OPINION
Premium

The NYT's Laughable Article About Arab Losses in the Gaza War

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  Dec 26, 2023
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

This article is a byproduct of what happens when the woke left gradually takes over your newsroom: folks who are more concerned about maintaining a manufactured narrative than reporting the facts and grossly illiterate when it comes to history. We’re not even going back 100 years here, but some folks at The New York Times decided to gin up the death and destruction narrative to absurd heights. 

We all know that Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ genocidal October 7 attack would spur the usual reactions from the pro-terrorist crowd. It used to be contained to academia, but the far-left is now taking over newsrooms at a shocking rate. The New York Times, The Associated Press, CNN, and others were always atrocious in their Israel coverage, but the war in Gaza has showcased what happens when you don’t know anything. 

The Times recently had a piece about how this Gaza War is the deadliest for Arabs in the past 40 years. Sure, they had to tweak the headline because it was grossly incorrect, but the paper still has the bad habit of peddling Hamas propaganda (via NYT): 

The number of Gaza residents reported killed during Israel’s 10-week-old war in the territory has already surpassed the toll for any other Arab conflict with Israel in more than 40 years and perhaps any since Israel’s founding in 1948. 

The Gaza Health Ministry said on Thursday that the death toll had exceeded 20,000 for the first time, putting it just above one of the most authoritative estimates of those killed in Lebanon by Israel’s 1982 invasion. 

And though Gaza officials have said counting the dead has become increasingly challenging, most experts say the figure is likely an undercount and express shock at the enormity of the loss. Some military experts said more people had been killed more quickly in this war than during the deadliest stages of the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan or Iraq. 

Azmi Keshawi, the Gaza analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank, said this war was “more horrifying” than any he had experienced before. He said he and his family had fled his home in northern Gaza and moved six times so far. They now live in a tent near a U.N. shelter in the southern city of Rafah. 


No wars were ever fought until Israeli troops invaded Gaza this fall. You have to laugh at this article. First, everything is now a percentage of this or that to make it seem more devastating than it is; second, The Times is still taking Hamas’ death toll as gospel. Wasn’t this paper hurled into the furnace for peddling a fake news story about Israel bombing a hospital in Gaza not so long ago? Yes, it was—and published it’s fake report because it thought terrorist sources were legitimate. You also must wonder if these reporters tacitly supported repeating known falsehoods to place pressure on the Biden administration and Israel to accept a ceasefire. If these publications hire photographers who more or less participated in the October 7 attacks, it’s not hard to see its reporters adopting the same mindset with their articles. As long as it ends with a ceasefire, publishing fake news pieces is justified. 

Recommended

Blinken In Deep Water After State Dept. Hosts Therapy Sessions Post-Trump Win Sarah Arnold
These Democratic Senators Could Sure Be in Trouble After Voting for Sanders' Anti-Israel Resolutions Rebecca Downs

The Associated Press also pulled the same funny business with the death toll, claiming that the experts were saying, “Israel's military campaign in Gaza seen as among the most destructive in history.”   


More people died when the United States nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so that’s wrong. More people died when we firebombed Tokyo and most of the Japanese mainland in 1945. 

People die in war—why is it so hard for the left to understand that? This is a movement that is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions, mainly in China under Mao. The far-left should at least know its side is known for unbridled butchery in peacetime. The difference between Israel and Hamas is that the former avoids civilian casualties, but collateral damage does happen. It’s tragic, but this happens in wartime. Hamas intentionally murdered, raped, tortured, and burned Israeli civilians. There are no “two sides” here, but you already know the liberal media doesn’t see it that way because they’re pro-terrorist.