The Liberal Democrat MP who was disciplined by his party's chief whip last week for accusing "the Jews" of failing to learn the lessons of the Holocaust has blamed "a huge operation" of Israel supporters for the controversy.
David Ward told a Guardian interviewer that there was "a machine… designed to protect the state of Israel from criticism. And that comes into play very, very quickly and focuses intensely on anyone who's seen to criticise the state of Israel.
"And so I end up looking at what happened to me, whether I should use this word, whether I should use that word – and that is winning, for them. Because what I want to talk about is the fundamental question of how can they do this, and how can they be allowed to do this."
In the interview, published on Wednesday, Mr Ward argued that he had not drawn a direct comparison between Israel now and the Nazis during the Holocaust, but said that what was comparable "was the treatment of people by people".
