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Spectator
42 minutes ago
- Politics
- Spectator
James O'Brien's apology isn't enough
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. 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 on Friday until sunset on Saturday – including going to synagogue and visiting friends and family. They do not go to school. Indeed, Jews are not meant to do anything resembling work on Shabbat, including writing, making teaching or attending classes rather difficult. Consequently, children mostly go for their Jewish education on a Sunday morning. I remember attending these Cheder classes. We were taught by earnest, religious young women how to read Hebrew and about the festivals, but mostly we counted down the minutes until we could go home again. Some more liberal denominations do now offer Jewish education on a Saturday morning, allowing parents to sit in the synagogue service undisturbed. Does it seem likely that those teaching in such communities would be comparing Arabs to cockroaches, as the nonsensical text message claimed was happening? All this should have been an immediate red flag to both O'Brien and his producers. That it wasn't appears to suggest how keen that show is to air things that are anti-Israel and, ultimately, anti-Jewish. To make matters worse, the clip of O'Brien reading this message was pushed out on LBC's official X channel. It was later removed, but by that point the damage was well and truly done. A big-name host on national radio had aired a blood libel against the Jews, seemingly without questioning the information in front of him. That blood libel was spread on social media, where it was probably seen by more people than ever tuned into the original broadcast. It all puts Jews in the UK in danger at a time when simply sitting in a Kosher restaurant can be enough to get you harassed and attacked. Karen Pollock, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, told me: 'These comments are absolutely vile and it beggars belief that they were read out on air when they are clearly false and obviously antisemitic.' Reflecting on her personal experience, Pollock explained: 'I attended a Jewish primary school, Hebrew classes as a child and was immersed in Jewish education. Not once did I hear such vile assertions about another group of people – and I have never heard of anyone else hearing it either. I cannot believe James O'Brien and LBC thought it appropriate to promote this hatred.' Meanwhile, Andrew Gilbert, a vice president of leading communal organisation the Board of Deputies, called on O'Brien to be taken off air. He's right. This should not have been a matter of 'deputy heads will roll', with his producers taking the flak. While they certainly have questions to answer, O'Brien is the ultimate arbiter of what gets read out on air and he should not have been allowed back on the radio the following day. This being the UK in 2025, he was. Having avoided sanction, it wasn't until nearly two hours into his show yesterday that O'Brien said sorry. The LBC host said he regretted 'taking those unsubstantiated claims (in the text) at face value'. His apology is too little, too late. Over the last twenty months, Jews have endured torrents of hatred from all manner of media outlets. We couldn't even watch clips from a music festival without being bombarded with hate. This week was the nadir though. A well thought of and seemingly intelligent host read out, and took at face value, a message that would have made Goebbels proud. He then kept his job. It's a disgrace.
Telegraph
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Calls for James O'Brien to be ‘taken off air' after anti-Semitic comments
But the Board of Deputies of British Jews have labelled the comments 'unacceptable and highly offensive', and have called on LC to apologise and 'take Mr O'Brien off air'. The Telegraph understands the broadcast has also been reported to the Metropolitan Police, with one complaint alleging that the programme spread 'lies about Jews'. Police have reportedly been told the show ' puts Jews in very real danger '. The comments, which some have labelled 'anti-Semitic', were shared online by LBC in a clip from a longer live broadcast. It has been reported to the media regulator Ofcom, and has since been removed from X, formerly Twitter, by LBC. 'Fascinated by objectivity' In the clip, Mr O'Brien stated: 'I'm fascinated by objectivity, which is why I'm going to read out this from Chris'. He then read out a message that claimed: '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. 'Whilst young children are taught such hatred and dehumanisation – undoubtedly on both sides… then they will always be able to justify death and cruelty.' Mr O'Brien added that in relation to the Israel-Gaza conflict, there was a danger of the public only hearing about 'one side' of the 'propaganda processes'. In response to the comments, Andrew Gilbert, vice president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, called on LBC to apologise and take Mr O'Brien off air. In a statement shared on X, Mr Gilbert said: 'We are urgently seeking a meeting with senior executives following the completely unacceptable and highly offensive comments made by James O'Brien on his LBC show today. 'Broadcasting such a transparent falsehood and demonising the British Jewish community, at a time when antisemitism in this country is at terrifyingly high levels, must have clear consequences. 'LBC should apologise, and take Mr O'Brien off the air.' On-air apology issued Karne Pollock, the head of Holocaust Educational Trust, also pointed out that there is no such thing as a 'Shabbat school'. Other critics have taken issue with the on-air message suggesting that – beyond Israel itself – Jews in general may harbour resentment towards Arabs, and are instructed to feel this way. The day after the contentious broadcast on July 22, Mr O'Brien issued an on-air apology when he returned to the LBC studio. He said: 'This is very important. At this time yesterday on the show, I read out a message from a listener called Chris, who said that his wife had been brought up in the Jewish faith and had attended what he described as a Shabbat school. 'He went on to make further claims about what he said she had been taught in that school. 'As with all the texts and messages that I read out on the programme, I did so in good faith, but the message has understandably upset a lot of people, and I regret taking those unsubstantiated claims at face value and am genuinely sorry for that and it is very important that I get that out there. Thank you for your attention.'
