Pieter Cobelens has not been spotted in Today Inside for weeks after his Israel feud with Johan Derksen. What is going on? “Johan felt humiliated and doesn’t want to see him anymore.”
We have not seen him for a few weeks now in Today Inside: regular guest Pieter Cobelens, the respected former director of the Military Intelligence and Security Service. The war between Israel and Hamas has been raging for over a month now and Pieter has had a disagreement with Johan Derksen about this since the beginning.
Conflict at VI
Johan has permanently disqualified himself from the Jewish community by shouting shortly after Hamas’ bloody attack on Israel ‘that the Jews kind of asked for it’. A particularly dubious statement, which Johan came back to a day later. Then he was scolded by Pieter live on the VI broadcast. “Unseemly!”
When VI then has a broadcast without Pieter on the barstool, Johan makes very false statements about their regular guest. He would be someone who is ‘ranting’, which is of course very disrespectful to an expert who is part of your own program. It has been confirmed that this has led to a conflict behind the scenes.
Where is Peter?
Pieter was still in the program after Johan’s insult, but now he has been missing for weeks. What’s wrong with Pieter? Writer Leon de Winter thinks that Johan simply does not want to hear Pieter’s words.
Leon sets today The Telegraph that Pieter is no longer welcome in Today Inside. “A few weeks ago, Derksen’s ignorance was punctured by regular guest Major General Retired Pieter Cobelens. Since then, Cobelens has been absent, apparently because Derksen felt humiliated and does not want to see him anymore.”
Hamas assistant
A shame, Leon thinks, because he thinks the men of VI need counterbalance. He has looked at VI with a smile for years. “But this is no longer possible since Derksen, and then Gijp, took a position on the dirty war that Hamas started. Derksen is guided by photos, videos and messages from Gaza.”
Messages that are not verified because they come from Hamas, Leon says. “Evening after evening, Derksen, and now also Gijp, express themselves to a large audience as assistants of Hamas. It is no longer possible.”
‘He knows nothing’
Leon is finally done with Johan. “He knows nothing about the long, tragic history of the conflict, has never read a book about it, and does not realize that he is being manipulated. Maybe he doesn’t care about that either. He has started to sound like a Jew hater, and he pretends that he doesn’t care. But it does matter to me.”
Johan influences a mass audience, he emphasizes. “Hundreds of thousands of people watch VI who, like Derksen, know nothing but are still given an opinion by him. This is not about football or c&w music.”
Fragment
Pieter and Johan on television about their argument: