Journalists SLAMMED For Antisemitism After Posting REAL Pic Of Israeli Settler

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]An Italian magazine has published a photograph on its front cover taken in the occupied West Bank. Little did it know that documenting reality is now anti-Semitic. Of course, it is. The cover of the April edition of Lespresso shows a heavily armed Israeli soldier grimacing at a Palestinian woman in the West Bank while appearing to take a photo of her. The title of the article is the abuse and the caption beneath says this. The annexation of the West Bank with soldiers complicit in the settler's actions. Gaza annihilated, the advance into Lebanon, the border violated in Syria, the war in Iran, ethnic cleansing and massacres. Thus, the Zionist right gives shape to greater Israel. So far, so factual. And yet, the response has been unhinged. Some would say this was from the Israeli ambassador to Italy, so supposedly a sensible person. We strongly condemn the manipulative use of the recent cover of Laspresso. The image distorts the complex reality with which Israel must coexist, promoting stereotypes and hatred. Responsible journalism must be balanced and fair. # media responsibility.

[00:01:06]How does a photo distort reality?

[00:01:09]How does a picture of an Israeli man openly displaying his contempt promote a stereotype of hatred? He he is showing hatred.

[00:01:18]A snapshot of reality is about as impartial as you can get. Canadian American Rabbi Ruben Pupka went even further posting this. Italy's magazine Espresso Online publishing anti-semitic dis duma where the imagery that was uh newspaper in Nazi Germany should clarify where they got this image from. The military vest worn here is no longer in use by the IDF. The wedding ring and bracelet are never worn by ultraorththodox men. The formation of the beard and kippa are outlandish. And of course, the very bizarre smile showing teeth are unnatural.

[00:01:54]The rabbi wasn't done. He then posted this.

[00:01:58]Tried to find the difference between Italy's at Espresso Online magazine and the Nazi dumer's depiction of Jews. I was not able to see any difference. Any Holocaust museum and scholar who is silent in the face of such anti-semitism, anti-semitism has forgotten the main lesson of the Holocaust. Do not remain silent in the face of evil. Lespresso later clarified where they got the image from, releasing this footage of the encounter.

[00:02:45]There he is, clear as day, calling on his pals in the IDF to help him harass an unarmed woman. But even that wasn't enough for the rabbi who went on to post this. So, we now have footage of the anti-semitic photo published on the cover of Espresso Online. What's the title? Labuso, which means abuse. Watch for yourself and decide if it's the innocent soldier or the Palestinian woman. What the hell is this guy going on about? Uh, the completely confected bruhaha over the Italian magazine cover won't have helped Israeli Italian relations, which are currently at an all-time low. Last week, Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani expressed solidarity with the people of Lebanon and condemned what he called the unjustified and unacceptable attacks on the country by Israel. That rebuke came in the context of one of the bloodiest days in Lebanese history when Israeli strikes targeted densely populated areas in Beirut and elsewhere and killed over 350 people in just 10 minutes. In response to those comments, Israel summoned Italy's ambassador to the country to face rebuke. But today, Italy's Prime Minister George Maloney appears to have had enough. She's now suspended Italy's 23-year-old defense pact with Israel, pointing to quote, "The current situation for her decision." It's worth noting that the timing is important here. Israeli and Lebanese officials are meeting in Washington today to try and end Israel's assault on the country. No doubt Maloney's action will be aimed at putting a little pressure on the Israelis ahead of those talks. Kieran, this whole thing was surreal to me. You had people basically saying that this front cover is a caricature. It's cartoonish. It's like dtom in the 1930s.

[00:04:26]But the point is those were literal cartoons. This is a photo. One is real and one is a caricature. Caricature.

[00:04:34]What is it? It's an overemphasis on certain characteristics to depict a racist uh image of somebody or a group.

[00:04:44]This is a literal photo also for this guy, right? Right. I mean, he's so unattractive that, you know, you've got you've got it's Israeli diplomats saying that it's anti-semitic to share a photo of him. That's pretty bad, right? I almost feel sorry for the gun away. Of course, I don't. He's horrible. Um, and he's engaged in horrible bullying behavior of that poor woman. Uh, but this does tell us a lot, doesn't it? Because that rabbi, you know, the Israeli government by by by virtue of a diplomat, they really believe this stuff. They really believe that a photo of an unattractive IDF guy is actually anti-semitic.

[00:05:19]>> I suppose there's an easy way to disprove it as anti-semitic before getting on to the wider points about confected anti-semitism. If he were very good-looking, but pulling a ridiculous face maybe, but very handsome and brutalizing a woman on her land, I imagine it would still have the same effect. I mean it might you might say well he's very ugly so that creates uh more of a more attention or I doubt it.

[00:05:46]We've seen lots of very conventionally handsome IDF soldiers or uh who have basically been arraigned for for their brutality and the depiction of that brutality has been a depiction of reality. So we've reached the point of absurdity in this anti-semitism theory of everything where reality is anti-semitic.

