Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times doesn’t much care for Israel or its way of conducting itself. He recently had some unpleasant experiences in Jerusalem: “‘New York Times’ writer Nicholas Kristoff [sic] lost sight of facts, nuance – opinion,” by Barbara Sofer, Jerusalem Post, November
Kristof describes going somewhere in Jerusalem, probably to find an authentic Gaza news source. He makes an appointment with “some Gazans who were temporarily allowed to visit Israel and became stuck in east Jerusalem.” He doesn’t explain why they were in Jerusalem in the first place and how they “got stuck.” They’re certainly not hostages.
Perhaps the Gazans were receiving medical treatment not available in Gaza’s hospitals located above those billion-dollar tunnels. Each tunnel costs as much as a high-end MRI machine. The gravel imported for the simplest tunnel could pay for a lot of ketamine and propofol, common anesthetics.
Kristof is remarkably incurious about what those Gazans are doing in Jerusalem. As the writer of this article notes, they might well be in Jerusalem to receive treatment from Israeli medical personnel that is not available at home. Among those Palestinians who have sought treatment from Israeli doctors in Israeli hospitals have been the head of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar (whose life was saved by Jewish doctors) and his daughter, the late PA propagandist Saeb Erekat, as well as Mahmoud Abbas, his wife, his brother, and his brother-in-law.
And there is another possible explanation. These Gazans he met in Jerusalem might have been among the 20,000 Gazans who have been granted Israeli work permits; which allows them to earn, working in Israel, between three to five times what they would earn if they remained in Gaza. It may be that the Gazans Kristof met in Jerusalem had been working in Israel on October 7 and have been prevented from returning because of the heavy fighting that has been going on ever since.
To reach his source in east Jerusalem, Kristof reports that his Israeli taxi driver refused to take him the whole way and abandoned him “on the side of the road to get a Palestinian taxi.” As a Jerusalemite and head-covering religious woman whose professional work frequently takes her into Arab homes in Jerusalem and elsewhere, I have to wonder why he didn’t arrange to travel with one of the many Arab taxi drivers who are familiar and comfortable with the streets and byways in the Arab neighborhoods, as well as the Jewish ones.
Kristof apparently thinks his Israeli cab driver “abandoned him,” as he querulously puts it, leaving him “on the side of he road to get a Palestinian taxi.” No, he was actually looking out for the well-being both of himself and of Kristof. A Jewish cab driver would be nervous about driving into certain parts of east Jerusalem. Of course he was worried, quite understandably, about his own safety, the same way a French cab driver would be unlikely to drive all the way into the No-Go Muslim-inhabited suburb of Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis, to drop off or pick up, a fare. And if the Israeli’s cab were to be attacked, say, by the “shebaab” (boys) throwing rocks in east Jerusalem, Nicholas Kristof, too, might be hurt. None of that occurs to Kristof; he’s intent on complaining about the “Israeli taxi driver” who, he says, left him “on the side of the road.” All Kristof had to do was add a few truthful words to his account: “The Israeli cab driver, quite understandably, left me off so that I could get an Arab cab driver to take me the rest of the way to certain ‘hot spots’ in east Jerusalem.”
Once safely there (whew), Kristof’s unnamed source was a “sweet” (his description) 57-year-old Gazan woman who approved of the Hamas act on October 7. Kristof doesn’t mention if she was specifically satisfied with the beheadings, rapes, burning babies, but his “sweet” source did think it was okay to murder five-year-olds because “they are all Jews and Zionists.”
No shared humanity here.
This, to use his own words, “ breaks his heart” because her bigotry was, in his opinion, nurtured “not only by Hamas propaganda but also by Israeli bombing.”
