The New York Times appears to have fabricated a quote it attributed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In Roger Cohen’s Oct. 27 article, “Two Visions, Two Israels, One Nation in the Balance” the paper of record wrote:
Mr. Netanyahu, who seemed doomed after the Oct. 7 attack, has revived his fortunes through the assassinations of the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, as he has stood with the global far right in the name of what he calls a “civilizational alliance against Islam.” (emphasis supplied)
CAMERA was unable to find such a quote attributable to Prime Minister Netanyahu – in English or in Hebrew.
The Times, like anyone, is free to analyze or critique Israel’s and Netanyahu’s policies and actual words. It is not, however, permitted to invent false quotes which suggest the democratically elected leader of a sovereign nation has declared an alliance against a religion practiced by one quarter of the world’s population (approximately two billion people), which is also practiced by approximately 20% of Israeli citizens.
Such inaccurate coverage of Israel by The Times has often carried serious consequences. After its botched coverage falsely attributed an explosion at al-Ahli Hospital to an Israeli airstrike (it was actually hit by a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket), violent riots spread throughout the Arab world and diplomatic initiatives aimed at addressing the conflict were scuttled. It even scuttled one effort to protect Gazan civilians during the war.
There is no question the Prime Minister has made statements – forceful ones – decrying radical Islam and Islamist extremists or militants. In February 2026, Netanyahu described alliances against the “radical Shia axis” and “emerging radical Sunni axis.” In the months after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks in Israel, he proclaimed there was a war between civilization and barbarism – not Islam. More than a decade ago, Netanyahu made clear in his 2014 speech to the United Nations that what he was talking about was “not Islam, but rather, “radical Islam.”
These actual quotes of the Prime Minister are a far cry from a pronouncement that he personally, and/or on behalf of his nation, has joined or seeks a global “alliance against Islam.”
CAMERA has contacted The New York Times to seek a correction or – if it can provide it – substantiation for such a quote.