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Evgeny Kissin
in his Own Words
A Letter Which was Never Sent |
This letter was written at the beginning of 2007 and has never been sent
to the addressee for the reasons stated in its first paragraph and because in the end I came to the conclusion that she simply
would not understand it. Nevertheless, as years went by, I thought that it might be interesting for those who love my art
and want to know more about me as a person: what I believe in, what motivates me, and what is "most important and dear
for me in life and death". . . . . Evgeny Kissin
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T* I have been having doubts whether I should send this letter to you or not, I have been writing it
for 4 days and have re-written it several times. The first reason for all of this was that in principal one cannot but agree
with what you say about the meaning of friendship. The other reason was my understanding that when you were writing about
your having been "hopelessly in love" with me in the past, your "genuine care" for me in the present and
willingness to "always be there" for me if I need you in the future, you were really believing it, and it feels
somewhat awkward to reply to such statements with what I have to say to you, especially since you are a woman. Nevertheless,
I have decided to go ahead and try to explain to you certain things - for the sake of truth and for what is most important
and dear to me in life and in death.
First,
I will reply to some of the statements in your last letter. It seems to me that you simply aren't realizing what you are
saying: "I'm sorry, T, but the absurdity of these words is obvious - those who can afford to buy arms for 425 billion
pounds cannot possibly be poor. Your accusation that the West is being "SO hypocritical" for selling those arms
to "the poor" is just as absurd (sorry, but I can't think of any other definition): as everyone knows, demand
begets offer, not the other way around, and those who rule entire countries are not innocent and inexperienced teenagers who
can be persuaded to buy (and use) drugs. Your statement that
"we control everybody" is equally absurd after 9/11, 3/11, 7/7 etc. As for oppression - NO, THE WEST DOES NOT OPPRESS
ANYBODY; THIS IS AN OBJECTIVE FACT.
True,
hypocrisy is not always alien to the foreign policy of some Western countries. A striking example of that is the European
Union's constant demands that Israel return to its 1967 borders - demands which it continues to make, in spite of the
fact that none of its members has ever returned any territories it conquered in a war to any of its other members. However,
as we all know, in order to have the moral right to accuse others of something, one has to be free of those faults oneself;
otherwise, it's the very hypocrisy we're talking about. Years ago, you wrote to me that capital punishment was not
acceptable to you, even though many people found it justifiable. Now; in Israel, there is no death penalty, whereas Arafat
practised it in his Autonomy even for such a "crime" as selling land to Israelis. In spite of that, you
supported Arafat in his fight against Israel and called that bloody dictator a "poor man"! Excuse me, T, but this
is sheer hypocrisy, and if you show hypocrisy yourself and at the same time accuse others of being "SO hypocritical"
- this is already a DOUBLE HYPOCRISY!
Yes,
there are many things of which the West can be justly accused - and nevertheless, Winston Churchill was 100% right in his
famous statement:"Democracy is the worst
form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." And I shall repeat
again and again what I wrote to you many years ago: "WITH ALL ITS FAULTS, THE WEST IS THE BEST SOCIETY THAT EXISTS ON
OUR PLANET". The best proof that can be made in our debate is the fact that in spite of all your anti-Western tirades,
you continue to live here and don't move to Cuba, North Korea, Iran or Gaza! With your idealism (albeit channelled in
a wrong direction) and your contempt for the Western "wealth", the obvious reason, is that, as you admit yourself,
"we are all free in the Western world to think, say and do whatever we fancy (provided, of course, that we don't
make trouble for the society we live in)"; that here you can freely and without fear take part in rallies against the
local governments' policies, whereas in the above-mentioned places ... as the old Soviet joke, when an American said:
"I can freely shout in front of the White House: 'Down with Reagan!' " - a Russian replied: "Big deal!
I can also freely shout on Red Square: 'Down with Reagan!' " !
Now I shall come to the most important point - and to make it clearer, I shall draw a
parallel. At the time when the bloody tyrant Milosevic (who had come to power through rigged elections) was practicing ethnic
cleansing of Kosovo Albanians and the terrorist KLA (whose sole goal was Kosovo's independence, not destruction of Serbia)
were killing Serb civilians in Kosovo (only in Kosovo!), you justly wrote: "Milosevic is a nasty piece of work, the KLA
are also a nasty piece of work ... I am convinced that the cause of the Balkan problems is much more complicated than Milosevic
the madman". A little over a year after those events, in July 2000, the democratic state of Israel offered to Arafat
(a professional murderer who had devoted his entire life to DELIBERATE killings of civilians - Israelis, Lebanese Christians
and others - and whose organization's goal had always been destruction of Israel), 90% of the so-called West Bank (including
East Jerusalem), the whole of Gaza and 3% of the Negev Desert for the purpose of establishing an Arab Palestinian state on
those territories. To that unprecedented offer of compromise for the sake of peace Arafat responded with an antiradar - a
new terrorist war against Israeli civilians, including children, on the territory of Israel in its 1967 (and even 1948) borders.
