YLE - anti-Israel

Finland's National Broadcasting Company, YLE, keeps spewing out anti-Israel propaganda. Today, as I was driving, some YLE radio show was reflecting the opinions of some US "foreign policy expert". The first point was that Israel is simply a lapdog of the US. I guess it's simply not possible that Israel is an independent nation with similar interests - freedom, security and democracy in the Middle-East. The US joined the Israel camp only after the Six-Day War - Israel had been well capable of acting on its own before that and has been well capable of acting on its own since then.

Another point the broadcaster made was that Israel just sits, wages wars and expects things to happen by itself. Here the "expert" forgets the simple fact that the option to form a Palestinian state has been on the table many times and still is - it's just waiting for the Palestinians to recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel has repeatedly been ready to negotiate for peace (it took Egypt more than a decade and Jordan several decades to recognize Israel - the rest of the Arab/Muslim gang have not yet recognized Israel) and withdrew from Gaza last fall after Sharon got frustrated at the inability of the Palestinian leadership to do a damn thing. The Palestinian leadership must recognize Israel and disarm Palestinian militants (this is what Israel did to its militant groups soon after it declared independency). The same with Lebanon; The Lebanese government has failed to comply with the UN Resolution 425 that calls for the Lebanese government to secure the Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon. The Lebanese government has not done a damn thing to disarm Hezbollah.

What's sad is that every Finn who wants to watch tv must pay YLE an annual fee. YLE, a state owned company, was pro-Communism and pro-Soviet during the Cold War.

I also read Fahrenheit 451 for the first time two days ago. I'm not familiar with Bradbury's political agenda but I couldn't help thinking of the Jyllands-Posten Mohammed Cartoon controversy. During the "crisis" critics from both the (European) religious right and the multiculturalist left blamed the advocates of free speech for cultural racism. This is exactly what happened in the book. Books were burned so that the feelings of all kinds of minority groups wouldn't be hurt. The society in the book also reflected the left-wing world where equality means that no one gets to be above someone else as a result of their special abilities, talents or skills.