Wednesday, May 13, 2026

05/12 Links Pt1: Two-Year Investigation Concludes Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence; Melanie Phillips: ‘Zack Polanski is an enemy of Jews’; Kristof’s grotesque journalistic malpractice

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The End of Our Illusions
We try to avoid imagining that our ideological opponents are morally inferior. But it can be just as dangerous to convince ourselves that our declared antagonists want the same things we want and hold to values that approximate our own.

That is part of the reason for the pained reaction to Nick Kristof’s opinion column yesterday, in which he claimed (without evidence, obviously) that Israel has instituted a state policy of militaristized bestiality.

Today, a meticulous, harrowing report was released on Hamas’s systematic rape and sexual violence toward Israelis on and after October 7. The commission that undertook this investigation “has examined over 10,000 photographs and videos of the attack totaling more than 1,800 hours of visual analysis.”

We want to believe that Nick Kristof and all the people who defended and shared his article are just like us—believers in honesty, men and women of integrity, a community of truth-seekers with a baseline sense of human decency. We want to believe this in part because of that very sense of human decency.

But we are making a massive error. Kristof’s named sources not only provided no evidence for his lurid bestiality fantasies but themselves were also people with massive credibility deficits.

Conversely, the documentation of sexual violence by Palestinians who invaded Israel on October 7, 2023—the total number of infiltrators was several thousand that day—took years, even though we all watched videos of Palestinians dragging the unclothed bodies of Israeli women through the streets of Gaza, and even though Hamas documented many of their crimes, and even though Hamas members admitted to raping women that day. All of that is what is known as evidence—apologies to Kristof and his readers for using such technical, obscure SAT words—and evidence needs to be compiled, examined, analyzed, and used as the jumping-off point for additional investigation.

That is what Israeli officials did, and that is what those who support the Jewish state’s existence did, and what they called for others to do, because that is what is done when the goal is to obtain the truth. To the anti-Zionist collective, the truth is to be avoided like the plague, and therefore what is rewarded is not evidence but creativity and imagination.

And that is what was on display in the New York Times. We want Kristof and his defenders to be like us. But they are not like us—and they punish us for our good faith.
Israel Is the Weapon By Abe Greenwald
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There’s increasing overlap between the left and right dupes on all these issues. The point is that anti-Semites merely used Israel to turn them into their anti-Jewish foot soldiers. They’ve been recruited to dehumanize Jews online, disrupt Jewish events, and attack Jews around the world. Not Israel—Jews.

Because the aim of the information war is not merely to turn public opinion against Israel—although it’s certainly done that. The idea is to alchemize anti-Zionism into kinetic Jew-hatred in the real world, to instigate a war against the Jews of the Diaspora parallel to the one that Hamas launched against the Jews of Israel.

Many American Jews say that Israel should do a better job fighting the information war—without understanding that war was declared against them. Israel has done an astounding job of fighting its war. We are the ones who’ve been under attack from anti-Israel propaganda this whole time.

We still are, and it’s getting ever worse. No longer do the propagandists bother to sprinkle meager crumbs of credibility over their work. There’s no incentive for them to cover their tracks and every incentive to prevaricate. Photographs of the Gaza famine that never happened earn Pulitzer Prizes. The New York Times now publishes horror stories about Israel that are not only impossible to verify but impossible period—literally impossible. When Nicolas Kristof writes a story about IDF-trained rape-dogs, he’s sending the mob after all of us—including those liberal American Jews who then denounce Israel. What they don’t realize is that accusing Jews of committing impossible crimes is the oldest, most primitive category of anti-Semitic propaganda. It takes us out of the realm of the human, no matter where we are on this planet.

It would be hard for a famous journalist simply to assert that Jews, as a people, have dark powers that defy the laws of nature. But when Israel is your weapon, you never hold your fire.
Honest Reporting: Why They Deny The Crimes of October 7
When Jewish Suffering Becomes Inconvenient
For many people invested in a worldview in which Israel represents absolute evil and Palestinians represent absolute victimhood, acknowledging the sexual crimes of October 7 creates tension. Jewish women cannot be permitted to exist as victims because their reality complicates the narrative. Israeli suffering becomes ideologically intolerable. And so it must be doubted, obscured, minimized, or erased altogether. This is why so much October 7 denialism focuses specifically on the sexual crimes.

Sexual violence carries a specific moral weight in contemporary society. To acknowledge that Hamas terrorists and their collaborators committed widespread and systematic acts of rape, mutilation, and sexual torture would require many activists to confront a reality: that individuals and movements they have celebrated, romanticized, excused, or sanitized committed acts of extraordinary brutality.

We should also recognize the profoundly anti-Jewish nature of this phenomenon. Jews are uniquely subjected to suspicion toward their suffering in ways that have become normalized across political and cultural life. The distrust of Jewish testimony has become so deeply embedded that many people no longer even recognize it as prejudice.

The Crime Continued Through Erasure
The tragedy is not only the crimes themselves, but what their denial reveals about the world Jews inhabit. After the Holocaust, many believed humanity had learned something: that there existed a moral obligation to listen to victims, document atrocities honestly, and ensure genocidal violence could never again be erased through propaganda and denial. Yet within hours of October 7, that promise began collapsing in real time.

The lesson of Holocaust denial should have taught us that evidence alone is never enough against ideologically motivated hatred. There will never be enough footage, enough testimony, enough witnesses, enough forensic evidence, or enough reports for those who have already decided that Jewish suffering does not count.

