Israel Matzav: The <i>New York Times</i> censors reality

Sunday, February 05, 2012

The New York Times censors reality

On Friday, the New York Times published an editorial in which they came out against the United States or Israel striking Iran.

There should be no illusions. Iran’s nuclear ambitions are real and dangerous. But there is no proof that it has made the decision to move from producing fuel to building a bomb. American officials say that reports of a missile with a 6,000-mile range are premature and wildly exaggerated.

The costs of an Israeli military strike — with or without American support — would be huge. It would likely only set Iran’s nuclear program back for a few years. It would unite Iranians around their government at a time when it is fast losing popular support. It would also shatter the international coalition for sanctions and direct more anger against Israel and the United States.

But the Times left out a little something from their news coverage in order to make their editorial appear a bit more plausible. On Friday, Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni once again called Israel a 'cancerous tumor' and promised to eliminate it.

"The Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor and it will be removed," Teheran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Friday.

Khamenei addressed thousands of worshipers attending a Tehran University prayer service marking the Fajr celebration.

The Iranian Revolution brought freedom and dignity to Iranian people and "destroyed the anti-Islamic regime, and brought Islamic regime instead… Dictatorship was changed to democracy," he said.

Here's how The Times reported that story:

American and European officials said Friday that a mission by international nuclear inspectors to Tehran this week had failed to address their key concerns, indicating that Iran’s leaders believe they can resist pressure to open up the nation’s nuclear program.

The assessment came as Iran’s supreme leader lashed out at the United States, vowing to retaliate against oil sanctions and threats of military action and warning that any attack “would be 10 times worse for the interests of the United States” than it would be for Iran.

Here's the closest The Times came to discussing Khameni's threat against Israel:

The ayatollah also issued an unusually blunt warning that Iran would support militant groups opposing Israel, an action that some analysts said could be held up by Israel as a casus belli.

Commentary's Jonathan Tobin called The Times on their omission (Hat Tip: Captain H. via Small Dead Animals and National Review).

However, there was something missing from the Times report of Khamenei’s speech that was reported elsewhere. Other accounts noted that in addition to threatening the United States, Khamenei said this: “The Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor and it will be removed.” While we don’t know how or why a mention of this element of the speech managed to get excised from the account in the Times, it’s a question worth pondering.

Any discussion of the nature of the Iranian nuclear threat that ignores the regime’s murderous intentions toward Israel is clearly incomplete.

Indeed, it is. There aren't all that many people left in this World who still remember the Holocaust, but all the Jews I know who are old enough to have lived through it make one thing perfectly clear: When someone threatens to kill you, take him seriously.

Labels: Iranian nuclear threat, liberal media censorship, New York Times