Nicholas Kristof raped my dog. At least that is what I have heard, from an anonymous source—a source who is intensely hostile to the New York Times columnist. And that’s good enough for me. Now that I come to think of it, my pet pug has had a strange look on his face lately.

As it happens, the rumor that I have just attempted to spread is far less lurid and fanciful than the one that the New York Times chose to spread around the world this week.

In a piece that has already been widely debunked, Kristof claimed that Israeli prison guards routinely use rape as a method of torture on Palestinian prisoners. The piece portrayed Israeli prison guards and soldiers as rapists, sadists, and akin to Nazi prison camp guards—perhaps even worse.

The Grotesque Allegation

Kristof’s most grotesque claim is based on an anonymous source described as a “journalist” from Gaza. According to this source, while being held in an Israeli prison in 2024, the Gazan man was stripped naked, blindfolded, and handcuffed. Then, “a dog was summoned.” The dog’s handler—who we are helpfully told was speaking Hebrew—then encouraged the dog to “mount him.”

The “source” goes on to claim that he “tried to dislodge the dog, but it penetrated him.” During this time, the Israeli guards were allegedly taking photos and filming the assault while laughing and “giggling.”

Like a number of other journalists, I have spent far too much time this week reading up on the relevant literature about this claim. My computer’s search engine history is probably now as suspect as Kristof’s.

The Logic of the Lie

Normal people would note that the story does not pass the most basic smell test. It is the sort of claim that someone would only make if they wanted to portray their enemies as absolute monsters and enemies of humanity: Untermensch.

As it happens, if you scan the relevant literature, you will find there is absolutely no evidence that dogs can be trained to rape and penetrate human beings. There is not a case—not one—of a dog trainer turning a canine into a rape machine.

So, we arrive at the true question: Why would anyone make such a claim? And why would a purportedly serious newspaper publish it?

The reasons are several-fold. The first is that the New York Times story landed just a day before an anticipated report on Hamas’ use of sexual violence on October 7, 2023. The release of the commission of inquiry set out in remorseless detail the “systematic, widespread” use of rape by Hamas, demonstrating how sexual violence was “integral” to their attack. It laid out the calculated way in which Hamas terrorists raped men, women, and hostages in captivity. It is impossible to think of crimes worse than those committed that day.

Deflecting from Hamas’ Crimes

Unless you are Nicholas Kristof. Because if you know that a report is coming out regarding Hamas’ use of sexual violence, it becomes clearly important to invent a claim even more appalling than the real-life crimes of Hamas. For the New York Times, it seems to have been crucial to throw a lie into the system to overwhelm or block any sympathy or understanding for the Israelis.

The New York Times has leveled claims of antisemitism against a number of people in the past year, sometimes accurately, sometimes not. But none of the worst things that public figures have said even come close to the lie the New York Times has printed in its own pages. A paper that claims to be opposed to conspiracy theories has just mainstreamed the most disgusting conspiracy theory imaginable.

The Real-World Consequences

Consider the effects of this. The effect is to portray the soldiers and prison guards of the Jewish state as uniquely evil, uniquely disgusting, and uniquely inhuman. If Jews are the sort of people who can even turn dogs into rapists, why shouldn’t mobs assemble outside the synagogues of New York? Why wouldn’t masked “activists” demonstrate their outrage by hounding Jewish children on the streets of this city? After all, the people they are going up against are uniquely evil, right?

I have been in the prisons where the October 7 terrorists who were captured alive are being held. The conditions are sparse and unpleasant, but that is because the Israelis are holding prisoners who literally wanted to die as well as kill. In prison, they will use whatever they can find to harm their guards. These conditions are still a world away from the lies that Kristof and the New York Times decided to print without evidence.

Some people will expect the Times to retract its story. But I doubt they will. When it comes to correcting errors, the people meant to be in charge are often the very same people who wrote the falsehoods.

Meantime, I am sure we can all look forward to the Gray Lady’s next piece pondering the inexplicable rise of Jew-hatred in the United States. They might find the causes are closer to home than they know.

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