11 August—The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed that it [sic—IDF is construed as singular] had essentially ordered the hit on an Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza City yesterday, claiming that the prominent and respected journalist who had been covering the carnage from inside the war zone was in fact a top Hamas operative. Four other Al Jazeera newsmen also were killed in the airstrike near the al-Shifa Hospital. Collateral damage, of course.

The IDF insisted—make that alleged without any evidence produced as yet—that the correspondent, Anas Al-Sharif, had been the “head of a terrorist cell in Hamas.” Frankly, that’s rather doubtful. Not impossible, mind you, but doubtful. The Committee to Protect Journalists called the hit a “targeted assassination” and “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom.” (Press freedom exists in Israel, but is subject to censorship for security reasons.)

Lest you think the CPJ is an antisemitic Muslim-Arab media support group, Walter Cronkite was the first honorary chairman of the New York-based 501(c)(3) when it was founded in 1981.

Certainly Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Gaza war hasn’t been particularly kind to Israel. Nor indeed has most media coverage of late. On the other hand, after Hamas’s 7 October attack, while questioning some Israeli claims, Al Jazeera didn’t hesitate to acknowledge Hamas abuses.

And Anas Al-Sharif’s reporting tended to focus on the human aspect—i.e., suffering (which is a concomitant of any war)—which Israel’s Netanyahu administration tried to negate by a smear campaign.

Premeditated attacks on press freedom and smear campaigns naturally bring to mind Donald Trump’s notoriously vindictive nature and complaisantly corrupt administration. But we’ll let that pass. For now.

Back in Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu talks about ending the Gaza war and achieving peace in the Holy Land. But it’s common knowledge that he needs a protracted war to keep from going to trial on a number of criminal charges. Not that he’d ever serve time after (as opposed to if) he’s convicted, to be sure, nor probably have to pay any meaningful fines. But unlike the U.S. Supreme Court to Donald Trump, the Supreme Court of Israel isn’t at all accommodating to Benjamin Netanyahu.

And there’ll never be peace in the Holy Land anyway—as long as there’s a State of Israel.

As for Al Jazeera, it’s a pretty good news source. It’s largely funded by the government of Qatar, the selfsame people who recently gave the 747 to Trump. But its coverage of that bribe was more objective than most American media offered . . .