In its July 14 edition, the New York Times runs a poisonous article that slams the conduct of Israel’s military under Palestinian stone-throwing barrages in the West Bank. As its only source, the Times relies on B’Tselem, a radical anti-Israel outfit masquerading as a human rights group (“Video in Death of Palestinian Seems to Rebut Israeli Military” by Diaa Hadid” page A4)

Hadid, a Times correspondent in Israel, obviously did not witness an “episode in which a soldier shot and killed a Palestinian youth who had hurled a rock at the soldier’s vehicle,” as Hadid puts it. So, as a convenient  fallback, she relies on B’Tselem hook, line and sinker.

From the first  paragraph -- “An Israeli human rights group challenged the military’s account…”  -- to the last paragraph --“When you look at the broader picture, we find that the system functions – this is terrible to say – the system works as a whitewash mechanism, Ms. Michaeli said” -  it’s B’Tselem’s agenda that controls the Times’ account.

And who incidentally is this Ms. Michaeli? None other than a spokeswoman for B’Tselem.

From the very beginning to the very end of Hadid’s dispatch, Hadid relies on B-Tselem and its spokeswoman a full dozen times. Other views are given short shrift – blanked out.

Question: Why does the Times need correspondent Hadid in Israel when a B’Tselem press release will do just as well?

Leo Rennert is a former White House correspondent and Washington bureau chief of McClatchy Newspapers