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Israel At War With the New York Times

By Steve

Posted on November 11, 2009

By David Bedein

Wed Nov 10 2009

David Bedein

The days of quiet diplomacy between the government of Israel and the New York Times is over. Israel has declared an unprecedented war against the New York times, for what it calls tendentious and unfair coverage of the Jewish State.

At the focus of the storm is the Goldstone report. The Israeli delegation in the U.N. sent an official complaint to the newspaper’s editorial board.

The complaint, signed by the Israel UN delegation’s spokeswoman, Mirit Cohen, says that the newspaper uses subjective negative language about Israel and failed in writing fair and accurate coverage.

The New York Times has yet to respond.

Dear Mr. Clark Hoyt, Public Editor of The New York Times,

I write in connection to a series of articles published in The New York Times in recent weeks regarding the Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, colloquially referred to as the Goldstone Report. I am deeply concerned by the subjective and often damning language that The New York Times uses towards Israel as it fails to accurately reflect the nature and scope of the report.

Over and over, The New York Times’ articles on this matter employ language that easily leads the reader to believe that the Goldstone Report found conclusive evidence that Israel committed war crimes. In Neil MacFarquhar’s “U.N. Council Endorses Gaza Report” (Oct. 16), the article states that the Goldstone Report “details evidence of war crimes committed by the Israeli Army…” In Sharon Otterman’s “Gaza Report Author Asks U.S. to Clarify Concerns” (Oct. 22), the Goldstone Report is described as having “found evidence of war crimes committed by Israel…” In yet another example — MacFarquhar and Otterman’s “Palestinians, in Reversal, Press U.N. Gaza Report” (Oct. 14) — the Goldstone Report is once again described as having “found evidence of Israeli war crimes…” These articles reflect only a sample of the many that discuss Israel vis-à-vis the Goldstone Report in conclusive and condemnatory terms.

In stark contrast, a Reuters article carried by The New York Times on Oct. 14, “Israel Urged to Investigate Gaza War Crimes Charges,” describes the Goldstone Report as reflecting “U.N. allegations of possible war crimes.”

The description offered by the Reuters piece is a critical component of any factually accurate discussion of the Goldstone Report. In sharp contrast, the aforementioned Times articles fail to reflect this vital distinction as readers will falsely assume that the Goldstone Report found conclusive evidence of Israeli war crimes.

I wish to reiterate Israel’s position that the Goldstone Report is deeply flawed and one-sided as it offers legitimacy to Hamas terrorism and its deliberate strategy to launch attacks, store weapons and use as shields the civilian population and infrastructure of Gaza. At the same time, the report’s mandate predetermined its findings that wrongly condemned Israel’s legitimate exercise of its right to self-defense. The tendency of The New York Times to gloss over such realities must be rectified and I sincerely hope that paper will use accurate and appropriate language to ensure that its coverage of the Goldstone Report and the wide Middle East is fair and honest. I remain at your disposal if you would like to further discuss this matter.

Yours truly,

Mirit Cohen, Spokesperson, Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN