Israel's ambassador in Washington links New York Times Gaza coverage to genocide

Yechiel Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the United States, used a speech in New Jersey on Sunday to accuse The New York Times of spreading a blood libel against Israel over its coverage of the war in Gaza, and suggested the paper's reporting was laying the ground for a future genocide of Jews. The Times of Israel reported that he spoke at the closing ceremony of the Chabad movement's annual conference of emissaries, held in Edison, New Jersey.

In the speech, Leiter described a meeting he said he had held with 21 editors from the newspaper. The Israeli news site Ynet reported that he accused the editors of promoting blood libels against Israel and drew a line from historical demonisation of Jews to the rise of Hitler, saying Hitler "did not grow in a vacuum" but was preceded by decades of delegitimisation of Jews.

What Leiter said about the meeting with the editors

According to The Times of Israel, Leiter said the meeting took place on November 10 last year and that six of the 21 editors joined remotely. He told the audience that the editors had confronted him, charging Israel with genocide and with deliberately starving people. In his telling, the journalists cast themselves in every role at once: "the jury", "the judge" and "the firing squad". The Times of Israel cited footage of the speech published by Yeshiva World News, an Orthodox Jewish news site.

The Times of Israel characterised the ambassador as suggesting that the paper had published a blood libel about the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Israel's military, in Gaza, in order to prepare what he called the next genocide of Jews. Ynet presented the remarks as a direct accusation against the paper.

Two versions of one quotation

The two reports render one of Leiter's central lines differently. Ynet, writing in Hebrew, quoted him as saying that what is happening now is no different from the fate of earlier generations of Jews, whom he called "our grandparents", in the ghettos. The Times of Israel, writing in English, gave a longer version of the same comparison that placed those ghettos in Europe and referred to events "800 years ago." Neither outlet published a full transcript of that passage, and this report does not attempt to settle which wording is exact.

What a blood libel is

The phrase Leiter used carries specific weight for Jewish audiences. A blood libel originally referred to the false medieval accusation that Jews murdered Christians, often children, to use their blood in religious rituals. Such accusations were used to justify massacres and expulsions of Jewish communities in Europe over centuries. In modern Israeli and Jewish discourse, the term is applied more broadly to accusations considered false and inflammatory against Jews or the State of Israel. By invoking it, and by referring to ghettos and to Hitler, Leiter placed the newspaper's Gaza coverage within that historical frame.

The setting: Chabad's emissaries' conference

Chabad, also known as Chabad-Lubavitch, is a Hasidic Jewish movement known for sending emissaries, called shluchim in Hebrew, to establish Jewish centres in cities around the world. The Kinus Hashluchim, Hebrew for the gathering of emissaries, is the movement's annual conference, which according to The Times of Israel brings together thousands of these representatives from many countries. Leiter delivered his remarks at its closing ceremony, addressing an audience of Jewish community leaders.

Who Yechiel Leiter is

Leiter serves as Israel's ambassador in Washington, a central post given the importance of the relationship with the United States. The Times of Israel noted that on June 2, 2026, he attended talks at the State Department in Washington at which the United States hosted Israeli and Lebanese delegations. The reports do not say whether this speech was coordinated with the government in Jerusalem.

Context: Israel and media coverage of Gaza

The accusations Leiter said he faced from the editors, of genocide and of starving people, are among the most serious charges raised in coverage of the Gaza war. What sets his remarks apart is the explicit comparison to the conditions that preceded the Holocaust, made by a serving ambassador and directed at a single, named newspaper.

What the reports do not say

Neither report includes any response from The New York Times to the ambassador's remarks or to his account of the meeting with its editors. The reports do not say whether the Israeli Foreign Ministry or the Prime Minister's Office endorsed the speech, and they do not identify which specific articles Leiter had in mind when he spoke of a blood libel. His description of what was said at the meeting with the editors rests on his own account alone.