Daily Express publishes Hamas propaganda and blood libel that Israel gasses babies

Express article: click to expand

21 June 2016 UPDATE: The dead baby story has indeed been confirmed as a scam (as was obvious from the start to anybody who is not a Hamas supporter). The 8-month-old actually died from a fatal blood condition that runs in the family and Hamas paid them 8,000 shekels to make up the story blaming Israel for the death. Of course the Express - and all the other media outlets for which this was the headline news for 48 hours - will not print anything about the new revelations.

The Daily Express is considered to be a 'conservative' British newspaper and one of the few that is not anti-Israel. In fact it rarely publishes much 'foreign news' in any detail at all, which is why yesterday's unprecedented full page story demonizing Israel with the blood libel that it gassed a baby to death in Gaza is so appalling. It was known the previous day that this baby’s death had nothing to do with Israel (the baby died of a pre-existing condition; UPDATE 25 MAY: even Hamas now admits the baby's death had nothing to with Israel). But this is by no means the only thing shoddy about this most vicious and unbalanced anti-Israel hit piece. Note also the following:

• The Express had not provided a single news item previously about Hamas's ongoing provocations and violence against Israel's border, so its readers will know nothing about the context of what happened on Monday. On the contrary the story presents the lie that this was a spontaneous protest against the opening of the American Embassy in Jerusalem. 
• In fact the border - where all of the violence took place - is not even mentioned until paragraph 9. Instead the narrative is that Israel - out of nowhere - started to drop cannisters of lethal tear gas in the middle of Gaza. The fact that many of the 40,000 demonstrators were armed and violently attempting to breach the border - is not mentioned.
• Whereas the Hamas propaganda claims - including the ludicrous story of how the baby came to be in a war zone - are accepted as facts, the Israeli case is presented by claims in sarcastic quotes.
• Especially interesting is the fact that the claims by Ambassador Regev and  pro-Israel Colonel Kemp are both taken out of context from the the full statements they made. For example, whereas Kemp made a powerful and convincing argument about why all the blame for any deaths lay with Hamas and that the Israeli army had been meticulous in minimising casualties, the only quotes used by him here imply that force was being used as a deterrent to protesting.  

On Monday evening Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard issued a statement slamming Israel saying

..no one can tell me that the correct response was to fire live ammunition at unarmed Palestinians. 

It may or may not be coincidental that Pollard is also an Editor of the Express. Although it was always obvious (to people who properly follow what happens in Israel) that most of the casualties would have been armed terrorists and not 'unarmed civilians' as claimed by the media, Hamas spokesman Salah al-Bardawil actually admitted yesterday that 50 of the 62 dead were Hamas operatives (Islamic Jihad had already claimed three of the dead including the much cited '16 year old victim'). On hearing this Pollard has since apologised for his previous tweet. We are still waiting for any kind of apology - or even explanation - from the Express for one of the worst pieces of reporting on Israel ever. A report that is already further encouraging antisemites to attack Jews 'because Israel murders babies'.

Update: I have written to the Express and also submitted a formal complaint to IPSO about the article based on the inaccuracies listed above.

Update 20 May 2018: Now Nick Ferrari sustains the blood libel in the Sunday Express.

From IsraellyCool:

The "Official Jews" response to Kaufman: pathetic and inadequate as I predicted

With no rational way to defend the ongoing tsunami of unprovoked attacks by Palestinians/Muslims against Jews in Israel, the antisemites and their friends in the media resorted to a simple lie: "there were no such attacks, and in fact Israel is deliberately killing Palestinians and planting knives". Hence they have created the latest blood libel against Jews.

As I noted in my report on Dave Collier's scoop about Gerald Kaufman, the most serious aspect of Kaufman's speech was not the 'Jewish money buys influence' lie (that Kaufman has stated many times before) but the above blood libel - that incredibly has now become part of the public narrative, with the odious Amnesty International buying into it. At the end of my article I said:

What's the betting that the "Official Jews" only focus their complaints on the Jewish money aspect (because criticism of that is accepted in all 'respected liberal circles') but ignore the far more damaging blood libel (because that, after all, means defending Israel and calling out Palestinian lies, which in not accepted in any liberal circle)?

Well, with the exception of a very good and clear statement by Jonathan Arkush of the Board of Deputies, Britain's 'official Jews' have responded exactly as I predicted. Where they have raised a complaint they have chosen to completely ignore Kaufman's blood libel. The statement from the CST manages to give a detailed report of Kaufman's speech but completely avoids any mention of his claims about Israel even though that was by far the dominant part of the speech! The statement from the Jewish Leadership Council talks about "all the old-fashioned anti-Semitic trope" but also without mentioning the blood libel. All of the Jewish MPs who have made statements about it have also ignored the blood libel.

Kaufman's latest antisemitic outburst: as usual the media focuses on the wrong thing

David Collier attended and recorded Gerald Kaufman's talk yesterday at a Palestine Return Centre event in Parliament. The Jewish Chronicle has used his recording to run a story whose headline is also being picked up elsewhere:

 Labour veteran Sir Gerald Kaufman claims 'Jewish money' has influenced Conservatives

His statements about Jewish money and influence are indeed odious - so bad that even the antisemites of the Palestine Return Centre have distanced themselves from them. But he has been spouting this nonsense for a long time.  What is new and far more sinister is that he publicly made a series of blood libels against Israel, starting with the statement:

.. In the last few days alone the Israelis have murdered 52 Palestinians 

This is the lying narrative that Palestinian Muslims are using to justify even more attacks against Israeli civilians. Since every Palestinian death has been the result of them mounting unprovoked attacks against Jews, and since almost every one has been recorded on video (see examples here) this is probably the most easily refuted blood libel in history. That a supposedly intelligent man can make such a statement at an event in Parliament is the real story here. Kudos to David Collier for exposing it, but now is the time for Britain's "Official Jews" to recognise where the focus of this story really lies and to pull their finger out and start legal proceedings against Kaufman.

p.s. What's the betting that the "Official Jews" only focus their complaints on the Jewish money aspect (because criticism of that is accepted in all 'respected liberal circles') but ignore the far more damaging blood libel (because that, after all, means defending Israel and calling out Palestinian lies, which in not accepted in any liberal circle)?

30 October Update: As I predicted Britain's "Official Jews" have indeed chosen largely to ignore the blood libel aspect.

LBC's pathetic response to my complaints about Nick Ferrari

I've sent two complaints recently to LBC about Nick Ferrari's repeated suggestions that "Jews kill Arabs for no reason" (one about the 25 September programme and one on 13 October).

I have received a response which appears to be directed to the second complaint but it is actually a standard response sent to everyone who complained about that programme and misses the specific complaint I made.

Thanks for your email. We always appreciate people getting in touch to share their thoughts and views on our output.

