JNS
The Gray Lady’s latest anti-Israel hit job
Ruthie Blum
December 30, 2024

It’s hard to imagine The New York Times stooping any lower than usual in its coverage of Israel’s defensive war in Gaza. Yet the Gray Lady seems to have managed to outdo itself on this score once again. Its latest hit job took the form of a lengthy news feature on Thursday, titled “Israel Loosened Its Rules to Bomb Hamas Fighters, Killing Many More Civilians.” The article, marked by as many bylines as anonymous sources, attempted to lull readers with a neat trick: using the Israel Defense Forces’ self-imposed “purity of arms” doctrine, a stricter code of ethics than that of any other military in history, to highlight the Jewish state’s allegedly unacceptable behavior on the battlefield. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Public support for conscripting ultra-Orthodox has surged throughout war Public support for doing away with sweeping army exemptions for military-age ultra-Orthodox men has risen sharply over the past year, according to a survey published Tuesday by the Israel Democracy Institute. Support for drafting eligible Haredim either en masse or incrementally, complete with economic penalties for those who do not comply, stood at 84.5 percent, compared to 67% in January 2024, the survey showed. Only 9% of the Israeli public supported exempting the ultra-Orthodox from mandatory military service.