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New York Times State Department Reporter Emerges as Foe of Israel
The New York Times building in New York City. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
The New York Times reporter who covers the US State Department, Edward Wong, has had a rocky past few weeks, inflicting a series of half-truths and outright falsehoods on Times readers.
Wong’s technique sometimes is to write a sentence that is technically accurate but leaves out so much significant context that it winds up being functionally inaccurate, or at least highly misleading.
Consider, for example, this sentence in a recent Times article about American military aid to Israel: “The annual aid had been about $3 billion, but Mr. [President Joe] Biden increased that amount after Israel began waging war in Gaza after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks by Hamas.”
Actually, it wasn’t only “Mr. Biden” who increased the aid, but also Congress, which under the US Constitution has the power to appropriate funds. There have been several votes on this since the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack on Israel, and they’ve been overwhelming. For example, an April 20, 2024 House vote on the “Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act” was 366 in favor and 58 opposed. An April 2024 vote in the Senate was 79 to 18. Even before the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, the aid levels had been at $3.3 billion in foreign military financing and an additional $500 million a year in cooperative missile defense funding.
Wong uses the same half-truth technique in a different sentence in the same article: “At one point, Mr. Biden said he was withholding a single shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel to try to dissuade it from destroying Rafah, a city in southern Gaza, but the Israeli military reduced most of Rafah to rubble anyway.”
This conveniently omits that the Israeli military didn’t merely reduce “most of Rafah to rubble,” but that also the Rafah governorate is where Israel killed the leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, and also where Israel rescued two hostages, Fernando Marman and Louis Har. It further omits that the humanitarian catastrophe that the Biden administration warned would ensue after a Rafah invasion by Israel — “I have studied the maps. There’s nowhere for those folks to go,” Vice President Kamala Harris said — failed to materialize.
Wong writes that “some Democrats in Congress and their aides are certain to be furious at the administration for trying to push through the $8 billion package of weapons sales to Israel.” Under the Constitution, the “aides” don’t have a say in the matter; the members of Congress do. The $8 billion is part of a $15 billion package that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. Any Democrats or Republicans who wanted to block the weapons had their opportunity, and they lost the vote.
What is driving Wong’s selective reporting?
Wong made his own views clear in a “news analysis” published in the Times. That article claimed, without evidence, that, “Mr. Biden’s unwavering public support of an Israel led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as it wages a deadly war against Hamas in Gaza has been especially costly in terms of American and global public opinion.” That’s not “news analysis”; it’s a false claim.
The same piece claimed, without evidence, that “no foreign policy issue has been more divisive for Mr. Biden than his support for Israel throughout its war in Gaza.” Actually, aid to Ukraine has been more divisive; the Ukraine aid passed the House only by a 311-112 margin, still overwhelming, but narrower than the Israel aid vote.
During the US presidential campaign, Donald Trump criticized Biden for not being supportive enough of Israel, saying in one debate that Biden had become “like a Palestinian.” If Wong thinks Biden’s problem with American public opinion is that Biden’s been too pro-Israel, it’s evidence of the far-left Times readership and social circles of Times journalists, not any indication of the underlying reality.
The headline and subheadline of the Wong news analysis claim, “Biden and Aides Courted Allies Who Undermined US Goals/The Biden administration has been caught by surprise when partners like South Korea and Israel have acted against US.interests and principles.”
What “US interests and principles” has Israel acted against?
The article claims, “America’s alliances and partnerships under Mr. Biden’s stewardship have been complicated. Key partners have acted counter to the values that Mr. Biden has espoused, notably democracy, rule of law, and human rights. In some cases, those countries have undermined the power and standing of the United States in the world.” Yet not a single example is provided of how Israel has “undermined the power and standing of the United States in the world.”
Nor is the counterfactual example considered of how it would have undermined the power and standing of the United States in the world if the US had chosen instead to abandon Israel to defeat by Iranian-backed terrorists hoping to wipe Israel off the map. Is that the policy that Wong would have preferred, a Hamas takeover of Israel along the lines of the Taliban takeover of Kabul? Would that have been a big boost to American prestige? How would an alternative policy of allowing Israel to be conquered by Iran-backed terrorists have been consistent with American values of democracy and human rights?