In what has been a very busy week of domestic, UK-based news we have found time to report on recent events in Israel. As ever, our approach has been to adopt a very careful and cautious approach in our coverage, sticking to the facts. This was the approach taken by Nick Ferrari on Wednesday during his interview with a journalist from the Jerusalem Post and lengthy, sympathetic discussion with a caller from a suburb outside Tel Aviv.

Please be assured we will continue to analyse our output as we strive to make it as accurate and relevant as possible, given the often fast-moving and complex events we are covering.

We also appreciate there are many deeply held opinions about what is happening and will continue to aim to reflect a wide range of views.

Thanks again for taking the time to get in touch.

While LBC at least responded on this occasion (Sky News never do and nor do most newspapers) I have sent back a follow-up complaint.

Dear LBC

Thank you for your response but it does not address my specific complaint. It does not matter who Ferrari interviewed. I complained about the words Ferrari used to introduce the subject (and incidentally these were the ONLY words said about the subject for about 10 minutes, so many listeners would ONLY have heard those words). He said at about 8.40am:

"To Israel now. And a Palestinian has been fatally shot in Jerusalem. More on this later".

This was after multiple terror attacks that very morning in Jerusalem specifically against Jews in which four Jewish civilians were killed (mostly elderly) and dozens injured in shooting, knifing and car attacks.. The Palestinian who was 'fatally shot' is the man who committed the atrocity that you can actually see here:

https://youtu.be/wChXPbocWhw

For Ferrari to have used the words he did to summarise that morning's news from Israel was inexcusable and can only be put down to either him or whoever fed him this 'strapline' as being driven by antisemitic hatred and ignorance. It was disgraceful and shoddy journalism that requires a full on-air apology by Ferrari.

Moreover, I also bring to your attention the fact that Ferrari conducted a 30-minute antisemitic blood libel on 25 September when he accused Israelis of killing a 'tiny young woman' for no reason even though she had in fact attacked them with a knife after refusing repeated attempts to stop advancing.

See also:

• Nick Ferrari: Jews killing Arabs again for no reason
• Nick Ferrari: not enough dead Jews
• Perfect illustration of anti-Israel bias in the media
• LBC: a platform for the propaganda of Hizb ut Tahrir (2005)
• How LBC reported the massacre in Jerusalem (2008)
• LBC's Andrew Pierce: "Not enough dead Israelis for me" (2009)
• LBC's Nick Ferrari: "Not enough dead Israelis for me"  (2012)
• LBC's 'pro-Israel' Nick Ferrari cannot understand why Israel picked on Hamas (2012)
• Why LBC's James O'Brien (like many other liberal commentators) is an antisemite (2014)
• More on LBC's James O'Brien and his claim not be an antisemite (2014)
• LBC's war against Israel (2014)
• LBC responds to my complaint about their war against Israel (2014)
• How the media sees the timeline of events in Israel
• Letters to MP and Downing Street about anti-Israel media bias
• Compare and contrast responses to terrorism in Israel
• Rules and Guidelines for Western reporting on Israel 
• Media ignores or dehumanizes murdered Israelis
• BBC ignore attacks against Israel
• Martians attacking Jews again
• Arabs massacred by Americans on day of tit-for-tat violence
• Reporting attacks against ISIS and Hamas
• Another dedication to the useful idiots at CNN and the BBC
• If the response to Pearl Harbour had been the same as that of modern Islamic attacks. 

What to say to your MP about the failure of the media and politicians to acknowledge the current war against Israeli Jews

Letter below sent to my MP***(see update below in the light of the outrageous government statement by Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond)

Dear XXXX

The war against Israeli civilians and the disgraceful reporting of it by the UK media

You may recall that we have communicated before about the way biased media reporting on Israel is a major factor in the increase in antisemitism in the UK.

Well, if you rely only on the UK media for information about what is happening in Israel you will be completely unaware that in the last week there has been an unprecedented wave of terrorist attacks against Jewish civilians in every city of Israel (averaging 100 per day and increasing as I write) resulting in numerous dead Jews. Because the story is 'only about dead Jews' it is not apparently considered newsworthy, despite the international significance of the events and the fact that the surge in attacks came immediately after Mahmoud Abbas (the leader of the Palestine Authority) effectively declared war against Israel's Jews at the United Nations (another fact unreported by the media).

Indeed, within hours of Abbas's speech on 1 October Palestinian terrorists aligned with Abbas's Fatah organisation jubilantly claimed responsibility for shooting and killing Eitam and Naam Henkin in front of their four young children (all under 10). Subsequent reports confirm that the attackers intended to kill the children as well but one of the attackers accidentally shot the other in the hand after killing the parents and at that point the attackers fled. None of this was reported anywhere in the British media. Nor has the media ever reported on the wild celebrations that take place through every segment of Palestinian society after Jews are killed in such terrorist attacks.

What makes the media reporting not just grossly incompetent but also clearly anti-Semitic is that while they have universally failed to report on the attacks against the Jews, they have chosen ONLY to report incidents in which the Palestinian attackers were killed in the act of committing murder. Moreover, such reports have typically led with the headline "Palestinian killed by security forces...". For example, of special significance was the attack by Palestinian terrorist Mohammed Halabi (who, in contrast to the media’s narrative of Palestinian desperation and poverty, came from a wealthy family and was a law student at Al Quds University). On 3 October Halabi decided to go to Jerusalem to kill as many Jews as he could. He stabbed Nehamia Lavi and Aharaon Benita to death with a knife in Jerusalem while other Arabs looked on and applauded. He also stabbed Benita’s wife Adele and baby. They survived, but only after Adele was slapped, spat at and laughed at by the Arab passers-by while the knife was still in her body. Halibi was eventually shot dead by security forces while attempting to shoot other Jews with a gun he stole from the dead Nehamia Lavi. All of this was captured on video, but none was reported. Instead the BBC led with the ludicrous - but completely typical - headline "Palestinian shot dead after Jerusalem attack kills two" (see http://bbcwatch.org/2015/10/03/bbc-news-flunks-headline-of-report-on-jerusal em-terror-attack/)

Put simply the media's portrayal about Israel and the Palestinians is a perfect inversion of reality. As a direct result, over the last few years the British public and politicians from all parties have effectively bought into a lie based on a false Palestinian narrative. The impact on British Jews like myself has been serious (I have previously told you some personal examples). We are subject to a barrage of anti-Semitic insults under the guise of 'anti-Zionism' and have increasingly seen 'boycotts' (often involving violent action) of anyone and anything associated with the Jews of Israel. This includes actions like the physical destruction of Jewish owned shops like Ahava and the disruption of every cultural and sporting event in which Israelis participate. But it also includes the EU labelling of goods from the so-called 'occupied territories' which, in reality, is a purely Nazi-like anti-Semitic measure, since it applies only to Jewish-owned businesses in areas such as Jerusalem - the capital of Israel.

