My friend, the British political commentator Robin Shepherd points out that the winner of the BBC’s leading general knowledge quiz show, “The Weakest Link,” yesterday answered the question “What is the name of Israel’s most prominent secret intelligence service” by saying “al-Qaeda.”
Even the notoriously humorless presenter of the show, Anne Robinson, could not avoid smirking in disbelief at the answer. The contestant went on to win the show, which airs daily before the BBC’s much watched 6 p.m. news (which itself is hardly accurate when it comes to reporting on Israel).
This would be a purely funny anecdote if it weren’t for the fact that there are so many anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists out there who really do believe the ridiculous and vicious notion that Israel was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. For the record, Israelis were, per capita, one of the greatest victims of the attacks on the Twin Towers, and the Jewish state of Israel is of course one of the prime targets of al-Qaeda-inspired Muslim fundamentalist violence.