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By Guy Page
You probably won’t see much coverage about this story because Trump’s clean-up of D.C. will lead every news program for at least the next 24 hours, but on Sunday, August 10 Israel military targeted and killed a 27-year-old Al-Jazeera journalist in Gaza.
His name was Anas al-Sharif, and his colleagues in the mainstream press are rending their garments over the death of one journalist in particular and the free press in general. Israel does not dispute the deed. But – I am dismayed but not surprised – the world’s press won’t report why Israel killed this man and his team.
Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif and 4 team members killed in Israeli attack in Gaza, CBS curtly dismissed the Israeli reason for killing al-Sharif: “Israel took responsibility for the strike, claiming al-Shariff was a leader of a Hamas cell — an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Shariff had previously dismissed as baseless, The Associated Press reported.”
Ditto the NPR story, headlined “Israeli strike kills journalists in Gaza City, worsening the death toll for the media.” Literally reading off the same script (probably from the Associated Press) as CBS, NPR reported: Israel’s military later Sunday described al-Sharif as the leader of a Hamas cell — an allegation that Al Jazeera and al-Sharif had previously dismissed as baseless.”
The New York Times at least reported some detail about Israel’s claim that al-Sharif was a paid fighter for Hamas. But it failed to show the receipts, which were readily available from the Israeli military (see below). Fox News, which has no local affiliate but does have a big online and cable audience, also listed some details.
In fact, almost every other major news organization tossed off the Israeli rationale for killing al-Sharif with a one-liner like ABC’s “The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement that it targeted Sharif, claiming the correspondent headed a Hamas cell and was involved in rocket attacks against Israeli targets.”
The MSN headline added to the “no credible evidence” chorus that Al-Sharif worked for Hamas.
It is baffling that any major news organization could be so lazy or willfully blind to fail to produce evidence, readily published by the Israeli military. This version of a document on the Israeli Embassy Facebook page does not reproduce well, but the white highlights show Al-Sharif was in the pay of Hamas, and was even in a Hamas unit phone directory (bottom photo):
Or, this piece of objective, dispassionate news coverage?
So what does this have to do with Vermont?
First, like it or not, Vermont is a player in the future of Israel. Bernie Sanders has been leading the charge to defund the Israeli military. And within days of October 7 2023, Sanders, Sen. Peter Welch, and Rep. Becca Balint have more often than not sided with pro-Palestine POV.
Second, the news organizations listed above have a strong Vermont news presence. NPR has Vermont Public. CBS has WCAX. These local stations carry their national stories on air and on their websites. The NY Times has a regiment of Vermont subscribers who still consider the Gray Lady the Paper of Record.
Third, don’t be surprised if you see ‘Vermonters for Palestine’ demonstrators on Church Street, the UVM campus, or online parading their grief for al-Sharif and heaping condemnation on Israel. Their goal is to paint Oct. 7 attackers Hamas as the mostly-good guys and Oct. 7 victims Israel as the very, very bad guys. Misreported stories like this one are just one more opportunity to spread the socialist/Islamist coalition Global Intifada.
Is it possible Israel is doing some misreporting on its own? Sure, could be. No government at war is above spinning and outright lying. But here’s my takeaway for the Vermont news consumer: Caveat Emptor. When ‘your’ media says anything is ‘baseless,’ check it out.
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Categories: Media
Yah, and all the Palestinians in line trying to get food, they’re all Hamas too? Babies, children, all starving to death; they’re all also Hamas! BS! This is genocide no matter how you want to spin it! Paint them with the face of hatred and it makes it easier to kill! Disgusting! We have no shame!
Well yes Will, the ones shown in the media are, plus no MSM reports of Hamas withholding food from their own people to make a point by using force and threatening deadly force plus using schools as military headquarters and weapons storage facilities. . Remember Hamas did attack, with weapons, the personal delivering food and emergency supplies delivered in the ill fated ‘dock’ mission. Hamas just like American Democrats are all about Party and Messaging using the ‘ends justify the means’ philosophy
The Palestinian people have been colonized and occupied for over 75 years. An occupied people has the right under international law to resist. Israel does not have a right to defend its colonization and genocide of Palestinians. The history of this conflict has been distorted by the Zionists who control the US government. All Americans are complicit in this genocide because it could not happen without the weapons and other support supplied by our Zionist-controlled government. Wake up, America. We Americans are party to a genocide. The solution is one state of Judea with equal rights for all faiths. For America, we must end the Zionist occupation of our government. The history of this conflict is readily available to all those with the will to work for the humanity of all. I’m thinking seriously of cancelling my subscription to the Chronicle after reading this article which is so full of error and ignorance and lack of human feeling.
Does that “right” to occupy someone else’s land, Judia, include terrorizing civilians and taking ‘hostages’ for what is now 676 days from the October 7th massacres? There is no “Palestine”, the land was Judia (where the term Jew comes from, people of Judia) for thousands of years.
Mary, the freest Muslims are the ones currently in Israel. They have more rights there than in Muslim-dominated countries.
Thanks for clarifying. Now do the other 190+ journalists and media workers.
https://cpj.org/2023/10/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/
To Ron Wondering—you too are showing gross ignorance of the history of Palestine which did and does exist. Learn the history and then your comment might be worth reading.
Mary, Ditto, you are not going back far enough, you’re only going back into the 20th century no prior to the birth of Christ. The left is all for indigenous peoples except the Israelites, Palestinian classification was created by the US and European powers following WWII and are not indigenous.