The New York Times Blogging is Not Good

So turns out that the Hamas rape story is more problematic even then we thought after learning details of the Gal Abdush case. That's the one where they identified the "woman in the black dress" and Israeli security forces said she was raped before she was murdered. And the New York Times mislead the family about what type of story they were writing (one focused on Hamas being rape monsters instead of memorializing victims) to get interviews. And then it turns out that it is incredibly unlikely that she was raped. In the words of the victim's sister:

At 6:51, Gal sent us a message on WhatsApp saying ‘we are at the border, and you can’t imagine sounds of explosions around us.’ At 7 o’clock, my brother-in-law called his brother and said they shot Gal and she’s dying. It doesn’t make any sense that in four minutes, they raped her, slaughtered her, and burned her?

Now to be clear - Hamas did brutally murder her. An innocent civilian. This is already a very serious crime that should be denounced - it is a clear act of terrorism and was one of many that were committed that day. But it sure looks like the IDF just made up some bullshit story to make it seem even worse and then the Times misled and took advantage of the victim's family in order to catapult that lie.

Anyways, how could this be more problematic? Well, some more information has come out about one of the authors of the piece. Turns out that Anat Schwartz's Twitter account had liked at least a couple of very problematic posts. One with language bad enough that it got included in South Africa's ICJ case accusing Israel of genocide and the other about propaganda strategies to get the West to fear Hamas. There may have been more, but her social media got locked down immediately and then scrubbed before being restored.

It's been repeated so many times - the Hamas rape machine, all of the rapes that Hamas perpetrated on October 7, those dirty Arabs are sexual predators who wallow in rape and violence. Based on stories like the ones Anat Schwartz fed into the discourse. And it is really starting to look like those stories are all bullshit. 

AFAICT, they still have not found any survivors who say they were a victim of rape. Now this isn't proof that it didn't happen. Supposedly, as per the hasbara, most of the victims were also murdered. And survivors quite reasonably have trouble reporting these horrific violations against them in less fraught circumstances - but to know that the accusation will be accompanied by a mountain of global scrutiny and coverage is probably also off-putting. In the case of rape and sexual violence, the adage that absence of evidence not being evidence of absence is especially true. BUT - when you factor in the incredibly bad faith bullshit being engaged in by Israel and outlets like the New York Times, well maybe some skepticism is warranted. Believe women - this holds. But maybe also don't automatically believe people using those women to justify genocide.

Let me note - I found the accusations against Hamas credible despite my automatic skepticism of anything the IDF says. The IDF lies. All the time. That skepticism is something the IDF has earned. They are more shameless about spreading propaganda than conservative politicians. BUT - I am deeply anti-war. War is hell. It is literally human beings doing their utmost to kill and destroy one another. It is bad and it has bad repercussions that spread everywhere and affect everything. So I am primed to believe accusations of misconduct against people engaged in war. In this particular case - even more so, as the Hamas fighters were also clearly engaged in terrorism - in the wholesale murder of defenseless civilians. So when you suggest that they are also rapists, my skepticism gets put on hold.

But now, it really does look like these accusations are just bullshit. Israeli propaganda or hasbara. It's lies. I should have understood this much earlier - the explanation that Hamas gave as to why it was untrue was solid. See, Hamas noted that their fighters are deeply religious fanatical zealots that were engaged in what they saw as a glorious struggle, likely a suicide mission where they would be martyred. And fundamental to that bizarre religious doctrine is the usual religious hang-ups about sex and how it is forbidden except for making babies. Of course, Hamas didn't phrase it like that - but that was the crux of their claim. And it fits in with what we have observed. And, to people outside of Hamas, it does not paint them in a good light. The excuse is basically - they didn't rape anyone because that would get in the way of their murdering of civilians.

Anyways, with Israel on the verge of invading Rafah, the Times is probably warming up another "Israel is so progressive - check out this group of brave Israeli women fighting in Gaza". There's even a perfect photo for it that was taken this past week.