Drop Site News revealed that veteran American journalists are participating in a press fellowship program established to promote Israeli propaganda following the start of the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

The well-known journalist Jackie Karsch, who supports the Israeli narrative, initiated the fellowship after the Al-Aqsa Flood operation on October 7, 2023, aiming to “counter misinformation about Israel,” according to her claims, with support from the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles. The fellowship, which has drawn criticism for aligning with a pro-Israel propaganda agenda, includes journalists from major outlets such as The New York Times and CNN.

While Karsch emphasized the pursuit of “evidence-based journalism,” she showed no sympathy for the tens of thousands of war victims in Gaza despite documented Israeli massacres.

In an interview with Los Angeles Magazine about ten months ago, Karsch said, “What happened on October 7 changed everything for me because I realized this would be an information war.” She cited a post on X (formerly Twitter) by Aviva Klompas, former speechwriter at the Israeli Mission to the UN, stating, “The Israeli army will attack our enemies by land, sea, and air, while the rest of us will fight on academic, legal, business, media, and every other front imaginable.” Karsch commented, “This is my front; journalism is my front, and I am doing what I can.”

Karsch, who describes herself as a “multimedia journalist nominated six times for an Emmy Award,” said one of the events that motivated her to promote Israel’s narrative was the bombing of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital (Al-Maqdani) in Gaza City ten days after the war began.

The bombing, which killed over 500 mostly women and children sheltering in the hospital, sparked wide controversy in American media after the Israeli army denied responsibility and blamed a stray rocket fired by resistance factions in Gaza.

An investigation by Al Jazeera’s open-source investigative unit revealed days after the massacre that the Israeli army deliberately misled the media and public opinion about the hospital attack and proved the bombing was caused by an Israeli missile.

Karsch criticized the media coverage of the Al-Maqdani massacre, stating that “the news was reported incorrectly, and the correction was very faint,” adding that journalists “were getting information from terrorists responsible for the October 7 events.”

The fellowship idea was first proposed by Karsch to the Jewish Federation in November 2023. The “Jackie and Jeff Karsch Journalism Fellowship,” launched by Karsch and her husband in 2025, is described as “the only journalism fellowship in the world exclusively dedicated to Jewish topics.”

The first cohort will start in January 2026 in Los Angeles, Washington, and New York, involving up to ten journalists with “top media professionals, scholars, policymakers, and innovators,” in specialized sessions on topics including “Middle East misinformation” and “how to cover antisemitism.”

The fellowship attracted 16 researchers and journalists as trainers from news organizations such as The Atlantic, Spectrum News, The Spectrum, Ynet (affiliated with the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth), Times of Israel, and two New York Times journalists: Jodi Rudoren, former Jerusalem bureau chief and newsletter supervisor, and Sharon Otterman, who closely covered Gaza solidarity events on Columbia University campus and others.

Other trainers include Van Jones from CNN, who faced severe criticism for dismissive comments about images of Palestinian children victims, calling them part of an Iranian and Qatari misinformation campaign.

Michael Powell, a writer for The Atlantic and former New York Times reporter, also participates; his recent articles criticize international organizations like Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders for “harshly criticizing Israel.”

Drop Site News revealed that Karsch has a strong pro-Israel record in her articles and public comments. She was a member of the board of the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles for several years and stated in an interview, “Israel’s story is based on facts, so you start from a good point because the truth is ultimately that the Israeli army is the most ethical army in the world.”

Karsch described Hamas and its members as “real monsters,” comparing them to Nazis. She also questioned the casualty figures released by Gaza’s Ministry of Health, which were verified by the UN and even the Israeli army, and harshly criticized protests and solidarity camps with Palestine on university campuses and their media coverage.

In a late 2024 article titled “Editorial Bias: College Newspapers Must Stop Marginalizing Jews,” Karsch wrote, “Student journalism at some elite universities has indeed become fertile ground for discourse that marginalizes Jewish voices and distorts Israel’s image.” The Columbia Spectator newspaper won the Professional Journalists Association’s “Best Comprehensive Student Newspaper” award in 2024.

Commenting on the same topic in an interview, Karsch said, “No one writes government policy based on a TikTok video, but when you read an investigative article produced by The New York Times, I bet some members of Congress will quote it and write policy based on it. That’s the problem; student newspapers are the source for all major media outlets that convey this bias.”

The American site concluded its in-depth report on Karsch and her fellowship by stating she showed no concern or sympathy for the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians killed by the Israeli army in Gaza, including over 20,000 children, displacement of 95% of the population, worsening famine, and systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure, including most homes, schools, hospitals, mosques, churches, and universities, in acts considered genocide by human rights groups and the United Nations.