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CNN’s Women’s Rights Narrative on Israel Collapses Under Misleading Data
Israel’s women’s basketball team in action against Ireland. Photo: Screenshot
Israeli women are living in a dystopian reality where, year by year, they are being stripped of their most basic rights. At least, that’s what one would think from reading CNN’s, “Women’s rights are on a sharp decline in Israel. Advocates blame Netanyahu’s far-right government.”
But CNN’s article is a far stretch from the truth.
The piece frames Israel through a distorted lens of reality. Women wearing red gowns and white hats lead the cover image of the article, presenting Israel as a nightmarish reality, where women are living in a version of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
But read the fine print, and you see that this image, taken nearly three years ago, concerned demonstrations against Israeli legal reforms, not the decline of women’s rights.
Screenshot from CNN.
From there, the framing of the article is set. The distortion of women’s rights is not accidental but structural, rooted in how CNN selects imagery, language, and ultimately the data it relies on to construct its narrative.
Relying on a Faulty Index
CNN’s article is based on data from the Women Peace and Security Index (WPS Index) by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. The index scores and ranks 181 countries on women’s wellbeing based on 13 indicators, including employment, education, and access to justice, cellphone use, son bias, and proximity to conflict. Taken together, these indicators are not uniquely gender-specific. Many reflect broader societal conditions that affect the entire population.
The findings declared that Israel ranked in 84th place, noting that in 2023, Israel ranked 27th.
Remarkably, Israel is behind several countries that have extremely poor women’s rights.
Oman is ranked 58th, despite openly discriminating against women in terms of divorce and legal guardianship. Saudi Arabia is ranked 63rd, though women require a male guardian, and Qatar ranked in 70th place, despite women requiring a guardian’s permission to leave the country, marry, or pursue higher education on a scholarship.
There are several other countries with long-demonstrated records of laws that restrict women in several aspects of life. Israel is not one of them.
CNN originally published the article without mentioning that three years ago, Israel was not in the midst of a multi-front war after terrorist organizations attacked its sovereign borders. It since issued a correction and a one-line update, but it is remarkable that the article was published without this crucial information in the first place, as this directly impacts the findings of the WPS Index, which encompasses many categories related to safety, terrorism, and conflict more broadly.
Thus, even if there is a lack of change in other categories, the change in the security situation directly impacts the index.
In the WPS Index, Israel is compared to other developed countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and the US, further skewing the presentation of the results. Those countries are not contending with sustained warfare on multiple fronts. By contrast, “Palestine” — ranked 167 and unmentioned in the CNN article — is grouped with fragile states, including Yemen, Qatar, and Afghanistan. This asymmetrical framing by the WPS Index, which CNN adopts without scrutiny, creates a misleading comparison that exaggerates Israel’s decline.
Nonetheless, a graph created by CNN compares Israel to the US and Afghanistan, which ranked 181. This visual representation further distorts the reality, as Afghanistan is not in the same group as either Israel or the US, and the US is not in the middle of a war in proximity to its own territory.
Screenshot from CNN.
Skewing the Reality
CNN additionally suggests that because there are currently fewer women in Israel’s parliament, this correlates to a lack of women’s rights. Of course, it would be nice to have more women’s representation, but the lack of representation does not imply malicious intent or systemic rollback.
Women’s political representation fluctuates over time and varies across electoral cycles in every democracy. Many democratic countries face similar gaps. The US, for example, is only four percentage points ahead of Israel in this regard. Improving women’s representation is a challenge shared globally, not evidence of a uniquely Israeli failure.
Israel is unique, however, in that it is the world’s only Jewish state. That means it is the only state that also incorporates aspects of Jewish law, which inherently differ from Western secular norms. As such, rabbinical courts run by men have more power over Jewish family law than secular courts in Western states. While CNN presents this as an issue that sprouted during the past three years during this current government, there has been a consistent and ongoing debate in Israeli society about the extent to which religion can and should influence the law.
If CNN truly wanted to present this issue in a non-partisan manner, it would have interviewed and represented both sides, as well as judges from the courts. However, a heartbreaking story of one woman’s challenges with the court is presented as representative of the system as a whole – an approach that privileges emotional impact over balanced analysis.
CNN further jumps the gun on the conclusion that there is a link between the increase in gun ownership and femicide. Yet there is no data to suggest this connection exists. In reality, Israelis rushed to buy guns in the aftermath of October 7 as a measure to protect themselves, and with encouragement from the government. And, unlike the US, for example, stringent gun laws and licensing ensure that gun ownership remains limited to qualified individuals.
No, Israel is not a perfect country, and, like all democracies, it has areas that require ongoing debate and improvement. What makes Israel unique is that it navigates the challenge of being both a Jewish and democratic state, allowing its citizens to practice their rights within a legal framework shaped by centuries of tradition and modern law.