Having come to the conclusion that territorial concessions to Arafat were only provoking more war, the overwhelming majority
of the Israeli people voted for Sharon in the elections that took place a few months after the Camp David talks (the fairness
of those elections has never been questioned even by Israel's most malicious enemies). Although the Sharon landslide crushed
Bark in those elections, he formed a government of national unity and invited his crushed adversaries from the Labour Party
to join it; in particular, the well-known Shimon Peres became the Foreign Minister in that government. Once formed, the Israeli
government of national unity headed by Sharon started defending its citizens against Palestinian terrorists and NEVER TARGETED
A SINGLE PALESTINIAN CIVILIAN in their defensive operations (although many Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli bullets
- not only because civilians inevitably die in any war, no matter whether they are being targeted or not, but also because
Palestinian terrorists were using their own civilians, including children, as human shields). After all of that, in April
of 2002, you declared to me in our last phone conversation that the West had to remove Sharon from power in order to achieve
peace in the Middle East, that Arafat was a "poor man", whereas Sharon -"a criminal".! Such statements,
T, OBJECTIVELY not only exclude the possibility of the person who pronounces them (or just thinks this way) being my friend,
they also make him/her MY ENEMY - mine, as well as all the Jewish people's; this is a fact of the objective reality, like
summer is hot and winter is cold, the sun shines and stars twinkle. You say that I don't have the flexibility to accept
other people's ideas - yes, I do and to a high degree (all my friends know that), but everything depends on the idea,
and indeed, there are ideas which all of us don't (and shouldn't!) have the flexibility to accept. I can't accept
the idea that Haman was a poor man, and Mordechai a criminal; I can't accept the idea that Hitler was a poor man, and
Anelevich, a criminal; nor can I accept the idea that Arafat was a poor man, whereas Sharon was a criminal. Those who hold
such "ideas" are MY AND MY ENTIRE PEOPLE'S OBJECTIVE ENEMIES.
In 1999, at the time of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, you refused to believe the Western
media and went as far as saying that "the so-called "democracies" of the West and its media have succeeded
in brainwashing the population". In 2002, you didn't bother to think independently and believed the most obnoxious,
the most filthy anti-Israel propaganda that was being disseminated in some of the Western media! When I suggested to you during
that phone conversation of ours that Israel should be supported, your reaction was : "How can one support Israel when
one and a half million people are homeless?!"
You
didn't even bother to think that it wasn't Israel who was keeping those people homeless; that it was the duty of the
rulers of the countries where Palestinian refugees were dwelling in camps to absorb them dozens of years ago, in the same
way as Israel absorbed 800000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran (and in the same way as Arab countries absorbed
the 30000 Palestinian refugees whom Kuwaitis threw out for supporting Saddam Hussein when he invaded their country!);
that the cynical and cruel Arab rulers were deliberately keeping generations of their own people in refugee camps in order
to have international pressure exerted in Israel! I can understand those "outsiders" who tend to believe that both
sides are equally guilty in the Arab-Israeli conflict; this is a natural way of perception for those who observe conflicts
between other peoples, and with such people I can certainly have a good and friendly relationship, even though our views differ.
I myself don't think that Israel has never done anything wrong throughout its history: naturally, that would be impossible,
since nobody is perfect and Israelis are also human beings with their faults. But those who support the Arabs in this
conflict are MY OBJECTIVE ENEMIES.
I know
that you believe what you're saying when you write about your feeling of love, friendship and care for me - but those
subjective feelings can have different forms and specific meaning in different situations. Needless to say, the example I'll
give you now should in no way be taken as a comparison, but those Christian fanatics who for thousands of years were persecuting,
torturing and massacring my people sincerely believed that they were doing all that out of their genuine love and care for
the Jews in order to save them from the eternal fire in Hell! It is obvious, that you loved not me but some kind of figment
of your own imagination which you identified with me - and which in reality had nothing to do with me whatsoever. Those who
love me love my people and hate its enemies: Arafat's Hamas' and Jihad's gangsters, Ahmadinejad and his ilk, all
those barbarians, two-footed beasts, subhumans, excrements of the human race who, like Nazis in 1930/40's, while killing
Jews, are aiming at the entire Western civilization!
