An article in The Guardian states that the Israel/Hamas war has been the deadliest conflict on record for journalists. Despots the world over always target journalists because there are certain things they don’t want the public to know.

The  murder of American-Saudi Jamal Khashoggi by the leader of Saudi Arabia is not an isolated incident. The murder of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh last year by an IDF sniper is another sad example. The reader is encouraged to look up the Wikipedia article on Shireen for a chilling account of how the propaganda and killing machine operates. Denial is their favorite weapon.

A free press and freedom to demonstrate against tyranny are the only weapons freedom-loving people have to defend their freedoms and know what their governments are doing in their name. The First Amendment is far more important to defending democratic freedoms than the Second Amendment.

Walter Saenger

Temple