The snaring of Craig Murray.

Jake Wallis Simons is suing Murray for serious harm to his reputation.

The details of Murray’s potentially devastating court case are here. The accusation from Simons at first appeared to be cut and dried. Murray had been drawn into calling Simons a liar because a phrase was attributed to him (from 18 months previously) that he had written on his blog. The short sentence was misleading and omitted the real context by being deviously edited from Murray’s commentary. Murray obviously didn’t recognise the statement that Simons reproduced, probably because it was only a few words of much larger paragraph.

Jake Wallis Simons.

Simons describes himself as a journalist and author on his website. The Daily Mail refers to Simons as the Associate Global Editor and I can only assume this hit piece on Jeremy Corbyn is a typical example of his investigative credentials. That being the case, Murray was indeed being perfectly honest when he labelled him a liar. That’s what journalists do.

Sky news.

From some of the comments on Murray’s blog, it would appear that Murray wasn’t invited on to the news program knowing that it would be a debate, not least with Simons, an old adversary. This would suggest collusion between the Sky news team and Simons, considering the fact that Simons already had the phrase attributed to Murray at hand. The presenter and Simons knew he would be debating Murray.

I’ve been reading Murray’s blog for many years and his courageous and career ending opposition to UK reliance on evidence gained from torture proves his integrity. He is also a fierce critic of Israeli treatment of Palestinians. I assume this is the reason that Simons wants to financially ruin Murray.

Furthermore, Simons has a propensity to be able to detect anti Semitism, even when it isn’t there. Criticism of Israel isn’t anti Semitic and neither is Murray. He is opposed to racism in every form.

If you look hard enough for something, you will inevitably find it, imaginary or not.

Mark Lewis, Simons lawyer doesn’t exactly enamour himself in ethical glory in this Times of Israel interview. Lewis is also the director of UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) which is devoted to putting legal arguments forward for Israel, whatever that means.

This attack on Murray is clearly an attempt to silence a critic of Israel, even if they have to dress it up as a libel case.