Blaming the Jews, again

On May 12, 2026, after two and one-half years of work, the Civil Commission on Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children published the most comprehensive report to date documenting the terror group’s use of sexual violence and rape on Oct. 7, 2023. The 300-page report describes cases of gang-rape, sexual violence aimed at terrorizing families, and even cases where relatives were forced to perform sexual acts on each other. It is based on eyewitness reports and video of the atrocities filmed by the Hamas terrorists themselves and uploaded to the internet.

But the night before the Civil Commission released its report, the New York Times published on its front page a story written by Nicholas Kristof. It contained a series of outrageous accusations against the State of Israel and its prisons in particular. It accused Israeli prisons of sexually torturing Arab Palestinian prisoners and even of using dogs trained to rape the prisoners. The sources were Hamas sympathizers such as the ones speaking for Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. They accuse Israel of employing “systematic sexual violence” that is “widely practiced as part of an organized state policy.”

Unfortunately, since the New York Times is a powerful institution with a world-wide reputation, many people will believe anything they read in the “paper of record.”

Israeli authorities have rightly labelled the article a “blood libel.” This piece of propaganda takes us right back to the Middle Ages when Europe was filled with stories of Jews poisoning wells and the ritual murder of Christian children, such as in 1,144 in Norwich, England. In an article in the Free Press on May 12, Eli Lake spends paragraphs explaining why it is impossible to “train” a dog to rape a human. It is no wonder commentator Scott Jennings said that just repeating the allegation makes one feel stupid.

Lake also points out that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is quoted in Kristof’s story as stating that he believes that Arab Palestinian prisoners are abused in Israeli prisons, has come out and said that Kristof misrepresented their conversation. Olmert said,

Mr. Kristof’s article includes claims of extraordinary gravity: that Israeli authorities have directed the rape of children, that dogs have been used as instruments of sexual assault, that systematic sexual torture is state policy. ... I have no knowledge supporting these claims as I said to Mr. Kristof. Therefore, the positioning of my quote after pages of such allegations misrepresents my views.

One can easily conceive of Olmert agreeing that abusive actions by individual guards or small groups occasionally occurs within the Israeli prison system, which is probably true of every country in the world. But that is a long way from a state-sponsored policy of sexual torture. It is not Israel but Hamas that proudly and openly uses sexual terror as its policy in service of the attempt to commit genocide on the Jews. To turn the perpetrators into the victims and the victims into perpetrators is a heinous form of moral inversion and is morally reprehensible.

Why would the New York Times do such a thing? Woke journalists today see themselves as activists for social justice rather than neutral reporters. They see their role as to create and promote narratives favoring and excusing the leftist-approved victim groups as the “oppressed” while demonizing the supposed “oppressor” group. Neutrality is seen as being on the side of the oppressor. The Marxist analysis used to distinguish the victim groups from the oppressor groups assumes that there is no such thing as “right” and “wrong” but only “power differentials.” By accusing Israel of doing the same thing as Hamas, they shift the reader’s attention from the evil actions done by Hamas and create a vague sense that in some way both sides are equally at fault.

Nicholas Kristof claims to be progressive Christian. In an interview with Jim Wallis he said: “I consider myself a Christian, for I admire Jesus’ teachings, but I doubt the virgin birth, Resurrection and other miracles.” However, in his case the term “progressive” appears to mean one whose idea of progress is ideologically warped.

The propaganda war waged by Hamas and their Western sympathizers depends not on facts or logic or careful thought, but on images, endlessly repeated slogans, and sensational headlines. It seeks to bypass reason and appeal directly to the emotions. Many people want to believe that Jews are evil and this sort of propaganda is designed to tempt them to give in to their sinful temptations. This is what happens when ideology replaces journalism, and it is a scandal.