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Top New York Times Editor Says His Paper Prompted US Pause of Arms to Israel
Israeli soldiers fire mortar shells, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, near Israel’s border with Gaza in southern Israel, Jan. 3, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
The executive editor of the New York Times, Joseph Kahn, is boasting that his newspaper is responsible for the Biden administration’s decision to stop sending 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.
Kahn also recently disclosed a $62,500 gift from his family charitable foundation to the Harvard Crimson, a student-run newspaper that has endorsed the movement to boycott, sanction, and divest from Israel and that also calls for Harvard to divest from weapons manufacturers and give amnesty to student anti-Israel protesters.
Kahn’s comment about the bombs came in an interview with the New Yorker magazine that was published online this week.
Asked, “can you talk a bit about how you’re thinking about AI [artificial intelligence] positively?” Kahn replied that the Times “visual investigations team” had used artificial intelligence “in this big investigation about the use of two-thousand-pound bombs by Israel in Gaza, identifying craters and identifying remnants of weapons and quantifying the strikes that actually had a real result in having the US restrict the sale of two-thousand-pound bombs to Israel.”
In a Dec. 2023 column for The Algemeiner, I wrote about the Times project, which was published both in print and video: “The policy goal is clear: to cut off Israel’s arms supply. ‘But the US has not stopped supplying weapons to Israel,’ the Times narrator says at one point, implying that is what the US should do.”
And after US President Joe Biden disclosed, in a CNN interview in May 2024, that he was pausing the shipments of the weapons to Israel, I wrote another column asserting that the New York Times “laid the groundwork for Biden’s decision.”
Now Kahn is validating the two Algemeiner columns, essentially describing the Biden policy decision — widely denounced in the American Jewish community and by pro-Israel lawmakers from both political parties — as a positive result of Times journalism.
The New Yorker reporter also grilled Kahn about a donation from his family charity to Planned Parenthood. Kahn indicated another family member was responsible for it and said, “I’m not making any donations to political organizations, full stop, and I have not in the past, ever.” He said it wouldn’t be appropriate for a New York Times employee to make such a donation: “I would say no, particularly if they’re at all involved in the coverage of those things, and I would not give to those organizations, whether I support them or not.”
The Kahn Charitable Foundation’s tax return for the year ended June 30, 2023, filed Nov. 10, 2023, lists $17 million in assets and Joe Kahn and a bank as the two trustees. Dwarfing the $6,000 donation to Planned Parenthood is a $62,500 gift to the Harvard Crimson. The Crimson just wrapped up a $15 million capital campaign in connection with its 150th birthday. Capital gifts are often payable over five-year terms, so it’s possible that the $62,500 is the first of a quarter-million-dollar commitment to the Crimson by Kahn, who was president of the paper as an undergraduate several years before I was.
The Crimson endorsed BDS with an editorial in April 2022, before the start of the year covered by the Kahn Charitable Foundation’s tax return. The Crimson‘s website lists Kahn as a member of the 150th campaign committee. The Crimson gift is the fourth largest of the 43 gifts listed on the tax return. Many similar foundations avoid such detailed disclosures by routing money through donor-advised funds.
In the New Yorker interview, Kahn also expressed pride in the New York Times‘ coverage of the war in Israel and Gaza: “There are very passionate views on opposite sides of this conflict,” he said. “The suffering of Palestinians in Gaza has been an absolutely vital part of the coverage that we’ve had. The displaced people, the civilian casualties caught up in the conflict have been a constant focus for us. On the other side of the equation, the trauma of October 7th, the shock of what was the largest attack on Israeli soil that Israelis had experienced, the mobilization to defeat Hamas, have also been an important story for us, and we’ve tried to tell it fully. And it’s really true that there isn’t that large a slice of the audience that’s neutral on these issues. But I’m immensely proud both of the news that we’ve done day to day — and this is a huge news story every day, every cycle — but also of the investigative work that we’ve done.”
Kahn has been talkative to the press lately. In another recent interview, with Semafor’s Ben Smith, he said, “I’m not an active Jew.”
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 Top New York Times Editor Says His Paper Prompted US Pause of Arms to Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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French Official Tells Paper Arab Countries Will Condemn Hamas, Trying to Get Palestinian Statehood Recognized
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot speaks to the media on the day he attends the European Union Foreign Ministers council in Brussels, Belgium, July 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman
Arab countries will for the first time condemn Hamas and call for its disarmament early next week at a United Nations ministerial event in New York, a move meant to lure more European countries to recognize Palestinian statehood, France’s foreign minister said on Saturday.