The talking head that Wong musters to support his article’s point of view is Matt Duss, an extreme aide to extreme socialist Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Sanders recently ran afoul of the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, who posted, “The idea that @BernieSanders voluntarily would sit for an interview with Hasan Piker, an individual who routinely has used his platform to spread anti-Jewish tropes, amplify propaganda from a designated terrorist group, and promote toxic anti-Zionism, says an awful lot about the senior senator from Vermont and the normalization of antisemitism.”
Instead of holding Sanders to account for his extremism, the New York Times and Wong choose to amplify his point of view and basically endorse it as reasonable. It’s blame-Israel-and-its-USsupporters-for-everything-that-goes-wrong.
And Wong has a track record. He was out on social media claiming falsely that “the Israeli military has killed more than 100 Palestinian journalists in Gaza in the last year,” omitting that many of the so-called journalists were actually terrorist operatives, according to Israel. I previously described a June 2023 article by Wong as “so egregiously slanted against Israel that it reads as if it were dictated by the Iranian information ministry.” Perhaps it’s time for the Times editors to reassign Wong to a different beat, or counsel him that if he’s determined to pursue an anti-Israel advocacy agenda, he might find himself better suited applying for a position elsewhere.
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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How Canadian Universities Are Allowing Jewish Students to Be Doxxed and Harassed
The Fine Arts Building of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. Photo: DXR/Wikimedia Commons
With the rise of the digital age, an entirely new form of harassment and intimidation has emerged. Nameless accounts run by faceless adversaries comment on, post about, and attack others — their identities hidden behind a digital mask.
What’s worse than this anonymous harassment is the increasingly common practice of doxxing, where one’s personal information is released to the public in an effort to intimidate and silence them.
That’s the situation that pro-Israel Jewish Canadians have been facing for over a year — and it threatens free expression, academic integrity, and open discourse.
In the year and a half since October 7, 2023, this harassment has become a common practice on college campuses for students who dare to voice any support for Israel, or criticism of Palestinians or Hamas. My school, McGill University, is no different. Pro-Israel students, Hillel staff, and even McGill security guards have been followed, photographed, and videoed.
A prime example of this phenomenon is the Instagram account, “Shart-Up Nation,” which regularly targets pro-Israel activists and the McGill administration by sharing photos and videos of Jewish students and professionals, and asking followers to find information about them so that they may release it to their 800+ followers.
Their feed and stories are flooded with vicious photos of McGill’s pro-Israel community accompanied by horrible insults, stating that “all Zionists look like this to a certain degree” and comparing Jewish students to an unflattering emoji.
Memes are drenched in antisemitic sentiments — such as one regarding a former hostage’s nose job paralleling the trope of a Jew with a large hooked nose, one suggesting Jews are constantly surveilling people (suspiciously close to the sentiments put forth in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion), or even another suggesting that Jews “want to swim in the blood of dead Palestinians,” echoing the age-old blood libel.
This past December, the group came across the Instagram page of another local pro-Israel organization, Allied Voices for Israel. The account manager captured screenshots of students’ faces on an educational trip to Israel, which focused on conversations between Israel and Palestinians “fighting for peace and coexistence.” The doxxers then located their LinkedIn profiles, and posted their academic and personal information along with their full names.
These actions extend far beyond violating privacy — they induce a fear to speak up and make opinions known in the pro-Israel community. It is clear that these actions are a thinly veiled threat — dare to engage in conversation about Israel, no matter if there is nuance, and your professional and personal life will be put at risk.
Despite the vicious posts about students — and the now illegal release of their private information — neither the Concordia nor McGill administration have identified the student perpetrator.
Unfortunately, hiding one’s identity while protesting, chanting some questionable (at best) statements, and performing illegal actions, is nothing new for the pro-Palestinian crowd at McGill.
On October 7th, 2024, students covering their faces with keffiyehs stormed McGill’s campus, pushing down protective barriers and covering school property with graffiti.
