Racist rightwinger Itamar Ben-Gvir gets the security portfolio in Netanyahu’s next government and promises to visit the Al-Aqsa mosque in a provocation to Palestinians reminiscent of Ariel Sharon’s deadly visit there in 2000. But this is not news for the New York Times, which blinds its readers to the frightening developments in Israel.
Once again the “New York Times” launders the dark forces gaining power in Israeli politics. Tensions in the occupied Palestinian West Bank are already at their highest level in years, and yet Israel’s security policy is now in the hands of a fascist who was considered so extreme that he wasn’t even allowed to serve as a foot soldier in the Israeli army when he was younger.
The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman condemns the incoming Israeli government, with “outright racist, anti-Arab Jewish extremists” set to become cabinet ministers.
Itamar Ben-Gvir will probably be the kingmaker in Israel’s next government. So why do the New York Times and National Public Radio downplay his racism?
The racist Israeli politician Itamar Ben Gvir could be the lynchpin for Netanyahu’s comeback. But the “New York Times” is keeping that news from its readers. Even as Israel supporters in the Congress, Robert Menendez and Brad Sherman, express concern about what Ben Gvir would do for Israel’s image in the west.
So far, the mainstream media is almost totally quiet about AIPAC’s interference in the NY 10 primary race between corporate Democrat Dan Goldman and progressive Yuh-Line Niou. But AIPAC’s dark-money intervention is likely to energize thousands of voters who ordinarily don’t pay much attention to Israel/Palestine.
Critics of U.S. aid to Egypt ask why ask pointedly why the Biden administration is giving $1.3 billion to a military regime that has an estimated 60,000 political prisoners, one of the highest totals in the world. The answer is that the U.S. has been bribing Egypt for the past 4 decades to maintain peace with Israel, and this year’s military aid is just the latest payoff.
Once again, the U.S. mainstream media is missing — or covering up — a central reason that Israel carried out a preemptive attack on Gaza, killing 46 people, including 16 children. Yair Lapid used the attack to go ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu in polling in the election campaign.