[Updated w/clarification upon reader inquiry. –dt]
All of these staffers of AP's Jerusalem bureau are Jewish and live in Israel Proper or as illegal settlers in the Palestinian West Bank. Their Jewishness is only important because if they were Palestinians, the Israeli army would make it nearly impossible for them to operate as editors and bureau chiefs in West Jerusalem or the IOPTs.*
— Josef Federman is AP's Jerusalem news editor, "responsible for directing daily news coverage out of Israel and the Palestinian territories."
AP FACTOID: Before becoming an AP correspondent in Jerusalem, Federman "completed a year of graduate studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem." (Translation: Federman, like all other AP correspondents out of Jerusalem, receives thorough hasbara training to prepare them on how to present Israel's case to the public.)
— In December '06, Federman replaced Karin Laub, who has been "appointed as chief Ramallah correspondent."
— Steve Gutkin (whose name you will see in several AP bylines as well) is Federman and Laub's bureau chief.
[http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pressreleases/pr_121106a.html]
* Addendum 8/8/8: It's important to remember that no news gets out of the IOPTs without passing through IDF censors; therefore, it makes perfect logistical sense for AP to employ only ethnic Jews (IDF-friendly Israeli citizens, essentially) who can be relied upon to edit wire reports in a way that is sympathetic to the state's sensibilities, and thus instantly acceptable to those military censors. That means less hassle for both the IDF and the bureau, especially considering the volume of each bureau's output. AP can bypass the censors altogether via its consistently sympathetic coverage of events in the IOPTs. Simply put, Zionist Israelis control the compilation, editing, headline priority, and output of all news out of the Jerusalem bureau, while the Palestinian reporters whose names appear in some bylines mostly gather information.
