Child Amputees, Aid Massacres, Mass Starvation—the Israeli War Crimes NYT Covers Less than Mamdani and 'Globalize the Intifada'

Theoretical, third order, speculative violence must be condemned while actual, real world mass violence, that actually exists in reality, is seen as normal and unworthy of sustained coverage.

It’s been a month since New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s now infamous “globalize the intifada” interview with Bulkwark podcast where, apropos of nothing, the conservative media outlet decided to tee up an allegedly scary protest chant and demand their guest condemn it. Mamdani did not, instead giving a nuanced answer about how he understood why some may find it offensive, but made clear he thought its usage was not antisemitic, much less a call for violence. Mamdani went on to win the primary the following week and skyrocketed to national stardom as the odds-on favorite to become New York City’s 111th mayor. As Yousef Munayyer noted in the Intercept last week, Mamdani was correct to not condemn the phrase because, in addition to the whole Do You Condemn? routine being a bad-faith, unwinnable bully campaign, it’s also a false narrative driven by ignorance and demagoguery.

Nevertheless, the Do You Condemn? attacks keep coming—from New York “business leaders” to The Guardian to NY1 to the pages of the New York Times. Despite clarifying his comments dozens of times now, and some say walking them back a bit, it doesn’t seem to matter. Every single media interview Mamdani has from now until election day (and likely long after) will demand—anew—he condemn the phrase.

The whole episode is cynical and manipulative—all smoke and no fire. Pro-Israel pressure groups use the squishy language of anti-racism to demand the media “hold Mamdani accountable” for a phrase that he—and this is important—never actually used. A standard, that, at least from the so-called Anti-Defamation League (ADL), they have never once applied to a pro-Israel politician. As I laid out in In These Times earlier this month, these ginned up scandals reflect a specific playbook to discipline politicians critical of Israel. None of it is in good faith, concerned with “protecting Jewish New Yorkers,” or any such high-minded goal. The end game is not even to get Mamdani to condemn “globalize the intifada”—it’s to get him to embrace the baseline liberal zionist position on Israel and reject BDS. Until he does this, there'll be countless other words, phrases, random signs, and random tweets he’ll be extorted into “condemning” in an infinitely regressive and unwinnable game of Do You Condemn?.

One month into this episode, it’s useful to stop and take stock, to pause and consider just how disproportionate and all-consuming the “globalize the intifada" pseudo-scandal has become. We’re so used to these ginned up “antisemitism” scandals we lose sight of just how divorced from objective reality they are, how much they take a very real, very violent, very high-stakes military campaign of human misery and widespread destruction and push the debate into the world of semantics, solipsism, and hurt feelings. We lose sight of what they crowd out, how artificial they are, and what larger bipartisan crime they’re attempting to obscure and defend: namely the on-going, 651 days of genocide in Gaza.

So let us compare coverage of the “globalize the intifada” story with that of stories of actual death and actual human stakes in Gaza—objectively major stories that should, I will assert, generate far more outrage and news coverage than whether a mayoral candidate condemns three words he’s never actually said. For the purposes of comparison we will look at The New York Times, the most influential paper in the country, and one month of its coverage for the following topics. Detailed data can be viewed here.

• "Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (June 18 - July 18 2025). The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is a US-Israeli joint production that, according to Amnesty International has "weaponized aid” and resulted in almost daily massacres at the aid sites as thousands of deliberately starved Palestinians line up for minimal food rations. Over 800 aid-seekers have been killed since the fake disrubution sites were set up in May 2025. NYT articles this month: 13.

• Starvation as weapon of war in Gaza (June 18 - July 18 2025). Gaza is currently the ‘hungriest place on Earth’ with all of its people at risk of famine, according to the UN. This is a deliberate siege tactic being used by Israel. NYT articles this month: 5

• Child “amputee(s)” in Gaza (June 18 - July 18 2025). Gaza is home to, by far, the largest number of child amputees on earth, with over 4,700 cases. They require constant medical and psychological care which is impossible given the broader attacks on Gaza’s almost nonexistent health system. According to Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem Israel actively denies treatment to over a 1000 of these amputees. NYT articles this month: 2

• Amnesty International's July Report on Israel using "aid" to facilitate genocide (July 3 2025 - Present): The shocking report details how Israel has deliberately gutted and attacked proven aid channels in favor of its limited “aid” program designed to kill, humiliate and facilitate population transfers. NYT articles on report: 0

