An op-ed writer is seeing the proof now and has stopped resisting what’s been clear from the very beginning. And it would seem the editors of the Gray Lady have ceased resisting as well.
The New York Times building, 2012. (Ermell, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
The New York Times has published an op-ed by a genocide scholar who says that he resisted acknowledging the truth of what Israel is doing in Gaza for as long as he could, but can no longer deny the obvious.
It’s an admission that may as well have come from The New York Times itself.
In an article titled “I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.”, a Brown University professor of Holocaust and genocide studies named Omer Bartov argues that “Israel is literally trying to wipe out Palestinian existence in Gaza,” and denounces his fellow Holocaust scholars for failing to acknowledge reality.
“My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” Bartov writes.
“Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the I.D.F. as a soldier and officer and spent most of my career researching and writing on war crimes and the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach, and one that I resisted as long as I could. But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one.”
And resist he did. In November 2023, Bartov wrote another op-ed for The New York Times saying:
“As a historian of genocide, I believe that there is no proof that genocide is currently taking place in Gaza, although it is very likely that war crimes, and even crimes against humanity, are happening.”
[In November 2023 CN was one of the few outlets that started calling it genocide.]
Apparently Bartov is seeing the proof now and has stopped resisting what’s been clear from the very beginning. And it would seem the editors of the Gray Lady have ceased resisting as well.
The New York Times, which has an extensively documented pro-Israel bias, has frenetically avoided the use of the g-word on its pages from the very beginning of the Gaza onslaught.
Even in its opinion and analysis pieces the NYT Overton window has cut off at framing the issue as a complex matter of rigorous debate, with headlines like “Accused of Genocide, Israelis See Reversal of Reality. Palestinians See Justice.” and “The Bitter Fight Over the Meaning of ‘Genocide’” representing the closest thing to the pro-Palestinian side of the debate you’d see.
During the same time we’ve seen headlines like “From the Embers of an Old Genocide, a New One May Be Emerging” used in reference to Sudan.
In an internal memo obtained by The Intercept last year, New York Times reporters were explicitly told to avoid the use of the word “genocide”, as well as terms like “ethnic cleansing” and “occupied territory”.
“‘Genocide’ has a specific definition in international law,” the memo reads. “In our own voice, we should generally use it only in the context of those legal parameters. We should also set a high bar for allowing others to use it as an accusation, whether in quotations or not, unless they are making a substantive argument based on the legal definition.”
Earlier this year the American Friends Service Committee cancelled its paid advertisement in The New York Times calling for an end to the genocide in Gaza, saying the outlet had wanted them to change the word “genocide” to “war” in order for their ad to be published.
So there has been a significant change.
To be clear, this analysis by Omer Bartov is not significant in and of itself. He is only joining the chorus of what has already been said by human rights organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, United Nations human rights experts, and the overwhelming majority of leading authorities on the subject of genocide.
What is significant is that even experts who’ve been resisting acknowledging the reality of the genocide in Gaza because of their bias toward Israel have stopped doing so, and that even the imperial media outlets most fiendishly devoted to running propaganda cover for that genocide have run out of room to hide.
The Israel apologists have lost the argument. They might not know it yet, but they have. Public sentiment has turned irreversibly against them as people’s eyes are opened to the truth of what’s happening in Gaza, and more and more propagandists are choosing to rescue what’s left of their tattered credibility instead of going down with the sinking ship.
Truth is slowly beginning to get a word in edgewise.
Keep pushing. Keep fighting. Keep resisting.
It’s working.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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Could not care less about the N.Y.T.
So the centuries of genocide have not ended nor the religion that stole monotheism for its won purposes as the preeminent practitioner over entire continents for religious granted excuses of the ages. The torching has been passed on just like the corporate hostile takeovers aiming for full spectrum dominance as new arms races race on as western pastime…
How can a so-called Holocaust Expert have any credibility for continuing to deny its existence months after the ICJ and ICC have declared it? The rats and sinking ships analogy is appropriate in my view Omar Bartov’s position is untenable and he should resign
He does not “continue to deny it” … hearing him on Democracy Now, what he said from the beginning was there must be proof of both intentions and actions before genocide can be claimed. He said that several months in, he had no further doubts. This is not a new conversion, in other words.
