Useful Idiot Nick Kristof’s New York Times Column Was a Shameful, Shoddy Blood Libel

(Photo by Anthony Behar/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

Here are some things we know about Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times column about the alleged sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli predators.

First, Kristof relies on “A report out last month, from the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Geneva-based advocacy group often critical of Israel,” to advance the claim that “Israel employs ‘systematic sexual violence’ that is ‘widely practiced as part of an organized state policy.'” That’s a bit like describing Peter Thiel as merely “critical of Gawker.” Consider that, as The Free Press’s Eli Lake has pointed out, Euro-Med’s founder celebrated the events of October 7, 2023 by asserting, “In this battle, Palestine offered the elite of its youth and men on the path of freedom and dignity. Succeeding generations will remember you, and history will immortalize you as knightly heroes who forged for us a pure glory untainted by the mud. Preserve their names well, and teach the tales of their immortal valor to your children and grandchildren.” Behold, Nick Kristof’s moral sherpa through the modern Middle East.

Second, the most outlandish allegation made by the Pulitzer Prize-winning — no, really — journalist is that the Israelis have trained dogs to rape their prisoners. Kristof promotes the anonymous allegation that one prisoner “was held down and stripped naked, and as he was blindfolded and handcuffed, a dog was summoned. With encouragement from a handler in Hebrew, he [the prisoner] said, the dog mounted” and eventually penetrated him. As Lake notes, dog “penises are small and thin,” and “become erect only when they smell the pheromones of a female dog in heat,” citing an expert canine trainer who doubted that such an act was anatomically likely. Kristof, it must be documented, provided zero evidence that the allegation was plausible. He did, however, insist on X that “at least three different medical journal articles discuss rectal injuries in humans from anal penetration by dogs,” though he did not link to any of them. A proposed Community Note attached to that tweet notes that “The medical journal articles on rectal injuries from canine penetration describe cases of human-initiated bestiality, not dogs assaulting humans; canine sexual assault of humans (as a result of training or otherwise) has never been described in medical literature.”

Third, Kristof claimed that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told him “he [Olmert] didn’t know much about sexual violence against Palestinians but was not surprised by the accounts I [Kristof] had heard,” before quoting him as saying, “Do I believe it happens? Definitely,” and “There are war crimes committed every day in the territories.” But after publication, Olmert was adamant that Kristof had misrepresented him. “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 did not validate these claims. 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,” submitted the ex-Israeli leader in a statement.

Fourth, two accounts of sexual abuse chronicled by Kristof were offered by Palestinian activists Sami al-Sai and Issa Amro, both of whose stories have evolved over time. In his lone tweet fired from the day of the October 7 attacks, Amro insisted that he had been “detained and torture [sic],” attaching video in which he claimed to have been beaten, and gestured toward a specific spot on his face where he claimed to have been struck. There was no sign of discoloration, much less injury. For his part, al-Sai openly celebrated the October 7; “Long live the heroes!” he said of its perpetrators. One wonders what possible motivations this pair might have for advancing a narrative in which Israel plays the cartoonishly evil heel.

Fifth, while Times spokesman Charlie Stadtlander’s largely substance-free statement indicated that the Gray Lady is standing by what they called a “deeply reported piece of opinion journalism,” the Times‘ vaunted newsroom has yet to publish a story validating Kristof’s. Is it missing in action? Or is it that any such story would fall well short of its standards?

Sixth, Kristof’s tenuous piece, in which he concealed the motives of some sources and twisted the words of another, preempted a report documenting Hamas’ actual use of systemic sexual violence in excruciating detail by one day. Accusation, or admission? You decide.

Israel is an imperfect state composed of people both good and bad in its government, its military, and every other facet of its society. There should be little doubt that bad things happen in its prisons, for the same reasons that bad things happen in almost every prison across the world. Human nature is an ugly thing, and those indignities that have actually occurred are deserving of coverage. What Kristof has done, however, is amplify preposterous stories from proven bad actors and anonymous sources to paint a picture of a uniquely demented, inhuman people capable of inflicting horrors the rest of us can’t imagine.

Sound familiar?

There will be no apology or recanting, no reckoning or self-reflection. Instead, the Times will let Kristof’s shoddy work be forgotten by all but those who will use it as still more fuel for the ever-raging fire of the world’s oldest, most fervent, and resilient hatred — a new, fantastical blood libel produced by a useful idiot, in service of an ancient evil.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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