February 5, 2016 --

The day after Dafna Meir, 38, was stabbed to death in her home, January 17, with her children upstairs, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, took note of the killing and went on to criticize Israel for its settlements policy on the West Bank. (A few days later, the ambassador indicated that his criticism of Israel might have been ill-timed.) And after the stabbing of two other Israeli women, January 25, resulting in the death of one, Shlomit Krigman,23, the U.N. secretary general called the attacks a response "to occupation." A New York Times editorial, November 19, 2014, on the murder of four Israeli men, three of them rabbis, was called "Horror in Israel." No more. Today, the media and the international community, led by the U.N. secretary general and the Obama Administration declare, in effect, "Palestinian Violence -- An Understandable Reaction to Israeli Policies."

The New York Times, February 1, published an op-ed from the U.N. secretary general that asserted: " No one can deny than everyday reality of occupation provokes anger and despair, which are major drivers of violence and extremism...."

It cannot be expected that U.N. secretary general would write: " No one can deny the everyday reality of Israeli civilians murdered in broad daylight by Palestinians who reject Israel's existence.

It cannot be expected that this U.N. secretary general would write: "The Jewish State of Israel cannot be expected to accommodate any Palestinian demands while incurring murderous attacks by Palestinians on her people, including pregnant mothers, by statements from Palestinian parents that they are proud their sons who kill Israeli women, by a Palestinian leadership that hails murderers of Israeli civilians as "martyrs: and that will never accept the existence of Israel as a Jewish State.

The U.N. secretary general gave passing lip service to even-handedness, calling on Palestinians, among other things, "to end attacks on Israelis," but the mailed fist of anti-Israel bias is revealed by this threat from the U.N. Secretary General: "greater isolation of and international pressure on Israel...." The message for Palestinians: maintain your anti-Israel hostility. (Meanwhile France plans to reward this hostility by recognizing the state of Palestine. While also urging French Jews not to leave the country?)

The title of the U.N. Secretary General's op-ed was called, flippantly, "Don't Shoot the Messenger, Israel."

If honesty prevailed at The New York Times, the title would have been: Break the Stalemate, O Israel, Capitulate to Your Enemies."