If you want to know what's going on in Gaza, don't ask a reporter

Newsweek published an inane piece of self-congratulatory claptrap from James Rodgers, former BBC and Reuters reporter, pushing a forthcoming book about reporting from Gaza. The headline of the article is "If you want to know what's going on in Gaza, ask a reporter."

Covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was, and is, a huge challenge for an international journalist. The demands are intense—pressure from all sides, sometimes physical danger—and the rewards not always obvious. The pressure, especially at times of intense fighting, frequently turns to abuse from audiences. This seems especially to be the case in the age of social media.

Whatever the failures of the way the conflict has been covered—both Israelis and Palestinians, and their supporters, will point to countless shortcomings—international journalists have one advantage over many others involved or interested in the conflict: They can see more of it.

Maybe they see more of what is going on than ordinary people, but they sure as hell don't report it.

Here are today's headlines from the territories in Arab newspapers:

• A rumor that Hamas rejected solving the electricity crisis by returning the remains of IDF soldier Hadar Goldin
• Three PA security forces injured by Hamas members in Jenin
• --but Hamas reports claim three citizens were injured by PA police using live ammunition during a protest in Jenin
• Workers at Palestinian universities plan to strike
• Gazans are going on Haj to Mecca via Egypt's Rafah crossing tomorrow
• An armed robbery in Ramallah at a bank, 2.5 million shekels taken
• Hamas urges all Arab countries to withdraw their ambassadors from Israel in response to the clashes at the Temple Mount
• Sheikh Salah of the Islamic Movement in Israel claims that Israel has declared war on Al Aqsa
• An op-ed that says that Netanyahu's crackdown on stone throwers shows that he "defies Allah."

Many of these stories are newsworthy. Few of them will ever be reported by Western reporters in Gaza and Area A.

So if you want to know what's going on in the territories, don't listen to blowhards like James Rodgers. You would do much better to read this blog instead.