RSS
New York Times Whitewash of Nasrallah Draws Bipartisan Backlash
Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses his supporters through a screen during a rally commemorating the annual Hezbollah Martyrs’ Day, in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Photo: Reuters/Aziz Taher
A New York Times obituary of Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah that falsely claimed he favored “equality for Muslims, Jews, and Christians” has drawn fierce condemnation from members of the US Congress from both political parties.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, a Democrat from New York, posted a screenshot of the Times article. “Reading The NY Times, one would think that Nasrallah was not a terrorist doing the bidding of theocrats in Tehran but a civil rights leader, marching for the equality of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Attempting the mass murder of Jews in Israel, as Hezbollah has done, is a strange way of fighting for equality,” Torres wrote.
Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California, posted, “Nasrallah was responsible for terror attacks against Jewish community institutions, including the bombing of Argentina’s AMIA Jewish center which killed 83 civilians. Publishing the absurd lie that he ‘wanted equality’ undermines @NYTimes credibility if not swiftly retracted.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican from New York, wrote, “The moral depravity of failed mainstream media outlets is on full display in their disgustingly glorifying eulogies of Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah.” Stefanik called it “beyond comprehension” that the Times and other publications “would idolize Nasrallah’s reign of terror, which was responsible for the slaughter of thousands of Americans, Israelis, and innocents around the world including Muslims.”
The Times has not appended a correction to its article, but, in a tacit concession that the original language was off-base, it stealth-edited the passage screenshotted by Torres and Sherman.
The original, inaccurate, passage said, “Mr. Nasrallah was opposed to Israel, which he called ‘the Zionist entity,’ and maintained that there should be one Palestine with equality for Muslims, Jews, and Christians.” As stealth-edited by the Times, it now reads, “He often referred to Israel as ‘the Zionist entity’ and maintained that Jewish people who arrived from other countries over decades should return to their nations of origin, and said that Israel should be replaced by the state of Palestine, with equality for all residents.”
Even that is too kind, ignoring Nasrallah’s statement that if the Jews “all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them world-wide.”
It’s the word “equality” that really grates, with its false implication that what Nasrallah was campaigning for was some extension of the American Declaration of Independence’s idea that “all men are created equal,” rather than the imposition of Iran-style Islamist extremist clerical rule.
While the Times is busy posthumously buffing and polishing Nasrallah’s reputation, it’s simultaneously tarring Israel by likening members of its governing coalition to the Hezbollah terrorist group. “The struggle between the world of inclusion and the world of resistance comes down to many things, but none more — today — than [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s willingness to follow up his blow to the ‘Party of God’ in Lebanon [Hezbollah] by dealing a similar political blow to the ‘Party of God’ in Israel,” Thomas Friedman writes, describing the Israeli “Party of God” as “the coalition of far-right Jewish settler supremacists and messianists who want Israel to permanently control all the territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, with no border lines in between.”
Leave it to the New York Times to admiringly portray an actual Hezbollah leader as favoring “one Palestine with equality for Muslims, Jews, and Christians,” while a Times columnist advocates the obliteration of Israel’s “far-right Jewish settler supremacists and messianists who want Israel to permanently control all the territory from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean, with no border lines in between.”
You don’t have to be an Israeli far-right settler or even a sympathizer to see the double standard, just a Times reader with more skepticism and independent-mindedness than the people running that newspaper these days. Even the politicians can see it.
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 Whitewash of Nasrallah Draws Bipartisan Backlash first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
RSS
Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
RSS
Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.