This “sweet” Palestinian lady — who approves of rape, torture, and murder of Israelis — wins Kristof’s affection nonetheless. Besides, her views, according to Kristof, don’t come from the texts and teachings of Islam, or from a lifetime of being schooled in hatred of Jews, but are an understandable reaction to Israeli mistreatment. He does want to make clear this lady’s “bigotry” — a mild word for her murderous race-hatred — is due not just to Hamas propaganda (based on verses in the Qur’an), but also, more importantly, to Israeli bombing. But the Hamas attack had been in the works for almost two years. It was not prompted by any bombing from Israel, of which there was very little during that time. And there had been no Israeli bombing in the run-up to the October 7 attack. But Kristof wants to make sure that Hamas’ atrocities are blamed at least partly on…Israel. Kristof does not differ from those who insist that the 9/11 attacks were an understandable reaction to American foreign policy. Apparently our rescuing the Bosnian Muslims and the Kosovars from Serbian attacks made no impression on bin Laden. And Israel’s attempts to lighten the burden on Gazans, by employing so many in Israel, and by supplying Gaza with water, fuel, and electricity, made no impression on Hamas.
To balance his op-ed, Kristof points out that Israelis have bigots and extremists, too. He quotes an unnamed “far-right” rabbi saying, “You may think you’re being merciful, but you’re being vicious to the ultimate victim whom this child will grow up and kill.”
I don’t know which rabbi made this alleged statement, but we did have Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu say that a military option would include nuking Gaza. No sooner were the words out of his mouth when they were widely condemned, including by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and mocked and disparaged on national Israeli news channels.
There are a tiny handful of wild-eyed Jewish extremists in Israel, who talk of pushing the Palestinians out of Judea and Samaria, or out of Gaza, but the point is that they have almost no following. Anyone who speaks that way is immediately condemned by the Israeli media, and by the leaders of all the parties. They become toxic. When Amichai Eliyahu made his remark about “nuking Gaza” — a statement that he did not mean literally but simply as a way to suggest support for a response to the Hamas murderers of unprecedented ferocity — he was denounced by everyone of consequence in Israel, including Yair Lapid, who condemned his “horrifying and insane remark.”
But when a Palestinian terrorist talks of wiping out “the Jews,” and means it, he is not denounced, but universally praised for his bloodcurdling sentiments, by the same people who cheered Hamas after learning of its heroic deeds on October 7.
Just because they hate the Jews, doesn’t mean they also don’t support the murder of idiots like this. He’s just convenient for the time being.
I’m sure this “sweet” lady would rather teach her children and grandchildren to kill non muslims and support them any way she can.
It’s sickening to me evil people are allowed to do evil. My only consolidation is they will be judged by the real God.
It is a fantasy to “leave it up to God”. He may or may not exist; However, in this world I will help the evil ones find their way to eternity. Kill them all and let God figure it out. I do not plan to “turn the other cheek”.
When the protesters were picketing the NYT, Kristof must have been shocked to learn that he and his colleagues are not anti-Israel enough.
He’ll try even harder in the future. You know what breaks my heart? The murder and maiming of people around the world by members of the medieval death cult that is Islam. Anyone who believes that their deity commands them to bomb pop concerts in Britain, behead reporters in Pakistan, or bake babies in an oven in Israel is simply depraved and must be kept away from civilized people.
Kept away? These should be sent to Allah without any mercy. These should receive what they give.
“Jihad is the way!” is a process. Destroying Israel is a final state of affairs. Reasonable people are indifferent to the existence of the warrior ‘process’ and against the end-state of wiping out Israel. This circumstance reflects an ever-present failure of the human mind, frequently leading to mass destruction in every corner of the world. Why?
Opposition to a ‘process’ requires the application of continuous force over an extended period of time, meaning it is expensive in terms of energy usage. Being opposed to the elimination of Israel implies that limited use of additional energy beginning at some undefined point in the future when Israel is under dire threat.
The point of this comment is to shine a light on the imperfect functioning of human thinking. Its implication is that all or most of the troubles that befall people are their own damn fault. Our lack of education about our cognitive weaknesses makes us the constant victims of irony, only recognized after the catastrophe.
For those who are interested in the physical basis of our limitiations, please feel free to watch all the YouTube videos on “The Principle of Least Action.” The topic of “least action” is a study in physics, but the social implications of :”least action” are enormous and not accounted for by any current field of study. Physicists are not interested and social scientists are unbelievably ignorant. We must learn how patheric we are before we can rise above our limitation and prevent avoidable disasters.
