Louis Keene in Haaretz: ‘Since Egypt's dramatic World Cup exit on Tuesday, French referee Francois Letexier has become the target of intense scrutiny around the globe.
Argentina came back from a 2-0 deficit to win after Letexier controversially disallowed an Egyptian second-half goal.
One of Egypt's players said afterward that the outcome had been "rigged." At his weekly press conference, New York Mayor (and noted soccer fan) Zohran Mamdani said Egypt had been "robbed." And with an assist from Wikipedia and X's Grok AI, a legion of online critics thought they had figured out why: Letaxier, they believed, was Jewish.’

And: ‘The referee's fabricated Jewish identity stayed on the [Wikipedia]-page for nearly eight hours before it was removed, enabling the claim to spread widely.’

The robber must have an identity; the identity must be an explanation. Chaos and coincidence are unlivable. God or the Jews must explain the inexplicable.

(a sf 2178)