In the Wake of Kristoff and the Times: What's There to Say?
5/14/202640 min
What do you say when defending yourself only makes things worse?
In this episode, Donniel Hartman and Yossi Klein Halevi respond in real time to Nicholas Kristof's New York Times column accusing Israel of systemic sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees — an article that dropped on the same day Israel's Civil Commission released its report on Hamas's use of mass rape on October 7. They assess the latest barrage of allegations leveled against Israel, examine the deep disconnect between the mainstream Jewish story and international media narratives, and confront the troubling realities of prisoner abuse in an environment lacking moral guardrails.
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Read the Kogod Research Center’s new White Paper, Building Communities of Belonging: Jewish Identity, Conversion, Intermarriage, and Adjacency.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDeborah Pardes0:00
[gentle music] I'm Deborah Pardes, the host of Arc News Daily. What's happening in Israel and the Jewish world right now matters, but it can be hard to keep up, let alone make sense of it all. That's why we started Arc News Daily. Every weekday morning, I walk you through the most important news, give you the context you need, and let you know what to look out for next. I don't try to convince you of anything, and I don't waste your time. On most days, I'll be in your ears for about 10 minutes or less. Then you can move on with your day, hopefully a little bit smarter than before. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or follow the link in the show notes. I hope to see you tomorrow.
Speaker 20:42
[upbeat music] You are listening to an Arc Media podcast.
Donniel Hartman· Host0:54
I must tell you, Yossi, more than any other podcast, I'm coming with a profound sense of angst, confusion, even helplessness.
Yossi Klein Halevi· Host1:07
My first response when I saw it, Daniel, was I wept. I wept because I felt that we are under such overwhelming assault to our legitimacy that I don't know what to say anymore. I don't know how to defend us. This was my first emotional reaction.
Donniel Hartman· Host1:27
Part of what's so frustrating, Yossi, is I know