Steimatsky books caves on selling Charlie Hebdo direct in their outlets

If there's anywhere you probably didn't expect somebody to cower in the face of violent threats over the Charlie Hebdo "survivor" issue, it's over here, where a major book chain decided only to sell the issue online:

For many years, the Steimatzky bookstore chain has distributed and sold the French "Charlie Hebdo" satirical magazine in Israel. Now Steimatzky has been caught in the eye of the storm following the terrorist attack on the magazine's offices in Paris earlier this month by Muslim extremists, which killed 12 journalists and policemen.

Steimatzky has received 600 copies of the special "survivors' edition," which was issued after the attack, and had been set to go on sale at the bookstore's Ayalon Mall outlet in Ramat Gan.

However, strong reactions from Israel's Arab sector, persuaded Steimatzky to sell the magazines over the Internet rather from the store.

MK Masud Ganaim (United Arab List) sent a warning to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying "The State and the booksellers will be responsible for the results," if Steimatzky sells the weekly.

A source at Steimatzky said, "We are not giving up on the sale but we are talking about a small number of magazines, and the chaos that the demonstration against it might cause will hit the regular sales of the store. So we prefer that the Charlie Hebdo sales will be over the Internet, and sales at the store will be unaffected."

Oh, put a lid on it. They're caving and they know it. Lital Shemesh says this is just capitulation in a place where it's very ill-advised to cower.

Nevertheless, the issue sold out quick in the online sales, and as shady as Yisrael Beitenu is, they were willing to protest the bookstore's cowardice.