This is tragic. A prominent Palestinian-American journalist is killed by an Israeli soldier, the Israeli government refuses to take any responsibility in the case, the U.S. president announces he is visiting Israel… and our leading public television host gets an interview with the secretary of state and never mentions the case.
No, PBS host Judy Woodruff grilled Secretary of State Antony Blinken on June 14 about why Biden is visiting Saudi Arabia and giving the Saudi prince a pass on the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
But she never brought up Israel, Biden’s next stop in the Middle East, let alone brought up the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh on May 11. An American journalist, let me repeat.
Woodruff is rightly aggressive on the Khashoggi case. She said Biden’s trip includes —
a stop in Saudi Arabia and a meeting with the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who U.S. intelligence, as you know, has said had a role, masterminded the murder and the dismemberment of Washington Post journalist and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi.
The president had called the crown prince a pariah, and said that any meeting would be antithetical to what America stands for. He’s now done a 180. How is this not a triumph of oil and energy over values and human rights?
Well, in this meeting, will the president confront the crown prince on the Khashoggi murder? And, if not, why not?
I’m saving you from Blinken’s mealy answers.
But he deserves the same hot seat on Washington’s coddling of Israel in the wake of its killing Abu Akleh, a broadcast reporter for Al Jazeera, just a month ago. Nothing.
And I thought from the CNN investigation of Abu Akleh’s killing, and the Washington Post investigation, that journalists were keeping up the pressure on the Biden administration to demand accountability.
Let’s be clear that Israel knows right now exactly who killed Abu Akleh and how the killing came to pass, but it is withholding this information from the press, and the U.S. press is being passive. The New York Times ran a disgraceful editorial titled, “Who Killed Shireen Abu Akleh?” when everyone knows the answer, and its reporters could be pressuring Israel for the actual information every day.
Judy Woodruff is just enabling Israeli obfuscation.
She’s a superb journalist. I sense she’s afraid of the whole topic, Israel. She repeatedly mentioned Iran, and the destruction of the Iran deal, without any reference to Israel’s successful effort to demolish the deal, via Donald Trump.
And as for the Saudi trip, Woodruff can’t bring up Biden’s other motivation, besides oil prices: to effect diplomacy between Israel and the Saudis, to further the so-called Abraham Accords, which grant Arab monarchies access to Washington, and other plums, in exchange for normalizing relations with Israel.
Also abetting Israel’s effort to bury the Abu Akleh killing is the awful editorial on the matter in the Washington Post two days ago. Days after the Post’s own investigation showed that an Israeli soldier killed Abu Akleh, the editorial side decides to let up the pressure on Israel, commending Israel’s statements on the case, and condemning Israel’s critics and Palestinians.
None of those steps in the right direction gains Israel credit with the chorus of critics that rushed to condemn it. The whole incident could have been avoided but for a wave of West Bank-based Palestinian attacks that killed 19 Israelis, most of them civilians, in the six weeks before Ms. Abu Akleh’s death and to which Israel was responding. Wherever this event fits on the spectrum between error and offense, however, Israel must review it and take appropriate remedial action…
So the Washington Post is saying that Abu Akleh was killed because of Palestinian terror attacks!
And the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, is visiting the families of Israelis killed in terrorist attacks, but of course not Palestinians killed by state terrorism. At least Nides mentions Abu Akleh in passing in that interview, even as he puts faith in the Israeli investigation.
This whole discussion is a farce, and just what the Israel lobby wants from Washington. A pity Judy Woodruff accepts the terms.
h/t Dave Reed and James North.
It is very unfortunate that the Palestinians have been getting (cruelly) thrown under the bus from the US, every time there is an obvious crime committed by the occupying force, whether bombing of Gaza, or the killing of an American journalist, the US never fails to protect or sympathize with the occupying force who operates with a brutal military and American weapons. We have seen the State Department and the media very concerned about the American athlete jailed in Russia, (rightfully so), but the killing of an innocent journalist by Israel, is never mentioned, unless of course Blinken or a White House spokesperson is QUESTIONED about it. It is a matter that they rather not talk about, or condemn Israel for.
Why this sickening refusal to hold Israel responsible for any of its endless crimes, or human rights violations, is hard to understand, but it stinks.
Basically the mainstream press, or at least the editorial writers, don’t care about Palestinians in general. They don’t care about any of the people who die because of US policies. Khashoggi was an exception because he was part of their social circles.
Westerners just have to step back from the propaganda we are bombarded with constantly and recognize that human rights issues don’t really matter to Western governments or people like the Washington Post editorialists. They use the phrase a lot, but it is mainly just a propaganda tool to be wielded against our enemies. It has been that way for decades and there is no sign it will change.
it would actually be stunning and inconsistent with their usual stance if the NYT or Washington Post editorialists genuinely seemed to care about this murder, because they haven’t cared about hundreds of similar murders of ordinary Palestinians over the past several years.
Utterly appalling. This has been time-proven: the fouler, the more criminal, more sadistic Israel’s behavior, the stronger its lobby becomes. Utterly appalling.
Here might be another question: “Mr. Secretary: Amnesty International. Human Rights Watch. B’Tselem, Israel’s leading human rights organization. Even Harvard Law School has gotten into the act: all declare, no ifs, ands, or buts, Israel is a flat-out apartheid state. Please explain to Americans why Israel continues to enjoy the prominent role it does within the US government.”
Here’s another: “As a Jew, as a Zionist, Mr. Secretary: what do you see when you look at Israel today? Are you saddened? Outraged? Or proud?”
And no, Phil: “a superb journalist” she is not. She’s a gutless hack, like all the rest of them.
Zionists and supporters are violent criminals. They should be treated as such..
Blinken is a war criminal and sb treated as such.
I’m sure the FBI must be getting involved in the Shireen Abu Akleh case – here’s what they say:
“What Happens When An American is Harmed Overseas…”
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/stories/2008/june/international_060308
In this age of globalization, more Americans are traveling and working abroad, happily and safely. But Americans overseas are sometimes victimized by terrorism and other deadly crimes. When that happens, how much support can victims and their families expect from their government back home?
Plenty, as it turns out. When Americans are seriously harmed overseas, the appropriate U.S. government agencies quickly pull together a coordinated response to the incident. And the FBI often plays a critical role in that response, whether there’s one victim…or hundreds.