[00:06:09]But actually there is a long history of the state of Israel trying to depict reality as anti-semitic and actually simulating old school canonical anti-semitism.

[00:06:25]So blood liel well poisoning and so on the sort of medieval forms of antise-semitism actually very specifically mirroring that in its policies. So one example is drink the Naka they poisoned the well with typhoid fever and then when people got sick they said you can't say that we've been poisoning the wells that's anti-semitic you know and they and we now know from declassified papers they were poisoning the wells specifically so they could say that afterwards so actually this is this is of a piece this is a continuity with what the state of Israel has done since its inception which is unfortunately simulate or mirror real anti-semitism uh in its brutality, in its killing and then cry anti-semitism. Nothing could cheapen the reality of anti-mitism more than that. So it it's uh continuous with that. It doesn't surprise me. But we have reached a point now where I mean they're desperate. The way that we should read this is desperation.

[00:07:29]>> It's desperation. If you're saying and and and by the way, the fact that they're saying it was AI simulated initially, but it's actually real ought to tell us something about the depths of depravity that state of Israel um renders daily. But I would also say that my advice to them is if they don't want to be painted as depraved monsters, don't behave as depraved monsters. I mean, I I'm going to double down on this because you're saying that handsome IDF soldiers do horrible things all the time and you know, literal war crimes, etc., But I my point is and maybe I'm wrong.

[00:08:03]If if the guy was, you know, the guy was a 10, right? As as R Ferdnan once said about Paulo Maldini, the guy walks in. He's a 10. He's got everything. I find that quite funny. I've never talked about men like that, but you know, you get the you get the picture. If the guy was a 10, they they wouldn't be saying that. It's literally because the guy is ugly. And I know this sounds really harsh. I don't like talking about people's looks, of course not. But this is this gets the fundamental of the story and propaganda, right? The prop the Israeli propaganda machine works like this. They want every single public depiction of Israel >> to be positive.

[00:08:38]>> So you've got a really weird looking guy behaving really horribly and there's quite critical language of Israel beneath it on the front cover of the most popular current affairs magazine in Italy. You know, that's going to really offend them. Um, and it's painting a picture and so they say, "Well, oh my goodness, this is all this is all to target us and it's to diminish the legitimacy of the state of Israel. Just the guy looks horrible. He's doing something horrible because that's literally the reality of the situation, >> you know, and they do this every single day with Palestinians, by the way. They do this every single day with Palestinians. Think of it also, by the way, with media in this country. They actually the thing they're accused, every accusation is a confession, right?

[00:09:19]The thing they're accusing Lespresso magazine of doing, we get it all the time. You know, classic example, Mark Dugen, you know, he had like a he was sitting down. He looks quite menacing.

[00:09:29]Actually, he was at the grave of his daughter. Of course, you know, the the media cut that bit out. We always get the most negative um representations of people when they're viewed as a public enemy. Rightly or wrongly, we do. But that's not the case here. That's not the case here. And I think you're right.

[00:09:46]It's desperation and the public affairs, public relations wing of Zionism, which by the way is hugely important. Recognizing they've lost the fight. They've lost the battle.

[00:09:58]They've lost the battle of legitimacy.

[00:10:00]They've lost the battle of aura. That might sound a childish thing to say, but they had that in the 40s and the 50s and the 60s amongst Western audiences. They did wrongly, but they did. uh and and they're losing fundamentally the battle for hearts and minds in the West. You might say, "Well, why does that matter?" Well, because without American support militarily, that country does not exist. Literally doesn't exist. Kieran, >> you've touched the crux of the issue.

[00:10:25]It's about accountability and it's about not wanting any accountability for anything. Even if they lead pograms, even if they lead the world's foremost ethnic cleansing apartheid state, even if they lead genocide in Gaza, they want total critical immunity in everything.

[00:10:47]>> Yeah. And so just to kind of join our two points, it's desperation because they don't have that anymore, but the fact that they think they're still entitled to it when they are purveyors of so much ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and and genocide and you know, we focus on the Palestinians rightly, but also just total chaos in the region. To still expect critical immunity is absolutely, utterly delusional. And it's delightful to see that it's ebbed away and that it no longer that they no longer enjoy anything like as you say the aura, the romanticism, the idealism that was attributed to the state of Israel completely and utterly in the gutter.

[00:11:29]And so this is um desperate desperate clutch against straws. Yeah. It's like a spoiled child, you know, actually many many young children, you know, your your child when they're growing up will think they're the smartest person in the world. They'll think they're the fastest boy in the world. And of course, the whole the whole process of socialization and realizing you're an actor in the world and that other people have brains and other people exist and you're not the literal center of the world. The theory of mind as they call it. Uh you aren't actually the fastest boy in the world. You're not the smartest person in the world. You haven't discovered everything for the first time. But it feels that in terms of a national psychology, that's where lots of Zionists are, right? If you point out they're not the fastest boy in the world, they get so upset. Uh, it's a country that's been around for over half a century.