In response to The Jewish Chronicle editorial (“The Guardian’s Shame“, Jan. 27th) blasting the paper’s coverage of the “Palestine Papers”, the Guardian brought a heavy hitter: Their Editor, Middle East editor, Israel correspondent…sorry, their expert on snow (yes, really) to defend the paper’s coverage, in The JC’s Feb. 3 edition.
Charlie English – who is apparently a quite prolific writer on winter sports of all kinds – noted with dismay passages from The JC editorial characterizing the Guardian’s commentary as riddled with “distortions”, “bias”, and representing “breathtaking arrogance”.
English, clearly out of his league covering a topic such as the delegitimization of Israel – an activity that one can engage in during all four seasons – mounted a weak defense, to say the least.
But what did stand out was his final passage, where he actually argued that the “Palestine Papers” represented, in sum, a passionate attempt by the Guardian to, yes, “rescue” the peace process!
Unfortunately we can’t confirm or deny conflicting reports as to whether English maintained a straight face while writing this piece, as his Guardian profile photo makes such a judgment difficult to render with any amount of accuracy.
