'Rolling Stone' uses a Hezbollah terrorist to accuse my IDF soldier sons of war crimes

(JNS) — Rolling Stone, a magazine once renowned for its solid investigative journalism, is planning to publish a reckless, unsubstantiated attack on two of my heroic sons serving in the Israel Defense Forces. Doing so is not just journalistic negligence but a grotesque blood libel and a nauseating, stomach-turning display of antisemitism.

Rolling Stone is legitimizing the Hind Rajab Foundation, a minuscule joke of an organization that claims to represent Palestinian interests. The foundation, which has fewer than 1,000 followers on social media, filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, accusing Israeli soldiers of war crimes for, believe it or not, praying in Gaza. Yes, I know. It sounds like an “SNL” skit. But this is real. Its senior politics editor, Andrew Perez, is insisting on plowing ahead with this grotesque blood libel just to get a headline that says, “Rabbi Shmuley’s IDF sons accused of war crimes.” It makes no difference that Rolling Stone will pay with its very credibility once people read the actual story. The idea is to ruin my sons’ lives with a headline that will follow them forever since, studies show, 95 percent of people never read past the headline.

What is Perez’s motive? Why would he insist on a blood libel against two IDF soldiers? Well, in our lengthy phone conversation, it seemed that what bothered him most was how proud I am of my sons, who are serving in the first Jewish army in 2,000 years, ensuring that a second Holocaust is an impossibility and posting photos of them to my global followers. Concerning the photos I posted of my sons, he actually said to me, “Can I ask you: Why do you post pictures of your sons in the IDF?” I answered, “Huh, come again? Is that a serious question? Only someone who believes the revolting, disgusting antisemitic lie that the IDF is a gang of Nazis would ask me such a ridiculous question. Why do I post them? Because they are saving Jewish and Arab lives. And I couldn’t be more proud of them!”

Based on the preposterous complaint from Hind Rajab Foundation, Rolling Stone is now presenting the act of prayer and a soldier spray-painting the words beit knesset, Hebrew for “synagogue,” as an offense worthy of criminal prosecution by the body established to punish perpetrators of genocide. Perez told me it constituted a war crime of damaging enemy property. I tried hard not to laugh. Not a tank shell. Not an airstrike. Not a missile strike. Not poison gas, like Syrian President Bashar Assad used against Arab children. But spray-painting the word synagogue.

It gets better.

Rolling Stone is amplifying the unjust criticism of Israeli soldiers made by an NGO with deep ties to Hezbollah as the head of the Hind Rajab Foundation, Dyab Abou Jahjah, is a Hezbollah terrorist who has publicly praised the group’s former leader, Hassan Nasrallah. In a 2003 article in The New York Times, Jahjah claimed he had joined Hezbollah against Israel and declared, “I had some military training, I’m still very proud of that.” In a eulogy for Nasrallah, Jahjah claimed he met the Hezbollah leader in 2001.

Here is one of America’s most famous names in legacy media using an actual Hezbollah-trained terrorist as a source to defame my sons for war crimes. That Rolling Stone has chosen to partner with an organization linked to Hezbollah raises serious questions about why Perez still has a job at the magazine when he has made a mockery of objectivity and any commitment to responsible journalism, let alone ethics and decency. What next? Will Perez use neo-Nazi David Duke as a source to say that Jews were responsible for the Wall Street crash of 1929?

The basis of the charge against my sons was a photo I posted of my son Mendy in a building where the spray-painted beit knesset could be seen. My other son was not even there.

The “journalist” sent by Perez to cover this story, Gabriel Schivone, is a freelancer who parrots the Hezbollah mouthpiece’s contention and cannot cite an article in the Geneva Convention that makes praying in a combat zone a war crime. When asked about the specifics of his slanderous allegations of war crimes, he could not even identify the building where the supposed transgression took place—yet th magazine intends to publish this baseless story that can endanger my sons’ lives.

Is the publication so desperate to malign Israel that it’s willing to disregard the safety of innocent American Israelis? Is Rolling Stone so desperate to defame my children to demonstrate that all Jews, even members of the clergy, are bloodthirsty psychopaths? The accusations against my sons—soldiers who are serving their country honorably—are defamatory and malicious. To accuse IDF soldiers of war crimes for praying in the Gaza Strip—a region where Hamas and other terrorist organizations have committed countless atrocities—is an insult to the memory of the actual victims of crimes against humanity.

This kind of reckless journalism endangers the lives of Jewish soldiers by making them targets for fanatical extremists. It is irresponsible and malicious. The publicizing of my sons’ names and likenesses, without any legitimate evidence of wrongdoing, mirrors the kind of incitement that has led to violence against Jews throughout history.

Sadly, this is not the first time a rabid antisemite has made my sons their target. When I debated Islamist Mohammad Hijab on “Piers Morgan Uncensored” show last year, he said he wanted to see my sons’ body bags, God forbid. The next day, he posted on X a picture of what seemed to be a wrapped-up body next to a shovel with the line: “Make sure that you apply the same discount to the funeral. Body bags for your terrorist IDF son Mindy [sic] promo code Human shield.”

I have fought for years against the scourge of global antisemitism, and I will not let this latest attack go unanswered. This is not my first rodeo. I have successfully sued media bigots before, and I intend to hold Rolling Stone accountable for the damage it seeks to inflict on my family. I plan to explore every legal avenue to block this smear campaign.

By enabling antisemites, Rolling Stone will become a malicious, global laughingstock—a magazine that is willing to pander to the enemies of Israel at the cost of truth and human decency. If it wants to restore its credibility, then it must walk back its decision to publish a defamatory piece and apologize for giving a platform to terrorists and their supporters. The world is watching, and history will judge accordingly.