So that stuff about the Jews being criminals who must be expelled; that's just a translation error, is it?

And this cuddly mouse, according to Wikipedia, says "has also encouraged children to use an AK-47 and grenades on Israelis and Americans. He simulates shooting the AK-47 and throwing the grenades."

I didn't say it was a translation error. I just said that one must keep in mind that we're relying on translators, which has caused misinformation in the past. However, unless experts in international law are also being mistranslated, Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories are criminals, whatever their ethnicity.

And I know what Wikipedia says. I linked it, remember? There's a difference between saying that there might be distortions (and pointing out that there have been alleged distortions in the past) and saying that it's a good thing. If I was unclear, yes, children's TV shows inciting racism and encouraging kids to commit crimes are bad.

You can kid yourself that the presenter is talking about settlers but when I hear someone say "we don't like the Jews because they are dogs," I think the message is clear. Hamas would not be content with removing settlers. They want Jews out of Israel. They would prefer that Jews did not exist. Their charter calls for the destruction of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Islamic state.

And let's not forget that this diatribe is being made by a child, speaking to another on a children's television programme I think the purpose is quite clear. After all, it is Hamas which encourages its children to blow up themselves and innocent Israelis.

I'm just suggesting that the politics of the region aren't cartoonified by the revelation that such a TV show can exist.

As I said, the presenter is a racist propagandist. So naturally the generalisations don't stand up to the barest scrutiny. But the fact that a racist propagandist anthropomorphic mouse is calling people criminals doesn't change the fact that the Israeli settlers are criminals, and that they should be expelled. And the fact is that there are people in this world who, having seen this show, will associate any criticism of the illegal settlements with the crude racism and essential child abuse implicit in the Farfur show. Someone will say, "The Israeli settlements are criminal," and someone will reply, "Ah, you know who else said that? Farfur the Violently Racist Mouse."

Nor do I think that such an obsene show would be possible, or even imagined, without the decades of oppression as a backdrop. This is one small aspect of a vast and complex situation, and my only point in suggesting that bulldozing houses does more for creating hatred than children's shows is that seeing this show and thinking, "Ah, Hamas, Palestinians, racist murderous lunatics, yes," is an oversimplification.

When I pointed out that we're relying on translators and that translations of the show have been mistaken in the past, I wasn't suggesting that all translations are mistaken. I was simply urging caution. All cats are mammals. Some cats are black. Therefore some mammals are black.

I'm not excusing the show. It's awful. I'm just suggesting that people remember the complexity of the context in which such a show can arise.

I can only assume that you took my line about the Smurfs to suggest that the show wasn't anti-Semitic. That's understandable. I was actually making a reference to the theory that Gargamel is a blatant Jewish stereotype - who wants to turn the lovely Smurfs into gold via Kabbalistic magic, with a cat named after the Judaic angel of death. I was saying that it is anti-Semitic. I'll try to be clearer in order to avoid such tirades in future.

And also, Jesus, dude. You know me better than that, surely.