“For the first time in decades” is unquestionably false, and betrays the journalism-as-tourism affliction that reporters do often suffer from
‘History began yesterday’ is how the US political press tends to operate, and unfortunately they apply this to foreign affairs as well. The result is a steady stream of ahistorical nonsense.
The better approach—since papers like the NYT et al aren’t going to send knowledgeable reporters to Israel—is for reporters to avoid displaying their ignorance best they can. The above example is what happens when they think being a reporter means ‘saying something makes it true’
