THE NYT'S 'BIBI DERANGEMENT SYNDROME'

Egregious journalistic malpractice at ‘The New York Times’

The paper's "Bibi Derangement Syndrome” has led two senior journalists to write falsehoods and propagandize. 

 

By Lenny Ben-David 

 

JNS

Jul 15, 2025 

NYT writers Ronen Bergman and Patrick Kingsley are part of the paper's “Bibi Derangement Syndrome”

 

In recent years, I have documented The New York Times’ journalistic malpractice, particularly in its biased reporting on hostilities in Gaza. On occasion, the “Grey Lady” relied on unreliable Hamas and United Nations statistics, published fake pictures or even flat-out lied. 

But the paper recently declared a political and defamation war on Israel’s democratically elected prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu did not “prolong the Gaza war” to “survive and prosper,” as writers Ronen Bergman and Patrick Kingsley charge. The claim is preposterous, if not libelous, that Netanyahu “prospered” by sending Israeli soldiers into combat and their deaths or condemned Israeli hostages to protracted imprisonment or even execution at Hamas’s hands.

A serious charge is made by the Times’ writers that “Netanyahu ignored repeated warnings about a potential attack.” Already in July 2023, they claim, “a senior [unnamed] general brought to Netanyahu a troubling intelligence assessment” that “Israel’s enemies, including Hamas, had taken note of the country’s domestic turmoil, set off by Netanyahu’s divisive plan to weaken the judiciary, and were preparing an attack. Netanyahu ignored this and other warnings. … ”

Hamas did not “take note” of the turmoil set off by Netanyahu’s “divisive [judicial] plan.” Was that Hamas’s trigger? More likely, Hamas reacted to the loud and exaggerated protests by Israel’s privileged “Kaplanist” left and threats by elite air force pilots to refuse to fly if called up.

Bergman is scandalously duplicitous. In December 2023, he wrote: “Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails, and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan, code-named ‘Jericho’s Wall’ as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.” (emphasis added)

The most recent Kingsley-Bergman report charges that Netanyahu was attempting to deflect blame from himself when, minutes after hearing about the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, he told a caller, “I don’t see anything in the intelligence.”

The Times writers claim, “Netanyahu would try to prolong his political life by blaming the security and intelligence chiefs for failing to prevent the attack.” It is very likely, reading Bergman in November 2023, that it was the military that failed to foresee the attack and failed to brief Israel’s political leadership.

What did the IDF’s Intelligence Branch, the General Security Services (Shin Bet) and the Mossad know, when did they know it, and did they inform Netanyahu?

One-sided perception

The Times blames Netanyahu for putting obstacles in the path of ceasefire negotiations and the Biden administration’s desired outcomes. It seems beyond the writers’ comprehension that the failure to reach a ceasefire was because of Hamas’s obduracy and Qatari and Iranian incitement.

The New York Times’ “Bibi Derangement Syndrome” is showcased when Kingsley and Bergman elide one of the most significant events in the war against Hizbullah and Iran. They wrote, “nearly a year into the war, a sequence of unforeseen intelligence successes led Israel to kill several senior Hizbullah commanders.” Beep! Beep? The duo thus ignores Israel’s unleashing of its audacious “Beeper” attack that knocked thousands of Hizbullah fighters and commanders off the board. The intricate Beeper plan was in Israel’s quivers for years. The attack was launched on Netanyahu’s orders, despite objections from some military and political leaders. The move earns its place in military history books, even if it was ignored by the Times.

Netanyahu’s ascribing of sudden “significance to military objectives that he previously seemed less interested in pursuing and that top military officials told him were not worth the cost” served to prolong the war, Kingsley and Bergman claimed.  What were the insignificant military objectives? They so happen to be President Joe Biden’s bête noire—the capture of the southern city of Rafah (where Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar was killed) and the occupation of the Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, under which Hamas had excavated extensive supply tunnels.

Despite the objections of the Biden administration and some of Israel’s military brass, the two objectives were vital for the defeat of Hamas. Netanyahu’s call was absolutely correct, and he had no political objective.

Author’s postscript: I first met “Ben Nitay” around 1978. He came to my office in Washington, DC, after hearing I had done extensive research on PLO ties with the Soviet Union. I accepted his invitation to take a short leave of absence and join him in Jerusalem to plan the Jonathan Institute’s ground-breaking First Conference on International Terrorism, held in July 1979. In 1997, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked me to serve as Deputy Chief of Mission at Israel’s Embassy in Washington.   

With my nearly 50-year relationship with “Ben,” I can state that his patriotism for Israel is pure and boundless. His respect for his stern father, Ben Zion, and love for his mother, Tzila, guided him. Yes, he is a politician, in all its meaning. His family and some associates may appreciate elements of the “good life,” but he does not own the corrupt morals of earlier prime ministers (who are quick to criticize him today) or an IDF chief of staff who sold off his stocks just hours before a war broke out.