Why was Syria’s president ever treated like a centrist dad?

There’s an old journalistic maxim: If it bleeds, it leads. But some crucial words are missing from the end: If we can hold the Jews responsible. It’s not by chance that most news organisations have more correspondents in Israel than in the rest of the Middle East put together. True, that’s partly because Israel – unlike its neighbours – is a democracy which allows dissenting voices, and is home to and welcomes a cacophony of both homegrown and foreign media voices. If you want to cover the Middle East, you’ll likely base yourself in Israel.

But it’s also because, well, Jews. Anyone who has seen coverage of the Gaza war over the past 16 months will have seen the venom – I’d call it glee – which is the foundation of so much reporting of what has been happening.