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Chaos at Jewish Chronicle: Multiple Journalists Quit World's Oldest Jewish Newspaper After it Fabricated Pro-War Stories for Netanyahu
- A Radical Dispatch
1) Mass exodus from the Jewish Chronicle
Multiple writers, including comedian David Baddiel, Sunday Times columnist Hadley Freeman, Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland, and former Times columnist David Aaronovitch have quit the London-based Jewish Chronicle (JC) newspaper over serious charges that it fabricated pro-war stories on behalf of Netanyahu’s foreign policy aims, while hiding who its true owners and financiers are from the world.
The Times reports 16th September 2024:
“Several prominent columnists have said they will stop writing for the Jewish Chronicle over allegations that it published inaccurate stories about the conflict in Gaza. Hadley Freeman, the Sunday Times writer, Jonathan Freedland, the Guardian columnist, and David Aaronovitch, the BBC presenter and former Times writer, all said over the weekend that they had written to the newspaper’s editor to say that they will no longer contribute to it.”
The scandal revolves around a JC columnist seen to have been acting on behalf of Israeli warhawk Prime Minister Netanyahu.
The Times reports 22nd September 2024:
“After a scandal over ‘fabricated’ stories about the war in Gaza last week, the title suffered an exodus of its most prominent writers, including David Baddiel, Hadley Freeman, Jonathan Freedland and David Aaronovitch. Each had quit citing discomfort at the newspaper’s apparent editorial alignment with the right-wing government of the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.”
The world’s oldest Jewish newspaper was forced to cancel a public event in London last Wednesday - ironically about Israel being “unfairly targeted” in British press - featuring BBC, Sky and Times journalists as well as the former cabinet secretary Michael Gove, after it was plunged into one of the worst crises in its 183-year history.
The Times reports 22nd September 2024:
“The Chronicle was forced to postpone its event on Wednesday, however, after it was plunged into one of the worst crises in its 183-year history, ironically, over accusations it had adopted an increasingly pro-Israel stance since the October 7 terror attack.”
The crisis was sparked by widespread uproar after freelance columnist “Elon Perry” (this was not his birth name) was found to have fabricated a pro-war story on behalf of Netanyahu.
The Times reports 15th September 2024:
“The Jewish Chronicle has sacked a columnist over a heavily disputed article that caused a political furore in Israel, and seen two other high-profile writers resign over its handling of the scandal…This weekend, after the JC removed all record of Elon Perry’s article and his author page from its website…”
The precise nature of this story related to Israel’s ongoing occupation of Gaza’s border with Egypt - known as the Philadelphi corridor - and hostage release negotiations.
The Times reports 15th September 2024:
“Citing ‘intelligence sources’, he detailed a plot by the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar to smuggle himself and Israeli hostages out of Gaza via the Philadelphi Corridor that adjoins Egypt. This was significant because the Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu had used a similar assertion to justify keeping Israeli forces on the Gaza-Egypt border, despite much political opposition, with many fearing this would hold up a hostage release deal..Last week it was reported that the Israel Defence Forces had launched an investigation into claims that the story may have been based on ‘fabricated intelligence’ leaked as part of a disinformation campaign.”
Investigations uncovered concerns that the former Jewish Chronicle columnist Elon Perry may have been serving as part of Netanyahu’s disinformation campaign, even having changed his name in the past.
The Times reports 15th September 2024:
“Soon, conspiracies began to spread about the columnist’s background. Was he a friend of Netanyahu? Was Elon Perry his real name? And why had the JC recruited him?..Perry said his name was previously Elly Ifrah but that he changed it after moving to the US where he was informed that it sounded like a ‘girl name in America’…He admitted that there were some biographical inaccuracies on his website, including a statement that he had taken part in Operation Entebbe, but said he was not aware of them until they were flagged by journalists.”
The Jewish Chronicle was left with no choice but to terminate “Elon Perry” and accept error on their part.
The Jewish Chronicle reports 13th September 2024:
“The Jewish Chronicle has concluded a thorough investigation into freelance journalist Elon Perry, which commenced after allegations were made about aspects of his record. While we understand he did serve in the Israel Defense Forces, we were not satisfied with some of his claims. We have therefore removed his stories from our website and ended any association with Mr Perry.”