While CNN attempts to present a dystopian reality of what it means to be a woman living in Israel today, this is not reflected in Israeli society. Rather, Israeli women exercise their rights in an environment that strives to balance religious principles with democratic freedoms, even in the midst of a war.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
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Russian Teen Assaulted Over Israeli Flag Photo as Antisemitism Concerns Mount, Amid Calls for Jews to Leave Country
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, former chief rabbi of Moscow and current president of the Conference of European Rabbis, on June 24, 2024. Photo: IMAGO/epd via Reuters Connect
A 15-year-old student at a school in Russia was brutally assaulted by classmates after posting a photo featuring an Israeli flag on social media, Russian media reported, leaving him with a serious eye fracture from an incident that has drawn public outrage and is now under criminal investigation.
Earlier this month, a high school student in St. Petersburg, a major city in northwestern Russia, was physically attacked by two classmates after changing his social media profile photo to one featuring an Israeli flag, according to a report by local News Channel 78 on Sunday.
One of the attackers allegedly harassed the boy over his profile picture, demanding that he remove it and apologize.
After a verbal confrontation in which the attacker threatened the boy and hurled insults, including references to the Holocaust, he allegedly demanded that the victim meet him in the bathroom to continue the discussion.
When the two boys met there, the assailant reportedly demanded that he apologize on his knees. The victim refused but said he was willing to apologize without being humiliated.
The attacker then struck him repeatedly in the face while another boy blocked the bathroom exit.
The victim had to be hospitalized after suffering a fracture to the eye socket and underwent surgery under general anesthesia to remove bone fragments.
After spending more than a week in the hospital, he is now receiving outpatient care, and his family is coordinating with school administrators on a transition to home-based schooling as recommended by his doctors.
The boy’s mother reported the assault to the police, prompting local authorities to open a criminal investigation for assault and battery.
This incident came after Pinchas Goldschmidt, who served as Moscow’s chief rabbi from 1993 to 2022, recently urged Jews to leave Russia and consider immigrating to Israel, citing a growing hostile climate and rising antisemitic attacks targeting the local Jewish community.
“I have long urged Russia’s Jews to consider aliyah, the return to Israel. The post-Soviet renaissance was extraordinary, but illusions of permanence ignore history,” Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, wrote in an op-ed for The Jerusalem Post earlier this month.
“Now, more than ever, Russia’s Jews should heed the call to leave. Israel offers not just refuge but a homeland where Jewish life is sovereign, not contingent on geopolitical whims,” he continued.
Although the number of Jews leaving Russia has declined, the country still accounted for the largest number of immigrants to Israel in 2025, with roughly 8,300 arrivals, according to data released Monday by Israel’s Immigration and Absorption Ministry.
This figure marked a nearly 60 percent drop from 19,500 last year and a small fraction of the 74,000 who immigrated in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Israel suspends operations of multiple humanitarian organizations in Gaza, including Doctors Without Borders
The Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs is halting the operations of more than three dozen humanitarian groups in Gaza, including Doctors Without Borders.
The ministry announced on Tuesday that the affected organizations failed to meet its new requirements for non-governmental organizations providing humanitarian aid in Gaza, which were posted online in November. The requirements included providing a full list of its Palestinian employees.
“We emphasize that the registration process is intended to prevent the exploitation of aid by Hamas, which in the past operated under the cover of certain international aid organizations, knowingly or unknowingly,” wrote the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which oversees aid in Gaza, in a post on X.
The ministry said that 37 of the NGOs working in Gaza did not have their permits renewed for the coming year, according to the Associated Press.
Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, posted a link to a Ynet article about the suspensions on X Tuesday, writing, “An ongoing scandal ignored by UN & European enablers shows why @Israel has to decertify some of the NGOs who have terrorists on their payroll.”
The suspensions, which will begin on Jan. 1, come as President Donald Trump has put pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to usher the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel into its second phase, which would include the reconstruction of Gaza.
Speaking beside Netanyahu at a press conference Monday, Trump said that he believed reconstruction efforts in the enclave were “going to begin pretty soon,” adding that work to improve sanitary conditions had already begun.
But aid groups in Gaza have said that Israel has continued to block aid from entering the enclave as storms and flooding have battered the region’s residents in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, Doctors Without Borders warned in a blog post that Israel’s new registration guidelines “risk leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza without lifesaving healthcare in 2026.” The United Nations’ Humanitarian Country Team also lambasted the requirements, writing that aid groups had warned they were “vague, politicised and impossible to meet without breaching humanitarian principles.”
