One of the world’s most-read online news sites has been slammed by a top human rights group for coverage of Israel deeply marked by bias and lack of context. In the past the Huffington Post has been criticized for outright deleting wire references demonstrating Palestinian support for violence, and the outlet has among other things accused Israeli Jews of “ethnic cleansing.” Over the weekend the news site posted coverage of Israel’s air strikes on Syria which were so eggregious as to draw condemnation from The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC’s).

A Sunday top story was headlined simply “Israel Strikes Again” and it was accompanied by a photograph of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clapping and smugly smirking. The SWC’s Associate Dean Abraham Cooper blasted the editorial decision:

“President Obama underscored Israel’s right to strike inside Syria; a leader of Syria’s rebels went on Israel’s Channel 2 to thank Bibi and company for weakening Assad,” said Associate Dean Abraham Cooper in an email to The Algemeiner, “Apparently all that’s not enough for today’s Huffpost editors. They even trotted out a picture of PM Netanyahu scowling while headlining—Israel strikes again.”

“Never mind,” continued Cooper, “Bet you the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees and millions of internally displaced are praying Israel strikes again and again.”

The Huffington Post arguably surpassed the BBC – where editors took regime propaganda and made it into headlines – in publishing the weekend’s most prominently-criticized example of anti-Israel bias. Nonetheless the BBC coverage also came in for its share of criticism from watchdog groups and analysts. Shiraz Maher, a Middle East specialist at King’s College London, expressed himself amazed:

Has @bbcnews lost the frigging plot? Here’s their headline: “Israeli strikes on Syria ‘co-ordinated with terrorists'”. AssadPropaganda

— Shiraz Maher (@ShirazMaher) May 5, 2013

[Photo: algemeiner.com]