Nicholas Kristof and The New York Times have crossed a line that responsible journalism should never approach, much less leap over with a running start.

In a column alleging widespread rape of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli guards, soldiers, settlers and interrogators, Kristof asks readers to accept sweeping accusations against Israel while relying heavily on anonymous accounts, advocacy reports, and sources whose credibility is deeply contested. Israeli authorities have rightly called the column a “blood libel,” and the Israel Prison Service has rejected the allegations as “false and entirely unfounded.”

Let’s be clear: every credible allegation of sexual violence deserves serious investigation. No victim should be silenced. No perpetrator should be protected. That standard must apply equally to Israelis, Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, Christians, and every human being created in the image of God.

But that is not what Kristof’s column does.

Instead, it presents Israel — the Jewish state still grieving the rape, torture, murder and kidnapping of its citizens on October 7 — as a society whose security forces have normalized sexual violence. It does so while acknowledging, even in the original essay, that........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)