Spectator
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Spectator
James O'Brien has disgraced himself
For a man who wrote a book called How To Be Right, James O'Brien sure gets a lot wrong. Consider the message from one of his listeners that he read out on his LBC radio show yesterday. It said Jewish kids in the UK are taught to loathe Arabs and see them as 'cockroaches to be crushed'. This is not only untrue, it is grossly libellous and possibly dangerous. Will Mr Right fess up and apologise? What possessed O'Brien to so solemnly read on air a blatant falsehood about Britain's Jews? The message came from someone called 'Chris' from Oxford. From the get-go his comment was creepy and should have got alarm bells clanging at LBC. 'Warped views' about Arabs 'are not just an Israeli problem', it said. No, this 'warped' supremacism infects the hearts and minds of people outside Israel too. Guess who? Yes, Jews here in Britain. Chris continued: '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.' That 'young children' – say it, 'Chris': young Jews – are being indoctrinated with 'such hatred and dehumanisation' is profoundly concerning, the message said. And O'Brien read it out, every word, not once stopping to wonder: is this true? It isn't true, of course. None of it. As Jews across the internet have pointed out, there's no such thing as 'Shabbat school'. Some Christians might take religious lessons on their holy day, but Jews do not. A 'Shabbat school' is the invention of – to be generous – a confused mind. As to the claim that Jewish kids are taught that one Jewish life is the equal of thousands of those 'cockroach' Arab lives – that is a disgusting lie. Jewish friends of mine are furious. They feel genuinely unsettled that on a popular radio show loved by middle-class liberals, such a vile calumny could be made against their community. 'We were taught the opposite – that every life is precious', a Jewish friend texted me last night. And he's from Hertfordshire, that apparent den of sneaky Jewish brainwashing on the awfulness of Arabs. The problem here is less 'Chris' – sadly there are many people out there who spout drivel – than it is James O'Brien and LBC itself. That O'Brien took as good coin this calamitous untruth about our Jewish compatriots should induce some serious soul-searching on his part. He has this morning apologised and the clip appears to have been taken down by LBC. O'Brien said on his show today that he is 'genuinely sorry' for taking the 'unsubstantiated claims' in the message 'at face value'. Would he so breezily have read out a message branding our black citizens as 'criminals' or calling all British Muslims nutters who are taught to hate the world? Worse, LBC posted a clip of O'Brien reading Chris's message on X, where it was no doubt lapped up by the anti-Jewish bigots who are sadly legion on social media. So not one person at LBC queried Chris's claims? O'Brien himself, his producers, the audio guys, the person who made the clip, the person who posted it – not one of them appeared to stop to ask: 'Wait, is it true that Jewish kids are being brainwashed to be racist scum?' That is a catastrophic institutional failure. LBC needs to investigate how it happened. To me, the sick myth that Britain's Jewish children are being pumped with Arabphobia has a whiff of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Where that gross old forgery claimed to reveal a Jewish plot for world domination, now fact-free messages read out on radio shows tell of a Jewish plot to 'warp' children with racial hatred. It's 2025 and people are still spreading libels about the Jews being an unusually malicious people, only now we're told they want to crush Arabs like 'cockroaches' rather than kill Christians for their blood. It would be deeply immoral to broadcast a message like that at any time. To do it during one of the worst outbursts of anti-Semitism of modern times is unforgivable. Is LBC not worried about whipping up racial hatred against Jewish schools and their teachers and pupils? Things were so bad post-7 October that Jewish schoolkids in London were told they could remove their blazers on their way to school to avoid becoming a target for anti-Semites. That LBC has now stoked the lie that Jewish schools are indeed suspect places is shameful beyond words. Leave Jewish kids alone, please. For years O'Brien posed as a warrior against 'post-truth', and yet here he is helping to spread outright untruths. He was lauded as the conscience of liberal Britain, yet here he promotes wholly regressive claims about one of our most beleaguered communities. He raged against the 'hatred' in Brexit Britain, yet now he is possibly emboldening the hatred of certain toerags on the internet who've long suspected that the Jews are up to no good. O'Brien is living proof that 'liberal Britain' has lost its moral bearings, and possibly its marbles too.
