PAKISTAN PERSPECTIVE

Dawn, Pakistan's oldest English-language newspaper, devotes two articles to the subject with a unique angle: it is the only media outlet to headline the American reaction as the main fact. "US says respects Israel 'right' to legislate as death penalty bill for Palestinians widely condemned" — the headline exposes the disconnect between Washington and the rest of the world. The article details the bill's text, cites international condemnations, but frames the event within the logic of the ongoing conflict: Dawn publishes on the same day a "War Diary Day 31" on the economic consequences of the war in Iran, and the law is presented as an episode of Israeli radicalization in a context of regional war. Pakistan, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel, covers the subject with Islamic solidarity as an implicit prism. But Dawn, Karachi's liberal newspaper, maintains a factual tone that contrasts with Geo News's more activist coverage. The choice to headline the American position is revealing: for Dawn, the scandal is not only the law — it is that Washington validates it. Dawn is a newspaper of liberal tradition from Karachi, founded in 1941 by Muhammad Ali Jinnah himself — its coverage is more measured than that of Geo News or ARY, which play more on emotion. The choice to frame the American position as the main fact is a sophisticated criticism: for a Pakistani readership, Washington's complicity in Israeli excesses is a recurring theme that dates back to Israel's creation. Dawn also publishes a "War Diary Day 31" on the same day, which links the death penalty law to the dynamics of war in Iran — a contextualization that Western media do not do.