"There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary."

What Shimon Peres is reported as saying is sad but true:

'Shimon Peres said England was "deeply pro-Arab ... and anti-Israeli", adding: "They always worked against us."

He added: "There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary."

Mr Peres, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who is three years into his seven-year term as president and was awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen in 2008, said that England's attitude towards Jews was Israel's "next big problem".

"There are several million Muslim voters, and for many members of parliament, that's the difference between getting elected and not getting elected," he said.

"And in England there has always been something deeply pro-Arab, of course, not among all Englishmen, and anti-Israeli, in the establishment.

"They abstained in the [pro-Zionist] 1947 UN partition resolution ... They maintained an arms embargo against us in the 1950s ... They always worked against us. They think the Arabs are the underdogs."

By contrast, relations with Germany, France and Italy were "pretty good", he added.'

Oddly I cannot see anything on the BBC about Shimon Peres' comments, I wonder if that is connected to the comment made by James Clappison, the Conservative MP for Hertsmere and vice-chairman of Conservative Friends of Israel, who said that he could "understand the frustration" that people in Israel felt with "certain elements of the British broadcast media" which present an unbalanced view of Israel. Which elements of the British broadcast media might he have been thinking of? The BBC?