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Anas al-Sharif Was a Terrorist, But The New York Times Doesn’t Care
The New York Times building in New York City. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The New York Times has plumbed the depths with Lydia Polgreen’s latest op-ed, titled “He Was the Face and Voice of Gaza. Israel Assassinated Him.”
In it, she claims that Israel is systematically targeting Gaza-based journalists, like Anas al-Sharif. She argues that he was not a Hamas terrorist, dismisses all of Israel’s evidence as non-credible, and ignores any other proof that has emerged since his elimination.
Polgreen isn’t new to Israel-bashing and making unfounded commentary on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though. While she doesn’t always write about Israel, there is a determined demonization of Israel and ridiculous and irrelevant comparisons to other conflicts when she does.
As she mentions in her piece, Polgreen serves on the board of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). This puts her “opinion” into perspective, as CPJ has been exposed for consistently mourning “journalists” who were either members of or had affiliations with terror organizations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).
Indeed, Polgreen subsequently downplays Hamas’ terror credentials and questions the indisputable fact that it operates in civilian areas.
To justify its pitiless pulverizing of Gaza, Israel has endlessly invoked the threat of Hamas, supposedly lurking in schools, hospitals, homes and mosques.
“Supposedly lurking?” Hamas has been shown time and time again hiding within and behind schools, hospitals, homes, and mosques.
Furthermore, she insists that al-Sharif was an innocent journalist and that any affiliation he may have had (though she doubts he did) is irrelevant.
Even if one takes Israel’s allegations at face value… and entertain the idea that in 2013, at the age of 17, al-Sharif joined Hamas in some form, what are we to make of that choice? Hamas at that time had been the governing authority of his homeland since 2006. It ran the entire state apparatus of a tiny enclave.
Would al-Sharif have had no choice but to become a Hamas terrorist? Given that he became a commander on evidently friendly terms with Yahya Sinwar himself, is that someone who had no agency?
Polgreen quotes Tareq Baconi, who serves as president of the board of al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network. Baconi constantly diminishes Hamas’ status as a terror organization, as well as excuses its actions and attacks on Israel over the years. He flips Palestinian suffering onto Israel’s “blockade” of the Strip and does not hold Hamas, as a governing entity, responsible. In a New York Times guest essay in July 2023, he even justified Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli civilians.
He suggests that Hamas is a “movement with a vast social infrastructure” and that trying to destroy it and anyone affiliated with it can amount to genocide. However, the organization as a whole is a declared terror organization.
“It is a movement with a vast social infrastructure,” Tareq Baconi, the author of a book about Hamas, has written, “connected to many Palestinians who are unaffiliated with either the movement’s political or military platforms.”
So, perhaps joining Hamas is just the thing to do, and anyone affiliated with the organization should be morally exempt?
Polgreen thus defends local journalists who take up arms and join a terror organization. She compares it to several other instances — all irrelevant to al-Sharif’s case — and excuses the possibility of his involvement in terrorism. She even hints how that could be a respectable and common attribute.
The history of war correspondence is replete with examples of fighters turned reporters — indeed perhaps the most famous among them, George Orwell, recorded soldiers’ lives while fighting in the Spanish Civil War and became a war correspondent.
These days, having served in the military is widely seen as an asset among American war reporters. Far from seeing those who served as hopelessly biased, editors rightly value the expertise and perspective these reporters bring from their experiences and trust them to prioritize their new role as journalistic observers. In Israel most young people are required to serve in the military, so military experience is common among journalists.
This comparison suggests that Hamas merely has a military, and is not a terrorist organization. While she admits that Hamas is “different,” that it “engaged in horrifying terror tactics,” and that it’s considered a designated terror organization by many countries, she gives it a pass as “the accepted authority in Gaza.”
It’s completely delusional to make an excuse for a journalist picking up arms and joining a terror organization. It’s also completely delusional to make an excuse for a terror organization that commits the horrible and evil acts that it does because it is the “accepted authority” over a strip of land.
Let’s be clear: there is no equivalence between anyone, including journalists, who served in a Western army such as that of the US or Israel. And while many Israelis serve as a result of a military draft, Hamas’ terrorist fighters are the product of an entirely different ideology and motivation.
Researcher and analyst, Eitan Fischberger, probed a letter from US senators requesting an independent investigation into al-Sharif’s assassination and analyzed Polgreen’s piece.
In it, he reminds followers of exposed open source information indicating that al-Sharif was a Hamas terrorist:
Breaking: Coordinated Campaign Unfolding About Hamas Terrorist Anas al-Sharif
Precisely one hour ago, a group of 17 U.S. senators sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio about Israel’s so-called targeting of Palestinian “journalists.”
The letter focuses on al-Sharif. pic.twitter.com/JmxL96q1gP
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) August 21, 2025
He also digs into Polgreen’s interview with “journalist” and terror sympathizer Mohammed Mhawish. (Click on the thread to see more details.)
In her piece, Lydia also tells us the story of Mohammed Mhawish, a journalist from Gaza who contributes to progressive outlets like The Nation and MSNBC, as well as Islamist and terror-supporting outlets like Al Jazeera, for which he wrote between October 2023 and May 2024 pic.twitter.com/nvKST5R5Wy
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) August 21, 2025
Polgreen has completely closed her mind to the idea that Israel does not kill journalists legitimately doing their job — just those who are terrorists.
She has no problem getting her information from corrupted sources, which she treats as respectable.
