New York Times Savages Netanyahu’s Incoming Government. Netanyahu Crushes Them.

After The New York Times editorial board issued an opinion piece furiously condemning “ultrareligious and ultranationalist parties” that have gained more power in Israel, calling likely incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s prospective government a “significant threat to the future of Israel,” Netanyahu, who has been the longest-serving prime minister in the history of the Jewish state, fired back hard.

The Times published the editorial, titled, “The Ideal of Democracy in a Jewish State Is in Jeopardy,” on the Jewish Sabbath Saturday, claiming Netanyahu’s “coalition’s victory was narrow and cannot be seen as a broad mandate to make concessions to ultrareligious and ultranationalist parties that are putting the ideal of a democratic Jewish state in jeopardy.”

“After burying the Holocaust for years on its back pages and demonizing Israel for decades on its front pages, the New York Times now shamefully calls for undermining Israel’s elected incoming government,” Netanyahu blasted on Twitter.

After burying the Holocaust for years on its back pages and demonizing Israel for decades on its front pages, the New York Times now shamefully calls for undermining Israel’s elected incoming government. pic.twitter.com/CqqAoN7lSX

— Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו (@netanyahu) December 18, 2022

The Times did indeed bury the Holocaust so it didn’t make the front pages, as described in “n April 2019, the paper published a cartoon depicting former President Trump as a blind man wearing a skullcap while being led by Netanyahu, who was depicted as a dog on a leash with a Star of David collar.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs researched 107 editorials on Israel and Jews published in the Times since 2016; David Bernstein, president and CEO of the organization, accused the Times of “a decided institutional bias” against Israel. Roughly a decade ago, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA) published a pamphlet titled “Indicting Israel: New York Times Coverage of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict,” that delineated the Times’ consistent bias against Israel.

In its editorial, the Times claimed that its editorial board had been a “strong supporter” of Israel for many years. It also championed its support for a two-state solution. Then it turned to vilifying Netanyahu:

Mr. Netanyahu’s comeback as prime minister, a year and a half after he was ousted from office, can’t be divorced from the corruption allegations that have followed him. He is now doing everything he can to stay in power, by catering to the demands of the most extreme elements of Israeli politics.

The paper noted that Netanyahu’s cabinet would include “radical far-right parties” that believe in expanding settlements in the Biblical areas of Judea and Samaria, where most of the events of the Bible took place; “changing the status quo on the Temple Mount,” the holiest site in Judaism where Arabs routinely riot and Jews are in danger if they pray there, and “undermining the authority of the Israeli Supreme Court, thus freeing the Knesset, the Israeli legislature, to do whatever it wants, with little judicial restraint.” The leftist Supreme Court in Israel has maintained its vise-like grip on power because judges are allowed to pick their successors, preventing any conservative from ascending to power.

After demonizing incoming right-wing figures Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, the Times threatened, “These moves are troubling, and America’s leaders should say so,” then cited a “cautious” speech by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the leftist anti-Israel group J Street without mentioning Blinken had urged Israel’s allies to “leverage” the Jewish state.

Ironically, The Times, which had previously stated in the article that Netanyahu’s “coalition’s victory was narrow,” admitted, “Right-wing parties have an absolute majority in the Knesset,” then quoted their own leftist columnist Thomas L. Friedman saying of the Israeli election results, “We are truly entering a dark tunnel.”

The Times advocated that the Biden administration interfere in domestic Israel affairs, suggesting “moderating forces … deserve support from the American public and from the Biden administration.”

Clinging to the idea that a two-state solution is a panacea that would solve all problems, the Times wrote that “the principle of someday achieving two states remains the bedrock of American and Israeli cooperation. … Anything that undermines Israel’s democratic ideals — whether outright annexation of Jewish settlements or legalization of illegal settlements and outposts — would undermine the possibility of a two-state solution.”

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