But COGAT minimized the impact of the suspensions in its post, writing that “the implementation of the government decision will not result in any future harm to the volume of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip.” It said that the combined contributions of the groups affected amounted to 1% of the total aid volume in Gaza.
In June 2024, Israel accused Doctors Without Borders, which is also known by its French acronym MSF, of employing a Hamas operative. In response, MSF said it was “deeply concerned by these allegations and is taking them very seriously.”
“MSF chose not to cooperate with the registration process and refused to provide Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs with a list of its employees, as required by a government decision,” the post continued.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Israel suspends operations of multiple humanitarian organizations in Gaza, including Doctors Without Borders appeared first on The Forward.
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US Defends Israel’s Right to Recognize Somaliland, Likens Move to Palestinian State Recognition
A demonstrator holds an image depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Somalis attend a demonstration after Israel became the first country to formally recognize the self-declared Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state, a decision that could reshape regional dynamics and test Somalia’s longstanding opposition to secession, in Hodan district of Mogadishu, Somalia, Dec. 28, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Feisal Omar
The United States has defended Israel’s decision to recognize the self-declared Republic of Somaliland amid international backlash, comparing the move to the recognition of a Palestinian state by numerous countries.
“Israel has the same right to conduct diplomatic relations as any other sovereign state,” Tammy Bruce, deputy US ambassador to the United Nations, said during an emergency UN Security Council meeting on Monday.
Bruce’s comments came in response to widespread criticism of Israel’s formal recognition of the breakaway territory of Somaliland. Several Arab, Islamic, and African countries, organizations, and entities publicly rejected the move, as did other nations such as China. The European Union also opposed the decision, saying it “reaffirms the importance of respecting the unity, the sovereignty, and the territorial integrity” of Somalia.
US President Donald Trump has said he opposes recognition of Somaliland, and Bruce added on Monday that Washington had no announcement or change in American policy regarding the self-declared country. However, Bruce chided other nations for recently welcoming recognition of a “nonexistent Palestinian state” against Israel’s wishes while condemning Israel for its latest diplomatic move, calling out what she described as a “double standard” against the Jewish state.
“Earlier this year, several countries, including members of this council, made the unilateral decision to recognize a nonexistent Palestinian state. And yet, no emergency meeting was called to express this council’s outrage,” she noted.
Many Western countries — including France, the UK, Australia, and Canada — recognized a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, a move Israeli and US officials criticized as “rewarding terrorism.” Hamas praised the decision, even describing recognition as “the fruits of Oct. 7,” citing the Palestinian terrorist group’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as the reason for increasing Western support.
“This council’s persistent double standards and misdirection of focus distract from its mission of maintaining international peace and security,” Bruce said.
However, Slovenian Ambassador Samuel Zbogar, whose country has recognized Palestinian statehood, rejected Washington’s comparison.
“Palestine is not part of any state. It is illegally occupied territory, as declared by the International Court of Justice, among others,” Zbogar said, describing Somaliland as “part of a UN member state” and arguing that “recognizing it goes against” the UN Charter.
Israel on Friday became the first country to officially recognize the Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state.
Somaliland is an unrecognized state in the Horn of Africa, situated on the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, Ethiopia to the south and west, and Somalia to the east.
“The State of Israel plans to immediately expand its relations with the Republic of Somaliland through extensive cooperation in the fields of agriculture, health, technology, and economy,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote in a post on X.
Although no other country has formally recognized Somaliland, several — including the United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Denmark, Kenya, and Taiwan — have maintained liaison offices, allowing them to engage diplomatically and conduct trade and consular activities without full formal recognition.
“It is not a hostile step toward Somalia, nor does it preclude future dialogue between the parties. Recognition is not an act of defiance. It is an opportunity,” Israel’s Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Miller told the UN Security Council on Monday.
According to experts, the growing Israel-Somaliland partnership could be a “game changer” for Israel, boosting the Jewish state’s ability to counter the Yemen-based Houthi terrorist group while offering strategic and geographic advantages amid shifting regional power dynamics.
Unlike most other states in the region, Somaliland has relative security, regular elections, and a degree of political stability — qualities that make it a valuable partner for international allies and a key player in regional cooperation.
Last month, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), a prominent Israeli think tank, released a new report arguing that Somaliland’s strategic position along the Red Sea, its closeness to Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, and its willingness to work with pro-Western states make it a key ally for Israel, benefiting both sides amid rising regional volatility.
“Somaliland’s significance lies in its geostrategic location and in its willingness — as a stable, moderate, and reliable state in a volatile region — to work closely with Western countries,” the INSS report said.
“Somaliland’s territory could serve as a forward base for multiple missions: intelligence monitoring of the Houthis and their armament efforts; logistical support for Yemen’s legitimate government in its war against them; and a platform for direct operations against the Houthis,” it continued.