Yes,
T, in the end we'll all die and our bodies will all rot or be cremated - but we'll enter history according to our
deeds, words and beliefs (in certain situations, a word is also a deed - and a very important one.). All the persecutors and
butchers of my people from the Pharaohs to Andropov have already entered history as monsters, whereas all those who helped
Jews in hard times are being recognized as heroes and righteous people. More and more people are realizing now that your fellow
leftists who marched in the so-called "peace demonstrations" during the Cold War were naive puppets of the Evil
Empire, whereas Reagan, Thatcher, Pope John Paul the 2nd and their allies (whatever one may think of the other aspects of
their policies) liberated hundreds of millions of victims of Communism and saved the entire mankind from the red plague. Likewise,
all the Arafats, Nasrallas, Hanives, Ahmadinejads and their ilk will remain in history as monsters; you and your co-thinkers
- as their native puppets; whereas Jean Kirkpatrick and Oriana Fallaci, Nonie Darwish and Brigitte Gabriel - all those wonderful
people with brilliant minds and courageous hearts will enter history and remain for ever as heroes.
AM YISRAEL KHAY VEKAYANM - THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL LIVE AND WILL LIVE!
Zhenya
(The initial of my addressee's name has been altered)
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Man
Bites Dog in Music . .
By Jay Nordlinger
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Friends, I can’t tell you how unusual this is: A classical musician — a very famous
one — has spoken out on behalf of a very unpopular cause: Israel. For a story, go here. I am speaking of Evgeny Kissin, the 38-year-old pianist. He was
born and raised in the Soviet Union, and in 2002 became a British citizen. He was a child prodigy. When we first knew him,
he played in his red Young Pioneers scarf. He ditched that scarf long ago.
Kissin sent a letter to the BBC —
a phenomenally eloquent one — blasting the organization for its "slander and bias" against Israel. He said
that, listening to the BBC, you could hear echoes of "the old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda." When he became a
British citizen, he explained, he was "inspired and proud to belong to the country of Winston Churchill," whose
contempt for anti-Semitism was total. He quoted a Churchill line: "There is no anti-Semitism in England because we do
not consider ourselves more stupid than the Jews."
A profound comment, to be reflected on.
Anyway, Kissin said that the BBC “had always been a
beacon of light, of truth and objectivity to those of us behind the Iron Curtain, in the ‘Evil Empire.’”
Yes, a famous artist actually used the phrase “Evil Empire,” without irony. Why wouldn’t he? He lived there
(and in a privileged position, which is interesting). “Reaching out to far corners of the world, [the BBC] was the voice
of a country which for us was a model of democracy and human rights.” And now? The Beeb has disgraced itself, with scurrilous
coverage from the Middle East.
In
writing his letter, Kissin stuck his neck out. The classical-music world, like the arts and academia at large, is not exactly
friendly toward Israel. An anti-Israel stance is de rigueur and chic. Some musicians — I think I have spoken before
about Nigel Kennedy, the British violinist — actually boycott Israel. I wonder whether Kissin will suffer any professional
setbacks for his speaking out. He is famous and well-established, yes. But the arts world can be ruthless. I know famous musicians
who you might think would be perfectly protected. But they keep mum on certain issues, lest they run into difficulty.
In any case, I bow deep to Kissin, somewhat
stunned by his clarity and courage.
Source
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Interview: Evgeny Kissin
The world-renowned concert pianist explains why he has chosen to speak his mind on the Middle East
conflict
By Stephen
Pollard, November 1, 2010
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Evgeny
Kissin: ‘None of the Soviet leaders ever said Israel should
be destroyed - but this is exactly what is said by
today’s Iranians’
Please Click on Pic to read Mr Kissin's
Interview
In his own words:
Pianist Evgeny Kissin has decided to use his
influence to speak
out about injustices about injustices against Israel
Please Click on Pic to read "In
His Own Words"
Read more about Mr Kissin's political views
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Evgeny
Kissin: A Pianist
for Freedom |
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The Artist as Citizen
Evgeny Kissin Speaks Out Against Anti-Semitism
Author: Ilona Oltuski —
Published: 3rd March 2010
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"I just felt that it was no longer possible to remain
silent and not protest," world-renowned pianist Evgeny Kissin said about his open letter to BBC Director General Mark Thompson, criticizing the media giant’s
alleged habit of on-air favoritism.
