“Punishing” al Jazeera

Dion Nissenbaum’s in high dudgeon because Israel is “punishing” Al Jazeera.

How’s that?

The Israeli government stopped helping Al Jazeera after the station aired a birthday celebration for Samir Kuntar, the Lebanese killer freed last month in a prisoner exchange with Hezbollah.

Danny Seaman, the head of Israel’s government press office, called the celebration “unfathomable” and said he would stop helping the station by providing press cards and work visas for its reporters.

Nissenbaum admits that Al Jazeera “apologized” for the celebration, but he doesn’t seem quite clear what Al Jazeera is. At the end of his post Nissenbaum quotes Danny Seaman with the definitive reason for Israel’s refusal to continue enabling Al Jazeera.

“This is a fundamental question as to where Al Jazeera stands,” Seaman told Reuters. “Does it stand with the extremists or is it a professional organization?”

Time and again it has demonstrated that it’s a propaganda organization. Did it escape Nissenbaum’s notice that David Marash quit as Al Jazeera’s anchor a few mohts ago? Or perhaps the classy way it’s going about recruiting conservative commentators?

Nissenbaum shouldn’t be standing up for Al Jazeera, or is it that he shares its worldview and is scared that the Israel government may stop abetting him from spreading propaganda. I don’t know what was filthier, Al Jazeera’s birthday party for Samir Kuntar, or Nissenbaum’s celebration of Kuntar’s release. Al Jazeera, of course, is a propaganda organization, Nissenbaum is supposedly a journalist. Though his treatment of Kuntar and his sympathy for Al Jazeera, makes me wonder.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.