RAPE DOGS AND THE NEW YORK TIMES: UNDERSTANDING THE NICOLAS KRISTOF COLUMN

This week’s Torah Portion is the opening of the book of Numbers, in which God commands Moses to take not one but two censuses.  It is not a very inspiring portion, full of numbers and names of tribes and clans.  Still, it reminds us how important numbers and censuses are in understanding who a people is and what they are facing.   It would be hard to, say, address hunger or housing shortages without knowing the numbers.   Numbers matter.  It matters that in 2025, the FBI reported that almost seventy percent of all religiously motivated hate crimes targeted Jews, who make up only two percent of the population.  The ADL reported that there were 6,274 verified incidents of antisemitism reported in the US in 2025, and it matters that the number, when compared to 2024, had dropped by over 2,000 incidents. 

Still, numbers only give part of a picture.  They often can’t convey how something feels to us.  They can’t capture the complex lived experience of humans.  In Hebrew, this week’s Torah portion is not called Numbers, but “BaMidbar– In the Wilderness.”   I can’t help but think the Hebrew title captures more of the gestalt of being Jewish in America right now.   Nothing, for me, has brought this home more than the recent article in the New York Times by Nicolas Kristof entitled: The Silence that Meets the Rape of Palestinians, published on May 11.   There are SO many things wrong with that column, some of which I’ll detail below, but in it, the drive to vilify Jews in order to support Palestinians reached a new, dangerous level.  The point was not to document a real problem or to expose it. The point, as Kristof himself says, is to draw a false equivalency between the massacre of October 7 and the treatment of Palestinians in Israeli prisons. 

The most outrageous claim is that Israel is training dogs to rape Palestinian male prisoners.  This claim has circulated in the Arab world and among pro-Palestinians for years, but it is so absurd that it has not before made it into legitimate media, if we can still call the Times “legitimate.”  Remember that in Arab culture, dogs are dirty and sinister, so of course Jews are secretly training them to rape Arab men; it is an Arab fever-dream of Jew-hate. Experts from many fields, including dog trainers, have made it clear that this is just not real, but that did not keep Kristof from writing it or the New York Times from publishing and then defending it.    

That being said, there are real problems in Israel right now with some young people on the extreme racist right sexually harassing, abusing, and raping prisoners.  The Israeli media has reported on this factually, and there are cases in courts.   Still, with someone like Ben G’vir in charge of the police, there are more such incidents happening.  Ben G’vir’s words and actions provide a tacit permission structure for violence. If Kristof had factually reported on this, instead of using hearsay from Hamas-affiliated NGO’s and unverified individual stories, the column would have been upsetting but certainly needed. He did not.

Nor did he point out that sexual violence is a real problem in prisons across the world, including right here in the US. This is not to justify it, but to point out the double standard that is now widespread in the drive to demonize Jews and Israelis.  Kristof says that such violence is Israeli government policy, which is demonstrably false, as he admits and yet still holds to the libel.

Here’s a number that matters:  I’ve subscribed to the New York Times since I went to college in 1979; that’s almost 47 years.  I’ve read it almost every day.  Today, I cancelled my subscription, and honestly, I feel “in the wilderness.”

In short, here are three of the key problems with the article:  

·         Specific Allegations: The column cited shocking testimonies, including allegations that Israeli authorities trained dogs to rape Palestinian detainees. Critics, including Israeli officials and media watchdogs, characterized this specific claim as an unverified "blood libel" due to a lack of forensic or documented evidence.

·         Source Credibility: Media analysts (such as Honest Reporting) criticized Kristof’s heavy reliance on the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, an organization with close ties to Hamas and a history of spreading disinformation about Israel.

·         Timing of the Piece: Pro-Israel commentators raised concerns that the op-ed was strategically published to overshadow a separate, comprehensive report detailing with documentation widespread sexual violence committed by Hamas on October 7.

One of the most thoughtful commentaries I’ve read or heard on this comes from Matti Friedman, the outstanding Israeli journalist who has been sounding the alarm about anti-Israel media bias since 2014.  I want to share a conversation between him and Dan Senor that I found helpful in thinking about this.  Here is a link to that conversation, both in podcast form and in video blog form. 

·        “The Making of the Kristof Column”  Call Me Back, May 13, 2026   Video

‍ ‍·        “The Making of the Kristof Column”  Call Me Back, May 13, 2026 Podcast

‍ ‍I also wanted to send you a link to two articles by Friedman from 2014 that frame what is happening in larger trends in media, based on his direct experience working for the Associated Press in Israel.   

‍ ‍·        Matti Friedman   “What the Media Gets Wrong about Israel”   The Atlantic   Nov 30, 2014 (will need a subscription)

‍ ‍·        Matti Friedman  ”An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth”Tablet Aug 26, 2014

‍ When I started at Temple Sinai, I was determined not to focus on Israel and anti-Semitism, but instead to lean into Jewish joy, the beauty and power of our tradition, and the importance of Jewish ideas in challenging some of the worst problems we face in the world.  The events since the Pittsburgh shooting have made that goal impossible, but after the release of the hostages, I have tried to go back and focus more on Judaism.  I try to do fewer sermons about anti-semitism, anti-Zionism, and Israel because it spoils the Shabbat mood and is far too heavy for young people.  But this one hit me hard and left me feeling disoriented, angry, and, frankly, scared.  I know many of you are feeling the same.   We will get through this together, through solidarity and love of our people in the face of the sort of hate our ancestors have faced throughout the centuries.  They knew how to live with it decade after decade; we need our ancestors’ wisdom right now.

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