The pro-Israel community was hit with a particularly uncomfortable headline last week. After months of denying claims by a Swedish journalist that Israel without permission harvested the organs from Palestinians killed in the 2008-2009 Gaza War, the London Guardian declared “Doctor admits Israeli pathologists harvested organs without consent.” Indeed, the newspaper quoted the widely respected former head of the Abu Kabir forensic Institute near Tel Aviv. He confirmed that during the 1990s staff at his operation harvested organs from the bodies of Israeli soldiers, citizens, Palestinians and foreign workers – without the permission of the deceased’s families.

Let me be clear: There was no excuse for this action, which reportedly was halted more than a decade ago. In fact, the Government of Israel should look into compensation for the families affected. For Israel and the Jewish people to be strong, there is no need to be apologetic.

Making the story so stinging was that it came on the heels of several controversial articles that ran in Sweden’s left-leaning Aftonbladet newspaper in August. In unsubstantiated claims widely picked up by other media outlets, a journalist for that newspaper wrote that Israel Defense Forces were kidnapping young Palestinian men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, only to have their bodies returned to families with missing organs.

Gaining much less attention is that the Swedish journalist who penned the work, Donald Bostrom, is now reconsidering. Why? Because he went to Israel and gained information that is making him doubt his original Palestinian sources. That, by the way, is a strong endorsement for not going nuts at everyone who makes a comment the pro-Israel crowd doesn’t like. Rather, engage them with decency and then see what happens.

However, there is yet another important postscript that the detractors of the Jewish state should hear: A few days later the Guardian issued a correction noting that the context of the story should not have been seen as part of the articles from Sweden. In addition, we note that the reality of Israelis being willingly to openly discuss the issue, let alone criticize their own government, is a far cry from what takes place in the Arab countries whose media so gladly reprinted the piece.

Sadly, there is no doubt that these stories – sans the corrections – are now part of the anti-Israel lore that has gained such steam on the European continent and in the Muslim world in recent years.