Considering the liberal media’s history of being anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, Monday’s White House Press Briefing featured plenty of leading questions for Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah suggesting that Israel was responsible for the deadly protests by Palestinians along with the Israeli/Gaza border. This all came as the U.S. Embassy opened in Jerusalem.

Some were fair (such as one from the Fox News Channel’s John Roberts) and others touched on the controversy of the Trump administration inviting Pastors John Hagee and Robert Jeffress, but the most obnoxious ones came concerning the brazen violence by Palestinians.

Reuters White House correspondent Steve Holland went there first, wondering if the U.S. will be “calling on Israel to use restraint when dealing with these folks.”

Shah hit back that “Hamas is responsible for these tragic deaths, that their rather cynical exploitation of the situation is what's leading to these deaths and we want them to stop.”

Holland fretted in his first of two follow-ups that Shah wouldn’t admit that there’s a “burden on Israel to do something to sort of rein it in.” Instead of offering a question about what the embassy meant for peace in general, but he wanted to know if “today’s situation hurt[s]” the chances of Israeli/Palestinian peace.

While a shorter exchange, NBC national correspondent Peter Alexander smugly questioned Shah about whether Israelis have a right to “kill” Palestinians “at will” (click “expand” to read the back-and-forth):

ALEXANDER: If I can very quickly, the French foreign minister, Raj, said about what's taking place in Gaza, he urged Israeli authorities to exercise discretion and restraint. So, to be clearly. Does the U.S. not agree with the French that the Israeli authorities should exercise discretion and restraint. SHAH: We believe that Hamas is responsible for what's going on. ALEXANDER: So there’s no responsibility beyond that on Israeli authorities. Just kill at will? SHAH: What I’m saying is that we believe Hamas, an organization, is engaged in cynical action that's leading to these deaths.

At two different points in the briefing, Breakfast Media’s Andrew Feinberg and Yahoo’s Hunter Walker inquired about Hagee and Jeffress, but the worst exchange came from a female reporter whose face was obstructed by most camera angles (and not shown at all on some networks).

She first posed this question to Shah:

On the issue of peace between the White House and Palestinians, when is the last time the White House reached out to the Palestinian leadership and will, given the high numbers of casualties, Palestinians calling what’s happened a massacre, will the White House be reaching out?

When Shah replied that he didn’t know, the same reporter used remarks by Jared Kushner in Jerusalem blaming Palestinians for instances of violence to then take this anti-Jewish swipe: “But given the fact that it's only Palestinians that are being killed. Should Israel not shoulder some of the blame?”

Shah upped his rebuttal, calling Monday’s campaign to blame Israel (which, by extension, includes the media) “a gruesome and unfortunate propaganda attempt.”

The reporter persisted with this possible future Notable Quotable: “But people are throwing rocks 50 meters from the wall and were faced with sniper attack. I mean, is the White House in denial of the split screen reality that’s occurring?”

Here’s the punchline: Who asked those questions? Turns out, it was Al Jazeera English correspondent Kimberly Halkett, which is amusing since Al Jazeera English is the English-language arm of Qatar state media.

It’s quite ironic that the reporter representing an authoritarian Middle Eastern country with a horrid human rights record is suggesting Israel is indiscriminately killing a group of people.

Following Holland’s line, The Daily Mail’s Francesca Chambers asked the last policy-related question on Israel by asking Shah if this “split screen” has “undermined” the Trump administration’s upcoming peace plan. On cue, Shah flatly denied it.

Editor’s Note, May 15, 2:36 p.m. Eastern: This post has been updated to correct the name of the female reporter who questioned Shah about a “split screen reality” occurring in Israel and Gaza. NewsBusters regrets the error.

To see the relevant Israel questions from May 14's White House Press Briefing, click “expand.”