According to a piece in The New York Times, John Donatich, the director of Yale University Press, said that the decision not to include the cartoons was “difficult.”

Really? Why was it difficult? Mr. Donatich presides over part of an academic institution whose motto is “lux et veritas,” “light and truth.” His “difficult” decision announced to the world that his motto timiditas et deditio: “cowardice and surrender.” He told the Times that he bravely published an unauthorized biography about Thailand’s current monarch, but when it came to publishing representations of a 7th-century religious fanatic — there he drew the line: “when it came between that and blood on my hands,” he said “there was no question.”…

How much indeed? John Donatich has just demonstrated that Yale University Press can be bullied into bowdlerizing its books to suit Muslim sensibilities. How much further, given a little push, a little nudge, a timid recommendation from some “expert,” would he being willing to go? Aristotle was right when he observed that courage is the most important of the virtues because without courage we cannot practice the other virtues. This is a lesson Mr. Donatich has yet to learn.