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New York Times Stokes New Fear About Israeli ‘Occupation’ — of Syria
An Israeli tank crosses the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli Golan Heights, Dec. 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
The New York Times recently published an elaborate “interactive” article critical of Israel for becoming involved in Syria.
“Israel has built a growing network of outposts and fortifications in Syria and Lebanon, deepening concerns about a protracted occupation in parts of the two countries,” the article said, without specifying whose “concerns,” other than the Times’ editors, were being deepened.
“There are signs that Israel appears prepared to remain indefinitely, a visual analysis by the New York Times has found,” the article reported, under the headline, “Israel Digs in Beyond Its Northern Border.”
An analysis by me has found that this is a fine example of one of the long-running issues in New York Times coverage of the Middle East — a double standard, holding Israel up to criticism for activities that are ignored or not criticized when they are conducted by other regional or global powers.
The Times attacked Israeli involvement in Syria and Lebanon while making no mention of Turkish, Russian, or US presence in those places. An evenhanded look at the scramble for power and influence in post-Bashar al-Assad Syria would be a newsworthy story. But the global left-wing audience the Times is trying to serve seems less interested in nonpartisan Syria coverage than it does in Israel-bashing that portrays the Jewish state as an occupying power.
Of the three Times reporters credited on the story, two — Samuel Granados and Sanjana Varghese — are European. Granados is a graduate of the University of Málaga in Spain and is based in Spain, according to his LinkedIn profile and a Nov. 21, 2024, Times announcement of his hiring. Varghese “was raised in Bahrain, and she has been based in London for nine years. She is a graduate of King’s College London,” according to a June 2024 Times announcement of her hiring. The Times noted that she “worked as a freelance journalist for a range of outlets, including … Al Jazeera.” Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel has called the Qatar-controlled Al Jazeera a “terror channel.”
As the Times attempts to grow by catering to a global anti-Israel audience and by staffing its newsroom with non-Americans, it risks further alienating longtime readers in its hometown of New York.
I’m not suggesting that the Times should entirely avoid hiring non-Americans; some of the great Times journalists in history have been immigrants to America who proudly, patriotically appreciate their adopted home. But today’s Times sneers at that. The Times obituary for its former executive editor, Max Frankel, a Jewish immigrant to America from Nazi Germany, dripped with a kind of contempt:
He fell into a pattern of Cold War reporting that made no pretense of objectivity. Like a combat correspondent touting his side’s war, he wrote unashamedly of “the free world,” of Polish and Hungarian “patriots” yearning for liberation but “crushed” by Soviet tanks.
Today’s Times unashamedly implies Frankel should have been ashamed for siding with the free world against the Soviet communists.
But the New York Times appears to be approaching the war in Syria with the same editorial strategy with which it approached the war in Gaza: instead of aiming for balanced and complete coverage in every article, it has instead published articles that seem designed to be shared and read by partisans on either side. Perhaps that means the Times has elaborate graphics in the works depicting Turkish, Russian, and American incursions in Syria.
There’s plenty of material to work with there. The Alma Research and Education Center reported on March 25 that “Turkey plans to establish multiple bases to serve the Turkish Air Force, utilizing the infrastructure of Syrian airports in the Palmyra region (Palmyra Airport and T4).” It added that “in recent days there were reports indicating that Turkey has transported troops and military equipment to the Minaq military airport in northern Syria, now operating in Turkish-Syrian collaboration.”
The Pentagon announced on Dec. 19, 2024, that there are 2,000 US troops in Syria.
And Russia is trying to keep its Latakia naval base and Khmeimim air base in Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported in early March 2025.
Until and unless elaborate New York Times graphics are devoted to those, too, it sure looks as if the newspaper is holding the Jewish state to a standard it doesn’t apply to other countries, singling out Israel for special negative treatment,
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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Missle from Yemen Targets Dead Sea Area
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands in front of an F-35 stealth fighter at the IAF’s Nevatim base, July 9, 2019. Photo: Amos Ben Gershom / GPO.
i24 News – The Israel Defense Forces said that a Houthi missile was intercepted outside of Israeli territory, although sirens blared in the eastern Negev and Dead Sea area. The Yemen-based, Iran-backed terrorist group said that they had targeted the Nevatim airbase.
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Iran Says ‘Extremely Cautious’ on Success of Nuclear Talks with US
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Iran and the United States have agreed to continue nuclear talks next week, both sides said on Saturday, though Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi voiced “extreme cautious” about the success of the negotiations to resolve a decades-long standoff.
US President Donald Trump has signaled confidence in clinching a new pact with the Islamic Republic that would block Tehran’s path to a nuclear bomb.
Araqchi and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held a third round of the talks in Muscat through Omani mediators for around six hours, a week after a second round in Rome that both sides described as constructive.