When will The New York Times stop shilling for Hamas?
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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North London Synagogue, Nursery Targeted in Eighth Local Antisemitic Incident in Just Over a Week
Demonstrators against antisemitism in London on Sept. 8, 2025. Photo: Campaign Against Antisemitism
A synagogue and its nursery school in the Golders Green area of north London were targeted in an antisemitic attack on Thursday morning — the eighth such incident locally in just over a week amid a shocking surge of anti-Jewish hate crimes in the area.
The synagogue and Jewish nursery were smeared with excrement in an antisemitic outrage echoing a series of recent incidents targeting the local Jewish community.
“The desecration of another local synagogue and a children’s nursery with excrement is a vile, deliberate, and premeditated act of antisemitism,” Shomrim North West London, a Jewish organization that monitors antisemitism and also serves as a neighborhood watch group, said in a statement.
“This marks the eighth antisemitic incident locally in just over a week, to directly target the local Jewish community,” the statement read. “These repeated attacks have left our community anxious, hurt, and increasingly worried.”
Local law enforcement confirmed they are reviewing CCTV footage and collecting evidence to identify the suspect and bring them to justice.
This latest anti-Jewish hate crime came just days after tens of thousands of people marched through London in a demonstration against antisemitism, amid rising levels of antisemitic incidents across the United Kingdom since the Hamas-led invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
In just over a week, seven Jewish premises in Barnet, the borough in which Golders Green is located, have been targeted in separate antisemitic incidents.
According to the Metropolitan Police, an investigation has been launched into the targeted attacks, all of which involved the use of bodily fluids.
During the incidents, a substance was smeared on four synagogues and a private residence, while a liquid was thrown at a school and over a car in two other attacks.
As the investigation continues, local police said they believe the same suspect is likely responsible for all seven offenses, which are being treated as religiously motivated criminal damage.
No arrests have been made so far, but law enforcement said it is actively engaging with the local Jewish community to provide reassurance and support.
The Community Security Trust (CST), a nonprofit charity that advises Britain’s Jewish community on security matters, condemned the recent wave of attacks and called on authorities to take immediate action.
“The extreme defilement of several Jewish locations in and around Golders Green is utterly abhorrent and deeply distressing,” CST said in a statement.
“CST is working closely with police and communal partners to support victims and help identify and apprehend the perpetrator,” it continued.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) also denounced the attacks, calling for urgent measures to protect the Jewish community.
“These repeated incidents are leaving British Jews anxious and vulnerable in their own neighborhoods, not to mention disgusted,” CAA said in a statement.
Since the start of the war in Gaza, the United Kingdom has experienced a surge in antisemitic crimes and anti-Israel sentiment.
Last month, CST published a report showing there were 1,521 antisemitic incidents in the UK from January to June of this year. It marks the second-highest total of incidents ever recorded by CST in the first six months of any year, following the first half of 2024 in which 2,019 antisemitic incidents were recorded.
In total last year, CST recorded 3,528 antisemitic incidents for 2024, the country’s second worst year for antisemitism despite being an 18 percent drop from 2023’s record of 4,296.
In previous years, the numbers were significantly lower, with 1,662 incidents in 2022 and 2,261 hate crimes in 2021.
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Germany to Hold Off on Recognizing Palestinian State but Will Back UN Resolution for Two-State Solution
German national flag flutters on top of the Reichstag building, that seats the Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, in Berlin, Germany, March 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Lisi Niesner
Germany will support a United Nations resolution for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but does not believe the time has come to recognize a Palestinian state, a government spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.
“Germany will support such a resolution which simply describes the status quo in international law,” the spokesman said, adding that Berlin “has always advocated a two-state solution and is asking for that all the time.”
“The chancellor just mentioned two days ago again that Germany does not see that the time has come for the recognition of the Palestinian state,” the spokesman added.
Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Belgium have all said they will recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly later this month, although London said it could hold back if Israel were to take steps to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace process.
The United States strongly opposes any move by its European allies to recognize Palestinian independence.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the US has told other countries that recognition of a Palestinian state will cause more problems.
Those who see recognition as a largely symbolic gesture point to the negligible presence on the ground and limited influence in the conflict of countries such as China, India, Russia, and many Arab states that have recognized Palestinian independence for decades.
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UN Security Council, With US Support, Condemns Strikes on Qatar
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani attends an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council, following an Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, at UN headquarters in New York City, US, Sept. 11, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz
The United Nations Security Council on Thursday condemned recent strikes on Qatar’s capital Doha, but did not mention Israel in the statement agreed to by all 15 members, including Israel‘s ally the United States.
Israel attempted to kill the political leaders of Hamas with the attack on Tuesday, escalating its military action in what the United States described as a unilateral attack that does not advance US and Israeli interests.
The United States traditionally shields its ally Israel at the United Nations. US backing for the Security Council statement, which could only be approved by consensus, reflects President Donald Trump’s unhappiness with the attack ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Council members underscored the importance of de-escalation and expressed their solidarity with Qatar. They underlined their support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Qatar,” read the statement, drafted by Britain and France.
The Doha operation was especially sensitive because Qatar has been hosting and mediating negotiations aimed at securing a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“Council members underscored that releasing the hostages, including those killed by Hamas, and ending the war and suffering in Gaza must remain our top priority,” the Security Council statement read.
The Security Council will meet later on Thursday to discuss the Israeli attack at a meeting due to be attended by Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani.