When governing becomes a private business

In every sense that matters, the would-be self-perpetuating political leaders of Israel have already lost the current war with Hamas. They have managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by outdoing Hamas in every despicable fashion. And now their brazen and unfettered self-indulgence is naked for all the world to see. At a time when negotiations for a ceasefire and the return of any surviving hostages might be making some viable progress, in large part courtesy of Qatar's intermediation, the Israeli Government has closed the Qatari news agency in Israel, Al Jazeera, branding it as a mouthpiece for Hamas. This was a unanimous Cabinet decision, and it may well be "the first time Israel has ever shuttered a foreign news outlet". (CBS news report)