UKMW prompts Times of London correction to claim over bill to amend Israel's Basic Law

In an otherwise unproblematic article on Israel’s efforts to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions (Israel must decide how it wants to fight Iran, June 6), Times of London Diplomatic Editor Roger Boys misleads over a new amendment to Israel’s Basic Law designed to allow the prime minister and defence minister to go to war without the approval of the full cabinet.

As we noted in a tweet to the journalist, the government, responding to criticism, recently agreed to roll back the legislation.

Hi @rogerboyes

Interesting report @thetimes on Israeli options to thwart Iran's nukes. However, there's an error (attached)

The legislation to allow just PM and Defence Minister to declare war was axed.

See thishttps://t.co/TEizXrUq1A

I hope this can be corrected

Thanks pic.twitter.com/clfy0viV9e

— CAMERA UK (formerly UK Media Watch and BBC Watch) (@CAMERAorgUK) June 6, 2018

Following our communication with editors, the article was amended, and new language was added correctly noting that the proposed amendment was withdrawn.

To his credit, the journalist also replied to our tweet acknowledging the error by noting the revision.

This has now been anended

— Roger Boyes (@rogerboyes) June 6, 2018

We commend Times of London editors on the prompt correction, and Mr. Boys for acknowledging the error.

(UPDATE: To clarify: the decision to roll back the amendment which would allow the Prime Minister and Defence Minister to declare war without the approval of the full security cabinet still requires new legislation, which the Justice Minister agreed to introduce within the coming month.)