On Saturday February 28th the US and Israel launched strikes against the Islamic Regime in Iran. BBC radio responded to the breaking news by platforming Islamic Regime talking points, a regime propagandist, and unfounded allegations against Israel with no pushback or context.
The BBCs mission to provide accurate and impartial news is never more important than during breaking international crises. Their role was to inform, their actions fell far short.
The tail wagging the dog.
BBC guests across the first day of the war repeatedly pushed the allegation that this war had been started by Israel without US coordination, and that, in fact, Israel had forced America’s hand and dragged the unwilling superpower kicking and screaming into a war they did not want:
As the news broke on the BBC World Service guest Julian Borger, a Guardian journalist who, amongst other issues, made false claims about hospitalised Gazan children in December said:
Borger: “Well, it feels quite familiar because last year in June, a similar thing happened where it was Israel that launched the first attack on Iran and eventually brought the US into the war, and the US conducted that Operation Midnight Hammer against its nuclear facilities. What we’re seeing again is Israel going first, and the question is did Benjamin Netanyahu have a green light from Trump to go ahead, or, or is this designed to bring the US into a conflict that Israel has been seeking and at a time when maybe it seems to Israel, to Netanyahu that Trump is wavering?”
And even after Israeli journalist Noga Tarnopolsky confirmed that:
Tarnopolsky: “The US and Israel have been in intense talks and coordination, I would say almost minute by minute, in recent days about the possibility of an attack. The people of Israel, the citizens in Israel had been prepared by the authorities for an imminent American attack on Iran. If that’s going on, we have certainly not heard of that just yet, but it is impossible to assume anything other than that this attack was highly coordinated with the United States.”
and
Tarnopolsky: “two senior US officials, White House officials, were quoted saying that the United States preferred Israel launched the first strike rather than the United States”
Borger dismissed her and restated his position.
Borger: “I’m not entirely convinced that this was completely coordinated, looking back to last June, it’s still not clear to what extent that the Israel had the green light from from Trump in terms of timing”
And, after the IDF confirmed coordination with the US he again dismissed the information as unreliable:
Borger: “Yes, I mean this is what Israel said last time in June, when the last time that they struck, it was never quite clear whether that coordination had come sort of post facto. Israel said it was going to go ahead and, and the US was pulled along behind it, or whether this is part of a coordinated sort of one-two punch to get the war going.”
Of course, the BBC itself reported that Trump in fact prevented an Israeli reprisal on Iran at the end of the 12 day war, suggesting that the asymmetry in the relationship is weighted somewhat in the other direction. However BBC presenter Paul Henley made no effort throughout the programme to ask about how realistic the claim that the Israeli government has complete control over the American war machine actually is, nor how dangerously close that kind of rhetoric steers to antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish power.
Almost simultaneously on radio 4’s Today programme, Guest Lord Ricketts made the same allegations:
Ricketts: “Well, my interpretation of this word pre-emptive Justin is that the Israelis pre-empted any risk that the US Iranian negotiations were going to reach some sort of deal on the nuclear program, and it reminds me very much of June last year, when the same again, the Americans were negotiating intensively with the Iranians. The Israelis interrupted that by striking, and they draw, drew the Americans into action. That has happened again. Trump, of course, has built up this enormous military presence. He’d created a momentum once Israel started attacking Iran. I think it was impossible for the Americans to stand aside.”
In that case presenter Justin Webb did manage to question the logic slightly:
Webb: “Sorry to interrupt, because we’re running out of time. Would he have been allowed to do it, though, if Donald Trump had not been up for it? I mean, is it? are you suggesting seriously this morning that Israel has somehow led the United States into this war?”
Ricketts: “Well We don’t know, but there were clearly two camps in Washington, one in favour of negotiations, others wanting to get on with it and attack Iran, and I and I think the Israelis have put their their finger on the balance, as it were, and pushed things in the direction of an attack and have aborted the negotiations that were going on”
What Justin Webb fails to do, is inform listeners that Lord Ricketts is a vocal critic of Israeli security policy was the author of a media campaign to prevent arms sales to Israel as early as April 2024, despite the BBC guidelines on contributors affiliations being very clear, a problem that was consistent across multiple guests and journalists.
Genocide and “The Epstein Class.”
Throughout breaking news reporting on the 28th February and 1st March BBC Radio 4 and World Service gave a platform to Foad Izadi, an Iranian academic in Tehran.
Izadi: “Yes, Israel is attacking Tehran. They may be attacking other cities we don’t know, but I’m in Tehran and we’re hearing Israeli bombs falling in the city… Israelis are not interested in peace. They are interested in war. They started this war. They attacked Iran in June. They are attacking Iran again, and it’s very unfortunate that we have this genocidal regime trying to engage in another genocide…You know, when you are dealing with genocidal people, you have to always expect these type of criminal activities. Yes, we are dealing with Netanyahu, we are dealing with Trump, we are dealing with the Epstein class. They engage in this type of activities”
Foad Izadi is a leading mouthpiece of the Iranian Regime, who on the BBC Newshour programme of January 13th claimed that nobody had been killed in the Iranian protests except Iranian policemen killed by Mossad agents. Despite his obvious affiliation with the regime and willingness to make outrageous claims on the BBC in the past, Izadi was given a platform by the BBC no less than 13 times in the first two days of the war, with only occasional descriptions as someone who “has been supportive of the regime”.
The linking of Israel to Jeffrey Epstein is difficult to see as anything other than antisemitic. The latest iteration of the lust libel particularly popular in Nazi Germany, it links the Jewish state to Epstein’s sexual depravity, despite zero evidence of any connection between Epstein and Israel, and comments from the disgraced financier himself that: “I do not like Israel AT ALL”
For BBC journalists to allow allegations like this to pass without caveat or challenge is a deeply concerning breach of their duty to impartiality.
Mr Izadi’s allegation of genocide was also echoed by Labour MP Apsana Begum as she was asked for her reaction to the breaking news on Radio 4’s Today Programme, and what the UK government’s response should be:
Begum: “I think if we look at the UK’s involvement in terms of enabling and facilitating the genocide in Gaza, I think it’s incredibly important that there are discussions and debates through the parliamentary mechanisms…, I think, given the track record of the Labour Government in particular, as I say, in terms of the genocide in Gaza and the continued support and facilitation of it from the UK’s perspective, I think it’s really important that we do have debates and discussions in Parliament.”
Faced with a question she could not answer about the British response to the war in Iran, Begum returned to the well-trodden mantra of genocide, genocide, genocide. Presenter Simon Jack, despite the fact that the allegation of genocide is unproven, and seen by many as a libel in itself, did not push back on the fact of Israel committing genocide, but rather the question of whether or not Keir Starmer supported it:
Jack: “Do you really believe that Keir Stamer is actively supporting genocide?”
Leaving such a claim unchallenged lends it legitimacy. Jack also did not inform listeners that Begum is extremely popular with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, such that they awarded her “full marks” along with vehement antizionist Zarah Sultana in their “Vote Gaza” campaign in 2024, an attempt to place Gaza as a main issue in the British elections.
At the first hurdle of reporting on this new phase of conflict the BBC failed. It failed to inform audiences of its contributors’ affiliations and preexisting political positions, and it platformed opinions which veer dangerously close to open antisemitism without careful labelling of those allegations. Both failures breach the BBC’s own editorial standards.
The Noga, so called self professed “independent” Israeli based journalist you referred to here to day has rarely behaved herself this time, but you probably are away she is amongst the usual suspects of Haaretz type far left who habiually spill anti Israel Government criticism to all types outlets that call her at home