As my MP I politely request that you raise this issue with the media authorities and also the relevant government departments. I would also like to know why nobody in Government has even so much as condemned the Palestinian terrorism or the incitement by the Palestinian Authority. This is despite the fact that the latter receives some £150 million each year from UK taxpayers - much of which goes directly to pay salaries of convicted terrorists.

Yours sincerely 

***Note this was before I heard this evening about the appalling statement by the Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in which he blamed Israel's 'occupation' and 'violence by Palestinians and Israeli settlers' for the current situation. And there are still people who think that the Conservatives and David Cameron are 'friends of Israel'. Remember Hammond also made a blood libel antisemitic statement (one of the worst ever made by a British Cabinet member) when he said that Israel wanted to spike the Iran deal because it 'wanted to maintain a permanent state of war'. Anyway, I used the online form to contact the Prime Minister to make the following complaint:

I am appalled by the Foreign Minister's statement today which largely blames Israel for the unprecedented wave of terrorist attacks against Jewish civilians in every city of Israel (averaging 100 per day and increasing as I write) resulting in numerous dead Jews. The fact that the surge in attacks came immediately after Mahmoud Abbas (the leader of the Palestine Authority) effectively declared war against Israel's Jews at the United Nations was also unreported by the media and ignored by the Government (just like the attacks against Israelis). The media have chosen ONLY to report incidents in which the Palestinian attackers were killed in the act of committing murder. Moreover, such reports have typically led with the headline "Palestinian killed by security forces...". Now the government seems to have fallen into the same BIG LIE narrative. Perhaps Hammond could also clarify or name even one 'settler' who has attacked an Arab.

Perfect illustration of anti-Israel bias in the UK media

I've sent the following abbreviated complaint to Nick Ferrari at LBC and the full complaint below.

Dear Nick

While you have completely ignored the continued vicious unprovoked terrorist attacks by Palestinians that are now killing and injuring Israeli civilians daily, on 25 September you spent 30 minutes spewing vicious slander and blood libels against Israel based on the false account of what happened when a Palestinian woman was shot during one such terrorist attack. You gave no context for the story and said that Israelis had no right to self-defence against knife attacks by women.  Given that the Israel account of events was proven correct, I expect an on-air apology

Full complaint to LBC:

Nothing sums up the inherent antisemitism of the British media than a segment of Nick Ferrari's prime time morning show on LBC on 25 September when he spent 30 minutes spewing vicious slander and blood libels against Israel. Taking account of the context and evidence I demand an on-air apology from Ferrari for his ignorance, bias, and lies for the reasons set out below.   

In the previous weeks Israelis had been victims of  multiple, unprovoked knife, car and rock attacks (not to mention rockets from Gaza and Syria) which had claimed the lives of civilians including babies. Not a single one of these hundreds of incidents got a mention on the '24 hour news' channel that is LBC. In one of these incidents a female Arab terrorist (Hadeel al-Hashlamunarmed) was armed with a knife concealed under a burka and ignored calls by soldiers to put her weapon down for several minutes, before lunging at them with the knife. At that point she was shot in the lower part of her body. She later died in hospital. As IsraellyCool reported on 25 September the British media only took an interest in the story when an alternative anti-Israel narrative was spun. Based on a photograph showing that the terrorist was very short while the soldier was tall the Palestinian lie industry claimed that the woman could not have been a terrorist and some even claimed she was unarmed.

Accepting the Palestinian narrative unquestioningly Nick Ferrari (on what was a very heavy news day in the UK) devoted the entire slot between 8.30 and 9.00am to a barrage of abuse against Israel. His invited 'guest expert' to speak about the story was a member of the UK Palestine Solidarity Committee a group of congenital liars and antisemites whose only objective is to destroy the Jewish state. None of the callers seemed to know the true facts about the incident and those who called to defend Israel were ridiculed by Ferrari who repeatedly said that "even if she had a knife what possible harm could she have done with it; it was only a knife".

In fact a subsequent investigation has confirmed that the original Israeli account of what happened was true. 

But especially relevant is that fact that, in the last week there have been several hundred terrorist attacks by Palestinians (often individuals using knives) against Israel civilians resulting in several deaths and multiple injuries. But yet again LBC has been unable to find the time to mention any of these and, of course, they have been ignored by Nick Ferrari. This is despite the especially savage nature of the attacks and the fact that they have been greeted with widespread celebrations by the Palestinian community. For example, on 1 October Palestinians shot and killed Eitam and Naam Henkin in front of their four young children (all under 10). But of especial significance was the attack by Palestinian terrorist Mohammed Halabi (who, in contrast to the media’s narrative of Palestinian desperation and poverty, came from a wealthy family and was a law student at Al Quds University). On 3 October Halabi killed Nehamia Lavi and Aharaon Benita with a knife in Jerusalem while other Arabs looked on and applauded. He also stabbed Benita’s wife Adele and baby. They survived, but only after Adele was slapped, spat at and laughed at by the Arab passers-by while the knife was still in her body. Despite all of this being captured on video, Nick Ferrari did not feel it worthy of mention – let alone a half-hour spot on prime time. Dead Jews – no matter how horrific and bizarre the circumstances - is no news.

And here is something for Nick Ferrari to look at (Courtesy: via Drora Klement Katzav at Documenting Anti-semitism).  This is a victim of a terrorist stabbing today in Jerusalem.

 Dozens of these attacks are now taking place daily with the incitement of the Palestinian Authority. As Drora says: "why aren't we seeing this image in every single newspaper around the globe? or at least, the big newspapers?"
 












And here is an example of the 'harmless rocks' that the Palestinians are throwing at motorists and passers-by.












There are still people in the Jewish community who delude themselves that Nick Ferrari is 'pro-Israel' on the basis that he once spoke at an Israel rally. On his own admission his views have since by influenced by his 'Turkish Muslim driver' who takes him to work each morning. No doubt the kind of London based Turkish Muslims who actually convinced a close (non-Jewish) friend that Israeli soldiers in Gaza stuffed Palestinian babies into their tank turrets before firing them.

I've been tracking LBC's anti-Israel obsession for a few years now - so I thought it was worth providing a set of links to previous postings:

• LBC: a platform for the propaganda of Hizb ut Tahrir (2005)
• How LBC reported the massacre in Jerusalem (2008)
• LBC's Andrew Pierce: "Not enough dead Israelis for me" (2009)
• LBC's Nick Ferrari: "Not enough dead Israelis for me"  (2012)
• LBC's 'pro-Israel' Nick Ferrari cannot understand why Israel picked on Hamas (2012)
• Why LBC's James O'Brien (like many other liberal commentators) is an antisemite (2014)
•  More on LBC's James O'Brien and his claim not be an antisemite (2014)
• LBC's war against Israel (2014)
• LBC responds to my complaint about their war against Israel (2014)
• Why you should not be surprised LBC is employing George Galloway (2015)

Also see Caroline Glick's outstanding article today that summarises Mahmoud Abbas's central role in the current terrorist onslaught.