“The negotiations are extremely serious and technical… there are still differences, both on major issues and on details,” Araqchi told Iranian state TV.
“There is seriousness and determination on both sides… However, our optimism about success of the talks remains extremely cautious.”
A senior US administration official described the talks as positive and productive, adding that both sides agreed to meet again in Europe “soon.”
“There is still much to do, but further progress was made on getting to a deal,” the official added.
Earlier Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi had said talks would continue next week, with another “high-level meeting” provisionally scheduled for May 3. Araqchi said Oman would announce the venue.
Ahead of the lead negotiators’ meeting, expert-level indirect talks took place in Muscat to design a framework for a potential nuclear deal.
“The presence of experts was beneficial … we will return to our capitals for further reviews to see how disagreements can be reduced,” Araqchi said.
An Iranian official, briefed about the talks, told Reuters earlier that the expert-level negotiations were “difficult, complicated and serious.”
The only aim of these talks, Araqchi said, was “to build confidence about the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.”
Trump, in an interview with Time magazine published on Friday, said “I think we’re going to make a deal with Iran,” but he repeated a threat of military action against Iran if diplomacy fails.
Shortly after Araqchi and Witkoff began their latest indirect talks on Saturday, Iranian state media reported a massive explosion at the country’s Shahid Rajaee port near the southern city of Bandar Abbas, killing at least four people and injuring hundreds.
MAXIMUM PRESSURE
While both Tehran and Washington have said they are set on pursuing diplomacy, they remain far apart on a dispute that has rumbled on for more than two decades.
Trump, who has restored a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran since February, ditched a 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and six world powers in 2018 during his first term and reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran.
Since 2019, Iran has breached the pact’s nuclear curbs including “dramatically” accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, according to the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this week Iran would have to entirely stop enriching uranium under a deal, and import any enriched uranium it needed to fuel its sole functioning atomic energy plant, Bushehr.
Tehran is willing to negotiate some curbs on its nuclear work in return for the lifting of sanctions, according to Iranian officials, but ending its enrichment program or surrendering its enriched uranium stockpile are among “Iran’s red lines that could not be compromised” in the talks.
Moreover, European states have suggested to US negotiators that a comprehensive deal should include limits preventing Iran from acquiring or finalizing the capacity to put a nuclear warhead on a ballistic missile, several European diplomats said.
Tehran insists its defense capabilities like its missile program are not negotiable.
An Iranian official with knowledge of the talks said on Friday that Tehran sees its missile program as a bigger obstacle in the talks.
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Palestinian Leader Abbas Names Likely Successor in Bid to Reassure World Powers
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, April 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas named close confidant Hussein al-Sheikh as his deputy and likely successor on Saturday, the Palestine Liberation Organization said, a step widely seen as needed to assuage international doubts over Palestinian leadership.
Abbas, 89, has headed the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) since the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 but he had for years resisted internal reforms including the naming of a successor.
Sheikh, born in 1960, is a veteran of Fatah, the main PLO faction which was founded by Arafat and is now headed by Abbas. He is widely viewed as a pragmatist with very close ties to Israel.
He was named PLO vice president after the organization’s executive committee approved his nomination by Abbas, the PLO said in a statement.
Reform of the PA, which exercises limited autonomy in the West Bank, has been a priority for the United States and Gulf monarchies hoping the body can play a central role in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Pressure to reform has intensified since the start of the war in Gaza, where the PLO’s main Palestinian rival Hamas has battled Israel for more than 18 months, leaving the tiny, crowded territory in ruins.
The United States has promoted the idea of a reformed PA governing in Gaza after the war. Gulf monarchies, which are seen as the most likely source of funding for reconstruction in Gaza after the war, also want major reforms of the body.
CALL FOR HAMAS TO DISARM
Israel’s declared goal in Gaza is the destruction of Hamas but it has also ruled out giving the PA any role in government there. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he opposes the creation of a Palestinian state.
Hamas, which follows a militant Islamist ideology, has controlled Gaza since 2007 when it defeated the PA in a brief civil war after winning an election the previous year. It also has a large presence in the West Bank.
At a meeting of the PLO’s Central Council on Wednesday and Thursday that approved the position of vice president without naming an appointee, Abbas made his clearest ever call for Hamas to completely disarm and hand its weapons – and responsibility for governing in Gaza – to the PA.
Widespread corruption, lack of progress towards an independent state and increasing Israeli military incursions in the West Bank have undermined the PA’s popularity among many Palestinians.
The body has been controlled by Fatah since it was formed in the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993 and it last held parliamentary elections in 2005.
Sheikh, who was imprisoned by Israel for his activities opposing the occupation during the period 1978-89, has worked as the PA’s main contact liaising with the Israeli government under Abbas and been his envoy on visits to world powers.
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