That is the real connection between Holocaust denial and the denial of October 7. Both ultimately rest upon the same underlying premise: that Jews are uniquely unworthy of belief, uniquely suspect in their suffering, and uniquely undeserving of moral sympathy.

Ultimately, when these crimes are denied, minimized, relativized, or erased, the victims are violated a second time. The murdered are stripped not only of their lives, but of the truth of what was done to them. The raped are stripped not only of bodily autonomy, but of the dignity of having their suffering acknowledged. Denial is never neutral. It is the continuation of the crime through erasure.

That is why speaking clearly about October 7, including the systematic sexual crimes perpetrated against women and girls, matters so profoundly. We cannot bring back those who were murdered. We cannot undo the horrors inflicted upon the victims. But we can refuse to abandon them to silence, distortion, and denial. We can bear witness. We can speak plainly. And we can ensure that those who suffered are not erased by a world that too often finds Jewish suffering uniquely difficult to acknowledge.


Full depravity of Hamas during October 7 revealed for the first time: New report details how terrorists performed unimaginable horrors upon Israeli families
Among the mutilated and butchered bodies of young women slaughtered on October 7, it was their colourful, polished nails that many of the morgue staff remember.

Bright, beautiful, shiny, pink manicures glistening amid the pervasive 'grey and green' of death were often the only reminder of who these girls had been just hours earlier.

Because Hamas-led terrorists had not just executed these women. They had 'deliberately and systematically' defiled them, as the most comprehensive account of the atrocity released by The Civil Commission today shows.

The terrorists shot their eyes, their faces and their breasts, and even targeted their most intimate parts, to destroy their beauty and rob their loved ones of a final goodbye.

Women were stripped, bound, stabbed, shot and burned. They were executed both during and after rape amid an orgy of violence in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.

Heads were decapitated. Pelvic bones shattered. Even after death, sexual assault continued.

A grotesque, medieval obsession with sexual organs pervaded the crime scenes at the Nova Festival and in the Kibbutzim near Gaza.

At Kibbutz Be'eri, nails, sharp objects, and pieces of metal and plastic were similarly embedded in a woman whose body was discovered naked and bound. On another victim, grenades were used.

While ordinarily newspapers censor the full horrors of such accounts, today, as hard as it is, over 430 witnesses, survivors, experts and medical staff ask that you do not look away.

For over two years they have given evidence to The Civil Commission, an independent Israeli women's rights NGO established in the wake of October 7, 2023, in response to the failure of international institutions to address the sexual violence committed that day.

The Daily Mail was the first British newspaper granted advance access to the report, fittingly titled 'Silenced No More', which is released today.

It shows it was not just women who were degraded as a 'deliberate tool of terror, humiliation, and control'. Men were also sexually abused and in at least one case gang raped.

Victims were mutilated, with body parts cut off used to create depraved scenes gleefully concocted to traumatise those who discovered them.

‘The purpose was humiliation, not victory,' first responder Eran Masas, who came across one such barbaric arrangement, told The Civil Commission.

Those taken hostage were assaulted in front of loved ones and young relatives forced to commit sex acts on each other, an intentional, premeditated strategy of kinocide to destroy family units even after release from captivity.

The report runs to over 180 pages of utterly harrowing evidence, which collates and corroborates previous testimonies - as well as revealing disturbing new accounts.

The extensive, graphic testimonies are unflinching and seriously distressing.

But, sadly, it is also necessary that they are published in full to finally extinguish perverse doubts that remain over what happened that day.
Two-Year Investigation Concludes Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on October 7
A Record Built Against Erasure
The Commission conducted more than 430 formal and informal interviews with survivors, witnesses, returned hostages, first responders, and family members. Investigators reviewed over 10,000 photographs and video segments, accumulating more than 1,800 hours of visual analysis. The methodology followed internationally recognized standards, including the Berkeley Protocol on digital open-source investigations and trauma-informed, survivor-centered ethical principles.

Commission data on the October 7 victims found that civilians from 52 countries were among those murdered or taken hostage, underscoring the international scope of the attack. Materials were logged, coded, geolocated, and integrated into a dedicated secure repository — the Civil Commission’s October 7 War Crimes Archive — designed to meet evidentiary thresholds for domestic and international prosecutions. 52 Nationalities of October 7 victims. Credit: Silence No More, The Civil Commission on Oct 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children

Elkayam-Levy told The Times of Israel the urgency was clinical: “We saw silence and denial — and very quick denial — which made me understand that we have to collect evidence as quickly as possible, and establish an archive under stringent international standards.”

Thirteen Patterns of Sexual Terror
Through systematic cross-referencing of evidence, the Commission identified thirteen recurring patterns of sexual and gender-based violence repeated across multiple sites:
Rape, gang rape, and other forms of sexual assault
Sexual torture, including intentional burning and mutilation
Deliberate shootings to the head, face and genital area
Killings and executions following or committed in conjunction with SGBV
Postmortem sexual abuse, humiliation, and desecration of bodies
Forced nudity and exposure
Handcuffing, binding, and restraint of victims
Public displaying and parading of women and children
Abduction of mothers and children
SGBV inflicted in the presence or near vicinity of family members
Filming and digital dissemination of SGBV, including use of social media to document, glorify, and amplify the atrocities
Threats of forced marriage
Rape and other forms of sexual violence against boys and men

The repetition of these patterns, the Commission argues, demonstrates that the crimes “were not isolated acts of brutality but formed part of a broader operational method used during the attack and its aftermath.”

Eyewitness Darin Komarov described what she heard at the Nova festival: “I heard one rape where they were passing her around. She was probably injured, judging by her screams — screams you have never heard anywhere... And after one finished, he told another to go up... And after they finished, they shot her.”

