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‘Recalcitrant,’ ‘Bellicose,’ ‘Ultranationalist’: New York Times Uses Harsh Labels for Israel — but Not Hamas
Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in this handout picture released on March 5, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS
Another day, another snarky New York Times adjective hurled at Israel — but not at the terrorists Israel is fighting.
The Times‘ Jerusalem bureau chief, Patrick Kingsley, had a story up on the newspaper’s internet homepage saying Israel’s “governing coalition depends on support of ultranationalist leaders who are opposed to a permanent truce.” It also said, “[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s grip on power relies on the support of two far-right parties opposed to any agreement that would leave Hamas in power in Gaza.” And it referred to Bezalel Smotrich, “a far-right firebrand whose party holds the balance of power in Mr. Netanyahu’s ruling coalition.”
What’s remarkable here is the double standard. Israel and Israelis get pejorative labels: “ultranationalist,” “far-right.” Yet the Times seems to have abandoned even its prior practice of using the “militant” euphemism to describe Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. Hamas gets “no labels” treatment from the Times article, aside from a passing description of its negotiating position as “flexible” in contrast to Israel’s “hardball.” This is a Times news article, not an opinion piece or even something carrying a “news analysis” label. Where are the Times editors who are supposed to be preventing and policing this sort of blatant tilt?
The Kingsley story also misled Times readers in that it was inaccurate to suggest, as his article did, that opposition to leaving Hamas in power in Gaza is confined to Israel’s “far right.” Such opposition is a widely held view in Israel, and, for that matter, in America, at least outside the far-left New York Times.
This was only the latest in a series of recent examples of the Times slapping nasty names on Israel while staying studiously neutral in describing Hamas, Hezbollah, or Iran.
An article in the July 3 edition of the Times that carried the bylines of Times bigfeet Peter Baker and David Sanger described Israel as “a recalcitrant ally whose continued war against Hamas was creating yet another threat to a second term.” Hamas and Iran, which are both mentioned in the Times article, got no insulting descriptive label, not even the apparently passé “militant.” Yet Israel is called “recalcitrant,” which my Webster’s Second translates to “making obstinate opposition; refusing to obey authority, custom, regulation, etc.; stubbornly defiant; noncompliant; refractory.” To a sophisticated ear, this may even echo antisemitic tropes; a Louis D. Brandeis Center Fact Sheet on the “elements of antisemitic discourse” mentions “intransigence,” which is close to stubborn defiance.
Another news article, on page one of the July 5 New York Times, said, “Israeli officials have voiced increasingly bellicose threats of a potential invasion of Lebanon to push Hezbollah away from the border.” Bellicose, my Webster’s Second says, means “warlike; disposed to quarrel or fight.” Hezbollah was described in the same article more politely as “the politically powerful Lebanese armed group.” That article, too, slapped a “far-right” label on Smotrich and a “right-wing” label on the Israeli government, while applying no label at all — no label whatsoever — to Hamas.
It’s outrageous — the Times labels Israel as “bellicose” and “right-wing,” while Hamas gets no label at all and Hezbollah, which is also a terrorist group, just gets “politically powerful,” as if it is some American advocacy group like the American Federation of Teachers or the National Rifle Association.
The Times has also slapped the “ferocious,” “aggressive,” and “rabidly partisan” labels recently on Israel and its allies in other articles that typically also failed to apply similarly tendentious descriptions to Hamas or Hezbollah — or Iran, which backs both Islamist terrorist groups.
For Israel and its friends, it’s pick the Times insult of the day. For Iran and its friends, the Times adopts “no labels.”
I’ve been in and around the news business for three and a half decades at this point, a lot of them as an editor, and, at nearly every paper I worked at, invariably reporters would try to slip loaded words like this into news articles to see what they could get away with. Good editors take those words out to protect the newspaper’s reputation for fairness and accuracy. Or at least they used to.
At a minimum, if such words are used, they need to be applied to all sides rather than just one side. Otherwise, the Times risks earning a hard-to-shake “rapidly partisan” label for its own newsroom.
Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.
The post ‘Recalcitrant,’ ‘Bellicose,’ ‘Ultranationalist’: New York Times Uses Harsh Labels for Israel — but Not Hamas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.