David Friedman, who served as U.S. Ambassador to Israel, delivered a strong rebuke of the New York Times on Sunday, accusing the newspaper of distorting the facts surrounding Israel and neglecting the suffering of Israeli hostages in Hamas captivity.
“Last week the New York Times ran a photo of an emaciated child in Gaza to prove that Israel was starving children,” Friedman posted on X. “It turned out the poor kid was emaciated because of a genetic disorder not for lack of food. His sibling, who was in the original photo and was of perfect height and weight, was intentionally cut out of the picture.”
Friedman pointed out that despite the New York Times maintaining a robust reporting presence in Gaza, the image they used was misleading and unsupported by the facts. “Notwithstanding its resources in Gaza, this was the best evidence the Times had of intentional malnutrition and it proved nothing because the entire accusation was false,” he wrote.
While the Times did eventually retract the story, Friedman emphasized how quietly it was done: the correction was posted on “a separate X account with virtually no followers.”
He then drew attention to recent video evidence showing the deteriorating state of Israeli hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, who have been imprisoned in Hamas tunnels since October 2023. “The pictures are authentic and these two poor souls are truly emaciated and emotionally broken,” Friedman stated. “You won’t see them anywhere in the NY Times or other mainstream media.”
Friedman argued that such media bias has real-world consequences, including influencing anti-Israel political moves. “People ask me how could 27 Democratic senators vote to cut off assistance to Israel, or how could the UK, France and Canada vote to recognize a Palestinian terror state? It all begins with skewed and manipulated information, intentionally designed to pour fuel on the fire of Jew-hatred.”
While he singled out the New York Times, Friedman said this issue isn’t limited to one outlet or one side of the political aisle. “The New York Times is not alone, although it has perhaps the most distinguished history of abandoning Jews in crisis. It’s a problem on the woke left and the woke right and we must fight it with all we’ve got!”
{Matzav.com}
Us govt should investigate fake news companies who say they only say the truth
Sorry, but the Jewish media is part of the problem.
It should never have gotten this far and Israel should not be constantly on the defensive.
All the Jewish media (including the frum media, unfortunately) does is lift certain narratives from the mainstream media, then engages in some finger-pointing regarding the more egregious lies and distortions.
Three points:
1) As early as December 2023, Gazans (including terrorist leaders like Sinwar) were ready to give up all the hostages, but Biden and Israel’s political and military elite gave them humanitarian aid, which enabled the Gazans to keep going and hold on to the hostages.
2) Focusing on Hamas is not enough when so many other terrorist groups fight for control in Gaza, like Palestinian Islam Jihad, Army of Islam, Fatah, and more.
3) #2 means there are no civilians to worry about in Gaza as every Gazan is associated with a terrorist org (except in Rafah, where they’re all associated with brutal crime mafias based on clan).
The Jewish media continues to write and opine as if none of the above are true.
Stop accepting the narrative from those who hate you.