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Home » The blood libel is alive and well and living at the LA Times

The blood libel is alive and well and living at the LA Times

The New Neo Posted on by

Actually, even the general MSM reportage on the Gazan war is often a form of blood libel against the Jews: that is, a promotion of the idea that the IDF either deliberately targets children or doesn’t take care not to target them, when in reality the IDF probably tries to prevent such a thing more than any other military would if placed in a similar position against a similar enemy.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term “blood libel,” you can look up the history here. In the past it had to do with falsely accusing Jews of purposely killing Christian children for ritual purposes. But in recent years it’s been employed to claim that Israelis have it in for Palestinian children in particular.

The Mohammed al Durah incident was a particularly egregious – and effective – example of such a claim; I’ve written extensively about that here, and you can also go to this site for more detailed information.

What tale is the LA Times pushing now? You can read about it at CAMERA in an article entitled: “LA Times Refuses to Substantiate, Retract Toxic Charge That IDF Snipers Targeted Kids”:

As of this writing, The Los Angeles Times continues to refuse to either substantiate or retract a spurious charge that Israeli snipers in the Gaza Strip targeted several young Palestinian children, shooting them in the head.

In his Feb. 16 Op-Ed, “I’m an American doctor who went to Gaza. What I saw wasn’t war – it was annihilation,” Irfan Galaria made the very alarming accusation that Israel Defence Forces snipers targeted multiple small children in Khan Younis, fatally shooting them in the head. Galaria, an American doctor who volunteered in the European Hospital in Khan Yunis, alleged:

“On one occasion, a handful of children, all about ages 5 to 8, were carried to the emergency room by their parents. All had single sniper shots to the head. These families were returning to their homes in Khan Yunis, about 2.5 miles away from the hospital, after Israeli tanks had withdrawn. But the snipers apparently stayed behind. None of these children survived.”

Given that this is such an egregious, serious charge which has not been independently confirmed, CAMERA turned to the Spokesmen Unit of the Israel Defense Forces for a response, a routine step which The Los Angeles Times did not take before publishing the Op-Ed, with its vitriolic charges of “annihilation.”

“Too good to fact-check” by the LA Times. CAMERA wrote to the IDF, which said that “the claims have no factual basis.” Nor does the author provide any. But as anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda, it’s great.

Who is Irfan Galaria? All I could discover is that he was born in Michigan, and he and his wife (also a doctor) appear to be Muslims from the photos of her head covering. Michigan is of course one of the US states with the largest Muslim population. “Irfan” is a first name that is popular in Turkey and Pakistan, and with a different spelling in Iran. Hard to say about the last name, which is not common.

That doesn’t mean that Galaria is lying, of course. But it certainly means he might have a motive to do so, or at least to be susceptible to the lies of others in the area, such as Hamas “health authorities.” More importantly, the absence of any corroborative evidence is telling and should mean that the paper either should not be publishing the piece, or it should contain a disclaimer pointing out the lack of any evidence.

The assertion by Galaria reminds me strongly of an article that once appeared in Harper’s and was a very deft example of the blood libel. I discuss the author, Chris Hedges, in this post; he is a liar about a lot of things in addition to the IDF (see the post for many details).

Here’s the part of my 2014 piece on Hedges’ lies that’s relevant to the blood libel:

Harper’s no longer publishes Hedges since the 2010 incident. However, he had already served the left’s purpose many times over by that time. One of the ways in which Hedges had done that was in this Harper’s article published in October of 2001, in which he wrote of IDF soldiers vis a vis Palestinian children in Gaza:

“Children have been shot in other countries I have covered – death squads gunned them down in El Salvador and Guatemala, mothers with infants were lined up and massacred in Algeria, and Serb snipers put children in their sights and watched them crumple onto the pavement in Sarajevo – but I have never before watched soldiers entice children like mice into a trap and murder them for sport.”

That gives you an idea of the flavor of Hedges’ writing. I read the piece at the time it appeared, long before my political change experience but during what in retrospect must have been the very early stages of it. His assertions had shocked and saddened me back then, but it hadn’t occurred to me when I first read them that Hedges might just be flat-out lying.

