Letter: Just Blood Libels. Not Starvation.

Dear Letter to the Editor:

The New York Times  under the leadership of Arthur Hayes Sulzberger during World War II buried the Holocaust, a fact that The Times has apologized for however insincerely many times.

Now the New York Times under the leadership of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr has buried the truth about “starvation” in Gaza with a blood libel breathlessly unfurled on the front page above the fold on July 24, 2025.

55 million Times subscribers did not have to turn a page on July 24 to view a photograph of a Palestinian Arab mother embracing an emaciated child, Muhammad Zakariya al-Mutawaq. The heart rending photo clearly implied that the Jews were responsible for the child’s condition, and such evil Jews should be vilified. There’s just one problem with this Sulzberger creation:

The photograph and all the accompanying verbiage about the child’s condition being caused by starvation is a Blood Libel.

The child is suffering from a genetic condition, cerebral palsy, which causes him to lose weight. His medical records make this fact clear notwithstanding his mother’s protestations to the contrary. His condition has absolutely nothing to do with starvation.

The Times editors cropped out the child’s well fed healthy sibling from the photo in order to maintain their blood libelous intent. If their readers saw a well fed mother and a well fed sibling, they might justifiably conclude that starvation is not the problem.  The well fed healthy sibling was cropped out because the Times’ editors are antisemitic but not stupid.

The New York Times sent this blood libel out to its 55 million subscribers.

Several days later under enormous pressure The Times issued a mealy mouth correction that repeatedly mentions starvation and never mentions cerebral palsy. This emasculated correction was only sent to The Times 89,000 X subscribers.

For those naive enough to think that the Times’ blood libel concerning starvation is a one off, they are sadly mistaken. Recently the mainstream media sent around the world a blood libelous photo of 5 year old Osama al-Rakab and blamed his emaciated condition on the Jews for intentionally starving him. 

Of course the world’s media which demonstrates over and over in its reporting about the Jewish people of Israel that it is just of a bunch of Joseph Goebbels wannabes continues to publish this photographic evidence of a blood libel and ignores the reality that Osama al-Rakeb was suffering from a genetic condition unrelated to the war. (“Gaza ‘ Starvation’ Poster Child Has Genetic Condition, Left Strip With Israel’s Help”, JNS Staff, 7/28/25).

The reality is that the antisemitic mainstream media led by The New York Times is in a frenzy to publish blood libel after blood libel about ” starvation in Gaza” in order to inflame the world ala Fritz Hippler’s “The Eternal Jew” against the Jewish people of Israel.

Sadly many Jews, politicians and commentators  have myopically embraced these blood libels which represent the foundational antisemitism of The New York Times and much of the world’s media. Basic investigative journalistic skepticism has been thrown out the window in order to publish blood libel after blood libel to inspire hatred against the Jewish people of Israel. A hatred the journalists who report and edit these blood libels obviously share.

Richard Sherman
Margate, Florida