. And angry. And exhausted.
Our community has been betrayed. By cowardly politicians with the emptiest of rhetoric. By a complicit justice system. By most of our legacy media. And yes, even by this documentary itself. Because, while Anti-Semitism presents a decent enough summary of recent events, it makes a weak attempt to explain why these events happened, and are still happening. Meanwhile, nearly every day, another attack occurs, another plot is foiled by counter-terrorism police, without whom the death toll would be far greater. You can imagine the programme makers praying for a respite in firebombing, just so they could finally get this thing out without having to add more updates to it.