In an exclusive interview with French weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot said the move was part of a long-planned initiative between France and Saudi Arabia.
“For the first time, Arab countries will condemn Hamas and call for its disarmament, which will seal its definitive isolation. European countries will in turn confirm their intention to recognize the State of Palestine. Half of European countries have done so, all others are considering it,” Barrot told the JDD.
“The British Prime Minister has stated his intention to do so. Germany is considering it at a later stage. We will launch an appeal in New York for other countries to join us in order to set in motion an even more ambitious and demanding process that will culminate on September 21,” Barrot added.
On Thursday French President Emmanuel Macron announced France would formally recognize the state of Palestine at the U.N. General Assembly on September 21, drawing condemnation from the U.S. and Israel.
Earlier on Saturday Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni called it counterproductive to recognize a Palestinian state before it is established.
On Friday a German government spokesperson said there were no plans to recognize a Palestinian state in the short term.
At the upcoming United Nations event on Monday and Tuesday, France and Saudi Arabia plan to lay out a proposed post-war roadmap leading to a two-state solution covering security, reconstruction and governance, which will be compatible with the Abraham Accords negotiated by US President Trump, Barrot said.
The French minister added that in coming weeks the European Commission would take a tougher stance on Israel and demand a stop on building of any new settlement projects in the West Bank, and also an end to militarized policing of humanitarian aid distribution.
Barrot also called on fellow European countries to demand a removal of the financial blockade on the Palestinian authority so it can receive 2 billion euros he said it is owed.
The post French Official Tells Paper Arab Countries Will Condemn Hamas, Trying to Get Palestinian Statehood Recognized first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan and UAE Drop Aid Into Gaza in First Airdrop in Months, Jordanian Source Says
An airplane drops humanitarian aid over Gaza as seen from northern Gaza Strip July 27, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tons of aid into the Gaza Strip on Sunday in their first airdrop in months, a Jordanian official source said.
The official said the air drops were not a substitute for delivery by land.
The post Jordan and UAE Drop Aid Into Gaza in First Airdrop in Months, Jordanian Source Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Says Israel Will Have to Decide on Next Steps in Gaza, Pledges More Aid
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday Israel would have to make a decision on next steps in Gaza, adding that he did not know what would happen after the collapse of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with the Hamas terrorist group.
Trump underscored the importance of securing the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, saying they had suddenly “hardened” up on the issue, and said the US would provide more aid to the war-torn Palestinian enclave.
“They don’t want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision,” Trump told reporters at the start of a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at his golf property in Turnberry, Scotland.
“I know what I’d do, but I don’t think it’s appropriate that I say it. But Israel is going to have to make a decision,” he said, while also claiming, without evidence, that Hamas members were stealing food coming into Gaza and selling it.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both appeared on Friday to abandon Gaza ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, saying it had become clear that the Palestinian group did not want a deal.
Netanyahu said Israel was now mulling “alternative” options to achieve its goals of bringing its hostages home from Gaza and ending Hamas rule in the enclave.
Trump said he believed Hamas leaders would now be “hunted down,” telling reporters: “Hamas really didn’t want to make a deal. I think they want to die. And it’s very bad. And it got to be to a point where you’re going to have to finish the job.”
US TO PROVIDE MORE AID, TRUMP SAYS
Trump on Sunday said the US would provide more humanitarian aid to Gaza, where concerns are mounting about the worsening hunger, but wanted other countries to participate as well. He said he would discuss the issue with von der Leyen.
“We’re giving a lot of money, a lot of food, a lot of everything,” he said. “If we weren’t there, I think people would have starved, frankly. They would have starved, and it’s not like they’re eating well.”
He said he had spoken with Netanyahu and discussed a number of issues, including Iran. He said and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer would also discuss Israel when they meet at Trump’s golf property in Turnberry on Monday.
Trump also noted said the United States was not acknowledged for earlier food aid for Gaza.
“No other country gave anything,” he said, calling out European countries in particular. “It makes you feel a little bad when you do that and, you know, you have other countries not giving anything… Nobody gave but us. And nobody said, Gee, thank you very much. And it would be nice to have at least a thank you.”
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