Jewish & World News

The British Broadcasting Corporation, which won the rights to broadcast the London Games, failed to list Jerusalem as the capital of Israel on its Olympics website. According to Yedioth Ahronoth, the site offered information about all the participating countries, including their athletes and capitals, but Israel's profile made no mention of a capital city at all. The profile page for the Palestinian Olympic team, however, mentioned "east Jerusalem" as its capital.

As Tim Franks finishes his spell as the BBC's Middle East correspondent, he explains how his own background made it inevitable that some people would make certain assumptions.

The New York-based American Jewish Committee blasted the BBC on Sunday for airing an accusation that Jews around the world assist in supposed Mossad assassinations. The AJC said in a statement that it was “dismayed that a guest on BBC Radio 4 was allowed to state unchallenged” that the Mossad relies on Jews for assassination plots. “This baseless accusation crosses every red line between legitimate public discussion and bigoted fear-mongering,” said AJC executive director David Harris. “In less than a minute, the BBC has cast a shadow on the lives of Jews worldwide.” BBC Radio 4’s PM program interviewed Gordon Thomas, author of Gideon’s Spies, a book about the Mossad, about the January 20 assassination of Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai.  Local authorities and many international media outlets believe that the killing of Mabhouh, who bought rockets for Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip, was carried out by the Mossad. In explaining the Mossad’s operating metho...