First responder Nachman Shai Reviv reported seeing five women shot in the groin at or near the Nova site. The report also details sexual violence committed against men, citing testimony from a male survivor identified only as “D” who described being gang-raped at the festival: “They injured my genitalia... I was completely naked. They did whatever they wanted to me.”

“Kinocide”
In her preface, Elkayam-Levy introduces the concept of “kinocide” — the deliberate, systematic targeting of families through the weaponization of familial bonds. The report documents incidents in which victims were sexually assaulted or humiliated in the presence of relatives, and at least one case in which family members held hostage in Gaza were coerced into acts of abuse against one another.

“Kinocidal sexual violence weaponizes relational vulnerability, extends harm beyond the immediate victim, and transforms the family itself into a site of compounded trauma and collective devastation,” Elkayam-Levy writes. The Commission argues this pattern is “insufficiently theorized in law” and contributes to the evolving legal understanding of how atrocity operates through human attachment.
Mark Halperin: exposes the New York Times columnist behind a shocking Israeli 'rape expose'... and reveals the real story of sexual violence his paper allegedly ignored
Maybe the sharpest criticism of the Kristoff piece came from Israel. The Israeli Foreign Ministry claimed on Tuesday that it offered to release to The New York a deeply-reported and corroborated investigation of 'Hamas militants and their allies [who] raped, assaulted and sexually tortured their victims during and after the October 7, 2023 terror attack on southern Israel 'to maximize pain and suffering… systematic, widespread, and integral to' the assault.'

Coincidentally or not, CNN published that 'landmark report' on Tuesday. The Times had apparently declined to run it themselves.

I do not know if the claims in this Kristof column are true, though I can say they have not been adequately corroborated.

Is this yet another instance where Times editors 'should have taken more care' and 'been more explicit about what information could be verified'?

Time will tell.

In what is, to me, the most telling admission in the Kristof column, he writes towards the end, 'Some may wonder whether Palestinians fabricated accusations of sexual assaults to defame Israel. To me that seems far-fetched….'

Indeed, that seems to have been the case, Mr Kristof, but one of the great duties of a journalist is to be a skeptic.

During this time of war across the globe, of profound human suffering in Ukraine and Gaza and Sudan, of AI fabrications, of TikTok misinformation, of frivolous blogs and vlogs and mindless partisan allegiances, there can no room for negligence and imbalance, especially from the revered Grey Lady.

The world is on the brink and respectable journalism is more essential than ever.
Hen Mazzig on the N.Y. Times’ Two Israel Stories: “What Really Was the Goal Here?”
On May 11, as the Eurovision Song Contest was opening its 2026 edition in Vienna, The New York Times published two major pieces about Israel in a single day. The first, a page A1 investigation headlined “In Eurovision, Israel Used Soft Power to Burnish Its Ailing Image,” alleged that the Israeli government had spent over $1 million coordinating a campaign to influence Eurovision voting.

It was a finding the paper’s own reporting ultimately undermined, however as the piece acknowledged no rules had been broken, no bots deployed, no votes manipulated. The online headline was, “How Israel ‘Co-opted’ Eurovision — and Nearly Broke the World’s Biggest Song Contest.” That was quietly changed to “How Israel Turned Eurovision’s Stage Into a Soft Power Tool.”

The second piece, an opinion column by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof, was harder to dismiss as a slow news day. Headlined “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians,” it alleged a pattern of systematic sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners by Israeli soldiers, settlers and prison guards — including the claim, sourced to an advocacy group, Euro-Med Monitor, whose leadership has been criticized for being sympathetic to Hamas’ aims — that Israeli guards had trained dogs to rape detainees.

Kristof acknowledged in the piece that there was “no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes.” Following its publication, the Israeli Foreign Ministry called it “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press” and former U.S. Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism Deborah Lipstadt asked publicly whether the Times had “no sense of decency and journalistic responsibility.” The paper has stood by Kristof and its comms team issued a statement saying there was “no truth” to the idea that the column would be retracted.

Both pieces landed the same day a 300-page report — “Silenced No More” — was released documenting Hamas’s sexual violence on October 7, based on 430 interviews and more than 10,000 photographs and videos. The Times did not cover it.

Hen Mazzig is an Israeli author, activist and founder of the Tel Aviv Institute, which tracks antisemitism and anti-Israel disinformation. He spoke with The Hollywood Reporter the day the pieces published.
The Civil Commission’s Report on Oct 7th Sexual Violence - Silenced NO More
This trailer offers a window into the groundbreaking work behind the Civil Commission’s report — the most comprehensive investigation to date into the sexual atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 and during hostage captivity.

Based on a uniquely constructed war crimes archive and a two-year independent investigation, the report concludes that Hamas and its collaborators systematically used sexual and gender-based violence as a central component of the attacks and captivity.

Drawing on extensive testimony, visual documentation, and forensic evidence, the investigation identifies 13 recurring patterns of abuse across multiple locations and phases of the attacks — including prolonged abuse in captivity and the deliberate digital dissemination of violence to amplify terror and humiliation.

The findings demonstrate that these crimes were not isolated incidents, but part of a widespread and systematic pattern of sexual violence.

For the first time, the report systematically documents sexual and gender-based violence across the full continuum of the attacks: from the initial assault on October 7th, through abduction and transfer, to prolonged captivity in Gaza.

The report concludes that the documented acts constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocidal acts under international law.

Together, the report and archive reveal the full scope of the atrocities and provide an evidentiary and legal foundation for future investigation and prosecution.


