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New York Times Exemplifies The ‘Moral Confusion’ Which Netanyahu Warns Of
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York City, US, Sept. 22, 2023. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
In Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech Friday at the U.N. General Assembly, he spoke of “moral confusion,” in the contest between Iran and Israel, in which “good is portrayed as evil, and evil is portrayed as good.”
Netanyahu didn’t call out by name the New York Times’s coverage of the conflict, but the description aptly applies, as two recent examples of Times coverage of Iran demonstrate.
A September 25 Times “news analysis” by Steven Erlanger is headlined “Iran’s Dilemma: How to Preserve Its Proxies and Avoid Full-Scale War.” The headline signals what is coming: a story that looks at the situation from Iran’s point of view.
“Iran has so far refused to be goaded by Israel into a larger regional war that its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, clearly does not want, analysts say,” the Times article reports. That portrays Israel as trying to goad Iran into a regional war, instead of the reality, which is that Israel simply wants to exist in peace.
Who are these “analysts” the Times is relying on? The first one mentioned is the president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian. “In New York this week, Mr. Pezeshkian was blunt. Israel was seeking to trap his country into a wider war, he said.” The Times swallows that spin without the skepticism it warrants.
The Times reports, “Iran faces clear dilemmas. It wants to restore deterrence against Israel…It wants to preserve the proxies that provide what it calls forward defense against Israel — Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen…” This idea that Iran is on “defense” against Israel rather than trying to wipe the Jewish state off the map is farfetched.
Then the Times article refers to “one reason that Iran had so far not retaliated for the assassination of the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh while he was in Iran.” Iran has indeed retaliated, or at least attempted to; fortunately, most, though not all, of the attacks have failed or been blocked by Israel.
Finally the Times acknowledges in passing that “Since the overthrow of the shah in 1979 and the installation of the Islamic Republic, Iran has tried to spread its influence throughout the region and has vowed to destroy Israel.” That’s useful context, but the Times leaves out that Iran has also vowed to destroy America, literally “death to America” is the slogan chanted and displayed at government-sponsored rallies.
The Times quotes an “Iran expert” and former Obama administration official at the Brookings Instiution, Suzanne Maloney, who claims, “Israel is trying to bait Hezbollah into an attack that would produce a full-fledged war.” Israel, which has already been attacked by thousands of Hezbollah rockets and drones and which would be happy to be left alone by Hezbollah, is given no opportunity to rebut this preposterous claim.
The Times explains further, “The proxies represent Iran’s strategy of forward defense, to protect the Iranian homeland.” This is laughable, and, in the case of Hamas, obscene, as if the October 7, 2023 rampage against Israel was a matter of “defense” aimed at protecting “the Iranian homeland.”
Even the commenters on the New York Times website thought this was a bit much. “The chutzpah of this article knows no bounds,” wrote one reader, a “BRJ” from New Jersey. “Iran is not the victim here. They are the world’s largest exporter of terror. If they are so concerned about Israeli attacks on Iranian soil, then perhaps they should stop vowing to destroy Israel and funding and supporting its proxy armies that surround Israel.”
The Times did no better in a news article by Farnaz Fassihi reporting Pezeshkian’s U.N. speech.
The Times reports: “Mr. Pezeshkian defended Iran’s support of the militant networks known as the ‘axis of resistance’ in the Middle East which have taken up arms against Israel, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. He called the networks ‘popular liberation movements of people that have been victims of four generations of the crimes and colonialism of the Israeli regime.’” That leaves out that these terrorist groups have also been attacking American ships and bases in the region, along with commercial shipping traffic.
The same Times article offers tilted context: “In April, after Israel struck Iran’s Embassy in Damascus, Syria, Iran retaliated by launching hundreds of drones and missiles against Israel. And Tehran vowed revenge after Israel assassinated Hamas’s political leader, Mr. Haniyeh, but after intense diplomatic efforts military commanders said Iran would retaliate at a time and place of its choosing.” The Times frames the Iranian attack as a retaliation rather than a continuation of a long-running effort to destroy Israel and America, and also frames Iran’s second supposed lack of retaliation as a choice rather than as an execution failure.
The Times describes Pezeshkian’s speech as “unusually reconciliatory in tone and words,” crediting him for not engaging in Holocaust denial. Yet the quotes in the article have Pezeshkian describing the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists as “popular liberation movements,” and have Pezeshkian accusing Israel of engaging in “barbarism.” How that is “reconciliatory” is beyond me. It sure does validate that Netanyahu was onto something real when he identified the issue of “moral confusion.”
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.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
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