The fact that thousands of Gazans—especially babies and children — are facing imminent death by starvation is suddenly dropped from the news. Here are some other facts:
The fact that 93% of Gaza’s children, the UN says 930,000 children are on the brink of starvation.
The fact that Israel has allowed only a handful of aid trucks into Gaza in the last 48 hours; despite thousands of aid trucks amassing at the Gaza border—all still denied entry by Israel. Israel has allowed no aid, no medicine, no food, no axes and picks to clear rubble to find loved ones, no water, no hospital supplies into Gaza for nearly three months.
The fact that a UN spokesman said the limited humanitarian aid “finally” entering Gaza is “nowhere near enough to meet the needs” of a starved population. He called it “ridiculously inadequate”.
The fact that Israel will not allow any distribution of the few truckloads of food admitted because Israel will not allow UN agencies to assist. Instead, Israel and the US have cooked up the idea of a new yet-to-be created agency (controlled by the US) to distribute food.
The fact that since dawn Wednesday morning, Israel has killed at least 82 people in Gaza, mainly women and children.
The fact that over the last week, the UN reports at least 629 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces. Israel killed 358 Gazans (half were women and children) as a result of air strikes that targeted houses and tents. Many more were injured or trapped under the rubble.
The fact that barely 24 hours ago, the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) fired shots toward foreign diplomats — including four Canadians— visiting Jenin refugee camp in the Occupied West Bank. In an “incident” eerily like the one three years ago, when an Israeli sniper shot Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh dead – Israel has made it impossible or too risky for the media or foreign diplomats to see what is really happening under Israel’s brutal occupation of the West Bank—as well as Gaza.
Now the Canadian media is chasing today’s story about the young Israeli couple who were shot to death just outside of a reception at a Jewish museum in Washington DC. A tragedy – yes. But what the last 19 months have shown is that the mainstream media are too easily distracted or led away from accurate or deep reporting on Gaza — the biggest human rights cause of our day– as was Vietnam 40 years ago. Since 2025, we’ve seen the media take baby steps, and sometimes strides in criticism of Israel, and demand a ceasefire.
Bricking over what’s happening in Gaza…
These efforts will be bricked over by the media’s coverage of the deaths of the Israeli couple on US soil. Clearly, from the alleged killer’s own words, he targeted the couple because they were Israeli officials, at least they worked at the Israeli embassy. In the alleged killer’s view, the couple were part of the genocide machine that has killed 55,000 Palestinians (The Lancet insists the real number is at least 41% higher).
Once again, the hot potato of questioning or sanctioning Israel will be dropped by Canada’s legacy and official media, powerful politicians and the business class. Now they will once again tilt the coverage from the horrors of Israel’s total destruction of a territory and the genocide of a people to a sympathetic portrayal of two embassy staffers, in love, who were not personally responsible for Israel’s war on Gaza.
IDF: “The Most Moral Army in the World”
How was the targeting and killing the young couple any different from the IDF killing more than 200 journalists, killing the writer and academic Refaat Alareer (author of the now famous poem “If I Must Die”) and 93 other academics, or shooting TV journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the brain or bulldozing Rachel Corrie under its treads?
The killing of the young couple is different because it was a single American man who (likely) did it; the tens of thousands of killings in Gaza were carried out by the IDF “the most moral army in the world,” under directions from Netanyahu and his government. And in many or most cases, the perpetrators dropped bombs from airplanes or shot shells from tanks or artillery and didn’t look the victims in eye. We call it terrorism and respond with shock when an attacker looks the victim(s) in the eye. But we call it something less than that and respond with milder discomfort when it’s not “up close.”
Photo at the Top: Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes during the funeral, at Al-Ahli Arab Baptist hospital, in Gaza City, 20 May 2025. (REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas)
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