"I
don’t know what my letter has accomplished, if anything, but my motivation to write it came from the dramatic increase
of anti-Israel bias and slander in some of the prominent British media in general and the BBC in particular in the last few
years," Mr. Kissin explained to me when I asked him about the reactions to his outrage relating to a BBC report in December,
2009.
 The report and the arguments that followed had centered on Israel’s alleged harvesting of Palestinian organs and blood
for future transplants, which Kissin regarded as biased reporting. He accused the organization of having lost "its position
of truth and responsibility," the very virtues he, as a young pianist growing up behind the Iron Curtain during the cold
war, had admired and come to regard as a "model of democracy and human rights."
It was a remarkable outcry by the Russian-born pianist, and – since
2002 – UK citizen, who is not known to be an extrovert, but usually makes headlines by playing sold-out concerts worldwide.
"Yes, I do believe it is right to describe
my letter as an ‘outcry’, both on a humanistic level and from a Jewish perspective," Mr. Kissin said, confirming
his position as a defensive opposition against the political tendencies he perceives as injustice. He further sways political
influence on his audience by posting a selection of political books, articles, and transcripts of selected speeches by renowned
intellectuals and writers like George Orwell, Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Brodsky, Yelena
Bonner, Oriana Fallaci, Walid Shoebat, and Salma Abdallah in the library of his fan club’s web site.
 Ever since his debut in the west in 1987, when he performed Tchaikovsky’s
"First Piano Concerto" with the Berlin Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan at the Berlin Festival, Kissin - then
hailed as a ‘wunderkind’ - has continued to shine in unusually memorable performances, such as the 1997 first-ever
piano-only recital at the BBC proms. Today, 23 years after his Berlin debut, the 39-year-old pianist still has critics around
the world raving about his mastery.
Allan Kozinn, in a review for the New York Times, comments on Kissin’s
Carnegie Hall performance in 2005: “Mr. Kissin was true to form, his playing hard-driven and full of passion, and his
interpretations ranging from the downright quirky to the elevated and insightful.”
And about the very special air Kissin exudes, Kozinn says: “Pianist
Evgeny Kissin has an ironclad technique and is the master of the fiery grand gesture. But those are qualities that other pianists
offer in equal (well, nearly equal) measure, and they are probably not the only reasons he has built a large and loyal following
in New York since he first played here, at 19, in 1990. More likely, there is something in his enigmatic persona that draws
and engages listeners much in the way a mystery novel does: each concert challenges the audience to figure out what makes
him tick. It is unlikely that anyone will succeed. Even guessing how he'll play a particular work is a loser's game.”
And in the AllMusic Guide, Joseph
Stevenson marvels: “His amazing finger dexterity and power are coupled with an electrifying stage personality.”
For the past five years Kissin
has been living in Paris. He continues to follow a very challenging international touring calendar, which includes only the
most necessary breaks after performances, so as to avoid burn-out and to make sure he is in the best physical as well as mental
form. "My goal is to play as much as possible and as well as possible," states Kissin very unambiguously when summing
up his raison d’être as a spirited pianist and musician. About his social and political beliefs in general he
says, "I do not have the time to stand up for everything I feel is right, or against everything I feel is wrong."
In this case, though, he has
decidedly left the l’art pour l’art podium for the deliverance of a political message. “In writing his letter,
Kissin stuck his neck out,” comments Jay Nordlinger. “The classical music world, like the arts and academia at
large, is not exactly friendly towards Israel. An anti-Israel stance is de rigueur and chic. Some musicians - I think I have
spoken before about Nigel Kennedy, the British violinist - actually boycott Israel. I wonder if Kissin will suffer any professional
setbacks for speaking out. … In any case, I bow deep to Kissin, somewhat stunned by his clarity and courage.”
And Jessica Duchen poignantly
stated in her Standpoint Blog on December 31, 2009: “No doubt there will be people who say Kissin should shut up and
play the piano, as they did to Krystian Zimerman when he spoke out against America’s missile shield that was to be stationed
in Poland, and to Daniel Barenboim when he speaks up in favor of more peaceful practices in the Middle East, building the
necessary bridges through music.”
