‘I’ll continue to ignore’ your advice, Netanyahu tells New York Times

“After burying the Holocaust for years on its back pages and demonizing Israel for decades on its front pages, the New York Times now shamefully calls for undermining Israel’s elected incoming government,” Netanyahu wrote.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu slammed The New York Times in a series of tweets on Sunday after the outlet published a scathing op-Ed claiming that the long-time Likud leader was endangering Israel’s foundations of democracy.

“After burying the Holocaust for years on its back pages and demonizing Israel for decades on its front pages, The New York Times now shamefully calls for undermining Israel’s elected incoming government,” Netanyahu wrote.

“While the NYT continues to delegitimize the one true democracy in the Middle East and America’s best ally in the region, I will continue to ignore its ill-founded advice and instead focus on building a stronger and more prosperous country, strengthening ties with America, expanding peace with our neighbors, and securing the future of the one and only Jewish state,” he added.

On Saturday, the Times ran an editorial titled “The Ideal of Democracy in a Jewish State is in Jeopardy,” which suggested that Netanyahu’s expected new government, comprised of solely right-wing parties, is a “significant threat to the future of Israel — its direction, its security and even the idea of a Jewish homeland.”

The outlet did acknowledge that Netanyahu “clearly has the support of the Israeli electorate,” but urged the Biden administration to actively intervene in the implementation of new right-wing policies and laws, such as legalizing settlements in Judea and Samaria or permitting Jewish freedom of worship on the Temple Mount.

The Times has a long history of blatant anti-Israel bias, including a recent article about the plight of Gazan fishermen which the outlet later admitted was almost entirely fabricated. The paper also came under fire last week from Orthodox Jewish leaders after the outlet published some 12 articles in less than three months which all depicted the Hasidic community as backwards and ignorant.

Netanyahu’s victory in the recent election, after losing office in June 2021, is due in large part to the support of the right-wing Religious Zionism party, which won an unprecedented 14 Knesset seats, and the ultra-Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties.