{"id":234320,"date":"2026-05-17T03:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T03:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/234320\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T03:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T03:48:15","slug":"the-lefts-turn-against-israel-is-complete-with-the-ny-times-latest-antisemitic-smear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/234320\/","title":{"rendered":"The left’s turn against Israel is complete with the NY Times’ latest antisemitic smear"},"content":{"rendered":"

For those who missed last week\u2019s gutter-level low for The New York Times<\/a>, here\u2019s a catch-up \u2014 and the big picture meaning.<\/p>\n

The focus is Nicholas Kristof\u2019s bizarre column last Monday that repeated debunked claims that Israeli dogs had raped Palestinian prisoners<\/a>. Among the landslide of criticism, the most frequent was that the author had swallowed, hook, line and sinker, garbage from sources widely known for peddling Hamas propaganda.<\/p>\n

The key assertions Kristof makes are so outlandish that the Israeli government vows to file a defamation suit against him and the Times.<\/a><\/p>\n

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the writer and paper \u201cdefamed the soldiers of Israel and perpetuated a blood libel about rape, trying to create a false symmetry between the genocidal terrorists of Hamas and Israel\u2019s valiant soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last reference, of course, is to the well-documented cases of Hamas terrorists raping women and children<\/a> \u2014 and sometimes corpses \u2014 during and after the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion.<\/p>\n

Those proven war crimes are a prime reason why the paper\u2019s dogmatic defense of Kristof\u2019s column is as outrageous as the column itself. By embracing without reservations the Hamas-tainted sourcing and the author\u2019s claims that echo ancient antisemitic tropes about Jews, the Times has tied itself to wild assertions that most rookie reporters would suspect.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Goodwin<\/p>\n

Laughable defense<\/p>\n

Despite some internal misgivings about how such preposterous claims got through the editing process and were published, the paper\u2019s top editors have issued unyielding statements defending the column and its extreme assertions.<\/p>\n

In one of those statements, the editors called the column a \u201cdeeply-reported piece of opinion journalism\u201d and insisted it \u201cdraws together on-the-record accounts and cites several analyses documenting the practice of sexual violence and abuse conducted by various parts of Israel\u2019s security forces and settlers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The most laughable claim is that the column was \u201cextensively fact-checked.\u201d How do you fact check the claim of dogs raping prisoners when science says it\u2019s not anatomically possible?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not independent fact-checking, that\u2019s just repeating the writer\u2019s and his sources\u2019 assertion without offering a shred of new evidence.<\/p>\n

Also, the reference to the column being \u201copinion journalism\u201d does not confer an exemption from facts. In my long experience with opinion writing, I have kept in mind a line from the late, great Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who said, \u201cYou\u2019re entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others have made similar points about Kristof\u2019s work, including Free Press columnist Matti Friedman and Dan Senor on Senor\u2019s always-excellent podcast, \u201cCall Me Back.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Friedman, Kristof\u2019s column is a prime example of \u201ca broader shift in modern journalism,\u201d where many people have traded credibility to become \u201ca weapon in the fight for justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and Senor also make the key point that if the column\u2019s wild assertions are even plausibly true, they would be the basis of a \u201cbombshell news story.\u201d<\/p>\n

But other than defending Kristof, the paper has not followed the sensational claims with an attempt to uncover evidence that could show the events actually happened.<\/p>\n

As such, the Times\u2019 reactionary defense strikes me as a moment whose significance goes well beyond the views of a biased writer and his biased editors\u2019 incompetence.<\/p>\n

The episode marks a turning point in the American left\u2019s divorce from Israel. The column, and the paper\u2019s bombastic defense, ends any hope the marriage can be saved.<\/p>\n

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The Times is the lead spear carrier for the radical left-wing<\/a> of the Democratic Party. The issues, people and language the paper champions are table setters for much of the progressive agenda.<\/p>\n

From DEI to transgender surgeries, to hating Donald Trump and promoting climate change dogma, the Gray Lady has become the Pink Lady.<\/p>\n

No leftist cause is too wild or impractical to embrace, and that certainly includes demonizing the lone Jewish state.<\/p>\n

Open season on Israel<\/p>\n

Although the paper has stopped short of directly calling Israel a colonizing entity, its views about the region and its wars consistently condemn Israel while giving Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iranian terror proxies every benefit of the doubt.<\/p>\n

In that context, the paper\u2019s conduct in the case at hand reads like a signal to Dems that it\u2019s open season on Israel.<\/p>\n

In truth, radical Dems have been increasingly turning against Israel in recent years. The handful of House members known as the squad often make blatantly antisemitic comments, and 40 of 47 Dem Senators recently voted against supplying Israel with defensive weapons.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, complaints accusing the Times of biased Mideast coverage are nothing new among many Israeli and American conservatives, including but not limited to Jewish ones.<\/p>\n

But this time is clearly and painfully different. The Kristof defense is not just chiding Israel or dreamily pushing for a two-state solution.<\/p>\n

Rather, it resembles a condemnation of Israel\u2019s right to defend itself from those who vow to eliminate it.<\/p>\n

Kristof\u2019s column reeked of the same anti-Israel bias that is increasingly finding its way into the paper\u2019s every nook and cranny.<\/p>\n

Reporters openly accused Netanyahu of talking Trump into the war against Iran, as if America has no interest of its own in eliminating the mullahs\u2019 nuclear program.<\/p>\n

Antisemites make the same argument, and both they and the Times ignore Trump\u2019s long history of declaring that he would do whatever it takes to stop the program.<\/p>\n

Nor does the Times give much credence to Iran\u2019s consistent promise to eliminate the two nations it calls the \u201cLittle Satan\u201d and the \u201cGreat Satan.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of the paper\u2019s cockeyed coverage, comes now one of the weirdest and most lopsided stories it has published.<\/p>\n

Here are the \u201cnut\u201d or overview paragraphs of a long article that started on the front page of the May 12th print edition, the day after Kristof\u2019s column ran.<\/p>\n

\u201cA New York Times investigation found a well-organized campaign by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government that embraced Eurovision as a soft power tool, and a secretive contest organizer that was ill-equipped to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the normally lighthearted contest became a proxy fight over Middle Eastern affairs and human rights, Eurovision struggled to defend a core tenet: Politics play no role in the event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, that\u2019s some \u201clighthearted contest\u201d where other nations called for Israeli contestants to be denied admission <\/a>and demanded a Palestinian state because of the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n

Slanted coverage<\/p>\n

Yet it\u2019s only Israel\u2019s conduct the Times sees fit to examine with a fine-tooth comb.<\/p>\n

Better, it look inward. Consider the photo mistake where it showed a supposedly starving Gaza baby<\/a>, only to concede after complaints that the baby\u2019s doctor said it was born with health and genetic conditions that affected brain and muscle development.<\/p>\n

Or how about its story claiming Israel bombed a Gaza hospital<\/a> killing hundreds of people? It was eventually followed by an admission that the coverage should have been \u201cmore journalistically rigorous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notice how the big mistakes all favor the same side. Hopefully, the same editors will wake up and make a u-turn on Kristof.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For those who missed last week\u2019s gutter-level low for The New York Times, here\u2019s a catch-up \u2014 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3862,59,60,9,11,10,980,299,1479,31803],"class_list":["post-234320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-antisemitism","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-times","tag-opinion","tag-palestinians","tag-the-left"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}