Protestors hiding under sunglasses or masks is a common sight on campus. Just recently, a group of masked individuals went so far as to smash over 20 windows in one of McGill’s largest buildings, leaving shards of glass and a terrified student body scattered around campus.
Their masking — and their unwillingness to be associated with their actions — is a tacit acknowledgment that they know what they are doing is wrong. If they were not undertaking destructive, illegal, and harmful actions, why take so much care to hide behind social media accounts and face coverings?
If they truly believe that they are fighting for a just cause and doing it in the correct way, there is no reason that they should feel the need to conceal their involvement or identity. Clearly, then, certain people recognize that their actions place them on the wrong side of history. They know that pushing down fences is not the proper way to instigate social change, that doxxing and humiliating fellow students online is a blatant violation of McGill’s Student Code of Conduct, and that chanting about restarting the “Final solution” while doing a Nazi salute is unacceptable.
If they were proud of their actions, they would not go through so much trouble to hide their identities.
The rise of anonymous harassment and doxxing in Montreal is not just a symptom of political division — it is a threat to the open discourse and academic integrity that is supposed to thrive on college campuses.
And this issue festers in the broader Montreal community as well. The police have yet to make any arrests following extreme acts of vandalism on McGill’s campus in early February; local newspapers misrepresent the facts of the conflict. The mayor of a prominent Jewish community in the city allegedly “tolerates illegal behavior by masked protestors.” McGill and Montreal must break out of this vicious cycle.
If universities fail to address these violations, then they are contributing to a culture where fear reigns supreme and productive dialogue is rendered not just impossible but dangerous. Our institution and our neighbors at Concordia University must take a stand — not just to protect those targeted in today’s world — but for the preservation of open and constructive discourse for generations to come.
Maris Brail is a student at McGill University, pursuing a Joint Honours degree in Jewish Studies and philosophy. As an active member of McGill’s Hillel and Students Supporting Israel executive boards, Maris is committed to fostering a space where Jewish life and advocacy can thrive. She is also a CAMERA on Campus Fellow, dedicated to promoting accurate and fair representations of Israel in academic and media discourse.
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Terror Ties Conveniently Ignored in Lawsuit Accusing British Citizens of Committing ‘War Crimes’ in Gaza
Israeli military jeeps maneuver in Gaza, amid a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, Feb. 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The Guardian and the BBC reported that 10 British citizens have been accused of committing war crimes in Gaza. The report in question covers the period from October 2023 to May 2024, and was submitted by three parties: renowned British barrister Michael Mansfield, the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), and the British-based Public Interest Law Centre (PILC).
Michael Mansfield, nicknamed “Moneybags Mansfield” and dubbed a “Champagne socialist,” built his career on representing underdogs, earning a reputation as a people’s lawyer. That career also brought him substantial financial gain — an income reportedly around £300,000.
This striking contrast between the lawyer’s wealth and his radical rhetoric can raise some concerns regarding his own moral integrity and consistency. But it all pales once compared to the troubling background of the other co-filer of the report.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Its Ties to Terror
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), based in Gaza, is the second entity behind the complaint. According to extensive documentation by NGO Monitor, PCHR has longstanding ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) — a terror organization designated as such by the EU, US, Canada, and Israel.
The PFLP’s long history includes suicide bombings, shootings, and assassinations. It also played a role in the brutal October 7 attack on Israeli civilians.
Despite all of it, the director of PCHR, has never distanced himself from the terror group. And why would he do it to his dear alma mater? Yes, you read it right. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights’s director was a member of PFLP. In a 2014 statement, years after assuming his leadership role, Sourani said:
I was in the ranks of the Popular Front, and there were comrades who taught us with their own hands. This organization has given us much more. We hope that the direction and the sense of belonging that were planted inside us will remain in our minds. We don’t apologize and don’t regret our past, we are proud that once we were members of this organization and we fought in its ranks. [emphasis added]
So, it comes as no surprise that PFLP members have attended events hosted by PCHR.
And it comes as even less of a surprise that neither The Guardian nor the BBC mentioned PCHR’s ties to terrorists.