Below is a statement from Jewish Chronicle editor Jake Wallis Simons about the affair.
2) The Jewish Chronicle refuses to reveal its owners
The furore has reignited concerns among the British press about the opaque nature of the Jewish Chronicle’s ownership in what appears to be an incredibly strange ownership arrangement.
The Times reports 22nd September 2024:
“But bias was not the only thing troubling the departing writers and other insiders at the weekly newspaper. For four years mystery has surrounded who really owns the Chronicle, prompting speculation over the extent to which they may have influenced its alleged lurch away from the centre ground…Questions about who funds the Chronicle were first asked in April 2020 when a private consortium of broadcasters, bankers and political insiders acquired the publication after a scramble for control as it faced financial turmoil.”
Radical Media reported on this earlier in the year.
Radical Media reports 7th February 2024, extract:
In practise, regulation is not really the issue. The issue is always about ‘who gets to decide’ what is regulated. A new and alarming long-form investigative piece by the former editor of the Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, highlights the controversy rather well. In the context of Netanyahu’s inhumane war on Gaza, Rusbridger reveals that a key media figure responsible for adjudicating the BBC’s supposed impartiality over the topic of Israel is Sir Robbie Gibb. The problem is that Sir Robbie also happens to be the owner of the Jewish Chronicle.
Prospect Magazine reports 24th January 2024:
“BBC board’s subcommittees, the Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee..Two members of the four-strong committee have little or no grounding in journalism..which leaves just one member of the committee who is both uninvolved in daily decision-making and has a background in news. Step forward Sir Robbie Gibb, a non-executive director of the BBC since 2021 and easily the most influential external voice on the board—and, apparently, owner of the Jewish Chronicle.
None of this would be a problem if Sir Robbie’s newspaper the Jewish Chronicle hadn’t been openly lobbying for the BBC to take a more pro-Israel stance. But Sir Robbie’s editor Jake Wallis Simons has been doing precisely that.
Spiked Online reports 17th November 2023:
…The regulatory conflicts of interest only continue to expand as Rusbridger elaborates.
Prospect Magazine reports 24th January 2024:
“…And then there is the opaque and unexplained business of how he came to own the Jewish Chronicle, the BBC’s implacable critic. According to Companies House, Sir Robbie has, since April 2020, been the sole owner and director of the JC—the same organ whose long campaign for a “parliamentary inquiry” into the BBC’s coverage of Jews and Israel ended in “victory” in late 2022.
The rival Jewish News questioned the legitimacy of the inquiry (which never produced a report) quoting legal experts “expressing fears it is part of a long-running politicised campaign to pit the Jewish community against the BBC.
The ultimate financial backing for the newspaper which Gibb apparently owns and fronts is a closely guarded secret. ‘Whoever’s bought it has pulled off an interesting coup because they’ve bought a paper of influence without having to say who they are,’ the Times reported a source close to the JC’s former owners, the Kessler Foundation, as saying in 2020. Another told the paper: ‘Someone has put up more than £3m, including money to cover this year’s losses, fronted by a bunch of people who are not centrally involved in this community.’
The outgoing chairman of the JC, Alan Jacobs, was even more blunt in his remarks to the Financial Times: ‘A bid… using money from an unidentified source and fronted by a group of individuals who refuse to tell the world anything of their plans looks like a shameful attempt to hijack the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper.’
Gibb led a consortium that included Sir William Shawcross, now commissioner for public appointments. Shawcross is currently considering whether to investigate Gibb’s suspected role in trying—in concert with the mystery man who reportedly got him into the BBC—to fix the appointment of the chair of Ofcom, the corporation’s regulator.“
The below infographic appearing in Prospect magazine maps out the various players involved in what Rusbridger’s piece labels a “cabal” that he implies is seeking to capture the UK’s public appointments process.
Since then, Gibb has transferred his ownership to two other consortium members, though the question around who the paper’s financiers are remains.
