Posted on May 12, 2026 by Scott Johnson in Hamas, Israel, New York Times

The Times strikes again

Nicholas Kristof writes a column for the opinion page of the New York Times. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. Kristof has just unveiled a new libel against Israel in “The silence that meets the rape of Palestinians.”

You have to read it to disbelieve it. Among other things, Kristof cites “Palestinian prisoners and human rights monitors” who report “police dogs being coached to rape prisoners.”

The Times has made itself a continued source of Hamas propganda. It just won a Pulitzer Prize for its work in this vein.

Hamas has now listed fatalities suffered in the post 10/7 conflict with Israel. Several of the names included are those of Palestinian “journalists.” In life they disseminated Hamas propaganda. In death they were used to promote the line that Israel targets “journalists.” Say what you will, at least Hamas had to pay them for their “work.” Kristof does this sort of thing at the expense of the Times.

Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter responded to Kristof’s column in the video below. He touches on a few key points to raise fundamental doubt about its accuracy.

Kristof features the testimony of “freelance journalist” Sami al-Sai in his column. That “journatlist” tag should raise a red flag. It turns out one can find out quite a bit more about where Mr. al-Sai is coming from in precincts beyond the scope of Kristof’s column.

Honest Reporting takes a series of whacks at Kristof’s column in thread on X that can be accessed by clicking on the first below.

I await the sidebar to this story in which some enterprising reporter or columnist explores the training of those dogs. That would be a whopper, so to speak.

Coincidentally — well, sort of coincidentally — Kristof’s column arrived the day before the report of Israel’s specially appointed Civil Commission on Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children. The 300-page report documents Hamas’s systematic use of sexual violence, rape, and “kinocide” during and after 10/7 attack. The Jerusalem Post reports on it here. The excellent Daily Mail story on the report can be accessed via the X post below.

The report itself — Silenced No More: Sexual Terror Unveiled: The Untold Atrocities of October 7 and Against Hostages in Captivity — can be accessed at the link. The home page posts the video below at the top.

There is of course much more to be said. Israeli journalist — a real reporter — Haviv Rettig Gur asseses Kristof’s column in the long X post below. As I read it, he decries Israel’s non-sexual abuse of prisoners — I would characterize it as occasional at worst — while calling out Kristof’s column for what it is:

No, dogs aren’t being trained to systematically rape prisoners, you nattering halfwits. And no, Hamas propaganda operatives are not reliable sources on the question of Israeli crimes. The vast, vast majority of soldiers are honorable men who walked into fire so our families may live. The whole world may turn on them; I will stand with them, grateful for their sacrifice. And Kristof, a willing purveyor of propaganda happily feigning that he can’t see the water and thrilling to a moral crusade engineered by would-be genocidaires he pretends not to understand — is no messenger of moral reckoning.

His comments in their entirety can be accessed by clicking on the post below.

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