Israel's Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter told thousands of Chabad emissaries in New York on Sunday that The New York Times helped spread a blood libel against Israel, and warned that the genocide accusations are meant "to prepare the next genocide against us," JNS reports.
Speaking at the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries, Leiter described a meeting with the paper's editorial board a year ago: 15 editors in the room and six more on screen. "They were the jury, they were the judge, they were the firing squad," he said. "They were accusing the government of Israel, they were accusing the soldiers of Israel, of genocide."
He said he answered with facts: how many aid trucks were entering Gaza every day, how Israeli soldiers risked their lives to protect civilians, and that the ratio of combatants to civilians killed was the lowest in modern warfare. "I gave them facts, and they gave me feelings."
When an editor told him "everybody can't be wrong," Leiter pointed to the Times' own front-page photo of an emaciated 18-month-old Gaza boy. The paper, he said, did not mention that the child had a genetic disease and other illnesses, and cropped out his healthy brother. When a senior editor asked if he was making too much of it, Leiter said: "That's not a misappropriation. That's a blood libel."
"Hitler didn't just happen. It was decades in preparation of demonizing and delegitimizing Jews," Leiter said. "We have to identify the problem, and we have to fight it."
Video of the speech was posted by @YWNReporter of Yeshiva World News.
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Nov 9 · 7:09 AM ET
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