Watford FC take 'action' against Corbyn's son Ben for his anti-Israel blood libel postings

This is an update to this story I posted a couple of weeks ago about Jeremy Corbyn's son Ben who was using his Facebook page for the dual purpose of publicizing his Watford FC affiliation and pushing anti-Israel propaganda including blood libels.  

I have had the following response from Richard Walker who is Head of Media & Communications at Watford FC: 

Hello Edgar

 Thank you very much indeed for bringing the below matter to our attention, since we were unaware of the material which had been posted. 

We have acted swiftly as a club and have taken the appropriate action.

 All best wishes - and thanks once again for your correspondence. 

Regards Richard

I have followed up asking exactly what the 'appropriate action' was. Also I know another person who wrote a letter to Watford FC over two weeks ago who has not yet had a response.  What is interesting is that, in his rambling acceptance speech yesterday, Jeremy Corbyn complained about the media attacking his family which is curious since I reckon I might be only person who has attempted to expose the disgusting views of his sons. I doubt if Corbyn is aware of my blog, but maybe the fact that Watford took some action against his son as a result of my 'probe' is what riled him. If so - good.

See also:

• The Corbyns: their anti-Israel hatred is a hereditary compulsive obsessional disorder
• Corbyn's son: ignorant brainwashed obsessive Israel-hating Marxist bigot
• Update: letter to Watford FC about Ben Corbyn's blood libels against Israel  
• Can a Marxist, anti-Western bigot lead a country?
• Corbyn finally responds to JC questions
• Islington 140, Israel 147: number of mentions on website of Jeremy Corbyn (MP for Islington)
• What leftists believe  
• Antisemitism versus anti-Zionism
• Jeremy Corbyn is not an anti-Semite. It’s so much worse than that 
• Corbyn's obsessive malevolence malevolence towards Israel (Adam Levick, 2011)

Corbyn's son: ignorant brainswashed obsessive Israel-hating Marxist bigot

They say the apple doesn't fall far from the tree - and that is certainly the case with Jeremy Corbyn's son Ben. All of the images below are screenshots from Ben Corbyn's facebook page (note the very positive response from his father Jeremy to the anti-Israel posting at the bottom).

He actually works as a coach at Watford Football Club, so many of his posts and photos are football related. However, these are interspersed with links to standard Marxist/Islamist stuff praising dictators like Fidel Castro and Islamic supremacists like Reza Aslan. But most of all his obsession is about the "Palestinians" - or to be more accurate the Palestinians of Gaza since he never expresses any concern about the many more thousands of Palestinians being massacred in Syria and elsewhere by fellow Muslims. And, as is standard by these sorts of brainwashed jerks, this obsession involves pushing the inevitable lies and blood libels against Israel (perhaps they need to go to 'Palestine' to discover the reality like this guy did).

Isn't it curious that people like Corbyn who think "Zionists" control everything have absolutely no worries about posting terrorist supporting material and lies on their public facebook pages even though they have a very public position. Yet, if another employee of Watford FC started posting publicly pro-Israel material there would an immediate campaign to boycott the club until the employee was sacked.

Update: Letter I have sent to Watford FC about this.
NEW UPDATE. The Corbyns: their anti-Israel hatred is a hereditary compulsive obsessional disorder 

Note the positive response from Jeremy Corbyn to this post

See also:

• Update: letter sent to Watford FC about Ben Corbyn
• What leftists believe  
• Antisemitism versus anti-Zionism
• Confessions of a pro-Palestinian activist
• The ludicrous and pointless Board of Deputies 

Vicious Haaretz inspired antisemitic blood libel

Haaretz inspired antisemitism on Russia Today TV

Somebody sent me this link (on a website which is 'anti-immigrant'  in a clearly racist way). While the website may be marginal the video it links to - claiming that Israel is committing a Nazi holocaust against its Ethiopian citizens by forced sterilization of all the women - is certainly NOT. It is not new (it is from 2013) and it is from a programme on Russia Today. That is the popular 24/7 English language Russian cable news channel that is available to everyone in the UK who has a cable subscription.

This is a slick production hosted by a very attractive American lady in a mini-skirt. But that is where the niceties end. To get a feel for the antisemitic hatred - dressed up as anti-Zionism - that is now mainstream listen to this lady right the way through. But most importantly look at who is the source for this nonsensical story - none other Haaretz. In fact it seems that an increasingly high proportion of the most vicious anti-semitic and anti-Israel propaganda stories doing the rounds on the Internet originate from poorly researched - and usually completely untrue - Haaretz articles which are lapped up and subsequently grossly exaggerated by the grateful hordes of antisemites out there trawling for just such crumbs.

And unlike all the honest pro-Israel youtube videos out there, this one has tens of thousands of views.

The irony of the 'rising anti-semitism' debate: the ignorant Louise Mensch and the Jewish News

Update: This is so important I feel I need to summarise the key point: Louise Mensch states that Israel has no right to self defence and that it kills hundreds of children as a punishment for the rocket attacks. This is as clear a case of blood libel and incitement as you could wish to see. That it was made in a Jewish publication in an article denouncing antisemitism is beyond belief.

 The Jewish News has the above full page article** by Louise Mensch about how disgraceful it is that anti-semitism is increasing as a result of the Gaza conflict and why it needs to be stopped. Neither the Jewish News, nor the ignorant Mensch*** herself, appreciates the irony of the article. Everyone with half a brain knows that the current increase in antisemitism is the direct result of the hysterical anti-Israel media and political narrative of the Gaza conflict and, in particular, the continual repetition of the Hamas propaganda and blood libel that Israel is deliberately killing hundreds of Palestinian children. Indeed - as you can see - the picture that the Jewish News uses to illustrate the anti-semitism is one of a screaming mob holding placards that state this very blood libel. The irony is that Mensch not only regurgitates this very blood libel in the article itself but also makes it clear that she believes Israel has no right of self defence at all other than to use the Iron Dome:

" I do not support the Israeli action in Gaza. Let’s get that out of the way at the start. There is not much prospect of convincing any readers here, so I don’t propose to try. (Iron Dome already kept Israel safe and defended and there are better ways to punish for rockets than killing hundreds of children). Rather I want to concentrate on the revolting stream of anti-semitism the Gaza war has unleashed."

