On Wednesday, a shoot-out between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian guerrillas in the West Bank city of Jenin resulted in the death of the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Her employer, Al Jazeera—the anti-Semitic and anti-American network owned by Qatar, a major financial and diplomatic sponsor of Hamas—immediately declared that she was “assassinated” by the IDF, a claim echoed on the House floor by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. Israeli officials have released evidence suggesting that the bullet that killed Al Akleh came from a Palestinian rifle, while acknowledging that it is impossible to arrive at forensic certainty without further investigation. But the Palestinian Authority has rejected Jerusalem’s call for a joint investigation, and it refuses to hand over any of the evidence in its possession. Ron Ben-Yishai comments:

When a journalist heads out to an active warzone, especially in an urban area, the chances of getting caught in the crossfire unintentionally are high. Such cases require an investigation in which an autopsy is performed, as well as a ballistic probe to determine which weapon was fired at the journalist.

But the Palestinians and Al Jazeera don’t want the truth. The Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas, and the Ra’am Knesset member Walid Taha, wish to leverage her death, which was most likely unintentional, for political and propaganda purposes, and that is why they reject any offer for an objective investigation.

Even if such an investigation were to be launched, they will make sure to destroy any shred of evidence that might point to the probable scenario that the Palestinian militants who were firing wantonly were the ones who killed her.

The Palestinians rushed to declare the journalist a martyr because it serves the constant war of propaganda that Abbas and the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar lead against Israel. But the IDF’s version is correct: the Palestinians and Al Jazeera’s assertions are grounded in nothing except deafening victimhood that is aimed at painting Israel and its security forces as the aggressor.

I believe that the journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was in Jenin because she wanted to report the facts as they were. We’re allowed to demand that Abbas, Al Jazeera, and Ra’am refrain from using her death to spread fake news until the facts are thoroughly examined.

With the IDF engaged in ground maneuvers in both northern and southern Gaza, and a plan about to go into effect next week that would separate more than 100,000 civilians from Hamas’s control, an end to the war may at last be in sight. Yet there seems to be no agreement within Israel, or without, about what should become of the territory. Efraim Inbar assesses the various proposals, from Donald Trump’s plan to remove the population entirely, to the Israeli far-right’s desire to settle the Strip with Jews, to the internationally supported proposal to place Gaza under the control of the Palestinian Authority (PA)—and exposes the fatal flaws of each. He therefore tries to reframe the problem:

[M]any Arab states have failed to establish a monopoly on the use of force within their borders. Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Sudan all suffer from civil wars or armed militias that do not obey the central government.

Perhaps Israel needs to get used to the idea that in the absence of an entity willing to take Gaza under its wing, chaos will prevail there. This is less terrible than people may think. Chaos would allow Israel to establish buffer zones along the Gaza border without interference. Any entity controlling Gaza would oppose such measures and would resist necessary Israeli measures to reduce terrorism. Chaos may also encourage emigration.

Israel is doomed to live with bad neighbors for the foreseeable future. There is no way to ensure zero terrorism. Israel should avoid adopting a policy of containment and should constantly “mow the grass” to minimize the chances of a major threat emerging across the border. Periodic conflicts may be necessary. If the Jews want a state in their homeland, they need to internalize that Israel will have to live by the sword for many more years.