Nigeria, May 28 -- When the establishment journalism of Nicholas Kristof of that most establishment of papers, The New York Times, draws the ire of a foreign regime, and an unnaturally allied foreign regime at that, a pulse might be detected in the moribund state that is the Fourth Estate. In his piece alleging a campaign of sexual violence against Palestinians by Israel's security apparatus, he shines some blistering light on practices long suspected and discussed. It begins a proposition that, "Whatever our views of the Middle East conflict, we should be able to unite in condemn rape."

With that solemn theme declared, Kristof begins by remarking on the "brutal sexual assaults against Israeli women during the Hamas-led attack on Israel...