What was James O’Brien thinking?

Jews are tired. Tired of years of pushing back against the lies and propaganda that seek to erase the right to self-determination in our indigenous homeland. Tired of defending Israel’s right to save hostages held in Gazan tunnels, the right not to be raped or tortured, and the right of entire families not to be burned alive in their homes by Islamists high on amphetamines and jihadism.

And now, along comes James O’Brien, who threw a bucket of water in the face of British Jews this week. During Tuesday’s three-hour show on LBC – which as usual was almost solely dedicated to Gaza (because a conflict thousands of miles away is what’s most important to the British people) – O’Brien read out a message from a listener called ‘Chris’. It said:

‘I do think it’s worth saying that these warped views are not just an Israeli problem. My wife was brought up Jewish and at Shabbat school in a leafy Hertfordshire town, she was taught that one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives, and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed.’

Splash.

The gist of the listener’s narrative was that Israelis are genocidal monsters who want to kill all Arabs. Even though a fifth of Israelis are Arabs. Even though Israel is not committing a genocide, but fighting a war it didn’t start – a war it can’t end until the Islamist terrorists are defeated and the hostages are returned home.

What was especially insidious here is how the focus could so easily shift from lies about Israel’s actions in Gaza to lies about Jews in Britain. This pivot has been clear online for a while now, with the far left, far right and Islamists pumping out continuous bullshit rhetoric about Jewish ‘supremacy’.

LBC’s broadcasting of this lie comes at a time of rising anti-Semitism. This week, a group of Jewish-Israeli girls were abused and accused of ‘killing babies’ at a kosher café in central London. A few days earlier in Dublin, a Jewish man was assaulted on a bus and told he was ‘genocidal’. In the US, in the past few months alone, an Israeli couple was fatally shot in Washington and Jews were set on fire in Colorado, a Holocaust survivor among them. An 82-year-old woman has since died from her injuries. People feel they’ve been given permission to hate and attack Jews, while thinking they’re the good guys for doing so. Same as it ever was.

O’Brien has since attempted an apology. On Wednesday, he said, ‘As with all the texts and messages that I read out on the programme I did so in good faith’. ‘I regret taking those unsubstantiated claims at face value’, he added.

‘Unsubstantiated claim’ is one way to put it. Racist lie, however, would be more accurate. A racist lie that made its way unchallenged through his producers, through him, and even through the social-media team, who were clearly impressed enough by the listener’s insights to tweet a clip of the segment.

At this point, I should probably point out that there isn’t even such a thing as a ‘Shabbat school’. And that the falsehoods broadcast by LBC are in fact the very opposite of Jewish law, where the sanctity of all life is held as paramount, where saving a life supersedes nearly all religious obligations. That what our children are actually taught is the Jewish holidays and traditions, and love and respect for all, and to make the world a better place for everyone. But hey, what do I know, what with my training at rabbinical school, a wife who used to teach at our synagogue, and our five kids attending Jewish schools.

As I said, Jews are tired.

Josh Howie is a stand-up comedian and host of Free Speech Nation on GB News. Follow him on X: @joshxhowie.