I am so glad I found this site! The articles are so EDUCATIONAL and put the LEFT in it’s place – among the scum of the earth! The author had done a great job “correcting” the outright LIES of whoever this “kristol” guy is!
Recently the “fine” Gov of NY established a “TRUTH MINISTRY”. I think PRESIDENT TRUMP needs to do that once back in his RIGHTFUL Office and present the TRUTHS on a weekly basis on PRIME TIME – ALL NETWORKS! Articles like this should be the format of these TRUTH sessions! Most young idiots have no idea of the TRUTH! They have no idea what being responsible for their actions/words really is! Our Nation’s FUTURE is not bright right now – the DEMOcrats have degraded or destroyed so much in the name of “equity, diversity, and LAUGHABLY – inclusion!! There was a movie called “Reality Bites”! I’ve never watched it, but would definitely watch a REAL LIFE show of these idiots STARRING in their own REALITY BITES!!!
Kristof is a famous ass sucker who knows where his bread is buttered ( pardon the mixed metaphor) at The NY Times. He wasn’t sent to Israel to report the news, but to bring back dreck, as described.
I love mixed metaphors, it keeps me on my edge of the seat.
Years ago, about 1990,David Brock went to Arkansas to find dirt on the Clinton’s. Brock did a big write up for The American Spectator. I remember reading the article, and not buying everything I read, (Brock wrote about how he was worried about his safety, as a gay man ,in the deep south)* this NYTs prissy reporter reminds me of David Brock. * Truth be known Brock probably found the Little Rock gay bar scene, and had a gay old time.
islamism is the new nazism..
The author if this text is attacking the only Israeli Jews who can stablize the situation. Yes! The Arabs should be kicked out, per the guidelines laid down by Rav. Kahane, zt”‘l And…yes! Those who are merciful to the cruel will be cruel to the merciful as was shown tragically in this war.
It is said that idol worship leads to death. This was shown horrifically on Oct 7th. The sickening peace idol/oloch and the world opinion idol/moloch will lead to the death of more Jews — just as it did on Oct. 7th.
And if the U.S. does not give Israel the weapons it needs, nuking Gaza or using chemical and biological weapons there is not a bad idea. Gen. Sherman was right about war. And if what I say is cruel in quoting Gen. Sherman, Sherman won the Civil War for the North. Without him negroes would have still been picking cottong for the Democrats instead of collectin welfare and voting for the Democrats in a revolting display of the master/slave dynamic.
The Times of Israel reports in today’s issue that Israel’s Intelligence unit was aware – from many sources and several months in advance – that Hamas was planning a big invasion and had the knowledge and weapons to execute it. When a senior IDF officer was informed he dismissed the scenario as a fantasy.
I got the impression that much of this info was known to the major media – in particular to the NYTimes…
…which raises all sorts of issues and questions which should be explored; should the media have informed the general public? was treason a reasonable explanation?.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/12/middleeast/hamas-training-site-gaza-israel-intl/index.html
More proof that Hamas’ intentions were well known.
CNN and the other major media are trying to use this info to discredit Netanyahu and the Isreali media. They don’t seem to realize that they are also discrediting their own claims of no prior knowledge since they certainly were monitoring social media. Hassan Eslaiah and the other stringers were clever enough to monitor the metadata on photos they submitted to their media employers…but not clever enough to hide their postings to Telegram. They knew of the planned attack IN ADVANCE…which means that there’s a high probability that the NYTimes did too….
…which leaves all sorts of difficult questions unanswered….
Correction; I meant “Israeli military” not “Israeli media”
Nicholas Kristof provides a textbook worthy rendition of willful blindness. He is intelligent but his moral prism distorts the truth in a transparently slavish fashion. I cannot imagine ever picking up another copy of NYT, now or in the future.
The fact is that if Israel leaves any muslims in Gaza this entire terror attack is guaranteed to reoccur in the future. Mark my words. Gaza must be totally destroyed in the name of peace, just like Dresden and Nagasaki.