The Jerusalem Post: 300-page report: Hamas's Oct 7 sexual violence was 'systematic'
Two and a half years after October 7, Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy is publishing a 300-page report she says establishes "beyond any doubt" that Hamas's sexual violence was systematic, strategic, and inherent to the attack — and she's confronting a world that, in some corners, still denies it.

In this interview with Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Report, Ruth Marks Eglash, the founder and chair of the Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children walks through the evidence her team has gathered over two years: testimonies from survivors and returned hostages, forensic analysis of crime scenes, and videos taken by Hamas terrorists themselves. "We cannot prevent what is not known," Elkayam-Levy says. "This was sexual terror in the most exceptional cruelty."

Elkayam-Levy also confronts the wave of denial that followed October 7, from prominent feminist scholars to a senior UN official as recently as November 2025, and introduces "kinacide," a term her team coined to describe the systematic torture of families, which has since been cited by parliaments and tribunals around the world. She explains why this report is a watershed moment, why the denial fuels antisemitism, and what she hopes will change once the world finally reads it.

00:00 – Introduction: Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy's two-year documentation journey
00:58 – Inside the new 300-page report on Hamas's October 7 sexual violence
02:50 – Gathering evidence: testimonies, hostage accounts, forensic analysis
06:06 – The standout moments that stay with the team
07:28 – Coping with the emotional toll of documenting atrocities
09:51 – Why this report still matters two years later
11:15 – "We cannot prevent what is not known": the case for full exposure
12:55 – Coining "kinacide": Hamas's family-targeted terror explained
16:18 – The captivity case that shocked even seasoned investigators
17:33 – International recognition: UK Parliament, Sierra Leone, Yazidi survivors
21:54 – Connecting October 7 denial to rising global antisemitism
24:13 – When a feminist scholar said: "I haven't seen the evidence"
28:31 – Inside the global push: the White House, Sheryl Sandberg, parliaments
32:07 – Responding to the claim "Muslim men wouldn't do this"
34:22 – Has the world's response changed? What officials are saying now


Knesset Passes Law to Try Oct. 7 Terrorists in Court
Israel's Knesset on Monday approved a law enabling the prosecution of Nukhba terrorists, passing 93-0. The law establishes a special military court in Jerusalem for the largest and most significant trials in Israel since the 1961 trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann.

The law defines acts committed between Oct. 7 and Oct. 10, 2023, as crimes against the Jewish people, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, rape, kidnapping and looting. It also applies to offenses committed after those dates against hostages held in Gaza, including those killed in captivity.

Indictments are expected against more than 400 suspects. Trials will be organized by geographic locations, such as the attacks in Be'eri, Nir Oz and the Nova music festival. Following the law's approval, prosecutors are expected to begin filing indictments based on extensive evidence collected during and after the attacks.

The evidence includes interrogation transcripts of captured Nukhba terrorists and hundreds of videos documenting the atrocities. Much of the material was gathered during combat operations in Gaza. In most hearings, defendants will not be physically present in the courtroom but will participate via video from detention facilities. Legal officials estimate that the trials, which are expected to be broadcast internationally, could last several years.


Misgav Institute: Israel in 10: Hamas Atrocities Tribunal, UAE Iron Dome Deal, Hezbollah Escalation | Hillel Neuer
A new independent civilian commission publishes its findings on Hamas atrocities committed during the October 7 massacre, as Israel’s Knesset approves legislation to establish a special tribunal for roughly 300 Hamas terrorists captured that day. In the most severe cases, the court could impose the death penalty.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee confirms for the first time that Israel supplied Iron Dome systems and personnel to help defend the UAE during the recent conflict with Iran. The revelation comes as reports emerge that Abu Dhabi may have carried out strikes against Iranian targets in April. Pakistan is denying a CBS report claiming that while publicly acting as a mediator during the Iran-US war, it also quietly assisted Tehran behind the scenes.

And fierce fighting continues in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah launched rockets overnight at Israeli troops operating near the border.

Today’s guest is Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch.




‘Vile antisemitism': US condemns Spain for awarding Francesca Albanese
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz expressed his disgust with Spain on Tuesday for bestowing an award on U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, sanctioned by the United States for her “unabashed antisemitism.”

“Any award to Francesca Albanese only shames those who bestow it,” Waltz tweeted.

“She has rightly been condemned by the U.S. and numerous European countries for her vile antisemitism, illegitimate lawfare, and attempts to undermine the peace efforts in Gaza supported by many Muslim countries,” he wrote.

Spanish President Pedro Sánchez, whose country recognized Palestinian statehood in May 2024, awarded the Order of Civil Merit to Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in Madrid on May 7.

“It is an honor to award the Order of Civil Merit to a voice that upholds the conscience of the world,” Sánchez tweeted last Thursday.

The award was for her “extensive work documenting and denouncing violations of international law in Gaza,” according to news site The Diplomat in Spain.

On May 6, Sánchez asked President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen to “neutralize” sanctions imposed by the U.S. against Albanese, the paper reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions on July 9, 2025.

“The United States has repeatedly condemned and objected to the biased and malicious activities of Albanese that have long made her unfit for service as a special rapporteur,” said Rubio at the time. “Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism and open contempt for the United States, Israel and the West.”

On Feb. 7, Albanese referred to Israel as humanity’s “common enemy” during a video address to the 17th Al Jazeera Forum (Feb. 7-9) in Qatar.


David Harsanyi: Nick Kristof’s grotesque journalistic malpractice
Then again, even the named sources Kristof relies on are highly problematic.