Indeed Mensch has made quite a name for herself in the last few weeks by writing a stream of hysterical anti-Israel pieces (such as the one mentioned here) along the lines of the above paragraph. She has been particularly outraged that so few Jewish civilians were killed in comparison to Palestinians and, because Israel has refused her demand to refrain from defending itself, she believes Israel deserves to be a pariah state.

Any attempt to 'stop the current wave of anti-semitism' which fails to address the blood libels made by the media and politicians against Israel is doomed to fail. That is why anyone who says 'this has got nothing to do with Israel' is not helping. It is also why people who say "Jews should not be punished for what Israel is doing"  are actually part of the problem.  Moreover, any attempt to 'stop the current wave of anti-semitism' by bringing on board those who actually propagate the blood libels against Israel will actually lead to increased anti-semitism. That is why it was so wrong of the Board of Deputies to issue their joint statement with the Muslim Council of Britain (who have been one of the prime sponsors of the blood libel in the UK) and why it was wrong for the Jewish News to give a full page to Louise Mensch. With this mentality we can expect to see people like George Galloway and Anjem Choudary invited to address meetings demanding an end to anti-semitism.

We need to make clear that examples of anti-semitism include any of the following statements:

"Israel deliberately kills Palestinian civilians" (Jewish blood libel)
"Israel is guilty of murder" (Jewish blood libel)
"Israel has no right to self-defence"  (denies the Jewish state the same right as any other state)
"Palestine must be Free" (means death to all Jews of Israel)
"Israel is an apartheid state" (blood libel against the Jewish state)
"Boycott Israel" (a call to destroy the Jewish state)

Anybody making any of those statements cannot be part of a campaign to stop anti-semitism.

** A slightly different online version to the above can be found here.

***What is rather sad about Louise Mensch is that, before the recent Gaza conflict her only public 'connection' with Israel was a positive one in that she managed to get an apology from the BBC for failing to cover the story of the massacre of the Fogel family by Palestinian terrorists.

The latest popular blood libel against Israel

 

Earlier this week an Israeli friend sent an email asking how to respond to this article which claims that "one Palestinian child has been killed every 3 days by Israel for the past 13 years."***. This blood libel was prepared as a Palestinian propaganda defence mechanism in the aftermath of the murder of the Israeli schoolboys. Published in the "Middle East Monitor" (MEMO) it was widely tweeted by anti-Semites and Islamist supremacists but also by many who claim to 'support Israel but feel for the Palestinian suffering'; it was even included in the Jewish Chronicle in David Aaronovitch's half-page Editorial article (4 July). Rather than question the validity of the claim Aaronovitch actually accepted it and used it to support his ludicrous moral equivalence argument (Muslims kill kids but so do Jews and the fanatics on both sides are as bad as each other).  So another blood libel becomes part of accepted anti-Israel folklore.

For the record, MEMO is run by Daud Abdullah who is affiliated with Hamas. He signed the Hamas Istanbul Declaration which calls on the 'Islamic Nation' to fight any 'foreign warship' attempting to block arms smuggling to Hamas. MEMO bases its reports on Hamas 'sources' and classifies any Palestinian under the age of 20 as a 'child' (including of course terrorists and other types of combatants) and classifies any Palestinian killed (no matter how) as having been killed by Israel even though most are killed by other Palestinians. It even includes Israeli Arabs killed by Palestinian terrorists.  And, of course, the article ignores the fact that most Palestinian deaths occurred during what were effectively short bursts of war started by Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians (when the Palestinians used civilians as human shields). Even if the number of deaths claimed by MEMO had been correct then using exactly the same logic you could also state that Britain killed SIX German children every day since 1943 since 350,000 Germans - of whom about 30% really were children - were killed in Allied bombing raids during 1943-1945.

Daphne Anson also covers the Palestinian lies, while Elder Of Ziyon describes how NGOs make up lies against Israel.
***My first reaction was that perhaps they were referring to the same child.  

"The Jewish News" promotes anti-Israel blood libel

Readers of this blog will know that in the last few years the UK's free Jewish newspaper "The Jewish News" has become increasingly ambivalent to Israel. But never could I have imagined that it would stoop so low as to promote a blood libel that even Palestinian propagandists have avoided. Yet that is exactly what has appeared in the Editorial of the 26 June (which I have referred to the Press Complaints Commission).

The editorial claims that "six Palestinians have been killed" as a result of what it implies is Israel's disproportionate response in attempting to find the kidnapped boys.  In particular, it says this includes a "3-year-old Palestinian girl". There is no reference to such an incident in the paper  itself, but it is almost certain it refers to the case covered here (by Elder of Ziyon) in which even the Palestinian propaganda agency Maan confirms a 3-year-old girl was killed on 24 June 2014 by a Hamas rocket targeted at southern Israel but which fell short. The implication that Israel killed the 3-year-old in response to the kidnappings is therefore a clear blood libel.

It is also interesting to note that the newspaper provides no evidence to support the implication about the other 5 Palestinian deaths. In fact, two of these reported deaths were of Hamas operatives involved in firing rockets from Gaza, and so are also completely unconnected with the kidnappings (except in the sense that Hamas has increased the number of rocket launches since the kidnappings).  The other three reported deaths were all of Palestinians involved in violent clashes with Israeli security forces.

While the Editorial expresses great concern for the kidnapped Israeli schoolboys, it says it also understands those critics of Israel such as William Hague who has called Israel's response disproportionate. The newspaper is therefore supporting another standard anti-Israel propaganda tactic that is used every time Israel is attacked in one way or another - namely to focus on, and question the legitimacy of, Israel's response while playing down the seriousness of the events that precipitated it.

It is also important to note that the newspaper ignores an extremely important phenomenum that provides some context for the kidnapping story, namely the widespread support, joy and pride that Palestinians in all walks of society have been publicly expressing at the kidnappings.

Responding to the "Israel apartheid state lie"

All these progressive thinkers, intellectuals and peacemakers cannot be wrong

March 2017 Update: See the pathetic Union of Jewish Students response to 'Apartheid Week"

A number of my friends' children have just experienced their first 'Israel Apartheid' week on campus (more on this below) and this has raised the question of how best to respond. The response should be the same as if a man who has never met your grandmother tells you that she is an Alien bounty hunter from the Planet Zog and demands to know if you are therefore prepared to help him kill her.  You should expose the person who says that as the liar and insane psychopath that they are.

The Nazi propaganda chief Goebbels said: if you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it and the bigger the lie the more they will believe it.  The Nazis’ used this observation to devastating effect. Their lie about the Jews being ‘dangerous subhuman specimens’ was propagated over a relatively short period of time (6 years) but was sufficient to enable otherwise cultured, civilised, rational people to gleefully participate in the mass murder of 6 million Jews, including one and a half million children slaughtered like the animals the Nazis said they were.  The long-term objective of the ‘Israel is an apartheid state’ lie is similarly nothing less than the destruction of the Jewish state and its 6 million Jewish inhabitants. Just look at the people who are behind the lie.