The National
18 hours ago
- Politics
- The National
Calls for LBC's James O'Brien to be 'taken off air'
The listener's comments came after O'Brien had criticised the mainstream UK media for focusing on Bob Vylan and Kneecap's comments at the Glastonbury Festival instead of reporting on Israel's war on Gaza. In a short clip shared to social media by LBC, O'Brien reads out the listener's message where he comments that he is doing so as he is 'fascinated by objectivity'. READ MORE: Doing the right thing for Gaza would gain the SNP more support O'Brien read the short statement from the listener Chris which 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. 'Whilst young children are being taught such hatred and dehumanisation, undoubtedly on both sides' He added: 'As Chris points out – then they will always be able to justify death and cruelty, and it does indeed start young. 'There is a danger perhaps that we only ever hear one side of the dehumanisation and propaganda processes.' Following the post on social media where O'Brien reads out the listener's message, a Campaign Against Antisemitism spokesperson described the comments as 'a modern blood libel on national radio', Meanwhile, the Board of Deputies of British Jews have called for him to be removed by LBC. In a statement, Andrew Gilbert, vice president of the board, said that reading out the message was 'demonising' the British Jewish community during a time antisemitism is at 'terrifyingly high levels' in the UK. He wrote: 'We are urgently seeking a meeting with senior executives following the completely unacceptable and highly offensive comments made by James O'Brien on his LBC show today. 'Broadcasting such a transparent falsehood and demonising the British Jewish community, at a time when antisemitism in this country is at terrifyingly high levels, must have clear consequences. 'LBC should apologise, and take Mr O'Brien off the air.'
Telegraph
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Why is James O'Brien recycling an anti-Semitic lie?
What kind of person would unquestioningly believe that British Jewish children are taught that 'one Jewish life is worth thousands of Arab lives and that Arabs are cockroaches to be crushed'? Step forward James O'Brien, LBC's prince of the bien pensant. Today, the radio presenter received a message from a listener calling himself 'Chris' who made these overtly anti-Semitic claims. O'Brien apparently duly repeated them on air without so much as a how's your father, prefaced by the baffling statement: 'I'm fascinated by objectivity, which is why I'm going to read out this from Chris'. The listener's message began by pointing out that 'warped views are not just an Israeli problem'. What? So it's OK now to smear an entire nation as holding 'warped views'? The fact that this alone did not set off alarm bells in O'Brien's mind was worrying enough. Make such a claim about any other people and the author of How To Be Right would surely be the very first to cry racist. But that was only the prelude. 'Chris' went on to extend this 'Israeli problem' to include Jews in this country as well as their cousins in Tel Aviv. 'My wife was brought up Jewish and at shabbat school in a leafy Hertfordshire town…' his message continued. Let's press pause again there. For one thing, it just sounded phony. 'My wife was brought up Jewish'? Yeah, right. But the mention of a 'shabbat school' was hilarious. There is, of course, no such thing. Jews do not go to school on the sabbath. These red flags also fluttered too high above O'Brien's head for him to notice. He continued to read out the message to his 1.5 million listeners. Thus, middle Britain was treated, in O'Brien's honeyed tones, to Chris's claim that at 'shabbat school', his 'wife' had been introduced to the aforementioned bigotry towards Arabs. The fact that O'Brien at no point realised the nature of what he was reading is downright disturbing. Let's make this absolutely clear. Of the 15 million Jews in the world, you'll be hard pressed to find any who holds such repugnant views of anybody, including Arabs. Attend any pro-Israel rally and you'll never hear anything like it. Especially not in Britain. It is true that a handful of extremists, especially in Israel, sometimes chant disgraceful things about their enemies. Jews have their thugs and nutters just like any other people. But these are in the vanishingly small minority, like the BNP in Britain. To suggest that this amounts to an institutional indoctrination, akin to the brainwashing in Gaza, is quite obviously an anti-Semitic lie. Obvious, at least, to anybody with common sense. In concluding his shameful monologue, O'Brien intoned: 'Whilst young children are being taught such hatred and dehumanisation, undoubtedly on both sides, as Chris points out, then they will always be able to justify death and cruelty.' He added: 'There is a danger, perhaps, that we only ever hear one side of the dehumanisation and propaganda.' No, there isn't. Not everything has two sides, James. There is such a thing as right and wrong. Obviously Israel, being a real-life country in the real world, isn't perfect; obviously it has its own extremists and criminals, like every other state on Earth. But to compare the Middle East's only democracy to Gaza, where every strata of society is poisoned with the toxic ideology of the death cult, is frankly abhorrent – let alone suggesting that British Jews are engaged in the same thing. Think of the scenes on October 7, when the half-naked corpses of Jewish women were paraded through Gaza while mobs spat at them, jeered and beat them with sticks. Could you imagine such a thing happening in Tel Aviv? Could you imagine Israelis cheering as children and the elderly were taken hostage? Of course not. But I wonder whether O'Brien can. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. In 2014 and 2015, the author of How They Broke Britain gave vast amounts of airtime to the bogus claims of the VIP sex ring based on testimony by Carl Beech, who was later imprisoned both for sex offences and for perverting the course of justice. He later expressed regret. But in August last year, he caused outrage by praising a video on social media that blamed 'Zionist backers' for the Southport riots. He later claimed not to have watched the clip in full and condemned it. A certain pattern is emerging here. As inexplicable as it might be, O'Brien has a huge listenership and more than a million followers on social media. LBC has removed the 'warped views' clip from the internet. For untold numbers of people, however, the damage has already been done.
