Envoy is 'Promising' -- Even if He is a Jew

Just like its brethren at the Electronic Intifida, the Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs likes to coat its anti-Israel polemics in a layer of syrup. Also like the EI -- which recently inserted, and then swiftly pulled back, a Nazi-like graphic -- the Washington Report sometimes goofs up and lets the anti-Semitism slip by.

A good example comes in an item online today, by none other than the Payola Pundit Ian Williams (above, left), the fifth-rate hack and UN correspondent-consultant, famed for taking money from the UN while writing about it for The Nation and other organs. The subject of the piece is a recent Arab Human Development Report issued by the UN Development Program. Like most Ian Williams UN puff pieces, it reads more like a press release than a news article. That figures. Williams boasts on his website that, among other flack work and media training for the UN, he "helped draft the press-kit for the 2002 Arab Human Development Report for UNDP." (Williams conveniently "forgets" to disclose this rather significant conflict to the readers of WRMEA.)

Clearly his latest swill will help Williams get more UNDP work. In his piece he lauds UNDP for standing up to "U.S. and Israeli pressure." (That's a common theme in Williams' cloud-cuckoo world. The brave UN and its heroic bureaucrats are always standing up to "US and Israeli pressure.") He goes on to lay it on thick praising the report -- and believe you me, when Ian Williams likes something the UN does, he lets you know it.

But then -- oops! -- we get this little nugget:

In the absence of any progress on Middle Eastern peace, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been busy appointing envoys. Firstly, he appointed former World Bank president James Wolfensohn as his special representative for the Gaza pullout. This could be promising. Wolfensohn has not let his Jewish origins hinder him from trenchant criticisms of Israeli malpractices, and has the stature to highlight any egregious acts of bad faith.

Yeah, well you know how those damn Jews are. Always guilty of dual loyalty. Got to hand it to Williams, though. At least he's in touch with his feelings. (Healthier that way, psychologists say.)

Still, this little anti-Semitic gem does present a problem for the Washington Report, which tries to be respectable. Oh well. Forgive them, please. As I said about EI, it's hard to churn out Israel-bashing swill day after day, steam pouring out of your ears, without slipping up and forgetting to pour on the Karo.