Sami Sai, an introspective “freelance journalist” according to Kristof, is actually a Palestinian activist who publicly celebrated on Oct 7. Sai, who has been arrested numerous times for violent incitement, has an evolving story about allegedly being raped.

Another “source” is longtime Palestinian activist and media favorite Issa Amro, who also has an ever-changing story about his time in an Israeli prison. In a 2024 Washington Post piece, for example, Amro very specifically claimed that he was threatened with sexual assault while in Israeli detention. In Kristof’s column, he has morphed into a victim of rape.

But Kristof’s most cartoonishly evil accusation contends that the Israelis use trained dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners. This hoax is the favorite of online antisemitic podcaster types. Not only has there never been a shred of evidence that this has happened, but it’s also probably “biologically and cognitively unfeasible” for humans to train dogs to rape people.

The dog rape claim originates with the EuroMed Human Rights Monitor, a pro-Hamas Qatari-based group. It was spread by, among other shady types, conspiracy theorist Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, a former postdoctoral fellow at UCLA who was forced to leave the school after sexual-harassment allegations involving minors.

Palestinians have spent over 70 years pulling hoaxes on gullible Westerners to gain sympathy. Anyone who’s followed the Middle East situation for more than five minutes is aware that Israel’s enemies are constantly making up ludicrous claims about trained animals. Israelis are apparently the greatest animal trainers in history. The country has been accused of deploying sharks, rats, lizards, cows, dolphins, hawks, and pigs by its enemies. The only difference here is that a Western journalist was credulous or despicable enough to spread the conspiracy.

It’s probably no accident, incidentally, that Kristof ran his victim-blaming propaganda the week we got a 300-page report detailing first-hand testimony and verifiable evidence that rape was “systematic” and “integral” to the Hamas Oct. 7 terrorist attack. Another recent report finds Hamas using international aid to sexually exploit women, especially widows and divorcees.

Of course, it’s not implausible that some Israeli soldiers acted immorally or criminally in prisons against enemy combatants. Israel is a country like any other. The blood libel pushed by Kristof, however, is that the government systemically approves of rape and torture — the very things Hamas embraces and joyfully records on their GoPros, body cameras, and phones. This isn’t journalism. It’s not even opinion journalism. It’s just part of a smear campaign meant to turn Americans against the Jewish state.

The only question now is whether Kristof is a dupe for Hamas apologists who can’t be trusted to apply basic journalistic standards to his writing or a willing participant who doesn’t care about them. Either way, he doesn’t deserve to be a journalist anymore.


‘It’s Hamas Propaganda’: New York Times Writer Nicholas Kristof’s ‘Sexual Violence’ Column Caps a Career of Corrections, Retractions and Apologies Going Back 25 Years
Kristof also cites uncritically information from the organization Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which he describes as "a Geneva-based advocacy group often critical of Israel." Kristof notes that Euro-Med recently determined Israel engages in "systematic sexual violence" that is "widely practiced as part of an organized state policy."

He does not note that Euro-Med has long made discredited claims that Israel "trains dogs to rape prisoners," or that its founder, Ramy Abdu, "has documented ties to senior Hamas leaders," according to the Israeli government and watchdog group NGO Monitor.

"This isn't journalism," the Israeli foreign ministry posted to X on Tuesday. "It's Hamas propaganda, a distortion of the truth and the facts all serving an anti-Israel agenda." Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Leiter, meanwhile, published a 2011 photo showing Abdu and former Euro-Med chair Mazen Kahel posing alongside the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Honest Reporting reached a similar conclusion, saying that Kristof's column relies on "key sources whose public social‑media histories show open support for terrorist groups" and "stories that grow steadily more lurid over time, with dramatic new details added years later."

"This is not how you build a case for crimes as serious as systematic rape," the watchdog group wrote.

The Times disputed a report from the former MSNBC host David Shuster, who said on X that the publication was discussing a retraction of Kristof's column over concerns about its sourcing. "He travelled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of Palestinians who suffered abuse, and his article collects accounts in the victims' own words, backed by independent studies," a Times spokesman wrote on X. The outlet did not address Kristof's reliance on a Hamas-linked NGO and did not respond to a Free Beacon request for comment seeking information on how the column was fact-checked.

Kristof's reporting has faced similar challenges in the past, leading him to acknowledge errors and faulty sourcing. His 2014 apology letter, "When Sources May Have Lied," details how he was misled by Cambodian activist Somaly Mam, whose stories about human trafficking turned out to be fiction. He also turned heads in 2013 when he retweeted a missive likening AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group, to pigs.

His many investigations over the years of Backpage.com, which he accuses of being a hub for sex trafficking of minors, have been denounced by advocates for sex workers, who say he inaccurately maligns a crucial marketplace for the world's oldest profession.

In 2001, Kristof penned a series of columns calling on federal prosecutors to pin an anthrax attack on a subject known as "Mr. Z," who later turned out to be Steven Hatfill, a former Army scientist who spent years being persecuted by media accounts claiming he was the culprit. Federal investigators never charged Hatfill in the attack, and he was ultimately exonerated, settling a lawsuit with the government for almost $6 million. Hatfill sued the Times and Kristof for defamation. The case was dismissed after Hatfill failed to prove that Kristof acted with "malice," but Kristof apologized to him in 2008.
Israel: NYT printed ‘one of the worst blood libels ever’
Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Monday accused The New York Times of publishing “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press.”

“In an unfathomable inversion of reality, and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused,” the MFA tweeted, referencing the Pulitzer Prize-winning NYT columnist who wrote “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians.”

The opinion peace alleged that, despite an absence of evidence, the Jewish state utilizes sexual violence against Palestinians as part of its “security apparatus,” citing the conspiracy theory that Israeli guards coach dogs to sexually assault terrorist prisoners.

The piece prompted sharp criticism from analysts, academics and former officials, who accused Kristof of relying on unsubstantiated claims and inflammatory rhetoric.

In his column, the author acknowledged that “there is no evidence that Israeli leaders order rapes” and that he relied on conversations with 14 individuals who “said they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces.”

According to the Foreign Ministry, Kristof’s publication was “part of a false and well-orchestrated anti-Israel campaign” aimed at placing Jerusalem on the U.N. secretary-general’s blacklist of parties responsible for sexual violence in conflict.

“Israel—whose citizens were the victims of the most horrific sexual crimes committed by Hamas on October 7, and whose hostages were later subjected to further sexual abuse—is portrayed as the guilty party,” tweeted the ministry.

“Israel will fight these lies with the truth—and the truth will prevail,” it added.
NYT’s libelous campaign against Israel continues apace
At a time of escalating acts of violence committed against Jews worldwide, these types of photos promote violence directed at the Jewish community, which seems to be the point.

It’s no secret that to work in Gaza, writers and photographers must obey the Hamas propaganda line, or get out. This alone should disqualify him from being honored with journalism’s most coveted prize.

Then, on Monday, Kristof’s column continued the Times’ campaign against Israel.

In it, he accuses people AND CANINES from Israel of creating a vast “pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women, and even children” of Arabs.

That’s quite an accusation. Perhaps one should consider the source.

Turns out Kristof’s deranged piece relies heavily on a recent report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a Swiss-based advocacy organization. Euro-Med’s founder and chairman, Ramy Abdu, has publicly declared his support for Hamas.

Contaminated source
Posting on social media, he called the monsters who raped and murdered Israelis “heroic knights who created for us pure glory,” and promised to “remember their names well and teach the stories of their eternal heroism to . . . children and grandchildren.”

Did Kristof just ignore this?

It wouldn’t be the first time. Kristof was a champion of Cambodian anti-sex-trafficking activist Somaly Mam, who claimed to have survived being trafficked herself. He wrote numerous columns about her supposed plight and a book foreword, plus worked on a documentary, before allegations emerged that Mam had fabricated key parts of her life story, leading to her resignation from her foundation.

But perhaps the truth of what Kristof writes or Alghorra photographs isn’t important to The New York Times, as long as it hurts Israel.
How an Unverified Dog-Rape Allegation Was Laundered Into the New York Times
Social Media Amplification & Analysis
Jewish Onliner also conducted a social media analysis of dog-related posts mentioning Israel, Israelis, or the IDF across X, Instagram, and YouTube over the past 12 months. The query generated roughly 1.4 million posts and 11.4 million engagements. In JO’s review, a large majority of posts related to allegations that Israeli forces used dogs to sexually assault Palestinians, though the dataset also captured some broader dog-related Israel content. The volume underscores how the allegation and related imagery circulated at mass scale across major platforms.

Among the most viral amplifiers of the narrative was Jvnior, a high-engagement X account that has drawn scrutiny from Community Notes users. Public posts citing a Community Notes leaderboard state that the account has received more than 80 notes for allegedly presenting false or outdated content as current news.

The findings suggest that the allegation did not spread through a single publication or witness account alone. Rather, it circulated through a broader attention ecosystem of advocacy figures, activist media outlets, and high-reach social media accounts, many of which amplified the claim without verifying its accuracy. The Architecture of the Narrative

By the time Nicholas Kristof published his May 11, 2026 column, the allegation had already moved through multiple layers of citation and amplification: Euro-Med’s NGO report, an Al Jazeera documentary, Middle East Eye coverage, activist articles by Owen Jones, broader UN reporting on alleged detention abuse, and sustained social media circulation. Yet the central evidentiary gap remained unresolved.

None of the public sources provided forensic documentation, authenticated footage, an independently identifiable alleged victim, on-the-record soldier testimony, or veterinary analysis supporting the specific dog-rape allegation.

Instead, repetition across advocacy, media, and institutional channels appeared to create a sense of corroboration, allowing an unverified claim to enter mainstream commentary as part of a broader narrative of documented abuse.


Kristof’s Extraordinary Claims About Israeli Rape Require Extraordinary Evidence. The Times Doesn’t Have It
While Euro-Med first published the claim about dogs in 2024, the group issued a new report last month containing new detainee testimony making the same allegation, through the same unverified methodology, as Eli Kowaz writes in his own criticism of the Kristof piece.

And canine behavior expert Michael S. Gould tells National Review that the suggestion that dogs could be trained to rape prisoners is “absurd.”

“I’ve trained dogs to do a lot of things in my life. But no, that’s absurd,” said Gould, who began working with dogs in 1982 as one of the first members of the New York City Police Department’s Canine Unit and later went on to become a canine forensics expert and consultant. “It’s absurd for many reasons: the sexual instincts of dogs, their anatomy, the actual physical concept of it.”

“Could you train a dog to bite someone in their genitals? Of course you can,” he said, but added that dogs “don’t stand erect,” and don’t have the instincts or trainability to rape a person, never mind on command.

The Times did not respond when asked for comment on the apparent holes in Kristof’s reporting. The Times account on X did respond to a post suggesting that top editors are considering retracting the column, saying “there is no truth to this at all.”

Kristof “traveled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of Palestinians who suffered abuse, and his article collects accounts in the victims’ own words, backed by independent studies,” spokesman Charlie Stadtlander said in the statement posted on X.