But
shouldn’t our highest ranked artists not only have the right to speak up as citizens but also be allowed to go beyond
that, and act on a deeper moral obligation? Shouldn’t they be able to muster their civil courage and stand behind their
principles? After all, few other people have the opportunity to create awareness outside the narrowly defined political realm
as effectively as artists do through their work as well as through their persona.
Particularly famous performers - always subject of worldwide media attention -
have a unique chance to make their voices heard. This certainly shouldn’t be the exclusive domain of pop and rock artists,
but extend to classical musicians who, incidentally, have been getting close to rock star status lately.
Polish star pianist Krystian Zimerman went several steps further
than just proclaiming his opinions. By putting his money where his mouth is, he not only used his 2009 debut recital at Walt
Disney Hall in Los Angeles to speak up against the proposed US stationing of missiles on Polish soil, he also canceled all
future concerts in the US, thus accepting financial losses to make his point.
In the Guardian’s “On Classical” column of April 28, 2009, Tom
Service applauded Zimerman for his actions. In his opinion, Zimerman had broken "…the invisible wall that often
separates classical musicians from their audiences… I am glad Zimerman isn’t afraid to shatter that barrier,
and to show that however cut off from the world a celebrity recital in a glitzy hall might seem to be, it’s not.”
And he reminds us that "… from Paderewski, Poland’s piano virtuoso prime minister, to Hanns Eisler, from
Cornelius Cardew to Kurt Masur, countless classical composers and performers have been just as vocal and committed in their
political beliefs."
Another
example of a famous musician actively using his status as an international celebrity and musical giant to advance his social
and political perspective is Daniel Barenboim. The West-Eastern Divan orchestra, which he founded with Palestinian-born intellectual
Edward Said, consists of young musicians from Israel and the Arab world, promoting peaceful interaction and personal communication
through a common denominator: classical music.
In his 2008 book, Music Quickens Time, he says: “The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
is, of course, unable to bring about peace. It can however, create conditions for understanding without which it is impossible
even to speak of peace. It has the potential to awaken the curiosity of each individual to listen to the narrative of the
other and to inspire the courage necessary to hear what one would prefer to block out. Then, having heard the unacceptable,
it may become possible at the very least to accept the legitimacy of the other’s point of view.”
All this reminds me of a book I came across when contemplating the issues at hand.
In his 2005 publication, The Artist as Citizen, Joseph W. Polisi compiled a selection of articles and speeches from his two-decade
tenure as president of New York’s prestigious Juilliard School, focusing on the role of the performing artist as a leader
and communicator of human values. In his volume, Mr. Polisi defines what he considers to be the duty of the performing artist:
"…to enrich the fabric of our society and bring forward the virtues and abilities that represent the best in humankind."
But to which extent does this apply to the realm outside
the artistic environment? And where and when does the artist’s responsibility cross over into the sphere of political
engagement?
Says composer Sergej Prokofiev: "In
my view, the composer, just as the poet, the sculptor or the painter, is in duty bound to serve man, the people. He must beautify
life and defend it. He must be a citizen first and foremost, so that his art might consciously extol human life and lead man
to a radiant future."
I wholeheartedly applaud
the civil courage and the integrity of artists who not only inspire through their mastery, but care to act as a "spark
for thought" by appealing to their audience's consciousness, thus reaching far beyond the stages of the performance
halls.
Source Comments
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Open
letter to the Director General of the BBC
From: Evgeny Kissin |
Dear Sir,
I
first came to live in this country thirteen years ago and became a British subject seven years ago, having grown up in the
Soviet Union. I was inspired and proud to belong to the country of Winston Churchill, who famously said "There is no
anti-Semitism in England because we do not consider ourselves more stupid than the Jews". Above all, the BBC and especially
its World Service had always been a beacon of light, of truth and objectivity to those of us behind the Iron Curtain, in the
Evil Empire. Reaching out to far corners of the world, it was the voice of a country which for us was a model of democracy
and human rights.
Since a long time now,
I receive verified reports on an almost daily basis of the BBC's slander and bias towards Israel, painfully reminiscent
of the old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda. This culminated with the BBC's Persian Service's blood libel concerning
Israel's alleged harvesting of Palestinian organs and blood for future transplant. It beggars belief that the British
taxpayer should be funding an organisation which is aligning itself with Iran's despotic leader in its anti-Semitic propaganda.
Other print media, like the Guardian, which erroneously
printed this libel, propagated by Israel's enemies, have since apologized. I am not aware of any such retraction from
the BBC.
Is it not high time for the BBC to return
to the values for which is was so much respected before it finds itself in the garbage of history together with Pravda, TASS,
Volkischer Beobachter and Der Angruff?
