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US, Netanyahu hand-pick Israeli journalists for Bahrain conference

The State Department authorized only six Israeli outlets to cover the Bahrain conference, picking mostly journalists likely to write positively or journalists who aren't too critical of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
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“If they understand how to make peace the way they understand the media, there will be no peace,” said a disappointed senior Israeli journalist on condition of anonymity, who like his colleagues failed to pass the “selection” by the US State Department and was not invited to cover the June 25 conference in Bahrain.

Up to the last minute, only a few Israeli journalists were invited to the opening conference for the presentation of the US administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. In fact, several days prior to the event, Israeli journalists were surprised to learn that some of them would not be allowed to cover the conference. After waging numerous battles against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over freedom and independence of the media — which he constantly belittles as “leftist” and “Bolshevik” — top Israeli journalists found out that America under Donald Trump is no longer the cradle of democracy.

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