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CNN Equates IDF With Dishonest Terror Group
IDF soldiers traveling in a military vehicle along the Israel-Gaza border. Photo: Reuters/Amir Cohen
Social media has been buzzing with rumors about journalist and former Hamas Labor Ministry Spokesperson Abdallah Aljamal’s role in holding three of the since-rescued hostages — Almog Meir-Jan, Shlomi Ziv, and Andrey Kozlov — in his family’s apartment in Gaza.
Sure enough, several media outlets have spun this story to fit their narrative — including CNN. It published a piece last week titled “Israel Alleges Journalist Held Hostages in Gaza, Without Providing Evidence.”
Yet when compared to how CNN covers Gaza’s side of the story, the contrast is night and day.
If you look really closely, you’ll notice a difference in how CNN treats claims from Israel and from Hamas.
Can you spot it? pic.twitter.com/wlwXrb919c
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) June 10, 2024
The article suggests that Israel makes claims with zero accountability: “Three hostages rescued during a deadly Israeli military operation on the Nuseirat camp,” it writes, “were held captive by a journalist …” saying that the IDF “alleged” this information, “without providing evidence to support their claim.”
In the case of Israel, a military must provide “evidence” of its intelligence to the public, whereas the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry does not have to provide evidence of their numbers or how their civilians were killed.
Perhaps this discrepancy is driven by the fact that Aljamal was a journalist, or by the fact that he was Palestinian, or maybe it is because the IDF is involved. It could be all three.
However, calling CNN’s work unbiased journalism is incorrect. If the IDF has intelligence about where hostages are located, one could only assume that intelligence would indicate who is holding the hostages.
As it turns out, Aljamal was a past contributor for Al Jazeera, and regularly wrote for the Palestine Chronicle – a US-registered non-profit organization based in Washington State — which has links with both Hamas and the Islamic regime of Iran, according to an investigation done by the Washington Free Beacon.
According to the Palestine Chronicle, Aljamal’s articles were consistently about the Gaza humanitarian situation. Meanwhile, he had been holding Israeli civilian hostages for months in his family home, and barely feeding them.
WILD: Was a journalist working for the US-based 501(c)(3) organization, The Palestine Chronicle, helping hold Israelis hostage in Gaza? pic.twitter.com/UhZLjsgYf6
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 9, 2024
The Palestine Chronicle acknowledged Aljamal on its website as a regular “contributor,” unlike Al Jazeera, which all but denied any connection to him. However, as can be seen below, there still may have been a diminishing of his role at the paper.
Abdullah Al-Jamal was not a “freelance contributor” for the Palestine Chronicle. As the outlet itself has repeatedly stated, he was in fact its “correspondent in Gaza.”
They clearly changed the bio to try and avoid legal repercussions pic.twitter.com/i6cu22ZXTE
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) June 10, 2024
Regardless of Aljamal’s journalistic career, the IDF gathered intelligence proving that he was holding Israeli hostages in his home. Does that mean he is untouchable? It is also impossible to ignore the fact that he was linked to Hamas, since he was the former spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza Labor Ministry. Whatever their “evidence” may be, the IDF hasn’t shared it. But must they?
If a military, any military, gathers intelligence and carries out an operation based on that intelligence, it is completely legitimate — especially at first — to keep evidence of such intelligence under wraps. This is certainly true for sensitive intelligence such as this. There are still approximately 120 hostages, alive and dead, being held captive by terrorists in the Gaza Strip. If the IDF wishes to conduct more rescue operations, it must be assumed that keeping intelligence secret is necessary.
CNN can maintain that the IDF needs to provide “evidence” to “claims” about secret intelligence. But they are wrong to equate the IDF with a dishonest, savage terror organization, and to portray Hamas as righteous freedom-fighting saints.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post CNN Equates IDF With Dishonest Terror Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations
Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) was a Polish-Jewish artist whose work reflected the historic times he lived: the two world wars, the rise of totalitarianism in Europe and the birth of the State of Israel. In 1940, with the support of the British government and the Polish government-in-exile, he visited Canada to popularize the struggle against Nazism. […]
The post Treasure Trove: How a Polish-Jewish artist told Canadians about the horrors of Nazi Germany and produced beautiful illustrations appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S., June 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz/File Photo
President Joe Biden embarks on a series of fundraising events across two states on Saturday as he works to stamp out a crisis of confidence in his re-election campaign following a feeble debate performance that dismayed his fellow Democrats.
Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will visit the upscale New York beach enclave known as the Hamptons for a campaign fundraiser hosted by hedge-fund billionaire Barry Rosentein. Later in the day, he will travel to New Jersey for a fundraiser hosted by wealthy New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat.
Fellow hedge-fund founder Eric Mindich and his Tony Award-winning producer wife Stacey, celebrity couple Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, and actor Michael J. Fox are all listed as members of the host committee at the New York event, according to an invitation seen by Reuters.
Biden told a rally in North Carolina on Friday he intended to defeat Republican rival Donald Trump in the November presidential election, giving no sign he would heed calls from Democrats who want him to drop out of the race.
Biden‘s verbal stumbles and occasionally meandering responses during Thursday night’s debate heightened voter concerns that the 81-year-old might not be fit to serve another four-year term.
The Biden campaign on Saturday boasted it had raised more than $27 million between debate day through Friday evening, but questions remain about whether the debate performance will hurt fundraising, at least in the short term.
The post Biden hits Fundraising Trail in Show of Strength after Dismal Debate Performance first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group
Mourners carry a coffin during the funeral of Wissam Tawil, a commander of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan forces who according to Lebanese security sources was killed during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon, in Khirbet Selm, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
i24 News – The Arab League no longer defines Hezbollah as a proscribed terrorist group, an official said on Saturday.
Hezbollah, a Lebanon-based Shiite militia and a proxy of the Islamic regime in Iran, boasts the world’s largest rocket arsenal of any non-state actor. It is animated by the antisemitic ideology of jihad and is committed to the destruction of Israel.
“In earlier Arab League decisions, Hezbollah was designated as a terrorist organization, and this designation was reflected in the resolutions,” Hossam Zaki, the assistant secretary-general of the Arab League, was quoted in Arab media as saying.
“The League’s member states concurred that the labeling of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization should no longer be employed,” Zaki said, adding that the regional body “does not maintain terrorist lists and does not actively seek to designate entities in such a manner.”
Hezbollah has unleashed numerous rockets, mortars and drones on northern Israel in the past eight months starting on October 8, a day after the Jewish state suffered the worst antisemitic massacre since the Holocaust at the hands of the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas.
The post Arab League Rescinds the Classification of Hezbollah as a Terrorist Group first appeared on Algemeiner.com.