• February 2024 Flour Massacre that killed 120+ (Feb 29 - March 29 2024). In February 2024, over 120 people were killed while seeking food from aid trucks on the coastal Al-Rashid Street in Gaza City. NYT articles one moth after massacre: 7

• "Hind Rajab” (January 29 - March 1 2024) A five-year-old Palestinian girl was murdered by the IDF along with six of her family members and two paramedics, who were gunned down on January 29 2024 by Israel forces as they attempted to rescue her. It made international headlines but barely a blip in US media. NYT articles one month after her killing: 2

Total NYT articles: 29

• "Mamdani” and "Globalize(d) the intifada" (June 18 - July 18 2025) NYT articles one month after Mamdani was first asked about “globalize the intifada”: 32

  

All told, this means that the New York Times ran more articles about Mamdani and the phrase “globalize the intifada” than it did, during their relevant month time periods, about Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid site killings, starvation in Gaza, child amputees in Gaza, a July 2025 Amnesty International's Report on Israel using "aid" to facilitate genocide, the February 2024 Flour Massacre, and the January 2024 killing of Hind Rajab combined (32 vs 29).

Obviously, determinations of news value are inherently subjective. But there is no credible moral or journalistic reason why these six major stories involving Israeli war crimes should be a fraction as important as whether or not a mayoral candidate condemns a phrase that he never said and, even if he had, has not caused anyone any harm beyond some third or fourth order abstraction about “promoting antisemitism.”

Over 17,000 children have been killed over the past 20 months in Gaza, in reality. There are almost 5,000 new child amputees in Gaza as a result of the US-Israeli bombing campaign. They are real and they are really suffering. There are hundreds of thousands of people, including tens of thousands of children, starving right now in Gaza, in reality. There are hundreds killed a week in daily “aid massacres” facilitated and backed by the United States, in reality. Right now, in the third dimension of reality, there are real people being wiped out every day with American bombs and American weapons, in what virtually every major humanitarian organization, medical organization and genocide scholar agrees is a genocide. These crimes, of course, are sometimes mentioned in the New York Times—given an article or two, written about in clinical, even sometimes remorseful tones. But their cause is obscured, they have little urgency, few faces, fewer stories, no sustained media coverage, no narratives beyond the sporadic Oh, Dearism laments.

And most important of all, the politicians voting to arm and fund their mass killing are never asked to condemn any of it. They are never asked to condemn the over 500 genocidal comments made by Israeli officials who—unlike protestors at Columbia—actually have the capacity and history of carrying them out, in reality. They are never asked to condemn genocidal statements made daily on Israeli TV, posted on social media by Israeli soldiers, said by Israeli politicians—two of whom are currently wanted by the International Criminal Court and just met top electeds from both parties.

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Will Cory Booker be asked to condemn Yoav Gallant’s openly genocidal statement on October 9, 2023, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly”—which, most important of all, he subsequently carried out to the tee, killing and maiming tens of thousands, in reality?

Will Mamdani’s opponent Andrew Cuomo, who volunteered to defend Netanahyu in ICC court, ever be asked to condemn Netanayhu’s genocidal “Amalek” comments, which—again—preceded an actual genocide, in reality? Will he ever be asked to condemn Netanahyu’s open and ongoing plan to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians? Will Mamdani’s other opponent Eric Adams, who has lavished nonstop, unqualified praise on Israel as it carries out genocide, be asked to condemn genocidal comments made by Israeli President Isaac Herzog ("It's an entire nation out there that is responsible. This rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved—it's not true.”), a politician Adams embraced that previous summer?

Will any of the hundreds of American politicians who vote to arm and fund the destruction of Gaza ever be asked to condemn Israel’s wholesale disregard for international law? Which is, again, an actual thing that’s actually happening, rather than a theoretical thing that could maybe sort of inspire someone to do something at some unknown time in the future. A letter floated by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) earlier this month asking lawmakers to condemn Israel’s starvation campaign in Gaza could only garner 19 supporters. 19. Will any of the 516 members of Congress refusing to support this baseline gesture of humanity be asked why they “refuse to condemn” the mass starvation of children in Gaza?

They will not. Because the Will You Condemn? game is bad-faith, racist, and selectively enforced. We have a nonstop media meltdown over words. Words Mamdani never even said. Meanwhile a scattering of articles, no tough media questions, and zero sustained coverage or urgency—to say nothing of moralistic demands those backing the genocide “condemn” anything—when it comes to the material reality of mass death being carried out with American money and bombs that is actually happening in reality. That is currently torturing kids, that is currently killing scores of civilians a day, in reality. In the actual real world that actually exists.