Kristof, for his part, defended his reporting in a post on X, saying, “To those who say that canine rape is impossible, despite the many Palestinians who have described it, I’d note that at least three different medical journal articles discuss rectal injuries in humans from anal penetration by dogs. Sigh.”

The dog rape claim first picked up steam after it was amplified by Shaiel Ben-Ephraim. The former academic and Zionist-turned-“whistleblower,” who has recently trafficked in anti-Israel conspiracy theories, left UCLA in 2020 after multiple sexual‑harassment allegations, including one involving a minor.

His claims were later picked up by the Electronic Intifada, Owen Jones, and Novara Media. But what the media outlets failed to mention is that Ben-Ephraim has himself acknowledged the dog rape claims were “not verified.”


Commentary Podcast: Antisemitic Times
JNS's Ruthie Blum joins us today to discuss three New York Times articles that point to a disturbing trend with regards to the paper's coverage of Israel - Israel's absence from a list of New York's best restaurants, a piece on supposed Israeli manipulation of the Eurovision Song Contest, and Nicholas Kristof's piece alleging Israel trained dogs to rape Palestinians.




Ask Haviv Anything: 115: Is Nicholas Kristof right?
Welcome to our new short-form episodes interspersed with the regular interviews and lectures that dive into an often-asked question about Israel, Jews and the Middle East.

Our current episode tackles the New York Times’ Nick Kristof's oped claiming systemic sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners, which many listeners have asked us to respond to. We ask the obvious question: Is Nicholas Kristof right?

Chapters
00:00 The Allegations of Abuse in Israeli Prisons
02:55 The Propaganda and Its Implications
05:52 The Reality of Abuse and the Need for Accountability
09:13 The Broader Context of Violence and Political Responsibility
12:03 The Path Forward: A Call to Action


Is Nick Kristoff’s blood libel this century’s Dreyfus Affair? Matt joined Hugh to discuss.



Grassroots call among Jewish leaders for boycott of ‘The New York Times’
Jewish leaders are calling for a boycott of The New York Times after it rejected rumors that it will be retracting a column accusing Israel of using dogs to sexually assault Palestinian prisoners, with the Israeli Foreign Ministry claiming that the paper deliberately timed the column to be published the day before a Civil Commission comprehensive report on Hamas’s use of sexual violence on Oct. 7, 2023.

“There is no truth to this at all,” Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Times, said on Tuesday of the retraction rumor. “Nicholas Kristof is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who has reported on sexual violence for decades and is widely regarded as one of the world’s best on-the-ground reporters documenting and bearing witness to sexual abuse experienced by women and men in war and conflict zones.”

He added that Kristof “traveled to the region to report firsthand on the stories of Palestinians who suffered abuse, and his article collects accounts in the victims’ own words, backed by independent studies.”

The Israeli Foreign Ministry stated that the Civil Commission had approached the Times months ago with the Civil Commission report on Hamas’s use of sexual violence and that the paper said it was “not interested.”

“Aware of the report and its release date, the night before its release, The New York Times ran a shameful attack on Israel, belittling Hamas’s sexual crimes,” the ministry stated. “That tells you everything about The New York Times’s agenda.”

Oren Marmorstein, spokesperson for the ministry, said Kristof’s column was fabricated and lacked “even a single piece of evidence, while its primary source has known ties to Hamas.”

“More importantly, why did the Times publish this baseless blood libel when it knew that a verified report on Hamas’s sexual crimes was due to be released the very next day?” he asked.


Pro-Israel activist calls for boycott of Mamdani’s Jewish heritage event at Gracie Mansion
A prominent pro-Israel activist is urging fellow Jewish leaders to boycott a Jewish heritage event Mayor Zohran Mamdani is hosting at Gracie Mansion next Monday.

Americans Against Antisemitism founder Dov Hikind blasted Mamdani and his artist wife, Rama Duwaji, saying the couple have been hostile to Jews through a series of controversial statements and social media posts.

“Things are out of control in this city. Attacks upon Jews. Fear in the Jewish community,” said Hikind, who previously served in the state Assembly for 35 years representing heavily orthodox Jewish communities in southern Brooklyn.

“I am calling on Jewish leaders not to attend this event. I plead with you to take a stand. Show pride. Have self respect,” Hikind said in a video provided to The Post that he plans to publish online.

Invitations sent out by the mayor’s office called the May 18 event a “Shavuot Celebration in Honor of Jewish Heritage Month” and noted that a “festive kosher dairy menu will be served.” Shavuot begins Thursday evening.

Mamdani has had a strained relationship with Jewish leaders since he ran for office last year, as he was criticized for controversial comments and stances including outspoken criticisms of Israel.
DOJ antisemitism task force chair urges NYC action after Brooklyn protest
Leo Terrell, chair of the U.S. Justice Department’s task force on Jew-hatred, called on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to take action following a protest outside the Young Israel of Midwood in Brooklyn on Monday night that led to four arrests.

Terrell criticized city leadership over what he described as insufficient enforcement following incidents targeting Jewish New Yorkers.

“Let me be clear, I am sick and tired of Jews being harassed in New York City,” Terrell said. “Did you see what happened in Brooklyn? Where is the mayor? Where is the district attorney? Where are the hate crime charges?”

“Jewish Americans are allowed the religious freedoms given by this country,” he said. “Jewish Americans are not being protected in New York City.”

“What happened last night in Brooklyn was outrageous, insulting,” Terrell said. “Mayor, district attorney, do your job. Protect Jewish Americans now.” (JNS sought comment from Mamdani and the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.)

