(JNS) Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz’s announcement that Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) will officially shut down on March 1, 2026 has sent the local media establishment into one of its habitual frenzies. You’d think, from the hysterics, that he was about to muzzle dissent. But all he’s done is put an end to a publicly funded relic whose purpose expired long before the smartphone era began—and whose politicization made its continued existence not only unnecessary, but counterproductive.
Let’s start with the obvious: Army Radio, once conceived as a morale-boosting communications arm for the Israel Defense Forces, long ago morphed into a garden-variety left-wing news outlet. Meanwhile, its overhead and salaries were footed by the very taxpayers whom it increasingly belittled, scolded and lectured.
Indeed, the station that was born to uplift the troops has become one more platform for pundits whose contempt for the current government—and even, in some cases, for the IDF itself—is a daily feature, including throughout the multi-front...
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