The best way to stop the genocide being committed by Israel is to boycott everything coming from Israel and to stop trading with them as well. More people need to speak out against Israel and their guilty American backers the sooner the better.
That’s debatable. What about direct military action, perhaps a UN force along the lines of UNEF increasingly proposed of late?
With the existing evidence, when the proof is there on video, when do American Citizens figure this stuff out. IMO it makes the entire country appear to agree with Israel and this is not even remotely the actual case.
The question asked almost endlessly is why isn’t this stuff disseminated the MSM. Fact their bosses forbid it. The reporters do what they are told and regurgitate the same drivel six or seven times an hour with one-half of the hour of advertising.
It’s all about pretty women and money. A very profitable enterprise providing an almost worthless product. IMO. It’s the way of propaganda operating a, psyops, a psychological operation. Something CIA was forbidden to do domestically. Something which now the national security apparatus does openly since the bogus Patriot Act has been repeatedly allowed to continue. The funding pushed by the operations of many elected officials spewing fear and loathing sensationalism performing on the MSM. It is a sickening sight. Again my opinion
Now with the hard work done by others the truths are coming out and none of it is very pretty. Why should it come out now? In my opinion when the public gets angry of being played like fools and the knowledge is out front where it cannot be denied they are either embarrassed or working to place the blame somewhere and not always in the right place.
Just a tip from an old survivor, CIA makes U.S. foreign policy IMO, doing the bidding of big bankers and other large corporations, billionaires and the like.
Dershowitz just published a piece saying there’s no genocide in Gaza and to claim otherwise is akin to Holocaust denial.
Dershowitz never took his underwear off, so I believe him and so should you.
No doubt about it, “Caitlin Johnstone’s “NYT Stops Avoiding The G-Word.” Concluding, “Reason is Wealth.”
Hence, “MEMO To: Ari ben-Menashe, Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu, POTUS, Trump-Vance, Inc.
RE: The Neti Pot aka ‘The reality of the genocide in Gaza”
“The Israel apologists have lost the argument. They might not know it yet, but they have. Public sentiment has turned irreversibly against them as people’s eyes are opened to the truth of what’s happening in Gaza, and more and more propagandists are choosing to rescue what’s left of their tattered credibility instead of going down with the sinking ship. Truth is slowly beginning to get a word in edgewise.” Caitlin Johnstone
Everybody, knows, ““The root of all the violence, including the violence of October 7th, is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land and its subjugation of the Palestinian people. History did not begin on 7 October 2023. Israel is not fighting a war of self-defence; It is fighting a war of aggression. A war to occupy more territory, to strengthen its Apartheid apparatus and tighten its control on Palestinian people and the region.” Arundhati Roy
“[NOT All the Power and Money, NOT All the Weapons and Propaganda] on earth can any longer hide the wound that is Palestine. The wound through which the whole world, including Israel, bleeds.“ Arundhati Roy
……“So, let us, once and for all, dispense with the lie(s) about: 1) “the US being a mediator, a restraining influence, or as” [Sandy “AOC” Cortez, a Democrat of mainstream DNC & RNC] “politics, put it, ‘working tirelessly for a ceasefire;’ A party to the genocide cannot be a mediator.”
Hence, Ari ben-Menashe’s “advice,” is bull-$h*t, “Back Trump over the “PEACE,“ Ceasefire” in Gaza. Back him, in full.” Ari ben-Menashe. “The American adminin$tration is “trying” to bring end to war in Gaza.,” Ari ben-Menashe.
“Don’t drink the WH’s “orange” juice. There’s blood in the WH’s “orange” juice.” TY. Sincerely, LeoSun
No doubt in years to come the New York Times will tout allowing the term genocide in its hallowed pages as proof of its fearless, honest, and timely reporting.
An idiot would fail to recognize this from its inception.
I have a question, addressed to Omer Bartov. What was missing in the “Gaza War” previously to make it a genocide, that prevented him from noticing it? The man is attempting to rescue what little credibility he still has as a Holocaust expert; that is all. Same with the NYT.
Rats and sinking ships comes to mind.
How appropriate!
I’ve noticed just in the last few weeks how the rhetoric is changing and more and more people speaking out against israel.
Me too.