Israel supporters have had such kid-glove treatment for so long they have lost all sense of reality and proportion. But the New York Times is cossetting
BY PHILIP WEISS
This week we did our best this week to cover the historic case against Israel for genocide lodged by South Africa at the Hague.
That includes the presentation by an Irish lawyer saying that the onslaught is “unprecedented” even to humanitarian veterans of the killing fields in Cambodia.
And we have repeatedly documented a key part of the case: genocidal comments by Israeli officials.
The war on Gaza “is a struggle between the children of light and the children of darkness,” Prime Minister Netanyahu says. There are no such thing as “’uninvolved’ civilians in Gaza,” says Israel’s liberal Zionist president, Isaac Herzog. While leftist politician Yair Golan says that the Gazans can just “die from starvation, it’s totally legitimate,” Jonathan Ofir reports for us.
Other centrist politicians have called for the “relocation” of Gaza’s entire population. “Let’s spread them across the globe. There are 2.5 million people there. If each country takes in 20,000 individuals, that would involve 100 countries…it is better to be a refugee in Canada than in Gaza.”
Even Joe Biden has described this murderous intent. “It was pointed out to me — by Bibi — that ‘Well, you carpet-bombed Germany. You dropped the atom bomb. A lot of civilians died.’”
We reported that savage statement. But American media have ignored that comment.
Here’s the New York Times coverage of the hearing at the Hague this week. It offered only one instance of genocidal commentary by Israeli officials– a two-word quote by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, “who said Israel would impose a complete siege on the territory because it was fighting ‘human animals.’”
There is no way the Times would cite just one comment if Russian officials had been as blatant as Israelis, Donald Johnson commented on our site. “An objective newspaper would try to present the strength of the case on both sides.”
James North detailed the Times whitewashing of the extremism of the Netanyahu government.
You think you are finally going to see a long report on the calls for ethnic cleansing from Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister.
No such luck.
The Times coverage of Gaza is so slanted you can’t parody it. The newspaper of record devoted a lengthy story to a lawsuit by Harvard students against their university calling it a ‘Bastion’ of Antisemitism.” Because of the harsh criticism of Israel.
And what is one of the prime pieces of evidence?
The case points to a screening at Harvard Divinity School last September of the film “Israelism,” which argues that American Jews raise their children with pro-Israel indoctrination. The screening caused [Divinity student Alexander] Kestenbaum to suffer “anxiety and gross discomfort,” the complaint said.
So: Harvard is antisemitic because someone screened “Israelism”.
Let’s be clear. Israelism is a documentary (see our review here) about the generational Jewish divide over Israel directed by two young Jews who are in the “movement of young American Jews battling the old guard to redefine Judaism’s relationship with Israel.” And that’s antisemitism?
This is absurd. Israel supporters have had such kid-glove treatment for so long they have lost all sense of reality and proportion. But the New York Times is cossetting them.
Thanks for reading,
Phil Weiss
Source: Mondoweiss