The Times reports 22nd September 2024:
“Concerns over the ownership grew in March this year when the Chronicle announced it would become a charitable trust, an unusual move for a news organisation that would mean it is not required to name donors in its accounts….Gibb departed as director of the Chronicle a month ago, on August 20, divesting his shares and handing over official ownership of the paper to Kandel, a fellow consortium member, as well as the Labour peer Lord Austin of Dudley, who were both recently made trustees as part of the attempted transition to a charity. But the people ultimately responsible for the company’s debts remain unknown.”
As of today, the public still do not know who actually owns the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper.
3) What other lies have have Netanyahu’s war hawks told global media?
Such revelations that the world’s oldest Jewish newspaper has fallen prey to Netanyahu’s disinformation campaign bring to the forefront well documented concerns around the accuracy of any past news related to Israel’s military operations.
Story after story that was initially disseminated have all turned out to be false. For example, the fake story that Hamas decapitated 40 babies has been throughly debunked.
Le Monde reports 3rd April 2024:
“On October 10, official Israeli accounts relayed a sordid but unfounded allegation. Six months later, it continues to circulate, fueling accusations of Israeli disinformation…40 decapitated babies were allegedly found in the Kfar Aza kibbutz, one of the communities most impacted by the attack. This story, and its variants, went viral like never before, going as far as being mentioned by the White House. However, in the horror of this massacre, in which 38 minors including two infants were killed, there were never 40 decapitated babies.”
So too have many of the stories alleging systemic mass-rape by Hamas, though there are some credible reports about incidents of sexual assault and rape.
AP reports 22nd May 2024:
“After untrue accounts of sexual assault filtered into international media, the process of debunking them appeared, at times, to take center stage in the global dispute over the facts of Oct. 7. On social media, accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers question the very occurrence of sexual violence. The loud debate belies a growing body of evidence supporting the claim that sexual assault took place that day, even as its scope remains difficult to ascertain.”
Crucially, and amidst confirmed killing perpetrated also by Hamas, it appears that most of those tragically killed on October 7 were shot by Israeli military helicopters responding to the chaos from the skies.
Radical Media reports 22nd November 2023, extract:
…new evidence has emerged in Israeli media to suggest that Israeli military helicopters may well have been the ones that shot into crowds at the Nova music festival, killing many Israeli civilians.
Ha’aretz reports 18th November 2023.
Political blog ZeroHedge provides an English summary.
ZeroHedge reports 20th November 2023.
“An Israeli police investigation into the Hamas attack on the Nova music festival near the Gaza border on October 7 revealed that an Israeli attack helicopter killed some of the attendees, Haaretz reported on Saturday.
According to a police source, an investigation into the incident showed that an Israeli combat helicopter that arrived at the scene from the Ramat David base fired at Hamas fighters and other Palestinians who crossed through the border fence from Gaza into Israel, but also fired on some of the Israelis attending the music festival. According to the police, 364 people in total were killed there.”
If such reports continue to stand up, much of Netanyahu’s war narrative - resting on the uniqueness of October 7th requiring an unprecedented response - begins to look weak.
Israeli military eye-witnesses have since corroborated the above Haaretz report.
Click to play:
Adopting a scorched earth policy in event of a Hamas attack, and in the process even killing their own citizens, is confirmed Israeli military doctrine. It is known as Israel’s Hannibal Directive.
Haaretz reports 7th July 2024:
“Documents and testimonies obtained by Haaretz reveal the Hannibal operational order, which directs the use of force to prevent soldiers being taken into captivity, was employed at three army facilities infiltrated by Hamas, potentially endangering civilians as well.”
Fake stories were demonstrably proliferated by the world’s media and officials in days soon after the October 7 attack. Sadly, their aim - bolstering support for a hugely disproportionate Israeli war in response- had already been achieved before they could be debunked. As the old saying goes, a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.
4) Did Netanyahu facilitate Oct 7?
Considering the above fake stories were constructed by Netanyahu’s Likudniks to promote war, questions around the official October 7 narrative have become inevitable.
It is verifiably true that Netanyahu had been warned about the October 7 attack well in advance. It is also the case the Netanyahu has been funding and facilitating Hamas in Gaza right up until October 7. Due to such confirmed reports, even Israeli press are now questioning Netanyahu’s official narrative.
