The BBC’s sycophancy towards Israel reached new heights earlier this week when Newsnight host Victoria Derbyshire interviewed US senator Bernie Sanders following the US midterm elections.
When Sanders referred to the “extremist government in Israel”, Derbyshire paused, sighed and then stated that “the Israeli government would deny that they are extremists”.
Sanders interjected that “most people in America and around the world do believe that they are extremists and what they’ve done to the Palestinian people in my view is genocidal”.
This was followed by another pause and a blink before Derbyshire moved on to a completely different (and less contentious) topic.
Whether Derbyshire’s behaviour was motivated by frustration at Sanders’ position or exasperation that she was going to have to issue yet another official BBC disclaimer in the face of public criticism of Israel, this is further evidence of the Corporation’s deference towards the Israeli regime.
Veteran journalist Michael Crick called the Newsnight incident “pathetic”, historian William Dalrymple dubbed it “spineless”, while former Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Ben Jamal accused the BBC of “holding Israel to a different standard”.
