NYT Stealth-Deletes Reference to ‘Influential Lobbyists and Rabbis’ in Piece on AOC’s Iron Dome ‘Present’ Vote

The New York Times has stealth-edited a piece about the House of Representatives passing a bill on Thursday to provide $1 billion in funding for Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system.

The report, by Congressional correspondent Catie Edmondson, initially read that the “tableau” of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) crying and being embraced by her fellow progressives after switching her vote from “no” to “present” “underscored how wrenching the vote was for even outspoken progressives, who have been caught between their principles and the still powerful pro-Israel voices in their party, such as influential lobbyists and rabbis.”

That passage evokes the anti-Semitic trope of Jewish control of government.

The Times changed that part of the piece to “The tableau underscored how wrenching the vote was for even outspoken progressives, who have been caught between their principles and the still powerful pro-Israel voices in their party.” Even with “such as influential lobbyists and rabbis” removed, keeping “still powerful pro-Israel voices in their party” is still evocative of that same anti-Semitic trope.

Mediaite has reached out to the Times for comment.

The funding bill for the Iron Dome, which has saved countless Israeli lives from rockets fired into Israel by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad from Gaza and Hezbollah from Syria and Lebanon, overwhelmingly passed the House with more than the two-thirds majority needed for passage. The move came after progressive Democrats managed to strip Iron Dome funding from the continuing resolution to fund the U.S. government ahead of a possible shutdown next week.