When the story of how the British media responded to the October 7 atrocities is told, there will be a number of villains. High up on the list will be James O’Brien. The LBC host is smugness personified most of the time, but gets even higher on his horse whenever Israel is the topic, which it is frequently. Obviously.

James O’Brien is smugness personified, but gets even higher on his horse whenever Israel is the topic

Things reached a new low this week. On Tuesday, O’Brien read out a text from someone called ‘Chris’. This person said his Jewish wife had, as a child, attended something called ‘Shabbat School’. There she was taught that one Jewish life was worth thousands of Arab lives and other racist, dehumanising concepts.

‘There is a danger perhaps,’ O’Brien said in his very serious voice, ‘that we only ever hear one side of the dehumanisation and propaganda processes.’

The problem, of course, is that Shabbat School is not real. No Jew has, to my knowledge, ever even used the phrase ‘Shabbat School’.

Jews do many things on a Shabbat – the day of rest observed from sunset........

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