Former British MP George Galloway, who is known for his anti-Israel views. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

George Galloway spent an entire episode of his TV show, Sputnik, vilifying former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the State of Israel. The British MP, who was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003, was joined by two anti-Israel activists who added to the denigration of Sharon’s legacy. While Galloway repeatedly referred to Sharon as the “Butcher of Beirut,” he remained silent on the ongoing carnage in Syria that has claimed more than 100,000 lives, and other grave human rights abuses committed by Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran.

His show is broadcast on Russia Today, a television network funded by the Russian government and notable for producing a relentless stream of anti-American and anti-Israeli bulletins. The level of vitriol in this episode however, was unprecedented, even by RT’s standards.

His first guest, anti-Israel activist Jeff Halper, promulgated a theory that Ariel Sharon withdrew from Gaza to make Israel the hegemon in the Middle East. Halper, who supports the anti-Israel BDS, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, stated that Israel cannot be weakened internally but could buckle under external pressure.

His other guest, Gaza based anti-Israel film maker and activist Harry Fear, perversely stated that Palestinians were celebrating Sharon’s passing “because this is the only act of justice that has ever come to Ariel Sharon.” Fear referred to Sharon as a “psychopath” and “butcher” and said that he was “responsible for massacres in Lebanon.” He further added that “in Israel it’s almost like creating blood and terrorizing Palestinians and knocking them into the darkest corners of the earth is success.” He agreed with Galloway that Tony Blair’s eulogy to Ariel Sharon was “hard to bear.” Among other incredulous statements, Fear claimed that Tony Blair is responsible for a million deaths in Iraq.

Fear claimed that the situation for the people of Gaza has gotten worse, placing the blame on Israel and glossing over the brutality, terrorism and economic mismanagement of the territory’s rulers Hamas. Although Israel withdrew from Gaza, Fear claims that the “besiegement continues in broad daylight, against the law, against all morals.”

Galloway described Netanyahu as a “petty and venal figure” and Tony Blair as a “war criminal.” He claimed that he just managed to escape from Lebanon in 1982 from the IDF’s “phosphorus bombs and tanks.” Galloway’s anti-Israel diatribes were supported by his sidekick Gayatri, who also happens to be his wife. She chimed in with libelous claims saying that Israeli dams contributed to flooding in Gaza, and described former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin as a “terrorist leader.” The former allegation had been previously exposed as a falsehood and a spokesman for Israel’s Water Authority confirmed that “no dams even exist in the area.”

Toward the end of the program, Galloway bizarrely claimed that the blue lines on the Israeli flag represent the Israeli ambition to rule from the Nile to the Euphrates. Contrary to this absurd claim, the blue lines derive from the design on the traditional Jewish prayer shawl.