The Naive 'Friends' of Alan Johnstone

[Pincher]

Today's advertisement in The Grauniad calling on the Palestinians who are reputedly holding BBC journalist Alan Johnstone to release him is doubly ironic.

Firstly. by choosing to use this liberal, pro Palestinian rag as some sort of megaphone to help free their friend these hacks have only helped to put Johnstone's employer in an even more difficult position than the one it's already in (the Beeb is currently resisting a request filed under the Freedon of Information Act to release an internal report which found that the Corporation was guilty of anti Israel bias in its news output).

Secondly, if this naive, motley crew of Johnstone supporters had also included in their ad the names of a few prominent members of the House of Commons Friends of Israel group and had placed it, say, in The Jerusalem Post don't you think that might have just cut a little more ice with his MOSSAD captors? (!)