September 30, 2000, saw the creation and spread of the 21st century's first blood libel, a literally deadly hoax to which thousands of subsequent murders can be directly traced.

Orchestrated and perpetuated by French media determined to paint Israel as a barbaric nation of child killers, the Mohammad al-Dura affair made a celebrated hero out of a slanderous reporter, created "truth" out of pure fiction, and caused one media analyst to undertake an ongoing quest to set the record straight against the entirety of the French political, media, and legal establishment.

The now infamous al-Dura hoax, revolving around a France 2 videotape that purported to show Israeli troops killing a frightened Gaza boy trapped in the middle of firefight, circled the world in moments. The international outrage and condemnation of Israel fueled a genocidal anti-Jewish propaganda machine, which manufactured the pretexts for murdering thousands of Israelis and even beheading Daniel Pearl.

The incident, we now know, was staged for the cameras...