Radical Media reports 6th December 2024, extract:
To make matters worse, Israeli media is now reporting that the CCTV video footage from 7th October at the Gaza border - which one would think could have laid to rest these serious allegations concerning Netanyahu’s behaviour - has gone missing. Yes, you read that correctly, the CCTV footage was Epsteined. Not suspicious at all.
The Jerusalem Post reports 3rd December 2023:
“It became apparent that surveillance camera footage along the Gaza border, dating back to the day the war with Hamas broke out, had mysteriously vanished. Furthermore, critical recordings from that Black Shabbat had been removed from the central database. These developments have raised suspicions and fueled a sense that everyone is primarily looking out for their own interests with an eye on what comes next…
..These videos originated from various IDF surveillance cameras along the Gaza border, part of the military network known as “ZiTube.” The missing footage dated back to October 7 and seemed to have been deliberately removed to hinder in-depth investigation into events that transpired in Palestinian territory, border breaches, and the overall situation.“
Add this all to the latest news that Israel is now formally investigating those who appear to have profited on the financial markets from 7th October, and Netanyahu’s role in ignoring advanced warnings of the attack now seems to be an irrefutable part of the story.
Reuters reports 4th December 2023:
Reuters reports 4th December 2023:
“JERUSALEM, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Israeli authorities are investigating claims by U.S. researchers that some investors may have known in advance of a Hamas plan to attack Israel on Oct. 7 and used that information to profit from Israeli securities.”
With the above facts in mind, while remembering that Netanyahu stands accused of facilitating the attacks of 7th October, his below stated aim of wanting to “thin” out the population of Gaza appears incredibly sinister.
“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tasked his top adviser, Ron Dermer, the minister of strategic affairs, with designing plans to “thin” the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip “to a minimum,” according to a bombshell new report in an Israeli newspaper founded by the late Republican billionaire Sheldon Adelson.”
Here is the original Hebrew report that the above Intercept article is based on:
To bomb a civilian area with the stated aim of wanting to “thin” out its population is nothing short of ethnic cleansing. It is a war crime. There are no two ways about it, those who defend Netanyahu’s shameful war on Gaza are advocating for war crimes.
Clearly aware of the mounting criticism Netanyahu has been facing at home and abroad, earlier this year pro-Likud British journalist Douglas Murray soft-balled Netanyahu about any responsibility he may have for allowing October 7th to happen.
Click to play:
Broadcaster: “You have a sense already of.. you know, there's so many people in this country saying that the tech failed, that the IDF didn't get there in time, all sorts of things just seem to have gone wrong.”
PM Netanyahu: “Yes, quite a few. Yes, I have an idea, but I think it's premature to talk about it. Operationally, we've reached quite a few conclusions, and we're putting them into effect. But remember, this war is ongoing. We're in its fourth month. It took the US and its allies nine months to vanquish ISIS, to vanquish the radical Islamic forces in Mosul. Mosul is smaller than Gaza, didn't have this vast underground infrastructure, had fewer fighters. So we're on course, but it's going to take some time. And in the meantime, yes, we have learned some lessons, which I don't think it's right for me to impart them here.”
But despite Netanyahu’s insistence that now is not the time to be asking these questions about what exactly he knew about October 7 before it happened, President Trump has not held back apportioning blame directly at his feet.
The Times of Israel reports 30th April 2024:
“In a wide-ranging interview, former United States president and current Republican contender Donald Trump expressed pointed criticism for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and for Israel’s war leadership, while pledging to “protect Israel” if reelected in November. October 7 ‘happened on his watch,’ Trump told Time magazine of Netanyahu, adding that the prime minister has ‘rightfully been criticized’ for failing to prevent the massive Hamas attack…’They have the most sophisticated equipment,’ Trump said of Israel. ‘They had — everything was there to stop that. And a lot of people knew about it, you know, thousands and thousands of people knew about it, but Israel didn’t know about it, and I think he’s being blamed for that very strongly, being blamed.’ The attack ‘should have never happened,’ said Trump.”
Is there any wonder then, that this happened?
The BBC reports 22nd April 2024:
“The Israeli military's intelligence chief has resigned, saying he took responsibility for the failures before Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October.”
Remember what we said. Netanyahu and his cabal have overplayed their hand.
27th October 2023:
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