Israel’s Government Is in Jerusalem, Not Tel Aviv, New York Times Correction Concedes

Ira Stoll

A taxi passes by in front of The New York Times head office, Feb. 7, 2013. Photo: Reuters / Carlo Allegri / File.

The New York Times has published a correction acknowledging that “Israel’s government is in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv.”

On October 26, 2021, the New York Times published online a review by historian Jeremi Suri of Martin Indyk’s book Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy. The article appeared in print in the New York Times on December 19, 2021.

On December 21, 2021, The Algemeiner published my column about the review, headlined “New York Times Writer, Texas Professor, Stands by Description of ‘Government in Tel Aviv,’ Israel as ‘Burdensome Dependent.’”

I reported then: “Suri said that Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem, had been recognized by the US as the Israeli capital during the period covered by the book under review, Martin Indyk’s Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy. ‘That’s just the diplomatic reality of that time,’ he said.”

The Times correction was published online December 22, 2021, the day after the Algemeiner column appeared. It appeared in print on January 9, 2022.

It reads: “A review on Dec. 19 about “Master of the Game: Henry Kissinger and the Art of Middle East Diplomacy,” by Martin Indyk, referred imprecisely to Tel Aviv, implying that it was the seat of Israel’s government. Israel’s government is in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv.”

The Times has yet to correct the description of Israel as a “burdensome dependent,” but I’ll chalk this one up as a win nonetheless.

The media watchdog group the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis said it had repeatedly asked the Times for a correction on the point. The first time, after the initial online publication, as Camera tells it, “Not only did The Times at that point fail to set the record straight about such a basic fact as Israel’s capital after editors were alerted to the problem, but incredibly, the paper republished the review, including the falsehood, again on Dec. 21.”

Camera reports, “With the review’s republication last month, CAMERA again reached out to the Paper of Record, reiterating that Israel’s government sits in Jerusalem, and not Tel Aviv, as reported. This time, the message got through.”

Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. His media critique, a regular Algemeiner feature, can be found here.