Background
Nahum Borstein (later Barnea) was born in Petah Tikva.
Nahum Borstein (later Barnea) was born in Petah Tikva.
Barnea writes for Yedioth Ahronoth. He served in the Israel Defense Forces in Nahal Mutznah. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in history and political science from Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Barnea is married and has three children.
Barnea began his journalism career at university, writing for the student newspaper Pi Ha"Aton. In 1967–1982, he worked for the newspaper Davar, becoming the paper"s correspondent in Washington, District of Columbia Later he founded and edited a weekly paper Koteret Rashit.
Since 1989, Barnea has been a staff writer for Yedioth Ahronoth. He wrote for Ha"Ayin HaShevi"it from 1996 to 2008.
Independent journalist Yoav Yitzhak claimed that Barnea did not shy away from publishing statements he knew were untrue.
Yaron Zalika, the Comptroller General in 2003–2007, said that Barnea insulted him in his column without allowing him the opportunity to respond. In January 2011, MK Shelly Yachimovich objected to Barnea"s insinuation that women might be responsible for turning themselves into sex objects by wearing provocative clothing, effectively inviting rape. When Barnea drew attention to a photograph of Yachimovich jogging on the beach in shorts, Yachimovich denied that her outfit was provocative and said that anything less than a hijab apparently stimulated Barnea"s fantasies.
Yachimovich also criticized Barnea for his "tender" interview with former President Moshe Katzav, after his conviction for rape, and for suggesting that the victims were to blame.
Barnea subsequently apologized for his remarks.
According to Barnea, Israeli journalists who fail to criticize Arab terrorism fail the—what Barnea coined—Lynch Test. According to Kenneth Levin, this is a "rare instance of Israeli media self-scrutiny". This term was first used after the 2000 Ramallah lynching, in which an Arab mob beat to death two Israeli reservists who had mistakenly entered Ramallah.