Obsession, it turns out, is not just a 1980s Calvin Klein fragrance. It is what I have for the egregious, unashamed, long-standing anti-Israel bias of the BBC.

I was about to also express fury that the broadcaster has so far managed to evade punishment for the 30-something years of pro-Palestine partisanship that has been such a key driver of antisemitism in the UK and across the globe – perhaps even a factor in last week’s stabbings in Golders Green – but it seems not to have evaded punishment entirely.

It seems to have received some karmic retribution for its leading role in the epic inversion of reality on Israel-Palestine on behalf of, well, a series of bad actors, from Arab nationalists and the Soviet Union to Iran and Islamists – all ratcheted up to new heights following Oct 7. The karmic retribution takes the form of a big hole in the BBC’s budget after around 3.6 million UK households refused to pay for a license fee.

As those 3.6 m refuseniks represent slightly over one-eighth of all UK households, it also indicates that in addition to the UK Jews who are no longer prepared to tolerate the BBC’s outrageously biased Israel coverage (and presumably a number of households having a preference for streaming platforms), there are a significant numbers of UK citizens who are no longer willing to subsidize a BBC worldview they emphatically do not share.

Hopefully, such dissatisfaction will be kept in mind when BBC execs are considering cuts and redundancies across the BBC, and the departments which cause the most harm will receive the most savage cuts.

For its role in........

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