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Terrorists Aren’t Journalists
Israeli soldiers fire mortar shells, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near Israel’s border with Gaza in southern Israel, Jan. 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
The headlines blare: More than 70 journalists have been killed in the Israel-Gaza war. But those headlines are misleading, and used to demonize Israel.
As of January 5, 2024, according to information published by the Committee to Protect Journalists, 24 of those 70 Palestinians who died were affiliated with Hamas media outlets, two were affiliated with Hezbollah, and one with Palestinian Islamic Jihad. All of these groups are designated terrorist entities by the United States. While these individuals were likely not combatants, they would, nevertheless, seem to be supporting nefarious propagandist activity, not engaging in legitimate journalism.
Facts matter, and saying that 70 journalists are dead, without specifying that so many are affiliated with terror groups, or that others are Israeli journalists, completely distorts the story.
For example, the Committee to Protect Journalists casualty list includes more than 10 people affiliated with Al-Aqsa TV. In March of 2010, under US President Barack Obama, Al-Aqsa TV was designated “a television station financed and controlled by Hamas.” According to the US government, it is “a primary Hamas media outlet and airs programs and music videos designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood.”
The Treasury Department at the time further stated that it “will not distinguish between a business financed and controlled by a terrorist group, such as Al-Aqsa Television, and the terrorist group itself.”
The conflated deaths of Hamas propagandists with journalists is an attempt to assail Israel. The bias can be seen in a November 9 public letter signed by hundreds of editorialists and reporters, demanding “an explicit commitment from Israel to end the violence against journalists and other civilians.”
This letter jettisons any pretense of objectively, and reveals a clear anti-Israel antipathy, accusing the Jewish state of genocide, and the intentional targeting of journalists.
“We have not seen any evidence that Israel is intentionally targeting journalists” said US Department of State Spokesperson Mathew Miller on December 18; but the November 9 letter seemed to have attracted more attention than either his denial or the absence of factual support for the accusation.
Moreover, the letter from the press community rejects the casus belli for the Gaza invasion — the terrorist mutilation and massacre committed against civilians by Hamas on October 7. Hamas’ suicidal stranglehold of Gaza civilians and holding of Israeli hostages is also ignored.
Given this obvious tendentiousness, it is easy to see why reporters consider Hamas propagandists as benign or innocent victims in the Gaza war.
By contrast, in the United States war against Al-Qaeda, there was no mainstream, editorial sentiment that Adam Gadahn, the American who traveled to the Afghanistan/Pakistan region in order to serve Osama bin Laden, was an innocent, unintended fatality, when killed by a US drone attack.
Gadahn was labeled, even by the mainstream press, as a terrorist and a “Propagandist for Al Qaeda Who Sold Terror in English.” As a spokesperson for an infamous terror group, Gadahn was seemingly considered an appropriate target for elimination. His killing at the time was largely unquestioned by the United States press corp.
To be clear, there are legitimate journalists, of multiple nationalities and partisan interests, who have been unintentionally killed in Israel’s war of defense in Gaza. These deaths are all tragic. Journalism is a noble endeavor that serves the common good. Naturally, even anti-Western partisan journalists should be protected in battle, and their unintentional deaths mourned.
But those on the payroll of organizations designed to promote and defend the actions of terrorists should not be considered in the same class as journalists. They do not objectively or even subjectively report news. Their only evil, criminal purpose is to abet the machinery of mass murder and terror. To mourn the deaths of these terror propagandists is another example of media hypocrisy and glaring bias.
Barry Ziman is a novelist and government relations professional living in Virginia.
The post Terrorists Aren’t Journalists first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: IDF Probes Whether Houthis Used Iranian Cluster Bomb-Bearing Missile

Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – The Israeli military said Saturday it launched a probe into the failure of its defenses to fully intercept a missile launched by Yemen’s Houthi jihadists, parts of which struck not far from the Ben Gurion airport on Friday night.
According to the Ynet website, one of the hypotheses being examined is that the projectile contained cluster munitions, similar to those used by Iran to fire at Israeli cities during the 12-day war in June. Cluster munitions pose a challenge to interceptors as they disperse smaller explosives over a wide area.
In June, Iran fired several missiles carrying scattered small bombs with the aim of increasing civilian casualties.
The IDF said on Saturday that its initial review suggests the ballistic missile from Yemen likely fragmented in mid-air. Five interceptors from various systems engaged with the missile, including THAAD, Arrow, David Sling & Iron Dome.
Authorities said that shrapnel impacted a house in the central Israeli moshav of Ginaton, yet no one was hurt, with the fragment landing in the house’s backyard.
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Iran Forces Kill Six Militants, IRNA Reports, Israel Link Seen

The Iranian flag is seen flying over a street in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 3, 2023. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iranian security forces shot dead six militants in a clash in southeastern Iran on Saturday, a day after armed rebels killed five police officers in the restive region, the official news agency IRNA reported.
IRNA said evidence showed the group was linked to Israel and may have been trained by Israel‘s Mossad spy agency. There was no immediate Israeli reaction to the allegation.
Another two members of the militant group were arrested, the report said. All but one of the militants were foreign, it added, without giving their nationality.
Iranian police said this month they had arrested as many as 21,000 suspects during the 12-day war with Israel in June.
Iran’s southeast has been the scene of sporadic clashes between security forces and armed groups, including Sunni militants and separatists who say they are fighting for greater rights and autonomy.
Tehran says some of them have ties to foreign powers and are involved in cross-border smuggling and insurgency.
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Benny Gantz Urges Time-Limited National Unity Government to Further Chances of Hostage Deal

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz attends his party’s meeting at the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, June 27, 2022. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Blue and White Party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition politicians to form a temporary national unity government to further the chances of bringing home the hostages held in Gaza.
Addressing Netanyahu, Yair Lapid and Avigdor Liberman, Gantz said that the proposed government’s two supreme priorities would be the release of Israeli hostages held by the jihadists of Hamas and instituting universal conscription in Israel by ending the exemption from military service enjoyed by the ultra-Orthodox.
Upon attainment of the goals, the government would dissolve and call an election.
“The government’s term will begin with a hostage deal that brings everyone home,” Gantz said in a video address. “Within weeks, we will formulate an enlistment outline that would see our ultra-Orthodox brethren drafted to the military and ease the burden on those already serving. Finally, we will announce an agreed-upon election date in the spring of 2026 and pass a law to dissolve the Knesset [Israeli parliament] accordingly. This is what’s right for Israel.”