Four part video available at YouTube.

Originally broadcast on BBC Channel 5, 26 Sept 2006.

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Who is really responsible for the suicide bombers that target us? Is it the fault of George Bush or Tony Blair? Are we all somehow to blame? David Aaronovitch, journalist and commentator, has had enough of this argument. He asks how we've got to the point where British Socialists support Islamofascist Terrorism. Aaronovitch explains where the left have gone wrong on Israel, Palestine, the War in Iraq and the War on Terror.

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Some quotes from the program:

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[PT1, 2:20]David Aaronovitch: "It's the contention of many of the new apologists for terror that to understand the new dispensation you have to travel to the Middle East. Specifically, that you have to understand the conflict as being between the almost wholely bad Israel and the just about entirely good Palestinians."

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[PT 2, 6:00] Norman Geras (Euston Manifesto): "All of sudden now we hear that in their struggle against the strong have no other weapons but terrorism. It's not true."

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[PT 2, 7:15] Jane Ashworth (Engage): "The Left should have a moral benchmark. We should be the people who stand up and say, 'Don't do that. Enough is enough. That's not justified.' And one of the things where we should draw that line around the bombings of civilians, particularly civilian children."

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[PT 3, 7:05] David Aaronovitch:"Now that Saddam is deposed and on trial, what do hard core sections of the Left conclude? That the Saddam supporters and headcase religious suicide bombers killing British soldiers, the sadists who are slaughtering Muslims everyday for the crime of doing what ordinary people do, are brave freedom fighters and insurgents. There is a word for this, isn't there? The word is surely, denegerate?"

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[PT 3, 7:40] Allan Johnson (Edge Hill University): "I think that's right. [T]hose values that the Left has always held dear, have been squeezed out. [...] A particular, very simplistic, worldview has been adopted. What it tends to do, very simplisticly, is think that anyone who is shooting at Americans, or involved in a campaign against imperialism, must be, in some sense, on our side."

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[PT 4, 1:45] David Aaronovitch: "The war in the Lebanon was an apologist's indignent fantasy. [...] While Hizbollah fired rockets from Hospital carparks and from behind schools, Israel was slammed for disproportionate action, even thought its forces at least attempted to make the distinction between civilians and fighter. Intentionality, however, was deemed to be unimportant. So was the issue of how this conflict began. Once again, it was just bad Zionists against good Muslims."

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Where should the moral line be drawn?

[ 30 September 2006: Message edited by: Chairm ]

• Islamofascist
• Islamofascist
• Islamofascist

"IN CERTAIN PARTS OF THE MIDDLE EAST THERE IS SOMETHING APPROACHING A CULT OF DEATH"

"THAT NEGATION OF ALL HUMAN DECENY - (drum-roll)ISLAMIST TERROR"