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Soros, Omidyar, Ford Fund New York Times Reporter Tweeting About Israel’s Gaza ‘Massacre’
The New York Times newspaper. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
For coverage of the war in Gaza, the New York Times has turned to a reporter whose opinionated social media posts accuse Israel of a “massacre” and who is being funded with money from charities with anti-Israel track records.
“Gaza’s Medical Workers Face Detention and Death” was the headline over a recent New York Times news article. It’s the latest example of gullible New York Times coverage of Gaza health care challenges, a topic that has been a recurring problem for the newspaper. In October 2023, the Times published an “editors’ note” acknowledging that editors “should have taken more care” with coverage of an explosion near Al Ahli hospital. In February, I highlighted issues with the Times‘ coverage of Nasser hospital.
The new Times article includes this context paragraph: “Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, many hospitals in Gaza have come under attack from the Israeli military, which has accused Hamas fighters of using them as bases. Hamas and Palestinian doctors have repeatedly denied that claim.”
Why would the Times take a he-said, she-said approach to this one, repeating those Hamas and Palestinian denials without informing readers that they are false?
Even the Times itself reported back in February, about Al-Shifa hospital, “Evidence examined by the New York Times suggests Hamas used the hospital for cover, stored weapons inside it, and maintained a hardened tunnel beneath the complex that was supplied with water, power, and air-conditioning.” A Jan. 2, 2024 Times article was headlined, “Hamas Used Gaza Hospital as a Command Center, US Intelligence Says.” That January article reported, “The complex was used by both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to command forces fighting against Israel, according to the intelligence.”
Instead of asking the Gaza doctors about the terrorists and kidnappers using the hospitals as cover, the Times conveyed the doctors’ complaints about Israel. It also conveyed the complaints of advocacy groups such as Amnesty International and Medical Aid for Palestinians whose anti-Israel bias has been extensively documented by NGO Monitor.
How’d this latest piece wind up in the newspaper? The byline, Anjana Sankar, isn’t a familiar name to longtime readers of Times coverage of Israel, Gaza, or foreign affairs. Her posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, are unusually opinionated for a Times reporter. A July 9 post featured photos of blood-spattered children with Sankar’s comment, “Unimaginable horror again in #Gaza as Israel strikes a school building sheltering displaced people. Israeli army says the incident is under review. Hamas calls for worldwide protests against the massacre. When will this end?????” A July 21 post said, “Biden has decided not to seek re-election. He will be remembered as one of the great American presidents, having beaten Donald Trump and paved the way for the first Black woman and first South Asian descendant to become a major party’s presidential nominee.”
Anjana Sankar. Photo: Screenshot
It turns out that Sankar was at the Times as part of a fellowship from the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF). That organization receives $250,000 a year from George and Alexander Soros’s Open Society Foundation, $100,000 a year from Pierre Omidyar’s Democracy Fund, and $200,000 a year from the Ford Foundation, according to the most recently available IWMF tax return. Open Society and Ford also back the Quincy Institute, Soros has backed anti-Zionist Peter Beinart’s publication Jewish Currents and efforts to cut off arms to Israel, and Omidyar’s The Intercept has been criticizing the New York Times for being too pro-Israel in its coverage of the Gaza war.
I asked the IWMF if there was designated funding for Sankar’s New York Times fellowship and if so, where it was from. All that the organization’s communications director Charlotte Fox would say is that the fellowship “is funded by a variety of sources, including individuals, foundations, media companies, and other corporations.”
I asked the New York Times about the reporter’s social media posts and about whether the fellowship allows the International Women’s Media Foundation to sell donors with an agenda access to the Times news columns. A Times spokeswoman replied, “Ms. Sankar’s two-month fellowship concluded last weekend.” Shortly thereafter, Sanker’s bio on X/Twitter changed; the words “currently with the New York Times” no longer appear.
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 Soros, Omidyar, Ford Fund New York Times Reporter Tweeting About Israel’s Gaza ‘Massacre’ 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.