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Actress Cynthia Nixon Lied About Gaza Casualty Numbers and Distorted the Holocaust
Actresses Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis in “And Just Like That…” Photo: WarnerMedia.
On December 6, actress Cynthia Nixon appeared on the ABC daytime television show The View, where she promoted a clear falsehood about Gaza casualties, weaponized her children’s Jewish identity against the Jewish state, and engaged in Holocaust inversion.
Portions of her appearance can be seen here. (CAMERA obtained and reviewed the longer version.)
Yesterday I went on The View and discussed why we desperately need a permanent ceasefire to save innocent lives and bring the hostages home safely.
Visit https://t.co/rBrLAE873q to learn more about how you can use your voice to call for a ceasefire. pic.twitter.com/rZRXvLwlNS
— Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) December 7, 2023
Close to the beginning of the segment, Nixon repeated a claim that she has made during previous public appearances: “in the last very short eight weeks, we’ve seen the deaths of over 16,000 civilians, Palestinians in Gaza, which include over 7,000 children and to put that in some kind of a context, that is more civilians than were killed by the US and its allies in almost 20 years of war in Afghanistan.”
This claim is categorically false, and obviously so.
On November 6, the AP reported that “the [Hamas-run Gaza Health] ministry never distinguishes between civilians and combatants,” and that “the Health Ministry doesn’t report how Palestinians were killed, whether from Israeli airstrikes and artillery barrages or other means, like errant Palestinian rocket fire.”
All numbers coming from Hamas include civilians and fighters together, and include those killed by misfired rockets from the Palestinian side, as happened, for example, at the Al-Ahli hospital. Therefore Nixon’s claim that 16,000 civilians were killed is false — even if Hamas’ unverified casualty statistics are accurate.
Even setting that aside, it’s also categorically false that 16,000 people killed is more that the number the US killed in Afghanistan. A Brown University report estimated over 46,000 Afghan civilians were killed in Afghanistan. (Notably, this figure has been called “likely a significant underestimation.”) As noted, however, since the 16,000 Gaza figure included both civilians and fighters, the more apt comparison would be to the almost 100,000 that the same Brown report estimated were killed in Afghanistan when fighters and civilians were combined. If Iraqis and Pakistanis are included, the number becomes somewhere around 400,000.
Since Nixon has made the claim before, her hosts on The View should have been prepared to push back on it. Yet none of them did. Nixon was simply permitted to promote this blatant falsehood unchecked.
But what was even more disturbing about Nixon’s comments was her manipulative invocation of not only her children’s Jewish identity, but their grandparents’ experience as Holocaust survivors to attempt to legitimize her claims and her call for a ceasefire.
In fact a November poll showed that only 16 percent of American Jews support a ceasefire, so the statements made by her own children (over whom she presumably has a great deal influence) are clearly not representative of the American Jewish community.
And when Nixon says her “oldest son … has been reaching out to my wife and I and asking us, imploring us really to say, use your voice to affirm as loudly as you can that never again means never again for anyone,” she is engaging in Holocaust inversion — and to much applause.
“Never again,” of course, is a reference to the Holocaust, so the claim that is being made is that a new holocaust is being perpetrated by Israel against the people of Gaza.
In other words, Nixon’s grotesque claim is that Israel’s defense against a group that has killed, raped, tortured, and dismembered Israeli adults and children en masse and that took 240 hostages including children and a baby, and that pledges to do it again, is the perpetration of another holocaust.
Holocaust inversion involves the “perverse use of the Holocaust as a stick to beat ‘the Jews.’” All moral people should rebel against such a claim, but Nixon’s hosts on The View said nothing.
In light of the obvious falsity of her comparison of Gaza casualties to those in Afghanistan, Nixon also should have been asked to substantiate her claims about child casualties, both her claim about the number of them and her claim that “the amount of [Palestinian] children who have been killed … is now twice as many children as were killed across two dozen war zones in all of last year in just eight weeks.” Even if that’s accurate (which seems unlikely), it should have been pointed out that in making these claims, Nixon has taken into account neither Hamas’s use of human shields nor its use of child soldiers.
One of the hosts on The View did challenge Nixon about the actions of Hamas. Nixon responded:
Every time I speak on this, I say really loudly that the atrocities committed by Hamas, they’re brutal, they’re devastating, they’re unforgivable, all people of conscience must condemn them, but I, at the same time, I don’t think that is any justification for the starvation and slaughter of thousands upon thousands of Palestinian children who had nothing to do with the events of October 7 and I think, I think this is really a moment for moral clarity and I think we need to look into our hearts and ask ourselves, do Palestinian children deserve the same safety as all other children do?”
