Jewish blood is cheap, Israeli blood: worthless

When terror struck in Jerusalem on Sunday, the world paid attention. News of the murder of four young Israelis spread quickly, along with messages of sympathy for a country in mourning.

The New York Times didn’t get the memo.

On Monday, America’s leading newspaper, long a reflexive voice against the Jewish state (and frequently a problematic voice on issues concerning Orthodox Jews) downplayed the story online and buried the news in its print edition. The Times report ridiculed Prime Minister Netanyahu’s assertion that the terror facing Israel “is part of the same ongoing battle against this global scourge of the new terrorism.” It linked the killings to talk of a U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem and it softpeddled the jubilant reaction of Palestinians to the murders.

On Tuesday, most of the “above the fold” page-one real-estate in the Times was turned over to a follow-up story headlined, “Israel Buries 4 Soldiers, but the Mourning Is Marred by Discord.” After dispatching with the humanity of the slain Israelis in one paragraph, the article focused on the convicton of IDF Sgt. Elor Azaria.

Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelming denounced the U.N. Security Council’s recent anti-Israel resolution. The House vote was a major rebuke to the outgoing Obama administration, with most Democrats joining Republicans, and the Senate is expected to take similar action. To the Times, this support for Israel was not fit to print. It posted an AP story online and ran nothing in its print edition.

Sometimes stories run, or don’t run, for inexplicable reasons. But the Times has been tried and convicted often for the deliberate and repetitive insertion of bias against our people. While many in the Orthodox community have given up on the Times, the continued respect afforded it by the larger community requires that we call it to account. What the Times prints and posts has real consequences; we need not go back as far as the Shoah to recognize just how serious those consequences can be.

On Monday, the Times announced the appointment of Ian Fisher as its new Jerusalem bureau chief. We wish him yasher ko’ach. We’ll be watching.