It's just fine with the British press for an editor to say he doesn't read pro-Israeli letters if the writer has a Jewish name.

The British Press Complaints Commission last week justified an Observer newspaper columnist who announced in his column that he does not intend to read pro-Israel letters if they are signed by people with Jewish names.

According to the complaints commission, the position taken by the columnist, Richard Ingrams, is legitimate.

The commission's ruling came after a number of Observer readers complained about an article Ingrams published last month in which he said: "I have
developed a habit when confronted by letters to the editor in support of the Israeli government to look at the signature to see if the writer has a Jewish name. If so, I tend not to read it." He argued that those who side with Israeli policy should say whether they are Jewish, for transparency's sake.

It's amazing how public this guy was willing to be about his anti-Israel bias. He maintains that he isn't anti-Semitic,b ut he's willing to single out Jews as the only group that he pays no attention to.