Nixon condemns Hamas’ atrocities — “really loudly” — but she has no plan to avoid a repeat of them. Without such a plan, her condemnation is not enough. She asks whether Palestinian children deserve safety, but seems to have forgotten to ask about Israeli children. On October 7, Israeli children were kidnapped, tortured, murdered, and orphaned. Since then many have been displaced. Doesn’t Nixon think they deserve to live without the threat that Hamas will repeat the attack of October 7?
If Nixon really cares even about only Palestinian children, she would do better to call on Hamas to surrender. This would provide safety for both Israeli and Palestinian children.
A letter signed by 682 rabbis — who are surely more representative of American Jewish opinion that Nixon’s own children — stated “the majority of pro-Israel Americans, especially clergy of all denominations, believe that a ceasefire before the eradication of Hamas leadership and a return of all hostages, is a grave danger to global security. … The fastest way to end the bloodshed in Gaza is for Hamas to surrender, lay down their weapons and return all the hostages they continue to hold.”
Karen Bekker is the Assistant Director of CAMERA’s Media Response Team. Prior to joining CAMERA, she practiced law for nine years as a commercial litigator. A version of this article previously appeared on the CAMERA website.
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Trump Poised to Offer Saudi Arabia Over $100 Billion Arms Package, Sources Say
US President Donald speaking in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, DC on March 3, 2025. Photo: Leah Millis via Reuters Connect
The United States is poised to offer Saudi Arabia an arms package worth well over $100 billion, six sources with direct knowledge of the issue told Reuters, saying the proposal was being lined up for announcement during US President Donald Trump‘s visit to the kingdom in May.
The offered package comes after the administration of former President Joe Biden unsuccessfully tried to finalize a defense pact with Riyadh as part of a broad deal that envisioned Saudi Arabia normalizing ties with Israel.
The Biden proposal offered access to more advanced US weaponry in return for halting Chinese arms purchases and restricting Beijing’s investment in the country. Reuters could not establish if the Trump administration’s proposal includes similar requirements.
The White House and Saudi government communications office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A US Defense official said: “Our defense relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is stronger than ever under President Trump‘s leadership. Maintaining our security cooperation remains an important component of this partnership and we will continue to work with Saudi Arabia to address their defense needs.”
In his first term, Trump celebrated weapons sales to Saudi Arabia as good for US jobs.
Lockheed Martin Corp could supply a range of advanced weapons systems including C-130 transport aircraft, two of the sources said. One source said Lockheed would also supply missiles and radars.
RTX Corp, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies, is also expected to play a significant role in the package, which will include supplies from other major US defense contractors such as Boeing Co, Northrop Grumman Corp and General Atomics, said four of the sources.
All the sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
RTX, Northrop and General Atomics declined to comment. Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said foreign military sales are government-to-government transactions. Questions about sales to foreign governments are best addressed by the US government.
Reuters could not immediately establish how many of the deals on offer were new. Many have been in the works for some time, two of the sources said. For example, the kingdom first requested information about General Atomics’ drones in 2018, they said. Over the past 12 months, a deal for $20 billion of General Atomics’ MQ-9B SeaGuardian-style drones and other aircraft came into focus, according to one of the sources.
Several executives from defense companies are considering traveling to the region as a part of the delegation, three of the sources said.
The US has long supplied Saudi Arabia with weapons. In 2017, Trump proposed approximately $110 billion of sales to the kingdom.
As of 2018, only $14.5 billion of sales had been initiated and Congress began to question the deals in light of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
In 2021, under Biden, Congress imposed a ban on sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia over the Khashoggi killing and to pressure the kingdom to wind down its Yemen war, which had inflicted heavy civilian casualties.
Under US law, major international weapons deals must be reviewed by members of Congress before they are finalized.
The Biden administration began to soften its stance on Saudi Arabia in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine impacted global oil supplies. The ban on offensive weapons sales was lifted in 2024, as Washington worked more closely with Riyadh in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack to devise a plan for post-war Gaza.
A potential deal for Lockheed’s F-35 jets, which the kingdom has been reportedly interested in for years, is expected to be discussed, three of the sources said, while downplaying the chances for an F-35 deal being signed during the trip.
The United States guarantees that its close ally Israel receives more advanced American weapons than Arab states, giving it what is labeled a “Qualitative Military Edge” (QME) over its neighbors.
Israel has now owned F-35s for nine years, building multiple squadrons.
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Iran Summons Dutch Envoy to Protest Assassination Attempts Claim
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi looks on before a meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, in Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The Iranian foreign ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador to Tehran on Friday, the official IRNA news agency reported, a day after the Netherlands called in Iran‘s envoy over suspicions that Iran was behind two assassination attempts.
An Iranian foreign ministry official described the Dutch accusation as “laughable” and based on “suspicions or assumptions,” according to IRNA.