Any rational person who has ever spent any time in Israel knows, of course, that the Apartheid lie is every bit as ludicrous and offensive as the Nazi lie. To enter into a discussion defending against the Apartheid lie only gives undeserved credibility to the liars. Nevertheless there is a wealth of unimpeachable, easily accessible material that exposes every single facet of the Israel Apartheid lie (see, e.g. here, here, here, here and here). But just as the only rational way of dealing with the Nazi lie should have been to expose the Nazis, the only rational (and honourable) way to deal with the Apartheid lie is to expose those who promote the lie. I am not talking about the thousands of naive, easily influenced (and sometimes well-meaning) university students who have fallen for the lie (just as hundreds of thousands of well-meaning Germans fell for the Nazi lie). I am talking about those who started the lie and those who actively promote it.

For the historical record the apartheid lie was actually invented by the KGB in communist Russia as part of the Cold War – after the total defeat of the Arab armies with their Soviet equipment  in 1967.  The KGB produced all the propaganda material in the late 1960s and 1970s that was then used by radical leftists throughout the Western world. Since the fall of the Soviet Union the apartheid lie has been driven by a hard core of anti-Semites, leftist revolutionaries and Islamists - the latter of whom  come from Arab countries which practice real apartheid (those same Arab countries provide much of the funding now for the propaganda which is still based on the Soviet material). The liars’ agenda is the destruction of the State of Israel. Despite belonging to organisations with names like the ‘Palestine Solidarity Campaign’ or 'Students for Justice for Palestinians' they have no interest in the welfare of the Palestinians; this is proven by their total lack of concern for the genuinely appalling plight of Palestinians in Syria (where they are being starved and murdered) and Lebanon (where for over 65 years they have been denied rights of citizenship and are banned from most professions).  Read here about the kind of Western student organisations who promote Israel Apartheid week. 

The Arabs who promote the Apartheid lie are simply projecting the Apartheid that is rampant in their in their own countries and minds.  The Apartheid states are all Arab and Muslim: not a single practicing Jew lives in Gaza or the Palestinian Authority areas (where Jews cannot even travel without facing likely murder),  Jordan and Saudi Arabia (where in both countries it is illegal to be a citizen if you are a Jew). There are just 2 remaining Jews in Iraq (where there were 300,000 as recently as 1952), 3 in Syria, 40 in Lebanon and 30 in Egypt, and less than 3000 Jews live in all of the other Arab countries combined. Yet, less than 60 years ago those Arab countries had thriving communities of Jews totally over 1,000,000.  They have all been driven out. But while every University student knows about the ‘plight of the Palestinians’ none know about the plight of Jews forcibly driven from Arab lands.

The most curiously misunderstood thing about the 'Israel Apartheid' lie is that the only people in Israel who are actually subject to legal restrictions because of their religion are the Jews. For example:

• while Muslims are free to pray at any of their holy sites anywhere in Israel, Jews are banned from stepping foot on their holiest site (Temple Mount) and can only enter others (such as Rachel's tomb) at great risk under army escort. Israeli police are not even allowed to intervene when Arabs stone Jews from the Temple Mount.
• only Jews (and Druze) are legally forced to give up 3 years of their life (and then one month per year until retirement) to go in the army. Muslims have no obligation at all for any type of national service despite having full (and indeed disproportionately large) access to all national benefits. 
• because all terrorism in Israel is committed by Arabs against Jews, only Jewish-owned buildings and businesses are forced to maintain costly security guards, barriers, and checks on each person entering. 

It is also important to note that:

• No Jew can freely walk into any Muslim neighbourhood in Israel without endangering their lives. In contrast any Muslim can enter any Jewish neighbourhood without any fear at all.
• Any plans for new construction in Jewish neighbourhoods result in condemnation by the ‘international community’.  Meanwhile completely illegal construction by Muslims anywhere goes unchallenged both by the ‘international community’ and by Israel lawmakers themselves. 

Finally, back to the friends' children at University. One of many examples was a student concerned about a vicious piece of anti-Israel propaganda (written by a Muslim woman) that appeared in the University's magazine to coincide with 'Israel Apartheid week'. Although it provides certain reasonable sounding caveats, the article contains all of the usual cliched lies. Especially bizarre is the statement that

 " ... the sheer importance of this week remains – especially when only recently the incredibly controversial figure, Ariel Sharon, was painted as a hero in the Western media."

The UK media actually painted Sharon as an evil bloodthirsty murderer. but just why the media's portrayal of Sharon justifies the antisemitic Apartheid week is something I find difficult to get my head around.

I suggested the student should counter the claims in the article as follows:

• The article perpetuates a number of common libels and myths against Israel, and demonstrates that the author knows nothing about Israel (or the Palestinians) other than what she has learnt from propaganda promoted by those who seek the destruction of the Jewish State. 
• The ‘military checkpoints’ that she says (misleadingly) are ‘inflicted on Palestinian children’ are of course inflicted on everybody in Israel and the Palestinian areas to stop the unrelenting attempts by Palestinian terrorists to attack Israeli civilians. Israeli schoolchildren (like every other Israeli) are additionally subjected to ‘checkpoints’ every time they enter a public building for the same reason. Without Palestinian terrorism there would be no need for the checkpoints for anybody and nor would there be any need for the ‘430 mile’ security fence which she is so offended by and which she bizarrely likens to the Berlin wall. The communists erected the Berlin wall wall to keep people in, while the sole purpose of Israel’s security fence is to keep the terrorists out. Perhaps she has forgotten the 1500 Israeli civilians murdered in buses and restaurants between 2000 and 2003 before the fence was built. The fence has kept the flow of suicide bombers to a minimum and saved thousands of lives.
• As for the ‘illegal settlements’ on ‘Palestinian land’, I assume she is referring to territory which, between 1948 and 1967 was illegally occupied by Jordan (not ‘Palestine’) and which Israel captured in 1967 after the Arabs tried to annihilate Israel. Presumably Nadeine feels that Jews should not be allowed to live in these (admittedly disputed) areas. In which case who is the one who believes in Apartheid? In any case Israel has offered many times to give up these areas in exchange for peace only for the Palestinians to refuse. When Israel did give up the whole of Gaza in 2005 it was ‘rewarded’ by a campaign of terrorist rockets that continues to this day (150 launched last Wednesday alone). 
• On the Apartheid lie it is interesting that she says ‘Indeed Mandela himself was an avid supporter of the Palestinian plight’. What she fails to mention is that Mandela was appalled that the apartheid analogy was used against Israel.
• Not only has the author presented a biased anti-Israel narrative, but also completely misses the point about those concerned by the ‘Israel apartheid week’ taking place in a University. The point is that Israel - the only functioning democracy in the Middle East and the only Middle Eastern country where, for example, Muslim women are treated as equals in the law – also just happens to be the only country in the world singled out for such demonization. If, as the author claims, she is just as concerned about ‘other struggles’ perhaps she can explain why there are no ‘apartheid weeks’ demonizing the many Arab and Muslim countries where real apartheid is carried out; for example, as a Muslim woman herself why is she not promoting a Saudi apartheid week where she can highlight the fact that women are not allowed to drive, not allowed to walk in public without a male guardian, and where non-Muslims are not allowed to travel on certain roads or even practice their own religion? The fact is that Israel – and only Israel – is singled out for completely undeserved demonization. That suggests anti-Semitism is the motive and that is why sensible people are concerned.  

