The New York Times recently faced widespread criticism and mockery after publishing an article that many perceived as attempting to soften the image of slain Hezbollah founder Hassan Nasrallah. Critics argue that the piece, which was published without a byline on Saturday, sought to portray Nasrallah – a terror leader who called for the annihilation of Israel – as a champion of “equality” among all religious groups in the region.
The article, titled “Protesters Mourn Nasrallah’s Death Around the World,” heaps praise on Nasrallah as a “gifted orator” who maintained that there should be one Palestine with equality for Muslims, Jews and Christians. However, it is essential to remember that Hassan Nasrallah was known to fervently believe in the destruction of the Jewish state – a belief backed by Hezbollah, the organization he co-founded in 1982 and led by 1992.
Hezbollah has been accused of perpetrating numerous deadly terror attacks targeting Jewish people over the last 40 years, including the infamous bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 85 people. The group was also responsible for causing a plane crash the next day that killed 21 people, many of them Jewish.
Throughout the 2000s, Hezbollah carried out numerous suicide bombings within Israel, often targeting large groups of civilians gathered at restaurants, on buses or other public places. Most recently, this summer, Hezbollah launched a rocket strike at a soccer field in Israel-controlled Golan Heights, killing at least 12 people between the ages of 10 and 20.
This portrayal of Nasrallah as a champion of equality has been met with significant backlash from readers who argue that The New York Times is no longer relevant or credible. One user on X, a popular social media platform, wrote, “The Times readership is now down to liberal elites, politicians, Communists and Islamists,” in response to a post highlighting portions of the article viewed nearly 250,000 times. Another user asked, “This is so embarrassing. How does anyone take the NYT seriously anymore?” while another accused the paper of “Jihadsplaining” and attempting to turn explicit calls for genocide into something positive.
Although Hassan Nasrallah often claimed to be anti-Zionist and not antisemitic, he was quoted in a Times article from May 23, 2004 as saying, “If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” Despite numerous requests for comment from The New York Times, no response has been provided.