British Military Perspective
We asked Colonel Richard Kemp, a retired British Army officer and veteran of operations in Afghanistan, to comment on the complaint by Michael Mansfield and PCHR. This is what Colonel Kemp, who was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire and the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery, offered to HonestReporting:
This is a despicable political action intended to reinforce anti-Israel smears and to intimidate Jews in the UK. It is a deliberate falsehood to state that the IDF has been carrying out systematic war crimes. The reality is that Israel does all it can to avoid civilian deaths while fighting in Gaza.
I very much doubt that the allegations against these ten individuals are linked to any specific allegations. It is more likely they are using the names of 10 British citizens who are lawful members of the IDF in the general context of false allegations.
If so, there is no possibility of this action leading to convictions in British courts. These lawyers will know this, and their actions are therefore intended as political warfare against Israel. They also want to harass British Jews and discourage them from joining the IDF, which they are lawfully entitled to join under both British and Israeli law.
The British legal system should reject these shameful applications. Britain and Israel are allies, and Britain benefits enormously from Israeli military and intelligence contributions. If these perverse legal proceedings are entertained by the Metropolitan Police or Crown Prosecution Service, that will be an indictment of the UK itself—and a further blow against our Jewish community, which has been under sustained attack and discrimination by the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas mobs since October 7, 2023.
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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The Palestinian Authority Continues to Cozy Up to China, Urges End to US Role in World Affairs
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is greeted by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang during a July 2017 visit to Beijing. Photo: Reuters/Mark Schiefelbein
The Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to strategically align itself counter to American interests in the greater geopolitical arena.
Earlier this month, Mahmoud Abbas again rejected Taiwan’s independence as he “emphasized that the State of Palestine will continue to stand by its friend, the Peoples Republic of China, and to support the One China policy and the protection of China’s national interests” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 27, 2025].
As opposed to the Western countries that fund the PA, Abbas has consistently stood firmly with China’s dream of conquering Taiwan, as he said last year:
The Palestinian Presidency underlined the significance of preserving China’s territorial integrity, including the status of Taiwan … [and] voiced its firm support for China’s right to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity, endorsing the reunification of the entire land of China, which includes Taiwan.
[WAFA, official PA news agency, English edition, Jan. 13, 2024]
In a letter in January 2023, Abbas Zaki, a senior official in the PA’s ruling Fatah party, also wrote:
I express the stable and well-rooted position of Fatah in its support for the People’s Republic of China against Taiwan, which we consider an integral part of the united Chinese lands.
[Fatah Central Committee member Abbas Zaki, Facebook page, January 8, 2023]
On a greater level, the PA has frequently stressed the idea of a strategic partnership both between China and the PA and China and the Muslim world.
Abbas’ senior advisor Mahmoud Al-Habbash says the PA wants to see the end of US world leadership, with the US being pushed aside for a “new multipolar world order” made up of “the Islamic world, Russia and China” to “realize justice.”
The official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida recently reported that Abbas also “praised the firm ties between the two states and the depth of the historical and continuous connection between Palestine and China, which has reached a level of strategic relations.”
This follows Al-Hayat‘s report in January 2025 following a meeting between Mahmoud Abbas and the Chinese envoy to the Middle East, when it wrote the following:
President Mahmoud Abbas … expressed his appreciation for China’s positions that support the Palestinian rights in the international forums — which expresses the depth of the historical ties between the two countries and the two friendly peoples. He also expressed his great appreciation for [Chinese] President Xi Jinping and his positions that are committed to tightening the friendly relations, which have strengthened thanks to strategic ties between Palestine and China.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 19, 2025]
In October 2024, the official PA news agency, WAFA, also reported about Abbas’ meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, saying the meeting “emphasized the significance of the strategic partnership between the state of Palestine and its friend, the People’s Republic of China (PRC)” [WAFA, official PA news agency, Oct. 23, 2024].
Similar statements have also been made by other senior PA officials, such as Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, who said in November 2024:
China needs to continue to strengthen its strategic ties with the Arab states and move on to a stage in which it will take action to reshape the international system.
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 28, 2024]
The author is the Founder and Director of Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), where a version of this article first appeared.
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