The final interesting point is that the Jewish Society at the University was reluctant to respond at all to the article feeling that 'it was not too bad'.  That attitude does not surprise me -  the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) has actually joined forces on numerous occasions recently with the Islamic Societies to stop certain 'right wing' speakers from speaking on campus. These include speakers, such as the brilliant Douglas Murray, whose 'crime' was to be too strongly supportive of Israel and even a Muslim speaker because he supported Israel. And of course UJS was active in helping to get Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer (two of the bravest and most knowledgeable pro-Israel advocates) banned from the UK.  Most bizarrely last year the UJS actually gave all Jewish societies a supply of  Palestinian flags for their freshers' stalls to show how even-handed they were. The fact is that, like most student organisations, UJS is infested with leftist idiots.

See also Daphne Anson: Canadian Campus Bigots Turn Deaf Ears To Arab Israelis Debunking The "Apartheid" Slur

For an alternative spin on this story see here.

Update 19 March 2014: The Cous Cous Diaries also covers the same student article.

Update on the Oxfam/Miftah story

I previously posted about Elder of Ziyon's exposure of the Oxfam funded Palestinian 'charity' Miftah and its promotion of antiSemitism. Elder of Ziyon has numerous updates here and here. The latter article contains a response from Oxfam that is almost identical to the one I have just received from Supporter Relations, Oxfam GB following my own letter to them. I have made the following response using some of Elder's points and some new ones of my own (I have agreed with the person I am communicating with that I would not state their name on this site).

Dear XXXX

Thank you for your response but I am afraid it is unsatisfactory for the following reasons:.

1. The 'apology' was not made in Arabic, the language of the essay, so Arab readers
of Miftah will assume that Miftah (and Oxfam also) supports that blood libel. Moreover, you must be aware that Miftah did not issue its English apology until it was pressured to do so.

2.  Miftah have praised suicide bombers under their own name (see http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/miftah-removes-its-essay-praising.html) confirming that direct support for terrorism and anti-Semitism are a major part of Miftah's activities.

3. The section of Miftah's site where the offensive article was published was not a "blog" as you say but an essay section where they republish articles they think are interesting for their readers. They even index the section so their readers can read other articles from the same author, and Nawaf al-Zaru has been featured five times.

4. People who donate to Oxfam would certainly not do so if they were aware it funded organizations like Miftah. Not withstanding its anti-Semitism and terrorist support, when you say

"We have worked with MIFTAH since 2010... implementing Oxfam’s regional project Supporting Women’s Transformative Leadership in Changing Times. The project targets marginalized women and men to support women’s rights and gender justice with the goal of increased empowerment, self-confidence, and leadership roles for women in public and private spheres"

you might think this is something good, but you are simply confirming that Oxfam is spending money on things that have nothing to do with what charity donors in the UK think they are contributing to. In short you are defrauding them.

Unless I hear from you that Oxfam is immediately terminating its support for Miftah I will be reporting Oxfam to the Charities Commission. I will also be contacting my MP about this. It is just not good enough.

Yours

Edgar Davidson

UPDATE 8 April 2013: I have received a response from XXXX  saying

"I forwarded your feedback and comments to our Middle East team who deal with MIFTAH and who are currently in talks with the organisation regarding this matter. We will of course be happy to update you with any further information once we have it." 

At least Oxfam seem to be taking this seriously and are courteous enough to respond. To date I have not even received an acknowledgement from either Comic Relief or - disgracefully - the Board of Deputies of British Jews (who recently announced a partnership with Oxfam).

Update: anti-Israel charities

Oxfam and Comic Relief funding Palestinian Jew hatred

I have posted numerous times about how the major charities funded by Comic Relief are directly funding Palestinian propaganda and anti-Semitism (as well as funding organisations directly controlled by Hamas of course). As an example of both the ridiculous causes that are funded and the anti-Semitism that results, Elder of Ziyon  has an expose of how a Palestinian NGO (Miftah) funded by Oxfam published as pure an anti-semitic screed as is imaginable - resurrecting the reprehensible blood libel that Jews ritually slaughter Christian children and consume their blood on Passover (for more on the story see here).

It inspired me to produce the drawing above (feel free to copy it - I plan to drop some copies off at Oxfam shops).

It's amazing how, uniquely when it comes to the Palestinians, 'charity' can be redefined to mean 'giving money for any purpose whatsover'. Likewise we now find that being an 'aid worker' also has a completely different meaning when it comes to the Palestinians (as far as they are concerned anybody who spends their time promoting Israel hatred is an 'aid worker').
And see this spin on the story.

Update on the story here.

Update: A catalogue of charities that fund anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda.

The blood libel continues at Fox News and the Guardian

Following on from my article and updates about the anti-Semitic blood libel behind the 'anti-Islam' film furore (which was also taken up strongly by Debbie Schlussel - the first person publicly to state that the story was a fraud in the first place, well before the AP reported it as such) I did an internet search to see the extent to which even major news channels were still promoting the blood libel that Sam Bacile was an Israeli Jew funded by 100 wealthy American Jews. The results are frightening. A search for "Sam Bacile" (who note does not exist since he was revealed to be the pseudonym of Egyptain Copt Nakoula Basseley Nakoula) takes you to many major outlets still running the original anti-Semitic blood libel.  There are far too many to mention, but two are especially notable. The Guardian story originally posted on 12 September is STILL there today:

Guardian headline: still on web 16 September (5 days after the story was debunked)

The story DOES have an update (14/9/12) underneath stating that AP reported the identify could be a fake. However, they have not removed ANY of the original story and its anti-Semitism.

But even more remarkable is Fox News - the supposedly 'pro-Israel conservative news station'  STILL has its Sam Bacile is an Israeli Jew story up and there is no update or correction.

Fox News headline: still on web as of 16 September (5 days after the story was debunked)

This story leads with the following statement (not claim, please note):

An Israeli filmmaker based in California went into hiding Tuesday after his movie attacking Islam's Prophet Muhammad sparked angry assaults by ultra-conservative Muslims on U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya, where a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed.

Note the direct blood libel here: The Israeli's actions caused the death of four Americans. The report continues:

Bacile, a California real estate developer who identifies himself as an Israeli Jew, said he believes the movie will help his native land by exposing Islam's flaws to the world.
"Islam is a cancer, period," he said repeatedly, his solemn voice thickly accented.
The two-hour movie, "Innocence of Muslims," cost $5 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors, said Bacile, who wrote and directed it.

There are too many other examples to note and the blogosphere is simply teeming with 'look what the f*cking Jews have done this time' venom. Well done Western liberal media.

And, despite this affair being possibly the most serious example of anti-Semitism in recent history,  I have yet to hear a single 'official' Jewish spokesperson say a word in public about it.

The latest blood libel against Israel and Jews

Even the most basic fact checking by the media would have immediately discovered that the so called "Israeli Jew living in America"  Sam Bacile (supposedly the man behind the anti-Islam film making the news) was a fabrication. And the idea that his film was funded by "100 wealthy American Jews" was so obviously false (the claim fits the classic Arab conspiracy theories) that it should have set alarm bells ringing for any self-respecting journalist or news editor.

Yet on Tuesday (September 11th - no coincidence about that)  when Muslims in Egypt and Libya 'spontaneously rioted' in protest at the film every major media outlet in the UK - including the BBC and Sky news - stated as an uncontested fact that the film had been directed by an Israeli with $5million funding provided by 100 wealthy American Jews.

When 'Sam Bacile' was quickly discovered to be an Egyptian Coptic Christian, named Nakoula Basseley Nakoula the media seemed strangely reluctant to point this out and rectify their earlier blood libel error). So if you do a quick search of the internet you will find thousands of articles and blog postings still spitting their anti-Semitism about Sam Bacile.. Even worse is that the main stream media (including Sky News) is continuing to feed the blood libel by still citing the nonsense about the "100 wealthy American Jews" funding the film. For example, Britain's most popular newspaper the Sun states in today's issue (still available online here) that:

The two-hour film cost £3.1million to make — and it is claimed was financed by 100-plus Jewish donors.

Even while the same article makes it clear that Nakoula is a con-man it fails to state the only person who ever claimed that the film was funded by 100 Jews was Nakoula himself. That's the same Nakoula who also claimed that the actual director was "Israeli Jew Sam Bacile" who turned out to be a pseudonym for Nakoula himself. Anybody with the slightest knowledge about Egyptian Copts will know exactly why Nakoula has acted in the way he has. Firstly, as a Copt he will be especially concerned for the fate of Copts in Egypt under the new Islamic regime - they are being brutally persecuted. Secondly as a Copt there is one group of people he will hate even more than the Islamists, and that is the Jews (see here). So by framing his film as a classic Israeli-Jewish conspiracy he was able to kill two birds with one stone.

Proud Muslim mother photographs her child at Sydney demonstration (for more on the Muslim Sydney riots 'against the film' see here)

They say that a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes. It never takes much of a lie about Jews to be quickly consumed as a fact by the entire Muslim (and leftist) world. But the extent to which the Western media has fed and perpetuated such an obviously preposterous lie as this one is on a scale of cynicism previously unseen. For a typical posting about the story here - and it is one of thousands like it still up. It provides yet more proof of the deep-seated anti-Semitism of much of the media.

And the media's main spin on the riots - that they are only inspired by this film's 'provocation of Muslim feelings' - also reveals their pandering to Islamism and total lack of understanding of Islamist politics. The film has been available on YouTube since July, yet an Arabic translation of it was broadcast in Egypt by the Muslim Brotherhood - just in time for them to riot on September 11th, while the attack on the US embassy in Libya had clearly been planned well in advance.

UPDATE: I have been looking at further coverage of the story tonight and I can find no main stream media article which has made any attempt to consider the issue of the false original claims. Whereas every article emphasized the "Jewish Israeli" nationality orginally claimed, none of them mention the Egyptian Coptic nationality of the actual director. In fact many main stream media articles fail to mention Nakoula at all while others are happy to keep the blood libel very much alive, For example, tonight's Evening Standard covers the story on Page 24. The writer Rashid Razaq does not mention the name Nakoula once. He does, however, describe a banner held up in one of the protests as saying "It is the duty of all Muslims and Christians to kill Morris Sadek and Sam Bacile and everyone who participated in the film.” Razaq makes no atemtp to point out the obvious error here. So, as far as the Evening Standard is concerned, the Israeli Jew Sam Bacile not only exists but he is the one to blame for all of this. Still, I guess this is par for the course for the Standard's Middle East reporting.

UPDATE 16/9/12: Although some of today's Sunday newspapers have mentioned the anti-Semitic angle to the story (well done especially to Toby Young in today's Sun) most people in the UK have accepted that is was 'the Jews' behind all of this because that message was forcefully rammed home on TV and radio where it has not yet been corrected. One person emailed me the following:

Edgar
Same problem with James O'Brian on the LBC phone in . He repeatedly referred to the producer being an Israeli Jew . In order to reinforce the stereotype , he mentioned the standard trope of a ' shadowy group of cigar chomping individuals ( early Hollywod Jewish moguls smoking cigars ) and congratulating themselves on achieving the desired outcome. I eventually got through to one of his team informing her that as of the previous evening , AP and the Huff had identified him as being a 55 year old Coptic Christian from Egypt. It was obvious O Brian's researchers had not done their homework or as more likely were closed down.  Needless to say I was not put through and O Brian was allowed to carry on slating the Jews for something that was nothing to do with them.  I'm not surprised . O'Brian has previous form on Israel and it's all bad .
Joke is, on the same programme he went on to castigate the Sun for their reporting of the Hillsboro disaster labelling the Sun gutter press .
Man is a hypocrite without parallel .

James O'Brien is indeed a nasty piece of work (I can no longer bear to listen to him). A real old-fashioned anti-Semite. I've put in formal complaints to LBC before about his anti-Israel bias and have been totally ignored. O'Brien is on every weekday spewing his nonsense from 10.00 until 13:00. But there is no relief on LBC on Saturdays. From 07.00 until 10:00 there is the classic "as a Jew" James Max whose ignorance about Israel and the Middle East never fails to stop him pushing the classic leftist narrative (despite the fact that he calls himself a conservative). Then from 10:00 until 13.00 there is the double act of two of the biggest anti-Semites ever to have been MPs, namely Ken Livingstone and David Mellor. The joke is that Mellor is supposed to be the 'conservative counterbalance' to Livingstone.

UPDATE 16/9/12: Fox News and the Guardian perpetuate the blood libel