I want to share with you my experience of the last 48 hours. It provides a remarkable insight into how the propaganda war against Israel operates.
It all started on Thursday. As honorary president of the Jewish Villans, a position I have been proud to hold since October 2024, I shared the excellent statement by our Chairman, Eliot Polak, on the subject of Birmingham City Council’s Safety Advisory Group taking the shameful decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from their upcoming Europa League match against Aston Villa.
Having 130k+ followers on X, this was naturally picked up by journalists. On Friday, I was inundated with requests for interviews. In total, I was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Today show, BBC Radio 5’s Nicky Campbell show, twice on Sky News, TalkTV, TalkSport, BBC1 lunchtime news, LBC News, GBNews, Times Radio, an article on Politics Home, and Villa’s biggest fan podcast, run by the excellent Justin.
I’ll admit, it was a lot. An exhausting day. A couple of interviewers assumed I was Jewish, and I was quick to correct Times Radio, and Sky News when they erroneously headlined my clip as “Jewish fan”. I handed over several interviews to Eliot, including TalkSport (at 20:58) and ITV News (see below).
And then: the shitstorm. I have never seen X so saturated with bots. Fascinatingly, the messaging was identical. Major pro-Palestinian influencers went on the attack for my track record on supporting Israel. Another lie spread, remarkably, was that the Jewish Villans did not exist and I had invented the organisation.
For the record, Jewish Villans are two years old, have ~50 members, and the organisation is under the umbrella of the Aston Villa “Fans For Diversity” initiative. The group keep a low profile for obvious reasons. I would suggest that the last 48 hours demonstrate the risks to openly Jewish football fans in Aston. In their previous social media message for Passover, the club’s official social media channels shared a message from our Rabbi.
The pro-Palestinian Brains Trust of the low IQ and those of malign intentions decided that I had hatched a cunning Zionist plan. By their reckoning, well over a year ago, I invented a group and appointed myself president on the off-chance the Premier League would cheat us on the last day of the season, condemning Aston Villa to the Europa League six months later.
This evil Zionist plan was devised on the 77/1 probability that we would draw an Israeli team at home, and that an antisemitic group of MPs and their supporters would repeat lies about the Israeli fans to create a situation where the mob took over and had the Israeli fans banned.
Honestly, the saddest thing about being on the losing side in a propaganda war is that the pro-Israel side has lost the battle to complete morons. I suppose it is much easier to fight when all you have are libels, character attacks and lies.
Even more strangely, a variety of photos (one of Tommy Robinson and another of an IDF soldier in Gaza) were used, claiming it was me. Another naked attempt to discredit with lies.
This whole episode is a fascinating microcosm of how the campaign against Israel works. The tactic is first to make false claims, then to try to discredit Israeli soldiers, the country itself, and its supporters. We have seen lies time and time again about IDF conduct in Gaza, and even this week, we have seen a sea of disinformation about what happened to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans in Amsterdam, where a pre-arranged “Jew Hunt” was organised days in advance of the match.
The pattern remains the same: major pro-Palestinian accounts birth the lie, then a sea of bots spread it and attack the target. I have seen an astonishing amount of abuse from obvious bot accounts: they were created very recently, only post on one topic, and have usernames such as @dave1234456. This pattern shows an obvious, coordinated campaign.
Good news, however: I have upset Owen Jones again. Part of the attacks on my character were my mockery of naked propaganda, such as the ludicrous NY Times article by activist doctors returning from Gaza. Here is my position: by engaging seriously with these false allegations, you give the allegations credibility. A far better approach is contemptuous mockery. As Owen shows regularly, mocking their propaganda really upsets some of the worst people in the world.
(However, the amazing Dr Danny Orbach et al have written a serious academic debunking of much of the propaganda. Their report is the most important of the war, and I urge you to read it. For example, at p.157 onwards, they deal with these activist doctors’ claims of treating nothing but wounded children. Forensically looking at all available data, these claims are impossible. Literally no hospital in Gaza reported child gunshot wounds at the rate they claim over the time periods involved. These doctors are either lying, mistaken, or have been played for fools by Hamas.)
As a final note, no interaction with the pro-Palestinian cause would be complete without threats of violence.
All thoroughly unpleasant stuff. This approach is designed to create a high personal cost for those who publicly stand up for the truth. The intent is to beat you down and intimidate you.
So there you have it: the pro-Palestinian online cause in microcosm. Lies, libels and abuse: that is all their cause has. There is a thriving Jewish Villans supporters’ club, I have never claimed to be Jewish, I have never hidden my support for Israel, and I stand by my mockery of Hamas propaganda.
This is what we are up against, but I have never before seen the influencers and bots be this vicious. It just means I was over the target in opposing their attempts to get Maccabi Tel Aviv banned and continue the wider demonisation of Israel on the world stage.
I will not stop fighting in the face of these libels and attempted intimidation. Please share this article and help get the truth out. Thank you all for your support.
Such a strange time to be a Jew, an Israeli or a devoted ally. Five or 10 years ago, I could never have anticipated this level of hatred and propaganda. Kudos for standing tall!
Poor little OJ is so riven with antisemitism, I fear he may spontaneously combust at any moment. 🤭