THE JEWISH FACE OF "AL JAZEERA ENGLISH"

Al Jazeera broadcasts right here in the United States, 24/7, with Dave Marash as the Washington-based anchor. From the November 15, 2006 Washington Post's "Al Jazeera's U.S. Face":

...In February, [Dave] Marash, a lifelong broadcast newsman, became the Washington-based anchor of Al Jazeera English (AJE), the English-language spinoff of the Arabic TV news network. When AJE begins its first globe-spanning broadcast today, Marash will be its most prominent American face. Embedded in "why," however, are two other questions: How can an American work for an operation affiliated with al-Jazeera, which achieved notoriety -- and to some, infamy -- by airing video communiques from Osama bin Laden, images of dead American soldiers and routine denunciations of the United States? Moreover, how could Marash, who is Jewish, work for an organization that has provided a platform for Holocaust denial and hate speech against Israel, Zionism and Judaism?

But Marash -- affable, burly and possessed of gloriously resonant voice -- seems almost delighted to be on the defensive. His short, glib answer: He was out of a job. AJE came calling shortly after Marash was let go by ABC News almost a year ago. Marash, 64, had spent a decade and a half as a globe-trotting reporter for "Nightline" and as a sometime substitute host for Ted Koppel (before that, Marash was an anchor at Washington's Channel 4)....

Marash says...that al-Jazeera is little understood, and frequently misunderstood, in the West.... Al-Jazeera, he says, "has consistently offered a window of opportunity for Israel and Israeli citizens to speak to the Arab world. There is no contradiction between Judaism and al-Jazeera. As a Jew, I have always wished for and worked toward peace and civility in the Palestinian territories and Israel."...

Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media has a different take and points out the following:

Al-Jazeera journalist Tayseer Allouni last year was convicted in Spain of collaborating with al-Qaeda; and al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj was arrested by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2001 and has been held at Guantanamo Bay. (Al-Jazeera says the two men are innocent.)

"We haven't seen any evidence that tells us that [AJE] will be significantly different than al-Jazeera in Arabic," Kincaid says. "It's sponsored by the same people, paid for by the same people and has the same editorial philosophy."

Kincaid all but says Marash is a dupe: "The emir has plenty of Arab oil dollars to buy anyone he wants. They need Western media faces to give them credibility."