Permit me a brief exercise in arithmetic.

2 2 = 4 is true.

2 2 = 7 is false.

2 2 = a mallard duck is something else entirely.

It’s not just wrong. It’s absurd. A category error. A proposition so detached from ordinary reasoning that rational argument becomes impossible. Increasingly, when discussions turn to Israel, I find we are not dealing in mistaken arithmetic.

We are dealing with ducks.

Legitimate criticism of Israel is not absurd. Scrutiny is not absurd. Nations at war should be scrutinized. Civilian suffering deserves attention. Military decisions deserve examination. None of this is strange.

The question is where scrutiny ends and something else begins.

Take, for example, the recent Nicholas Kristof piece in The New York Times concerning alleged systematic abuse of Palestinian detainees by Israelis. The allegations were grotesque. Almost surreal. Tailor-made for anti-Zionist voices on both the left and right.

The New York Times, among the most powerful journalistic institutions on earth, elevated extraordinary claims, including allegations involving the use of dogs in sexual torture, relying heavily upon anonymous testimony,........

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