Here’s CAMERA’s treatment of that Hedges article. Pay particular attention from points 4 to the end. If you read it, you will see why it is almost certain that Hedges was lying in that article, and not just once but many many times. However, the article was very influential as part of the left’s campaign against Israel. By 2010 the magazine’s fact-checker may have become interested in making sure Hedges didn’t plagiarize in his articles, but it appears there was never an interest at Harper’s in making sure he didn’t lie in them, as long as those lies fit nicely into the preferred leftist narrative.

Lies work. That’s why people tell them. It’s the task of reporters not to publish unsubstantiated “facts” of such a potentially damaging nature. But if they fit “nicely into the preferred leftist narrative” they often are not questioned or fact-checked. And the blood libel fits very very nicely.

[NOTE: Hedges is still going strong with his anti-Israel propaganda and has a large YouTube following.]

Comments

The blood libel is alive and well and living at the <i>LA Times</i> — 22 Comments

  2. Has anyone verified that he ever set foot in Guatemala prior to 1985? Is it at all credible that he would have been reporting from a locus in El Salvador where he could actually witness ‘death squads’ at work in real time? Did even Raymond Bonner claim he had witnessed such things?
    ==
    If you want an indicator that the man is a sectary with no serious framework for assessing political movements and political events, recall that in 2007 he published a book with the title, American Fascists; The Christian Right and the War on America.

  3. Hedges was publishing dodgy material leading up to the iraq war but he wasnt reprimanded like judith miller

  4. The lies work, and so many hate the Jews and want to believe the lies so as to justify their own hatred.

    My interest is mostly in the future, the present, and the post 6-day War (in ’67, which I was alive during) recent past. I now believe that only after Hamas, and the Palestinians, are defeated will the survivors be able to live in peace.

    Enough Palestinians have to fight to the death, and die, so that the survivors can honestly say, they fought as hard as they could. It wasn’t enough. We need to give up the fight. (Tho most might mean to add ‘for now’).

    The blood libel lies are particularly bad. But here’s a silver lining about the NYT’s early lie about the 500 killed in the hospital by Israel, which turned out to be some two dozen or so killed by a bad Pali rocket in the parking. With Hamas lying, and the NYT printing it. This lie is more of the same.

    The coming deepfakes will make this far worse. (I hesitate to even print this.)

  5. “On one occasion, a handful of children, all about ages 5 to 8, were carried to the emergency room by their parents. All had single sniper shots to the head.” Irfan Galaria

    Just on the face of it, that’s a bald faced lie. A 5 to 8 year old child, shot in the head with a high velocity sniper round would die instantly and there wouldn’t be much left of their head.

    Transparent propaganda, with the evil intent to accuse Israeli soldiers of what Hamas monsters brag about.

  6. A story like this requires independent confirmation. What possible reason would Israeli snipers have to target small children? Unlike the October 7 jihadis, Israeli soldiers are not sociopaths. I don’t believe Hamas “civilian” death totals in general, but it is likely that a large number of “children” who have been killed were in fact late-teen Hamas fighters. Small children, no.

  7. odd there isn’t any video of this, when israel presents the nukba’s own footage, they disregard it, when the airforce takes down a high rise, where the squad leader ibrahim beeri, has sought refuge, the Times focus like a laser beam

  8. DARVO – Deny, Accuse, Reverse Victim and Offender. Favored tactic of psychopaths, sociopaths, malignant narcissists, and borderline personalities.

  9. Well said Geoffrey Britain. Reading that made my blood boil and not for the reasons the author wanted. If these evil, vile idiots had been smarter they’d have attributed the supposed shots in the head to low to mid caliber pistol rounds. Still unlikely to have the victim last that long (let alone as a child) but less thousand to one chance and also has the benefit of up close and personal premeditation.

    Honestly this is one reason why defamation laws need to be more muscular and retaliation done. I have said it before and I will say it again: if Mossad and co were serious about protecting Israel more of these people would need to meet tragic accidents.

  10. Turtler,

    OT, but I would be interested if you would expand on your previously stated affinity for turtles.

    I am a former herptile afficianado, who retains a soft spot for turtles.

    Maybe 10 years ago I was at a wildlife center which housed a variety of animals, many of which were confiscated by police from smugglers, criminals and other unlawful owners. The collection included every kind of poisonous snake you could think of, and many you couldn’t.

