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Gaza-Based CBS News Producer Questioned Whether Jews Are ‘Human,’ Called Israelis ‘Zionist Nazi Murderers’

CBS News producer Marwan Al-Ghoul. Photo: Screenshot

A Gaza-based producer for CBS News praised by higher-ups for his “resolve” has a history of denigrating Israel on social media, calling into question the publication’s potential bias against the Jewish state amid uproar over recent treatment of Jewish anchor Tony Dokoupil. 

According to social media posts unearthed by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting & Analysis (CAMERA), Marwan Al-Ghoul has “liked” various comments on social media that refer to Jews as “Nazis” and “murderers.” He has also penned lengthy screeds on social media which gush about the potential “demise” of the United States and Europe. 

In 2022, Al-Ghoul “liked” a Facebook comment claiming Israeli Jews “are Nazi Zionist murderers whose crimes are silenced, covered for by the US and international complicity. The date of holding them accountable will reach them one day and our children do not forget.”

That same year, the CBS News producer “liked” a Facebook comment about Israeli Jews that read, “By no means do they count as human, these are monsters in a human body.”

In 2017, as Hamas fired rockets at Israel in response to the US recognizing Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, Al-Ghoul wrote that Gaza’s civilians should join the “permanent resistance” against the Jewish state. 

In 2018, he wrote that “there is no doubt that the United States of America is the greatest empire in the world and because Israel is its offspring and industry, it will not be able to breathe even one day if the American empire is gone. And because it is the year of God in his creation, America and Israel are about to go down, but when?”

In May 2022, Al-Ghoul openly questioned, “Are the Jews human like us?”

CBS has recently received criticism over its treatment of Jewish anchor Tony Dokoupil, arguing that his tough on-air questions directed at Ta-Nehisi Coates regarding his new book, The Message, were biased and did not meet “editorial standards.” Dokoupil directly challenged Coates’s assertions that the Jewish state was practicing “apartheid” against Palestinians and claimed the writer excluded important context about Israel’s security concerns. 

Dokoupil’s pointed questioning of Coates drew outrage from CBS News staffers and the broader media landscape. Staffers demanded that the CBS brass punish Dokoupil for his supposedly “biased” line of questioning against Coates. Dokoupil was subsequently dragged into a meeting with the outlet’s “Race and Culture Unit” in which he was criticized for his tone, phrasing, and body language. 

With a brighter spotlight now on CBS over its coverage of Israel, Al-Ghoul’s previous social media commentary may call into question the accuracy and fairness of his work. Many journalists from the Palestinian territories have previously exhibited a consistent anti-Israel bias in their reporting, even parroting narratives from the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

According to a Jewish Insider report from earlier this year, one-third of the Palestinian journalists listed by the Committee to Protect Journalists as being killed in the war in Gaza were connected to terrorist groups. There is no evidence that Al-Ghoul has any such connection.

The post Gaza-Based CBS News Producer Questioned Whether Jews Are ‘Human,’ Called Israelis ‘Zionist Nazi Murderers’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really?

 

JNS.orgIf I asked you to name the most famous line in the Bible, what would you answer? While Shema Yisrael (“Hear O’Israel”) might get many votes, I imagine that the winning line would be “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). Some religions refer to it as the Golden Rule, but all would agree that it is fundamental to any moral lifestyle. And it appears this week in our Torah reading, Kedoshim.

This is quite a tall order. Can we be expected to love other people as much as we love ourselves? Surely, this is an idealistic expectation. And yet, the Creator knows us better than we know ourselves. How can His Torah be so unrealistic?

The biblical commentaries offer a variety of explanations. Some, like Rambam (Maimonides), say that the focus should be on our behavior, rather than our feelings. We are expected to try our best or to treat others “as if” we genuinely love them.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, in his classic text called the Tanya, argues that the actual feelings of love are, in fact, achievable provided that we focus on a person’s spirituality rather than how they present themselves physically. If we can put the soul over the body, we can do it.

