NY Times raps Netanyahu for ‘unfair rebukes’ of US envoy

The New York Times on Saturday reprimanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for what it said were his “unfair rebukes” of US Ambassador Dan Shapiro, after the latter expressed concern this week over Israel’s settlement expansion and its policies toward the Palestinians.

Israel, Shapiro told a security conference in Tel Aviv on Monday, has two standards of law in the West Bank — one for Israelis and one another for Palestinians.

Shapiro’s unusually accusatory comments, which came on the same day as the funeral for Israeli mother-of-six Dafna Meir, killed by a Palestinian terrorist in her own home, and another attack on a pregnant woman – drew a harsh response from Netanyahu, who called the remarks “unacceptable and incorrect.”

But in an editorial called “The Fading Two-State Solution,” the New York Times said Saturday that, “The criticism of Mr. Shapiro, a vigorous advocate for Israel, was unusually personal and unfair.”

The piece continues by saying that Shapiro “correctly identified a serious problem. Since 1967, there has been a dual legal system in the West Bank in which Palestinians are subject to military courts, where, experts say, they are almost always convicted. Israeli settlers fall under the Israeli civilian judicial system, with its greater rights and protections.”

The paper does acknowledge the security threats facing the Jewish state, saying that “Considering the relentless violence and attacks on Israel’s very existence, Israelis are understandably on high alert to defend themselves.” But it goes on to highlight attacks on Palestinians by Jewish Israeli extremists, citing the July 2015 firebombing of a Palestinian home that killed three members of the Dawabsha family. “None of this is acceptable,” the paper says.

Shapiro on Monday praised the the progress made in the investigation of the deadly arson attack — a far-right wing Jewish extremist was this month charged with the murders of Saad, Riham and baby Ali Dawabsha — although he asserted that too often Israel turns a blind eye to settler violence against Palestinians.

Netanyahu and Shapiro reportedly met one-on-one on Tuesday, a day after the ambassador’s remarks, apparently seeking to signal that there was no personal animosity following the public spat a day earlier. But Israeli analysts assess that Shapiro, who tends to publicly highlight the strengths of the US-Israel relationship, would not have delivered the strikingly critical remarks Monday without the support and/or direction of the administration in DC.