Nicholas Kristof is one of the two World’s Greatest Authorities working as columnists for the New York Times — the other is Tom Friedman — and like Friedman he doesn’t much care for Israel or its way of conducting itself. Like Friedman, he has words of advice for the Jewish state, which maddeningly doesn’t always take it, and naturally that breeds resentment. More on Kristof’s latest column on Israel (“Losing Sight of a Shared Humanity”) and Hamas can be found here: “‘New York Times’ writer Nicholas Kristoff [sic] lost sight of facts, nuance – opinion,” by Barbara Sofer, Jerusalem Post, November
The most disappointing part of Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof’s recent op-ed in The New York Times, “Losing sight of a shared humanity,” is its dateline.
Jerusalem.
Reporting from Jerusalem, how simple it is to check the facts and to gain deeper and more nuanced insight into what is happening, especially when you are an internationally recognized journalist with superb credentials and contacts.
He came “to listen and learn,” says Kristof.
Yes, of course, ostentatious modesty: I only came “to listen and learn.” Kristof did neither. His mind was made up about Gaza, it is Israel that needs to stop treating the Gazans so badly, in Kristof’s view. The Israelis must not “lose sight of their shared humanity” with the poor Palestinians.
But it was the Palestinians, not the Israelis, who carried out the atrocities on October 7. It was the excited Allahu-akbaring murderers of Hamas who beheaded babies, burned children alive, tortured and raped young girls, murdered children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children. And it was the people of Gaza, the so-called “innocent civilians,” who were delighted with what Hamas did, who celebrated, handing out candy pastries while the women ululated, and the men Allahu-akbared, expressing their pride and joy that so many Jews had been murdered. During the six weeks of fighting in Gaza, no Israelis have been handing out candies to celebrate the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza. The Israelis regret the death of every innocent, on both sides.
I was hopeful that his presence in Israel would give him a greater appreciation of the evils of Hamas and its implications for the free world.
In ‘Losing sight of a shared humanity,’ Nicholas Kristof loses sight of Israel.
Kristof says:
“Israel’s invasion of Gaza is destroying tunnels, ammunition dumps, and Hamas fighters, yes. But I’m afraid it’s also helping to pulverize the recognition of shared humanity that in the long run allows people to live beside one another in peace.”
“Shared humanity means it must exist on both sides….
But can it exist on both sides? Has there been any sign from any Gazan, even a word of remorse or regret or shame over what Hamas did on October 7? Not a syllable.
Aren’t the multifarious ways that the IDF tries to limit civilian casualties by warning of impending attacks an expression of “shared humanity” that is felt by only one side? Israel recognizes the “humanity” of innocent Palestinians; the reverse is not true. Hamas tries to maximize civilian casualties on both sides, knowing that if Gazan civilians are wounded or killed, that will be a propaganda victory scored against Israel, by deliberately putting them in danger by placing weapons, rocket launchers, combatants, control-and-command centers both inside, and among, civilian structures, such as schools, kindergartens, mosques, hospitals, apartment buildings, and office complexes.
While Hamas intentionally puts Gazans in danger, the IDF tries to limit that danger by warning civilians away from sites about to be targeted. The IDF uses messaging, telephoning, leafletting, and the “knock-on-the-roof” technique, to warn people to leave particular buildings. It also warns on a much broader scale, as when it dropped 1.5 million leaflets in northern Gaza to warn the residents to flee southward, to safer places beyond the Wadi Gaza, while battles raged in northern Gaza. The IDF created two safe north-south corridors, one along the Salah al-Din Street that runs right through the center of Gaza; the other, Al-Rashid Street, is a coastal road. More than 850,000 Gazans have already taken the IDF’s warning to heart, and moved to the south, and then to those areas in the south where the IDF has said will be the safest. Hamas has tried all along to prevent their human shields from leaving the north; it has even fired on and killed Palestinians fleeing south, in order to frighten others from leaving.
Israel, then, warns the Palestinians in two ways. First, it tries to get them to flee areas where major battles are expected to take place. That’s why those 1.5 million leaflets were dropped in northern Gaza. Second, it tries to warn civilians to leave buildings, and their surrounding areas, where the IDF intends to soon target. No other army in the world warns its enemies about where it intends to strike next. That practice has led British Colonel Richard Kemp to describe the IDF as “the most moral in the world.” Apparently this IDF practice of warning civilians away from places soon to be targeted has not made an impression on Nicholas Kristof; he’s never mentioned it.
Kristof writes: “The poisonous hatred in turn is already spilling over to the United States and other countries worldwide.”
Which poisonous hatred? The hatred toward the Jews or from the Jews? Are there examples of Jews expressing poisonous hatred on campuses? Did the Christian and Muslim students at Cornell University have to hide in their rooms because of threats from Jews? What about the Jewish students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who were advised to enter their classrooms and labs from the back door?
It is not Jews who are entering classrooms to shout down professors who are deemed insufficiently supportive of their cause. It is not Jews who are physically surrounding Palestinians, and preventing them from escaping as they chant annihilationist slogans at them. It is not Jews who are shutting down speakers from the other side. But these are all part of the routine behavior of pro-Palestinian students on American campuses today.
Hoi Polloi says
Maybe he should see some of the statements of Middle Easterners who have actual knowledge and understanding of Hamas. One of many: “Crown prince of Bahrain alman bin Hamad Al Khalifa condemns Hamas.”
When palis come to the US (which is the actual goal) like these Afghanis being relocated, will he live with them into his cereal box, or worse, every morning? Bet he’ll be like Francis; behind guards and walls and with nothing but condemnation for those who live up against the sharpened edges of their machetes.
“Hundreds of Afghans evacuated from Pakistan ‘dumped’ in UK military bases — report”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2411876/pakistan
Bexarkat says
I do not understand why this is so difficult to understand. Shared humanity is an Israeli virtue and mass killing and destruction is an Islamic virtue. Israel has tried to make peace so many times, but peace is constantly refused by the others. The PA will only accept peace on their terms, which (for now) is removal of Israeli borders to the 1967 cease fire lines. Once achieved, step two is “from the river to the sea.”
James Lincoln says
Nicholas Kristof is highly intelligent and highly educated.
But, as a Progressive Leftist, he severely lacks common sense.
And, all the while, New York Times readers keep lapping up his propaganda…
Patrick says
Please trade him for a hostage.