The New York Police Department said officers responded to a “scheduled demonstration” outside 1694 Ocean Avenue in the 70th Precinct, where four individuals were taken into custody.

“Jew-haters marched towards a Jewish house of worship, through a heavily Jewish neighborhood, past Jewish homes, Jewish families, Jewish businesses and Jewish communal spaces, chanting for ‘intifada,’ waving a Hezbollah flag and screaming abuse at Jews in the street,” Brooke Goldstein, founder of EndJewHatred, said.

“New York’s leaders, especially Zohran Mamdani, must stop pretending this is normal protest activity,” she said. “Mr. Mayor, you are on notice. The inevitable violence this will lead to falls squarely on your shoulders. You must act to stop this now.”


Latest anti-Israel protest outside NYC synagogue planned in Queens amid rising tensions
An anti-Israel protest is expected on Tuesday night outside Young Israel of Jamaica Estates in Queens, one day after four people were arrested during a similar protest outside a Brooklyn synagogue, according to David Weprin, a Democratic member of the New York State Assembly.

Weprin, whose 24th Assembly District includes the synagogue, said he has been in contact with the New York City Police Department’s 107th Precinct, which he said will deploy officers “to keep the community safe.”

“I am deeply disturbed by this action that comes off the heels of multiple incidents of antisemitic vandalism and intimidation in Queens and throughout New York,” Weprin stated. “We cannot tolerate hate of any kind, and I strongly denounce any action targeting a house of worship. Jewish New Yorkers deserve to feel safe at home, at prayer, and in the community.”

It was not immediately clear which group organized the planned protest. Jewish organizations and community groups, meanwhile, scheduled a counter-rally for Tuesday evening to “protect Young Israel of Jamaica Estates” during a planned “Great Israeli Real Estate Event.”

“We will stand together proudly, peacefully and unapologetically in support of our community, our values and our right to worship safely,” a flyer for the counter-rally states.

Deborah Lipstadt, former U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, told JNS that “violence escalates” at such demonstrations.

“It starts with words, then moves to shoving, then to punching and so on,” she said. “Those who engage in acts of violence must be stopped early on.”

“What seems to have happened both at Park East Synagogue and in Queens proves that the bill the mayor vetoed was more than necessary,” she said.
Violent anti-Israel protesters yank woman’s hair, flash strobe light in boy’s face at disturbing NYC rally
Disturbing footage shows anti-Israel demonstrators yanking a Jewish woman’s hair and flashing a strobe light in an Orthodox boy’s face during violent clashes in Brooklyn on Monday night.

Four people were arrested in the violence, including two teenagers.

The sides traded shoves and insults in the chaotic scene in the streets in Midwood not far from the Young Israel Senior Services, which was holding an event promoting real estate in Israel and the West Bank.

During the tense confrontations, a masked female protester was caught on video running and then grabbing a Jewish woman’s hair from behind, according to the on-the-ground footage from Status Coup News.

Shortly after, a man in black stands in front of Israel supporters and squares up against a squad of young men carrying a Palestinian flag.

“Let’s go motherf–kers, c’mon! C’mon, motherf–kers!” the man yelled.

Another altercation captured by freelancer Timmy Focacia shows a masked provocateur flashing a strobing light directly in the eyes of a young Orthodox boy outside the Avenue H subway station, where the protest eventually reportedly fizzled out.

Among the four people arrested was a 30-year-old man charged with assault, criminal possession of a weapon and harassment. He has four previous arrests from 2021 that appear to all be protest-related, sources said.


Liam Tuffs: He Just DESTROYED Piers Morgan
Jonathan Sacerdoti joins the show to discuss the Golders Green terror attack, why he believes the police kicking the terrorist in the head was justified, and the disturbing rise of antisemitism in Britain.

Sacerdoti breaks down "Globalize the Intifada", explains why he calls pro-Palestine marches "hate marches", dismantles conspiracy theories about Jewish elites orchestrating mass migration, organ harvesting, and child sacrifice, and shares the powerful story of his father — a Holocaust survivor.

A must-watch conversation on terrorism, integration, media bias, and what Britain must do to confront radical Islam and protect its values.




spiked: ‘Zack Polanski is an enemy of Jews’ | Melanie Phillips on the Islamo-left menace in the Greens
Melanie Phillips – Times columnist and author of the new book, Fighting the Hate: A Handbook for Jews Under Siege – returns to The Brendan O’Neill Show. Melanie and Brendan discuss the rise of the Islamo-left, Britain’s descent into anti-Semitism and why the Labour Party fell apart.

Join us for the spiked summit, our biggest ever live event, on Saturday 27 June in Westminster featuring Konstantin Kisin, Lionel Shriver, Katharine Birbalsingh, Toby Young, Allison Pearson, Brendan O’Neill, Tom Slater and more speakers to be announced. Get tickets here: https://www.spiked-online.com/event/s...

Become a spiked supporter to access all of spiked’s exclusive content, and get unlimited, ad-free reading and other perks: https://www.spiked-online.com/support/

0:00 – Introduction and Political Turmoil
0:35 – UK Politics in Crisis
2:41 – Green Party's Dangerous Alliances
8:09 – Anti-Zionism: The New Bigotry
10:21 – Media's Role in Jew-Baiting
15:26 – Education's Role in Societal Decline
23:41 – Palestinian Cause: A Trojan Horse
39:05 – Islamist Threat to Western Values
44:57 – Conclusion: A Call to Defend Civilization





Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon!

Reclaiming the Covenant on America's 250th (May 2026)

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

    

 


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This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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