The News You Need on Monday, May 18th, 2026.
Netanyahu threatens the NYT, Trump is so busy trading he doesn't care about his flop trip to China. Should we speculate what's wrong with him? Is there really a demographic crisis?
Netanyahu v Kristof
Charles: Eight days after Nick Kristof’s piece alleging the rape of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, no one has presented any evidence that Kristof got anything wrong.
All we have seen is the knee-jerk reaction of Israel’s staunchest defenders, plus the entirely predictable performance of Bibi Netenyahu and his Foreign Ministry, which threatened a Trumpian lawsuit against The New York Times.
The Israelis said the piece was part of a “politically driven smear campaign by a biased paper designed to support efforts to blacklist Israel,” and therefore the “disgusting shameful piece must be removed immediately.”
These are the things we know:
Kristof is a Pulitzer Prize winner who has spent decades interviewing the victims of sexual abuse in war zones all over the world.
Netanyahu has been on trial for corruption charges for six years, and his critics believe a principal motivation for his endless wars in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon is to prevent him from going to prison.
Last year five Israeli reservists were accused of abusing a Palestinian prisoner who arrived at the hospital with broken ribs and a torn rectum.
The Israeli military’s chief legal officer, Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi leaked a video of the alleged attack to try to ensure that the soldiers would be prosecuted.
Netanyahu used the leak to argue the prosecution of the soldiers had been tainted.
The soldiers were exonerated by their government and Netenyahu described their prosecution as a “blood libel” that had “defamed Israel worldwide” and said it had been “conducted in a criminal manner.” He added: “Israel must hunt down its enemies — not its heroic warriors.”
Israeli data reported by The Guardian show at least 98 Palestinians died in Israeli custody between Oct. 2023 and Nov. 2025, and that “the real toll is likely substantially higher because hundreds of people detained in Gaza are missing, an Israel-based human rights group has said.”
It is an actual libel that The New York Times is “anti-Israeli” and that is the reason it published Kristof’s story.
The Times has stood by its reporter.
The Times reported on Saturday, “Since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, violent settlers, emboldened by a right-wing government, have forced thousands of Palestinians from their homes, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Palestinians are forbidden from carrying weapons, while the settlers are often heavily armed. The Israeli military and police not only routinely fail to stop the violence, but a New York Times investigation found that they also often intervene on behalf of the Jewish settlers.
Nicholas Kristof
Writing for Mehdi Hasan’s Zeteo, reporters Prem Thakker and Minnah Arshad offer one of the most sensible accounts of the reaction to Kristof’s piece:
Kristof interviewed 14 men and women who say they’d been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or Israeli forces. He also spoke with family members, investigators, officials, human rights groups, and lawyers who have represented Palestinian detainees. It is important to note that Palestinians themselves, along with scores of human rights groups, have for years said much of what Kristof conveys in his piece.
And in a story focused on Palestinian pain, Kristof went to extraordinary lengths to present balance—even bookending the article with claims of sexual abuse carried out by Hamas (claims which have sometimes lacked the first-person testimonial and evidence that Kristof and other international bodies have cited in reporting on Israeli sexual abuse against Palestinians).
Still, the balance was not enough for many of his interlocutors…
In March 2024, the United Nations called on the Israeli government to grant “access to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian Territory… to carry-out fully-fledged investigations into all alleged violations” by Hamas. The Israeli government refuses to do so.
Several human rights groups have also sought to investigate rape and sexual violence allegations against Hamas fighters, but Israel has denied them access as well.
In a July 2024 report, Human Rights Watch said it had found evidence of sexual violence by Palestinian fighters, including forced nudity and posting images on social media. But the group said it was not able to gather verifiable evidence of rape on Oct. 7, adding that the Israeli government declined to provide requested information.
Amnesty International similarly found that it had not collected enough evidence to confirm rape, as opposed to sexual assault more broadly, was committed.
Kristof countered his detractors simply: Even if you don’t agree with him, “why not agree on Red Cross and lawyer visits for the 9,000 Palestinian ‘security’ prisoners? If you think these abuse allegations are false, such monitoring visits would be protective. So why not?”
French Prosecutors Have Identified More Victims in Epstein Probe
Wall Street Journal
Scott: It’s a continuing pattern now: Prosecutors around the world examining files released by the Trump Department of Justice say they find evidence of serious crimes. The DOJ insists there’s nothing to see there, and refuses even the most routine cooperation.
By the way, this, and only this, is why Trump is now waging a war on Iran and preparing to invade Cuba.
The French probe focuses on women that Jeffrey Epstein had trafficked from Eastern Europe, first to Paris, and then to the United States.
One of those women was named Melanija Knavs.
French prosecutors investigating the network of Jeffrey Epstein have been approached by around 20 women who said they were victims of the sex offender or his associates, 10 of whom were previously unknown to the authorities.
Laure Beccuau, who leads the Paris prosecutor’s office, said officials were preparing to gather testimony from the potential victims, a number of whom live overseas and must be brought to France.
“It’s not just one thread to get out of this labyrinth, this Epstein network,” Beccuau said on French television Sunday. “It’s several threads we have to follow through extraordinary, labyrinthine networks. So, a victim is interviewed, gives names, and we re-examine those names.”
Epstein’s activities in France have come under renewed scrutiny since the US Justice Department released millions of files from its investigation earlier this year. The late, disgraced financier owned a vast apartment in Paris next to the Arc de Triomphe and sought to cultivate relationships with the French elite. The Justice Department files show that Epstein frequently flew in young women from abroad to meet him at his apartment.
Beccuau’s office is seeking testimony from other victims of Epstein and his associates. Her office is also re-examining files from previous investigations, in particular of the modeling executive Jean-Luc Brunel, a close associate of Epstein who was charged with rape and died by suicide in prison in 2022.
Beccuau’s office is examining claims by former models that Epstein was connected to the modeling executive Gérald Marie, who was the president of the European division of Elite Model Management.
The Horton-Kaiser Report is independent, we rely on generous support from readers like you.
Charles: As we explained in our statement of principles, we are above and beyond anything else relentless critics of the press who believe that the frank facism and shameless corruption of the Trump administration make the old customs of deference incompatible with the kind of journalism the United States needs right now.
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