    I was chatting with the zookeeper, who said he had a turtle I might like to see. We went to his office, where he had a 55 gallon drum. In it was floating a (live) alligator snapping turtle. The turtle’s shell’s diameter was within a couple inches of the sides of the drum. The zookeeper told me that the turtle had been alive at the time of the Civil War.

  11. @ Tom Grey “With Hamas lying, and the NYT printing it. This lie is more of the same.”

    Until I read Neo’s post, I thought she meant the NY Times and their most recent propaganda post.
    https://quillette.com/2024/02/27/the-nyt-misrepresents-the-history-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/
    (h/t Powerline Headlines pics)

    Has there ever been a time that the Times (or even Western media in general) did NOT lie about Israel?

    “The coming deepfakes will make this far worse. (I hesitate to even print this.)”

    If they continue to be as inept as Google’s Gemini, no worries.
    But they won’t be.

  12. Re: The advent of AI Deep Fakes.
    It’s about time everyone grew up and learned to QUESTION EVERYTHING.
    Maybe this will do it.

  14. Kate — whenever the press weeps and wails and gnashes or collective teeth over “children killed by Israelis,” I am reminded of something that happened to a friend of mine that messed him up REALLY badly.

    He was in the IDF in 1981 and went into Lebanon. They came across a kid, prepubescent, maybe 11 or 12 years old. With an RPG. My friend and his fellow soldiers saw a child, and just couldn’t shoot him. The kid fired the RPG, and killed two of my friend’s fellow soldiers. My friend them shot the kid. He felt guilty for not firing sooner and saving his friends, and felt guilty for shooting a child.

    I lost contact over the years and haven’t seen him in ages. I have no idea how he came to grips with what happened. I can’t imagine what he’s gone through.

    But I’m sure that Hamas, Hezbollah, and others specifically press children into serving as soldiers for precisely that reason — a conscientious military will always hesitate to fire at a child. And when the conscientious military fires back, Hamas et al can cry over “children” being shot.

  16. A sniper wants to remain undetected as long as possible. A bullet flies, more or less, line of sight or slightly above it. So if he sees the target, the target at least has a line of sight back. Point is to remain unnoticeable.
    Shooting gives away your position, or at least reduced the places to be looking by most of what is in front of you. After the shot, it’s “Just…to the right of that pole….”
    There is no point in wasting your advantageous hide to kill a kid. That makes you less useful when it’s really necessary.

    Which anybody ought to know except when not knowing suits you better.

  17. Someone Else, what a sad story, but it makes my point. The IDF soldier was unwilling to shoot an 11-year-old. So I should have said, older children rather than just older teenagers. These Islamists are monsters.

  19. On a not-unrelated note, and as a result of clicking on other articles in Table, I found this great quote from Maj. Gen. (Res.) Gershon Hacohen:

    “If all our anxieties are just security, why not look to find that in New Jersey? What’s bad there? Why struggle here for more than 100 years, only for security that’s still not achieved? Security is only the means for another goal. The main goal is redemption … Tel Aviv without being a gateway to Jerusalem is nothing beyond Brooklyn on the Mediterranean.”

  21. Hold on tight! It’s those Hamas “Health Authorities” again…with another “Mostly Accurate”—the phrase that’s replaced the catchy “Fake but Accurate”!—REPORT!
    And so, it’s ZioNazis-aloola, part…gosh, I’ve lost count! (Not that this particular CLAIM makes a whole lotta sense…but, hey! what works, WORKS! So WHY NOT give it a try…since NO ONE is going to push back on it…Yeah! WHY NOT BROADCAST it around the globe…again and again and again and again…?)

    “Gaza Health Authorities Claim Israeli Fire Kills 104 Waiting for Aid”—
    https://www.newsmax.com/world/globaltalk/gaza-israel-war/2024/02/29/id/1155399/

    File under: Everybody’s quotin’ ’em, quotin’ ’em, quotin’ ’em….

    + Bonus:
    “Building evacuated as angry mob of Berkeley students violently shuts down Jewish event: ‘Dirty Jew’ ;
    ” ‘This isn’t an isolated incident. This is a continuous trend that’s persisted my entire time on campus. Jewish hate. The targeting of Jewish students,’ said an event organizer.”—
    —
    https://www.campusreform.org/article/building-evacuated-angry-mob-berkeley-students-violently-shuts-jewish-event-dirty-jew/24925
    H/T Instapundit.

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