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What the New York Times Left Out of Its Jerusalem Bookstore Story

Supporters visit an Educational Bookshop, after Israeli police raided two Educational Bookshops and made arrests, in East Jerusalem, Feb. 10, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

“Israeli Police Raid Palestinian Bookshops, Another Step in Tightened Restrictions,” is the headline over a New York Times news article.

The headline is itself a fine example of how the Times, instead of just reporting the news, pushes its own interpretive framework onto a story. The risk with that is that sometimes the interpretive framework is tendentious, or, at best, highly selective.

In this case, the Times spins the arrest as evidence of “how Israel is tightening restrictions on free speech and cultural activities for Palestinians across the country.” You wouldn’t know it from reading the Times article, but the event could just as easily and accurately be portrayed as evidence of how even Jerusalem Arabs who appear to be mainstream are involved in glorifying terrorists.

The Times seems to be ridiculing the idea that “books being sold there — including a children’s coloring book — could incite violence.” It mentions a police statement about “a children’s coloring book titled From the Jordan to the Sea,” noting, “The slogan ‘from the river to the sea’ has long been a rallying cry for Palestinian nationalism and is usually interpreted by Israelis as a denial of their country’s right to exist.”

The South African Jewish Report has an account from June 2024 of the same book being removed from shelves of South Africa’s biggest bookstore chain after an outcry.

It reports that “The color-by-number book, which is aimed at children between ages six and 10, says that it ‘introduces young readers to the key concepts driving and sustaining Palestinian resistance.’ This includes a page dedicated to the concept of intifada, which encompasses two violent Palestinian uprisings in which about 1,000 Israelis were killed by suicide bombings in the early 2000s.”

According to the South African Jewish Report, “The book then goes on to tell children that people who die for the Palestinians are ‘martyrs — heroes who have a special place in Palestinian society.’ Children can then color in a picture of the late academic, Refaat Alareer, who described all Jews as ‘evil.’ In a BBC interview, he described the Oct. 7 attack as ‘legitimate and moral.’ He compared the attack to the Warsaw ghetto uprising and accused Israel of fabricating evidence of sexual assault by Hamas on Oct. 7.”

Children “are also given a picture of ‘protest icon’ Ahed Tamimi, who has been arrested twice by Israel, the second time when she posted on social media in November 2023, ‘Come on settlers, we’ll slaughter you. What Hitler did to you was a joke. We’ll drink your blood and eat your skulls.’”

For comparison’s sake, imagine if, after the Boston Marathon bombing, Boston police had found a Muslim-owned bookstore with a coloring book encouraging children to color in a picture of the “martyr” bomber. Or imagine if, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, New York Police found a Saudi or Afghan-owned bookstore in Brooklyn or New Jersey encouraging children to color in a picture of Osama Bin Laden or the “martyrs” who perpetrated the attack on the World Trade Center. Or imagine if, heaven forbid, the bookstore owner was a Trump-supporting conservative Christian or Jew selling coloring books glorifying as heroic martyrs perpetrators of violent attacks on news organizations, such as the one on the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland.

Reasonable people could debate whether arresting the bookstore owner would be the right move, but surely at least some journalistic curiosity about why a bookstore owner would be promoting violent extremism would be warranted, alongside any alarm about “tightened restrictions on free speech.”

The Times article online has two corrections now appended:

Corrections were made on Feb. 10, 2025

An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the relationship of the two men who were arrested at the Educational Bookshops. They are relatives, but not brothers.

An earlier version of a photo caption misstated which man was which, based on incorrect information from the news agency. Mahmood is seated in court at left and Ahmed is on the right.

It’s easy enough for the Times to correct those details.

On the more basic issue of whether the underlying story fits a narrative of “restrictions on free speech” or one of “Jerusalem Arabs glorifying terrorists,” Times readers may, alas, have to wait somewhat longer for a correction.

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 What the New York Times Left Out of Its Jerusalem Bookstore Story first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East

A Patriot missile battery. Photo: IDF.

i24 NewsAmerican Patriot missile defense batteries will be moved from South Korea to the Middle East, according to reports in Asian media on Friday, amid speculation over a potential military action against Iran’s nuclear program and escalating bombardments of Iran-backed jihadists in Yemen.

US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program, and the United States has moved additional warplanes into the region.

Washington and Seoul have reportedly recently agreed on the “monthslong” partial deployment of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3, in what is understood to be the first known case involving the relocation of United States Forces Korea (USFK) assets to the Middle East.

Iran in recent years has largely dropped the pretense of enriching uranium for a civilian atomic energy program, as it’s reportedly teetering on the nuclear precipice. Israel believes that a nuclear Iran represents a grave existential threat, consistent with the exterminationist antisemitism of the Islamic Republic’s anti-Israel rhetoric.

After the election of Trump, a known Iran hawk, the likelihood of an U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities has increased precipitously.

The post US Moves Patriot Missile Batteries from South Korea to Middle East first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled

The Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

i24 NewsIran enlisted the services of a Georgian drug trafficker to carry out an assassination of a prominent Azerbaijani rabbi, the Washington Post reported Saturday, citing security officials.

The plot to murder Rabbi Shneor Segal, foiled by the State Security Service of Azerbaijan in early January, also involved a plan to attack a Jewish education center, the officials said.

The plot was set in motion by an officer with Iran’s Quds Force, who met with Georgian criminal Agil Aslanov, handing him a photo of Segal and detailed instructions on how to murder him, the officials cited by WaPo said. Aslanov’s fee for the foiled hit was $200,000.

The State Security Service said the two men “worked to collect information about a member of a religious community, and sent the location of his residence and workplace to a representative of a foreign special service agency via the appropriate mobile phone application.”

Iran is known to be behind multiple plots against Israeli and Jewish targets, many of which have been foiled by Israeli and foreign security services.

However a recent plot saw three citizens of Uzbekistan murder an Israeli rabbi in the United Arab Emirates on Iranian orders. The three were sentenced to death earlier this week for the murder of Zvi Kogan in November.

The post Report: Iranian Plot to Assassinate Azerbaijani Rabbi Foiled first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Prime Minister’s office in Jerusalem, Feb. 16, 2025. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS

i24 NewsIsrael’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will depart to Washington DC on Sunday directly from Hungary—where he is presently on an official visit—to meet with US President Donald Trump, i24NEWS learned on Saturday from an Israeli source.

The visit comes following a phone conversation between the leaders on Friday, and a call with State Secretary Marco Rubio a short while ago.

As a result, the planned visit to Washington of Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz will be postponed once again.

Topics of discussion between the two leaders are expected to include the possible military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities, the Gaza war and the future of the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave, the US bombing campaign against Iran-backed Houthi jihadists in Yemen, and the recent imposition of tariffs on Israeli products.

The post Netanyahu to Depart for Washington on Sunday Directly from Hungary to Meet with Trump first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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