My response to Nicolas Kristoff's op-ed

In "The Two Israels," Nicholas Kristof relied on reports by B’Tselem and Machshom, despite their being political organizations that have appropriated human rights rhetoric for partisan goals, mixed fact with fiction, and continue to distort history in order to promote their radical left-wing political agendas. Their narratives portray the Palestinians as the perennial victims, and Israel as the oppressor and they twist any and all facts to fit that rubric. A more balanced understanding of the situation in Hebron, would also consider the human rights of the Jewish Israelis living there, starting in 1929, when the Arabs massacred and expelled the entire Jewish community of 800 that had lived there for centuries. But that piece of history and the more recent, intentional shooting of a 10 month old baby sitting in her stroller by a Palestinian sniper, to cite just one example, don't fit the good Arab/bad Jew dichotomy, and so they are ignored. And where do the hundreds or perhaps thousands of Israeli lives saved by the separation barrier fit into Kristof's calculus of hardship imposed by it? Until such groups cease exploiting the language of human rights for political goals, excluding the complexity and context of a conflict, and applying human rights selectively, they will continue to undermine the credibility of all human rights groups. These organizations and the journalists who rely on them would do well to remember that Israelis have human rights, too.