“It is regrettable that the Dutch diplomatic apparatus acts so easily on speculations injected by its security bodies and the Zionist regime [Israel], and even summons the Iranian ambassador over such an absurd fabrication,” the official, Alireza Yousefi, was quoted as saying.
The Netherlands summoned Iran‘s ambassador after the Dutch intelligence agency, known as the AIVD, said in its annual report published on Thursday that it was likely Iran was behind two assassination attempts in the Netherlands and Spain.
Two men were arrested in June 2024 in the Dutch town of Haarlem after an assassination attempt on an Iranian residing in the country, the report said.
One of the suspects was also believed to have been behind the failed assassination attempt on Spanish politician and Iran critic Alejo Vidal-Quadras in Madrid in November 2023, it said.
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New York Times Faces Reader Backlash for ‘Arab Woman With Israeli Citizenship’ Line
The New York Times building in New York City. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The New York Times is receiving major backlash from its readers after the newspaper described victims of a cable car crash in Italy as “two British tourists and an Arab woman with Israeli citizenship.”
“I’m failing to see the reason of mentioning the woman’s ethnicity. Why didn’t you mention the two British tourists’ ethnicity since you’re at it?” said one Times reader, Rached Ben Yahya.
“Interesting how NYT is trying to distinguish Arab Israeli citizenship and suggest that Israeli citizenship is ‘imposed’ on her while her true identity is Arab and she is living unwillingly under occupation. Israeli media simply refers to her as ‘Israeli victim.’ I guess NYT is relying on their readers’ ignorance about Israeli Muslim citizens who enjoy full rights in every aspect of society,” another Times reader, Stanley Brill, commented on a New York Times Facebook post.
“NYT always dividing people … She was Israeli,” wrote another Times reader, Iniguez Mariano.
“I wonder if from now on we’ll be seeing the NYT casually describe accident victims as ‘Indian man with British citizenship’ and ‘Jewish man with American citizenship,’” another reader, Boaz Arad, commented on the Times social media post.
“The correct sentence would have been ‘three tourists, two British and one Israeli’ … not only did they decide to single out the Arab woman as being different, they decided solely to highlight her ethnicity. The British tourists didn’t get a similar description,” wrote one journalist and Middle East analyst, Seth Frantzman.
“They want to signal to their readers that it’s OK to be sad she died,” another reporter, Lahav Harkov, wrote in a post on X.
A fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Jason Bedrick, noted, “When Arabs with Israeli citizenship were accused of rape, the NYT just called them ‘Israelis,’” referring to an alleged rape of a British woman in Cyprus in 2019.
The social media crowd had a low opinion of the New York Times’s motives. “They want to let performative Western ‘leftists’ know that it is OK to feel sad that she died because she wasn’t a JEWISH Israeli, in which case, empathy for her would have been ‘Zionist’ and Not Acceptable,” wrote one user, with an account named Benjamin Ze’ev.
“We need to spell it out. A majority of readers of the NYT would celebrate if the victims were Jewish Israelis,” another social media commenter wrote.
The Times reporter responsible for the clumsy language, Elisabetta Povoledo, was ridiculed in 2017 for a sentence that said, “Jews and Catholics have a long history of mutual suspicion and conflict.” “Moral equivalence is our new religion,” was the headline Tablet put over its article mocking that whopper.
Povoledo also was the Times reporter who in 2015 claimed that Pope Francis said to the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, “you are an angel of peace.” Later reports cast doubt on that account, with one saying that Francis was offering an exhortation — may you be an angel of peace” —and another saying that the actual comment was “you are a bit of an angel of peace.”
So a Times reporter with previous instances of clumsiness and apparent inaccuracy when it comes to Jewish and Arab-Israeli issues has now, for the third time in a decade, managed to damage what remains of the New York Times’s reputation.
It’s as if Povoledo were imposing her own opinion that the tourist’s Arab identity is somehow more fundamental than her Israeli citizenship, or she can’t wrap her mind around the reality that Israel has Arabs with full rights serving in parliament, as students in universities, and as doctors in hospitals.
Poveledo’s Times biography says, “I was born in Italy, immigrated to Canada as a child.” It’s another example of the Times shift away from being an American newspaper. The social media editors who pluck the reporters’ sentences for use on social media don’t get bylines, and it’s not clear who was involved in this one or what their nationality or nationalities were. But as the comments on social media make clear, at least some segment of the Times readership — or former readership — has figured out what the newspaper is up to. Those readers — for good reason —are fed up with the different treatment that the newspaper applies to Israel and Israelis, Jewish or Arab.
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 New York Times Faces Reader Backlash for ‘Arab Woman With Israeli Citizenship’ Line first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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