Top of Mind Thursday – May 14, 2026: Gone to the Dogs

This week, a blue ribbon commission in Israel released a 300 page report that outlined the scope and depravity of sexual violence perpetrated by Hamas and Palestinian civilians on Israelis on October 7th and for months afterwards.

The report—the result of a two-year investigation that included testimony from more than 400 people (including survivors of the Nova massacre and returned hostages) and analysis of 2000 hours of video (including that shot by the perpetrators)—determined that sexual violence was “systematic, wide-spread, and integral to the attacks.” and included ongoing sexual attacks on men, women, and children. In some cases, children were forced to perform sexual acts on each other.

However, the New York Times chose to run a different story a day earlier. In an Opinion piece, writer Nicholas Kristof accuses Israel of setting up a system of sexual torture that, among other things, included dogs trained to sexually assault humans.

No military prison system is perfect, and it’s likely some mistreatment of prisoners may have occurred throughout the war. In fact, the Israeli government is already investigating several allegations of prisoner mistreatment. However, in addition to the fact that what Kristof is alleging is biologically impossible, he neglects the fact that cameras capture everything that happens in an Israeli prison. Had such atrocities occurred, there would be a trail of evidence and outrage.

Buried deep in the piece (which seems to have been held to a lower standard of journalist integrity than a regular news article), are statements from Kristof that note there is no evidence Israeli government officials ever sanctioned such supposed activity, and that there’s no way to discern how many Palestinians (if any) were subjected to this.

Where did Kristof get his information? He credits a non-government organization (NGO) that has publicly admitted being affiliated with Hamas. This organization has in the past accused Israel of stealing organs from prisoners, as well as abusing and killing children. It’s likely only a matter of time till they make the time-old libel that Jews are killing children and drinking their blood.

The media reaction has been to focus on the incredulity of Kristof’s report, rather than to repeat the allegations—since they seem preposterous. If this were a real story, the media would be clamoring all over itself to dig down and expand on Kristof’s allegations. None of that has happened. However, the Israel Defense Force is threatening to sue Kristof and the NYT for defamation because of the allegations.

The NYT has gone out of its way to be anti-Israel since October 7th. Last July, they published a front page photo of an emaciated child in Gaza and accused Israel of starving him to death. The photo was actually of a Gazan child with cystic fibrosis who has been med-evacced to Italy by Israel for treatment. The correction from the Times was buried way in the website—this was no longer front page news.

Now, not only has the Times diverted attention from an extensively researched and reported report on actual sexual violence perpetuated on Israelis since October 7th, but the paper has shown how far they’ve fallen. This kind of mis-reporting will dog Kristof and the Times for a long time.

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