Al Jazeera and the Rabbi

The Jerusalem Post reports :

"Walid Omary, the Al Jazeera television bureau chief in Jerusalem, conducted an interview with Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger that was broadcast tens of times across the Arab world last week. In it, Metzger called on Jews not to harm sites holy to Muslims, specifically mentioning Jerusalem's Al-Aksa mosque. At the same time, he called on Moslems and Christians around the world to respect Jewish holy sites, such as synagogues and burial grounds, as well.... The journalist found it especially significant that Metzger could give his message direct from his Jerusalem office, and not through any intermediary. This was not the first time that a Jewish religious figure was interviewed on the Al Jazeera cable network, said Omary, but it was the first time that an Israeli chief rabbi was. Asked why he had not interviewed Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Arabic-speaking Moroccan-born Sephardi chief rabbi, Omary expressed a wish to do so. "I'd especially like to interview Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (the spiritual mentor of the Shas party)," Omary added."

Wow - a direct, uncensored, relatively sympathetic interview with Israel's chief Rabbi on al Jazeera? I know this doesn't fit the dominant narrative of al Jazeera as a baleful, biased force for anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, but what the heck - who needs facts? Let's just ignore them so we can get back to blaming al Jazeera for incitement and trying to shut it down, okay?

Comments

[Jonathan Edelstein]

"This was not the first time that a Jewish religious figure was interviewed on the Al Jazeera cable network, said Omary"

This wasn't the first al-Jazeera interview with an Israeli either. Previous Israeli appearances on al-Jazeera have involved politicians rather than religious leaders, but presenting Israeli points of view has never been taboo there.

In any event, this interview was important for more reasons than one. Given the threats currently being made against the Dome of the Rock by far-right extremists, it's good to let the Arab world know that the Israeli public and religious establishment doesn't support these threats.