John Pilger in the Guardian: “Killing children seems like sport for the IDF”

John Pilger is an Australian-based Guardian contributor who’s arguably one of the most vociferous demonizers of the Jewish state given a platform in the mainstream media.  He’s suggested that Hezbollah represented “humanity at its noblest”, approvingly cited the arguments of Gilad Atzmon, has suggested that ‘influential’ Jews around the world are culpable in ‘Israeli crimes’ and has likened Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the Nazi’s treatment of the Jews.

According to Pilger “the Zionist state remains the cause of more regional grievance and sheer terror than all the Muslim states combined.” 

Yet, despite Pilger’s record of extremism and antisemitism, Guardian editors saw fit to offer readers a live ‘web chat’ with him earlier in the year.

During the web chat (published in Feb. 2016, but which we only recently became aware of), he offered the following “analysis” in response to a question about the putatively high number of Palestinian children killed by “IOF” soldiers.

pilger

As we’ve argued previously in posts during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, if you were to base your conclusions about conflicts between Israel and Hamas solely on reports in the British media, you may not only falsely believe that the IDF fails to take adequate precautions to avoid civilian casualties, but that it may even intentionally target Palestinian kids.

Though this odious smear against the IDF – arguably a modern day blood libel – represents an extreme example, the broader narrative imputing cartoonish villainy to the Jewish state that Pilger’s advancing is, quite shamefully, nothing new.  

 

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