Unlike many folks in the pro-Israel community, I’m not a New York Times hater. I find much of its cultural reporting top notch, and some of its commentary original and incisive. I don’t admire a certain political bias that permeates some of its reporting, especially when it comes to Israel, but I don’t let that stop me from enjoying the stuff I like.
Once in a while, though, it goes too far.
Here’s how the paper introduced a story on Israeli research efforts to fight COVID-19, in a May 8 tweet:
“The Israeli Defense Ministry’s research-and-development arm is best known for pioneering cutting-edge ways to kill people and blow things up. Now it is turning to saving lives.”
The criticism from the Jewish world has come hard and fast, with Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League tweeting:
“This tweet is sensationalist. It is irresponsible that the @nytimes buried the important story about Israel’s military developing innovative responses to #COVID19 beneath demonizing language that seems to question Israel’s legitimate security needs. They should do better.”
Maybe the lives of people who live in a westernized, successful, privileged country with a powerful army don’t have the same romance as the lives of those who wallow in powerlessness and victimhood.
Notwithstanding the poisoned tweet, the actual story has an upbeat headline, “Israeli Army’s Idea Lab Aims at a New Target: Saving Lives,” and subhead, “The country has engaged defense contractors, doctors, engineers, scientists — and most of the senses — in its battle against the coronavirus.”
As soon as you start reading, though, you realize where the tweet came from:
“The Israeli Defense Ministry’s research-and-development arm is best known for pioneering cutting-edge ways to kill people and blow things up, with stealth tanks and sniper drones among its more lethal recent projects. But its latest mission is lifesaving.”
Let’s put aside the ugly references to “killing people” and “blowing things up,” which may as well describe terror groups such as Hamas, ISIS or Hezbollah. Let’s focus instead on the main idea of the introduction: Now, finally, the Israeli army is into lifesaving. It’s about time!
What’s grossly missing from this picture, of course, is any inkling that “lifesaving” is part of the IDF mission. It’s called the Israel Defense Forces for a reason, because defending human lives is its primary focus. Why would a prestigious paper like The New York Times miss something so obvious?
When the terror bombs will fall again from Gaza, that IDF ingenuity will even protect New York Times reporters.
Here’s one possibility: The thousands of lives the IDF has saved over the years through its military, advanced intelligence and cutting-edge defensive weapons like the Iron Dome are… Israeli lives. Maybe the lives of people who live in a westernized, successful, privileged country with a powerful army don’t have the same romance as the lives of those who wallow in powerlessness and victimhood.
But those same Israelis—Jewish and non-Jewish—are surely grateful that the powerful IDF will continue to protect them, against either terror groups or an evil virus.
And when the terror bombs will fall again from Gaza, that IDF ingenuity will even protect New York Times reporters.
