Live from the UN: Palestine and Israel

Yesterday, the BBC Arabic aired the live statement of the Palestinian ambassador to the UN. I walked into the hall, and could see through a doorway another TV open to Al Arabiya, which was also showing the live briefing.

Then today, we were watching a little bit of Al Arabiya after the 72-hour humanitarian truce collapsed. They showed many pictures of injured Palestinian children and their upset parents, and along the bottom of the screen they had a news reel that mentioned the number of dead Israeli soldiers. I'm not entirely sure, but I think they mostly put the cause of the collapse of the humanitarian truce on Hamas.

Then I looked in briefly on the BBC Arabic again. Their top story was about Palestine, but then they also talked about fighting in Tunisia/Libya, and a pair of auctioned Mohamed-Ali boxing gloves that sold for almost half a million dollars.

Live from the Security Council on Al Arabiya

At this very moment, Al Arabiya's special in-depth news channel, called Al Hadeth, is broadcasting live a session from the Security Council at the UN.

First, the Secretary-General spoke. That was translated into Arabic directly as he was talking, so that we heard the interpreter speaking and not the Secretary-General. 

Then, a representative from Palestine spoke. This is the part where airing things live from the Security Council maybe does not make for good TV, because that Palestinian man spent a long time congratulation the new Security Council president for his recent election before he got to the point.

Then he started talking about all the Palestinians killed in recent Israeli rocket attacks, laying emphasis on the dead women and children. He used words like massacre, and asked how is it that Israel considers its army to be the most well-behaved in the region, and how is it that Israel considers itself to be the sole democracy in the Middle East (or something like that.) The Palestinian man was speaking in English! So even though his best language is probably Arabic, we still didn't listen to him, but rather to the interpreter.

And the Palestinian man also started out by profusely thanking the UN Secretary-General for his various calls, and for his response to the Palestinian appeals for help.

Then I wandered away, and when I came back, guess what Al Arabiya was showing? They were still at the UN, still at the Security Council, and this time they were live broadcasting the speech of the Israeli representative, again with the interpreter. So, contrary to my previous assessments, sometimes Al Arabiya does show all sides. I would have assumed that as soon as the Israeli started speaking, they would have called it a day and returned to their studio in Dubai.

Why Al Arabiya is so boring!

Whenever I watched the BBC Arabic, they would forever and anon turn to Dr. Edmund Ghareib when discussing political issues in the Middle East. Dr. Edmun Ghareib is an analyst based out of Washington DC, but he is originally Arab.

Yesterday, I was watching Al Arabiya, and who do they suddenly announce but Dr. Edmund Ghareib himself! They do the exact same thing as the BBC Arabic: he shows up via a live video connection, with the Washington Monument in the background over his shoulder.

Turns out he is a very busy man, because I was watching Al Arabiya with someone else, and she said that Dr. Edmund is forever showing up on Al Jazeera, too. So he is apparently not picky, he likes to be on all the news channels, and they all love him.

However, I think they do themselves a disservice. Whenever he comes on the air, I can't help but tune him out. I think he's kind of dull. Then again, I can never really catch what he's saying.

I learned some more things about Al Arabiya: during the coup in Egypt, they took the side of the Egyptian army. A lady who watched the coverage at the time told me that Al Arabiya actually didn't even present the side of the Muslim Brotherhood and Mursi.

Well, they are doing the same thing now with Iraq. Al Arabiya takes the side of the Sunnis in Iraq. All the time I've been watching Al Arabiya these days, I've never seen them interview anyone who represents the side of Al Maliki's Shia government.

For example, yesterday evening's program featured two guests: one was Dr. Edmund, an independent analyst, and the other was an Iranian guy, who lives in Britain and despite the fact that he is Iranian really doesn't like Al Maliki. They ought to have had a third guest, someone who took the opposite view of the Iranian. That is what the BBC Arabic always does: they have an independent person, and then they'll have two or even three other people who represent various opposing points of view. And honestly, that makes it more interesting, because everyone starts fighting! But at least they're just fighting with words.

Al Arabiya really should think about this, because their little conversation yesterday with Dr. Edmund and the Iranian guy was quite simply boring.

As for Al Jazeera, I've not been watching them; but I've just heard that although they sided with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and Mursi during the coup, they did at least present the side of the Egyptian army.

Al Arabiya reports on Iraq and Syria

I am not watching the BBC Arabic while in Jordan, but I am seeing a lot of Al Arabiya's special in-depth news channel called 'Al Hadeth'. That means, 'the events.'

I've never really watched Al Arabiya before. But someone told me that during the coup in Egypt last year, Al Arabiya took the side of the Egyptian army. On the other hand, Al Jazeera took the side of the deposed president Mursi.

Al Arabiya is owned by a rich Saudi guy - but not by the Saudi government. And it is headquartered out of Dubai.

These days, the only thing Al Arabiya's special 'Al Hadeth' channel ever talks about is what is happening in Iraq. Well, every once in a while they'll sneak in something about Syria, too.

Al Arabiya takes the side of the Sunni revolutionaries in Iraq, and is very clearly against the current Iraqi president, Al Maliki.

In fact, they don't really fully recognize his claim as head of state. Instead of talking about the 'Iraqi army', they'll just talk about 'Al Maliki's army'.

I don't think, however, that they are on the side of 'Daa-ish'/ISIS/ISIL, or whatever they are supposed to be called. But they probably put the blame for their appearance squarely on the head of Al Maliki.

Moving on from all the Al Maliki's, Al Jazeera's, and Al Arabiya's, I would like to tell you that Al Arabiya does also highlight the UN's role in what is happening.

For example, I think two days ago Syria's last stockpiles of chemical weapons were shipped out. So Al Hadeth did very long interview with Sigrid Kaag. I saw her last year on the BBC Arabic. She is the lady in charge of the UN mission to remove all of Syria's chemical weapons.

The Al Arabiya moderator asked something like: how does it feel to be leaving Syria while it is in such a shambles?

Sigrid Kaag: I came to do a job for the UN, and beyond that, I can't comment.

The Al Arabiya moderator: what do you make of reports that you are being considered as the successor to Lakhdar Brahimi as the special envoy trying to bring peace to Syria?

Sigrid Kaag: I don't know anything about that.

The Al Arabiya moderator: you don't know anything about it? I'm not asking you that, I'm asking how you feel about that.

Sigrid Kaag: I have nothing to say about that.

Yesterday, all the Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan were back in the news, and Al Arabiya showed a clip of Valerie Amos speaking about the terrible situation. Valerie Amos is something like chief of humanitarian operations at the UN.

Then Al Arabiya showed a UN spokesperson, who said: we know that Lebanon and Jordan are overwhelmed, and we are doing everything we can to support them (or something like that.)


And then, Al Arabiya even showed a clip of the current president of the World Bank speaking about Syrian refugees. The current president of the World Bank is an American with roots I think in South Korea. Any case, he was talking about how the World Bank is doing everything it can to support Jordan and Lebanon.

This morning, Al Arabiya aired a commercial from Unicef, trying to get people to donate to the Syrian refugees. It was full of crying, miserable-looking kids. I'd heard before that Unicef does not show crying kids in its commercials, but maybe that is a policy just in place for western audiences.

Any case, at least Al Arabiya audiences don't have to suffer through that actress who does a Unicef commercial every Christmas in the US, with a really cheesy trembling voice. I guess Unicef must have monitored the results of that Christmas commercial and found it successful, because I see it year after year.