Since October 7, there is not a lot that the media can do to shock the mainstream Jewish community. It often feels like we’ve seen it all, from false BBC reports on Gaza famine that get corrected quietly, in a very small font, to widespread retractions of pieces that use Hamas as a source without disclaimers. With each instance, blatant falsehoods sink further and further into the public consciousness, to sometimes catastrophic effect.
It can feel, if you’re Jewish, like a death by a thousand cuts.
This week brought one of the more egregious examples of this trend, when Nicholas Kristof published an opinion column in The New York Times alleging a series of instances of sexual abuse by Israelis—in particular, prison guards and soldiers—against Palestinians. The problem was that the piece, which spread rapidly across the globe, was broadly based in misrepresentations, poor sourcing, and demonstrable falsehoods.
Every time an incident like this happens—and it happens more often than ever these days—it falls to the righteous people with integrity, Jews and non-Jews alike, to figure out the best way to respond. This is true when the attack comes from anonymous people on social media, and it is especially true when it comes from the most influential paper in the world, via an acclaimed, multi-Pulitzer-Prize-winning journalist.
So often, across the West, the risks facing the Jewish people are those of violence and harassment. But this week, we fought a battle of words. What do we do when some of the most fundamental institutions in our society turn on us? When places we once supported and revere reveal that they find us unconscionable? Here at The Free Press, the answer is clear: We call it out, we fight it, and we make the case for reality on behalf of all those who still value free thought, honesty inquiry, and the pursuit of truth.
This week, my colleague Eli Lake debunked some of Kristof’s more outlandish claims. Our Middle East analyst, Haviv Rettig Gur, wrote about how Israel’s true prison violence issue is distorted by the propaganda machine seeking the Jewish state’s erasure. Jed Rubenfeld wrote on the legal risks for The New York Times as it finds itself facing a potential lawsuit from the Israeli government. And Matti Friedman and Dan Senor explored how the Times’ abdication of the pursuit of truth leads falsehoods like those published by Kristof to its pages in the first place.
