The award for 'gratuitious insulting of Israel' this week is awarded to Simon Barnes' father

The award for 'gratuitious insulting of Israel' this week is awarded to Simon Barnes' father as reported in Simon Barnes' Times column today. At the end of a piece about over aggressive cyclists comes this:

"Cyclists are Israelis," my father pronounced.
"Persecuted for years, now able to persecute in their turn, doing so at every opportunity and fancying themselves heroes and martyrs for doing so."

A quality piece of gratuitous insulting of Israel, alongside a conflation of Jews and Israel. What a lovely chap.