'GUARDIAN' BOY IS BACK! WATCH OUT ISRAEL!

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Reading the BBC News website's various stories on the assassination in Dubai of Hamas leader Mahmoud al Mabhouh - and watching Gavin Esler and Peter Marshall on Newsnight last night - you would be hard pressed to know why al Mabhouh is such a controversial figure, beyond what seems to be his involvement in arms deals with Iran (apparently why he was in Dubai) and his high-up position in Hamas. Sky News, however, tells us in its report on the story, "Last month Hamas admitted al Mabhouh, a founder member of Hamas' military wing, was involved in the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989." That's an important detail, isn't it? It surely throws some light on what might have happened and why. So why is the BBC being so coy about it?
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Newsnight featured a discussion on the story between Clinton-era official and former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk and the ubiquitous Sir Ming Campbell. Esler was far from even-handed and showed his hand throughout (as ever). He and Sir Ming were naturally on good terms, but Abdul Bari Atwan's pal Esler was downright rude to the pro-Israeli Mr Indyk, asking him bitterly sarcastic questions and regularly interrupting him. (Will Gav and 'Bari' be together again on this week's Dateline, slagging off Israel? 'Bari' was on last week, so this shouldn't be the case - but we'll see if Esler and his producer can resist temptation!).
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Talking of biased Esler, as I showed recently each of his three appearances on last week's Newsnight saw him kick off the newspaper headlines at the end with The Guardian. Last night was his first appearance this week and, with all the inevitability of a wink from Anne Robinson, he kicked off last night's newspaper headlines with, yes you guessed it, The Guardian (followed by The Independent of course). Gavin Esler is the Naughtie of Newsnight.
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