It’s the type of absurdity that far too often passes for journalism in the Arab world.
Unable to stomach their humiliation at the hands of Argentina in the World Cup, Algerian television commentators conjured up a familiar villain: the Jews.
Football legend Lionel Messi dominated the game, effortlessly scoring three goals.
That was more than prominent Algerian journalist Mustapha al-Maazouzi could handle. There had to be an explanation other than that a 38-year-old man still had enough game to embarrass Algeria’s national team. Nefarious forces surely were at work.
In such scenarios, Arab and other Middle East media almost always looks to the Jews.
“Messi is protected by the Jewish lobby. This lobby controls the world. They run it however they want, as if they were a mafia,” declared al-Maazouzi.
Somehow, the Algerian commentator argued, the Jews had used the power at their disposal to prevent Algeria from achieving any success at the World Cup, through the person of Lionel Messi.
“They do not want things to go well for us. If we had the ability to win the World Cup, they would find a way to prevent us from doing so,” he insisted.
These modern day conspiracies and blood libels are commonplace in regional media. During Operation Rising Lion in 2025, top Iranian officials claimed that Israel was using Jewish sorcery to overcome Iran’s defenses. Egyptian media has reported that shark attacks in Sinai were the work of Israel’s Mossad, which had managed to train the aquatic killers to do their dirty work. In Gaza, Israel was accused of poisoning flour and digging cartoonish tiger pits to harm locals, claims that echoed by Western media.
See: Of magical Jews, tiger pits, and drug-laced flour
Algeria did not lose because of “the Jews.” It lost because Messi was better, Argentina was sharper, and conspiracy is easier than accountability. That is the real story here: not football, but a regional media culture so allergic to self-examination that even a World Cup hat trick must be laundered through antisemitic fantasy. When every failure is blamed on Jewish power, no lesson is learned, no institution improves, and no humiliation is ever truly processed.
Want more news from Israel?
Click Here to sign up for our FREE daily email updates
