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Israeli prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu called out The New York Times over the weekend after the newspaper’s editorial board warned that his presumed incoming right-wing coalition poses a threat to Israel’s democracy.
In a piece titled “The Ideal of Democracy in a Jewish State is in Jeopardy,” the Times on Saturday painted a bleak picture of Israel’s future, claiming that the nation’s democratically-elected government-in-the-making is “putting the ideal of a democratic Jewish state in jeopardy.”
In a short Twitter thread published on Sunday night, Netanyahu hit back, accusing the paper of “burying the Holocaust for years on its back pages and demonizing Israel for decades,” and charging it with “undermining Israel’s elected incoming government.”
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
“While the NYT continues to delegitimize the one true democracy in the Middle East and America’s best ally in the region, I will continue to ignore its ill-founded advice and instead focus on building a stronger and more prosperous country, strengthening ties with America, expanding peace with our neighbors, and securing the future of the one and only Jewish state,” Netanyahu tweeted.
A study of The New York Times’ coverage of Israel from earlier this year found that the “newspaper of record” had focused more stories on Israel than on any other Middle Eastern country. Of these stories, 53% were negative in their portrayal of the Jewish state, 34% were neutral, and only 13% were positive.
In recent years, The New York Times has published an opinion piece that whitewashed the anti-Israel BDS movement, as well as a guest essay that effectively undermined the Israeli fight against Hamas terror by accusing the Jewish state of wantonly and cruelly destroying Gazan infrastructure that has no strategic value. It also ran a guest essay that claimed that the campaign against antisemitism has become a “threat to freedom.”
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Palestinian terrorists fired several shots at an Israeli bus in the West Bank on Sunday evening, security forces confirmed. No injuries were reported among the passengers, who were reportedly returning from a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the site of a dismantled community in northern Samaria.
The gunmen shot about seven bullets at the delegation of Israeli activists, which included Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) and Yossi Dagan, head of the Samaria Regional Council.
In a subsequent statement, the Islamic Jihad terror group claimed responsibility for the attack near Mevo Dotan. It later published an unclear video, claiming it showed the moment of the shooting.
A civilian bus came under armed fire west of Jenin Monday night. The bus appears to have been hit eight times, according to the video. No injuries were reported. pic.twitter.com/uzXqGca3so
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) December 18, 2022
In response to the incident, MK Son Har-Melech and Dagan called for the cancellation of the so-called Disengagement Law, under which multiple Israeli communities in Samaria were evacuated alongside the 2005 disengagement from Gaza.
“In a place where Jews aren’t settling, there will be terrorism,” Dagan stated, adding: “It is not by chance that most of the recent terror attacks came from Shechem [Nablus] and Jenin, an area from which the settlers were uprooted, another proof that the settlements need to be returned and the Disengagement Law abolished.”
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France’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday condemned Israel’s decision to deport to Paris Salah Hamouri, a convicted Palestinian terrorist affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group, which is behind scores of deadly attacks targeting innocent Israelis.
“We condemn today the Israeli authorities’ decision, against the law, to deport Salah Hamouri to France,” France stated in an official missive.
“Since his most recent arrest, France has been fully mobilized, including at the highest level of the government, to ensure that Mr Hamouri’s rights are respected, that he benefits from all possible legal remedies and that he can lead a normal life in Jerusalem, where he was born, resides and wishes to live,” the statement added.
On Sunday morning, by order of outgoing Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, Hamouri was escorted to Ben Gurion Airport, where he boarded a flight to Paris. The deportation was made possible by a law passed in 2018, granting the interior minister the authority to revoke the permanent residency status of Palestinians living in eastern Jerusalem if they commit attacks.
Hamouri’s chilling criminal record includes several spells in prison and a 2005 arrest and subsequent conviction for his role in a PFLP terror cell that had plotted to assassinate Israel’s former chief rabbi, Ovadia Yosef.
Although Hamouri has denied that he is a member of the PFLP, the official PFLP website in September included Hamouri’s name on a list of 30 of its operatives who are in the “prisons of the Zionist occupation.”
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Food conglomerate Unilever announced that ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s has ceased its attempts to stop sales of its products in the West Bank, without revealing details of the settlement agreement.
“The litigation with Ben & Jerry’s Independent Board has been resolved,” Ben & Jerry’s parent company said in a statement.
Ben & Jerry’s has consistently argued that to sell its products in Judea and Samaria is inconsistent with its values, and brought a lawsuit against its parent company in July after the latter had announced that it would sell the rights to produce its dessert products in Israel to American Quality Products Ltd.
Owned by Israeli businessman Avi Zinger, American Quality Products has produced and delivered Ben & Jerry’s products in Israel for decades.
In the lawsuit, the Ben & Jerry’s board argued that the transfer breached a deal between them and Unilever because it circumvented the ice cream company’s decision to end sales in what it considers “occupied Palestinian territory.” Unilever countered that Ben & Jerry’s had no power to stop the sale of the Israeli business, and the sale could not be undone because it had closed in late June.
On Thursday, Avi Zinger told local media there were no changes being made to the agreement that he struck with Unilever.
“I am pleased that the litigation between Unilever and the independent Board of Ben & Jerry’s has been resolved,” he commented, adding: “I look forward to continuing to produce and sell the great tasting Ben & Jerry’s ice cream under the Hebrew and Arabic trademarks throughout Israel and the West Bank long into the future.”
Talk about spin. Actually, this was a massive BDS fail. Ben & Jerry's ice cream will continue to be sold in #Israel proper and the West Bank by the longtime Israeli franchisee – the only difference is that the packaging and marketing will be in Hebrew & Arabic and not English. https://t.co/Y0pStKw4Fm
— Michele Chabin (@MicheleChabin1) December 18, 2022
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