Allow me to share the interpretation of the Ramban (Nachmanides), a 13th-century Torah scholar from Spain. His interpretation of the verses preceding love thy neighbor is classic and powerful, yet simple and straightforward.

“Do not hate your brother in your heart. You shall rebuke him, but do not bear a sin because of him” by embarrassing him in public. “Do not take revenge, and do not bear a grudge against your people. You shall love your fellow as yourself, I am God” (Leviticus 19:17-18).

What is the connection between these verses? Why is revenge and grudge-bearing in the same paragraph as love your fellow as yourself?

A careful reading shows that within these two verses are no less than six biblical commandments. But what is their sequence all about, and what is the connection between them?

The Ramban explains it beautifully, showing how the sequence of verses is deliberate and highlighting the Torah’s profound yet practical advice on how to maintain healthy relationships.

Someone wronged you? Don’t hate him in your heart. Speak to him. Don’t let it fester until it bursts, and makes you bitter and sick.

Instead, talk it out. Confront the person. Of course, do it respectfully. Don’t embarrass anyone in public, so that you don’t bear a sin because of them. But don’t let your hurt eat you up. Communicate!

If you approach the person who wronged you—not with hate in your heart but with respectful reproof—one of two things will happen. Either he or she will apologize and explain their perspective on the matter. Or that it was a misunderstanding and will get sorted out between you. Either way, you will feel happier and healthier.

Then you will not feel the need to take revenge or even to bear a grudge.

Here, says the Ramban, is the connection between these two verses. And if you follow this advice, only then will you be able to observe the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor. If you never tell him why you are upset, another may be completely unaware of his or her wrongdoing, and it will remain as a wound inside you and may never go away.

To sum up: Honest communication is the key to loving people.

Now, tell me the truth. Did you know that not taking revenge is a biblical commandment? In some cultures in Africa, revenge is a mitzvah! I’ve heard radio talk-show hosts invite listeners to share how they took “sweet revenge” on someone, as if it’s some kind of accomplishment.

Furthermore, did you know that bearing a grudge is forbidden by biblical law?

Here in South Africa, people refer to a grudge by its Yiddish name, a faribel. In other countries, people call it a broiges. Whatever the terminology, the Torah states explicitly: “Thou shalt not bear a grudge!” Do not keep a faribel, a broiges or resentment of any kind toward someone you believe wronged you. Talk to that person. Share your feelings honestly. If you do it respectfully and do not demean the other’s dignity, then it can be resolved. Only then will you be able to love your fellow as yourself.

May all our grudges and feelings of resentment toward others be dealt with honestly and respectfully. May all our grudges be resolved as soon as possible. Then we will all be in a much better position to love our neighbors as ourselves.

The post Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

i24 NewsUS Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday dismissed as nonsensical the report that President Donald Trump would endorse Palestinian statehood during his tour to the Persian Gulf this week.

“This report is nonsense,” Huckabee harrumphed on his X account, blasting the Jerusalem Post as needing better sourced reporting. “Israel doesn’t have a better friend than the president of the United States.”

Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The leader’s first trip overseas since he took office comes as Trump seeks the Gulf countries’ support in regional conflicts, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and curbing Iran’s advancing nuclear program.

However, reports citing administration insiders claimed that Trump has also set his sights on the ambitious goal of expanding the Abraham Accords. These agreements, initially signed in 2020, normalized relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The accords are widely held to be among the most important achievements of the first Trump administration.

The post ‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks

US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria

i24 NewsUnless significant progress is registered in Sunday’s round of nuclear talks with Iran, the US will consider putting the military option back on the table, sources close to US envoy Steve Witkoff told i24NEWS.

American and Iranian representatives voiced optimism after the previous talks that took place in Oman and Rome, saying there was a friendly atmosphere despite the two countries’ decades of enmity.

However the two sides are not believed to have thrashed out the all-important technical details, and basic questions remain.

The source has also underscored the significance of the administration’s choice of Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director, as the lead representative in the nuclear talks’ technical phases.

Anton is “an Iran expert and someone who knows how to cut a deal with Iran,” the source said, saying that the choice reflected Trump’s desire to secure the deal.

The post US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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