Lost in the rush to praise Peres were the voices of Arabs such as the Palestinians who lived under the Israeli occupation he expanded, the Lebanese civilians who survived the massacre his military perpetrated, or the Arab representatives in Israel's Knesset who boycotted his funeral over his support for policies that suppress the Palestinian population.

The New York Times, for example, ran zero op-eds by Arab writers reacting to Peres's death. It did, however, feature op-eds by one Israeli columnist prior to Peres's death and one Israeli politician following it. Its own columnists turned exclusively to Israeli sources, with Thomas Friedman quoting an Israeli CEO praising Peres and Roger Cohen citing a former Israeli ambassador.