From Lammy to LBC: How Hamas propaganda has captured Britain’s discourse

Given that more than half of the population is in favour of ending the war, and has been for some time, this latest study is clearly deeply flawed. Or balderdash, to put it another way.

It is also, like many stories produced by Haaretz these days, a gift to those in the West who are motivated to bring Israel down.

Following his minute scrutiny of this piece of misinformation, O’Brien read a comment out from a listener.

“I’m fascinated by objectivity, which is why I’m going to read out this from Chris,” he began. In my experience, whenever anybody feels the need to highlight their objectivity, it is always cause to worry.

“Warped views are not just an Israeli problem,” this “Chris” character pointed out, amplified by the dulcet tones of one of Britain’s biggest presenters.

Anybody with a normal moral compass would have stopped there. Smearing all Israelis as holding “warped” views? Has he ever met two Israelis and their three opinions? Clearly, this was a prelude to even more deplorable allegations.

So it proved. “My wife was brought up Jewish and at Shabbat school in a leafy Hertfordshire town…” his message continued.

By this point, O’Brien should have pressed the off button. My “wife”? Yeah, right. “Shabbat school”? What? Everybody knows that Jews don’t go to school on Shabbat. Don’t they?

Then came the payload. Apparently, the “wife” of “Chris” was taught at her “Shabbat school” in her “leafy Hertfordshire town” that “one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed”.

There you have it. What can only be described as an antisemitic lie, amplified by O’Brien to his million-and-a-half listeners, many of whom will retain an impression of British Jews as just as bad as Hamas – his apology 24 hours later notwithstanding.

So much for objectivity. Moral relativity, more like.

The most disturbing aspect of all this is that it isn’t an outlier but is representative of a cultural trend.

Ever since October 7 – in fact, long before that – the West has become a cesspit of antisemitic conspiracy theories that have the deepest foothold on the Middle Class left.

The disinformation about the supposed massacres carried out while Gazans are receiving aid, which is produced by Hamas, magnified by the media and believed by the government, shows how foreign policy is now effectively following the agenda of jihadism.

This will be confirmed if Lammy announces fresh sanctions on Israel, which he threatened to do unless it ended the war (presumably leaving the hostages in the catacombs and Hamas in power).

At the same time, civil society is swamped by similar propaganda, as evidenced by the gullibility of James O’Brien. Is it any surprise that Jews in the arts, in the NHS, at school and in the university system are subjected to constant bigotry, as a high-profile report revealed last week?

This is the pincer movement of jihadi propaganda that has society where it wants it. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather that Israel was winning the shooting war and losing the battle for hearts and minds than the other way round.

But it is essential that we begin to turn the tide of antisemitism and misinformation that is poisoning our culture. Not just for the sake of the Jews, but also for the sake of the West.