ed note–please see the commentary here as it relates to all of the putrid material below.
As an addendum to that commentary, note that the following buffet table of lies and misdirections appears on the most left-leaning, liberal, ‘moderate’ and ‘pro-Palestinian’ news outlet in Israel, which goes to show that ACROSS THE SPECTRUM, from left to right and everything in between, the Jews are liars and have no regard for the truth, just as Jesus Christ Himself stated in the plainest of language.
Israel Harel for Haaretz
Israel published a concluding report this week on the sexual atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, 2023. The report presents testimonies from survivors, medical personnel, forensic experts and eyewitnesses describing rape, sexual abuse and the humiliation of victims even after death. Some cases involved signs of genital mutilation and abuse of bodies.
According to the report, these patterns were identified across multiple sites. This, it is argued, demonstrates that Hamas’ sexual violence wasn’t incidental but systematic.
The report is based on testimonies from pathologists, interviews, photographs, body camera footage and rescue personnel. The report’s publication, which understandably drew significant attention in Israel, also received follow-up coverage from several international news agencies and factual mention in outlets including The Washington Post.
The New York Times, by contrast, only briefly noted the publication of the report. A day before the report was released (after nearly two years of data collection and verification) and presumably entirely by coincidence, the New York Times published an article titled ‘The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians.’
After collecting testimonies from 14 witnesses and relying on various publications, including Israeli ones, the author, Nicholas Kristof, argued that there had been sexual abuse of Palestinians, claiming it was standard procedure.
The perpetrators, according to the piece, include investigators, soldiers, prison staff and settlers. And if that weren’t enough, even dogs were allegedly trained to carry out sexual attacks – such a novel claim.
Kristof isn’t just another journalist who is accused of hostility toward Israel (and such journalists, as we experience in the endless anti-Israel chronicle, are numerous). His columns are published in a newspaper that many Jewish organizations, as well as Israel’s Foreign Ministry, claim is hostile to the Jewish state. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and his articles receive significant attention. In short, Kristof’s writing influences public opinion in his country and perhaps beyond it.
Let us assume, just assume, that the 14 personal testimonies are true. Does reliance on this number justify Kristof’s assertion that this is standard procedure? That Israeli soldiers, investigators and settlers routinely commit sexual crimes as a matter of course?
Indeed, as the Foreign Ministry statement claims, this was one of the most severe blood libels ever to appear in modern journalism, and a crude attempt by what is considered the world’s most influential newspaper to whitewash Hamas.
Equally correct and forceful is the response of Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States (whose son, Maj. Moshe Leiter, a member of the IDF elite unit Shaldag, was killed in Gaza): ‘The only clear crime on display here is the violation of journalistic standards by Mr. Kristof and his paper.’
As noted, even if there were isolated cases of sexual crimes against Palestinians, and Kristof presents no forensic evidence or original medical documents, the very act of placing Israel alongside Hamas in the context of sexual offenses creates a false moral equivalence.
The Israeli government, as well as settler institutions, should file a libel lawsuit against the author and his newspaper.