Yours faithfully,
Evgeny Kissin
Source
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Stand for Israel Blog We like his tune!
January 8, 2010 |
Pianist
Evgeny Kissin
It’s no secret that many
believe that the news division of the BBC, the UK’s prestigious broadcasting network, is wildly biased against Israel — sometimes to the point that it lacks credibility.
Unfortunately, the arts and media industries tend to follow
the elite conventional wisdom (which, ever nuanced, goes something like: "Israel bad") and rarely provides any sort
of balance. So we were delighted to hear that Evgeny Kissin, 38, a child prodigy in his native Russia now widely regarded
as one of the greatest living pianists, has accused the BBC of "slander and bias" against Israel, broadcasting material
he describes as "painfully reminiscent of the old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda."
Kissin, who became a British citizen in 2002, said he intends from now on to speak out against media bias against
Israel, which he sees as both fueling and being fueled by anti-Semitism.
H/t: The Jewish Chronicle’s ever-interesting Miriam Shaviv
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Standpoint Blogs — Jessica Duchen
Thursday 31st December 2009
Kissin Tells
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The JC yesterday broke the news that
Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin has spoken out against what he perceives as an anti-Israel bias in the BBC, accusing the organisation,
in a letter to its director general Mark Thompson, of broadcasting material “painfully reminiscent of the old Soviet
anti-Zionist propaganda”.
Growing
up Jewish in Russia, Kissin experienced various anti-Semitic incidents, some of which he's told me about during our various
interviews. Here's an extract of one interview from three years ago:
"At the end of March 1984 I made my big debut playing both Chopin concerti in the
great hall of the Moscow Conservatoire. That concert was recorded live, that was my first recording and it was a big event.
The following day a representative of the Kremlin phoned my teacher and invited - so to speak - me to play on Lenin's
birthday, which was due 3 weeks later, the 2nd and 3rd movements of Dimitri Kabalevsky's third concerto. I didn't
want to do that, I didn't want to learn that music. And then I was explained about the official anti-Semitism in the Soviet
Union, of which I had not been aware before. I had experienced a daily life kind of anti-Semitism on numerous occasions but
I wasn't yet aware of the fact that it was also an unofficial government policy. So I was explained that I couldn't
possibly do everything I wanted to do and not do everything I didn't want to do..."
(The incident ultimately turned out in Kissin's favour when Kabalevsky,
who was to have conducted, fell ill, enabling the youthful pianist to play his preferred Chopin instead.)
No doubt there will be people who say Kissin should "shut up and
play the piano", as they said to Krystian Zimerman when he spoke out against America's missile shield that was to
be stationed in Poland, and to Daniel Barenboim when he speaks up in favour of more peaceful practices in the Middle East,
building the necessary bridges through music.
A
few points. First, artists have the right to speak out, same as the rest of us. Secondly, you can see where Kissin's coming
from, in terms of his own background (in case you didn't know, in Russia being Jewish is regarded as a nationality, not
a race or religion, let alone a personal choice).
But
thirdly, everyone wants the BBC to say only what they think themselves: there are plenty of people who would (and do) accuse
it of bias in completely the opposite direction. The Beeb, however, appears to be running so scared and is so busy complying
with compliance that it hesitates to stick its neck out at all, in any direction, ever, even at times when it should have
a responsibility to do so: its failure to broadcast the charity appeal for the victims of a tragic war last winter was reprehensible.
But because the war happened to be in Gaza...well, you know the rest.
What everyone is doing when they accuse the BBC of bias is essentially just shooting the messenger.
It doesn't make a blind bit of difference to the reality on the ground, where anti-Semitism and the flouting of international
law are both starkly actual - and fuel one another. Shooting the messenger, as ever, just diverts the argument away from where
it really needs to be...
One amusing footnote: according to the JC:
A spokesman for the BBC said the corporation was unable to comment until it had received Mr Kissin’s
letter.
So the JC knows what's in EK's
letter to the BBC before the BBC does? As they say on Facebook: woot? [update: apparently I don't mean 'woot', I mean 'WTF'. True. Thanks, Matthew!]
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Brilliant Minds and Courageous Hearts
Those whom
Kissin admires most in this life
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An unofficial
fan site for all those who love the genius and extraordinary talent of Evgeny Kissin. This is a non-profit site maintained voluntarily. Photographs/content
found herein remain the property of their original owners. No copyright infringement is intended.
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