Israel Matzav

JPost columnist writes personal blog justifying 'Palestinian' terror

Uber Leftist Larry Derfner writes a weekly column for the JPost called Rattling the Cage. He also blogs with anti-Israel nutcase Richard Silverstein, and writes a personal blog.

I don't read Derfner as a rule. I read enough hostile material every week that I don't need an American-born Israeli Jew to raise my blood pressure any more. If the Post wants to have him, that's their problem. Until now.

On Sunday, Derfner wrote a piece on his personal blog justifying last week's terror attacks north of Eilat and justifying 'Palestinian' terror generally. That's right. An American-born Israeli Jew living in the cushy suburb of Modiin wrote a blog justifying 'Palestinian' terror attacks.

I think a lot of people who realize that the occupation is wrong also realize that the Palestinians have the right to resist it – to use violence against Israelis, even to kill Israelis, especially when Israel is showing zero willingness to end the occupation, which has been the case since the Netanyahu government took over (among other times in the past).

But people don’t want to say this, especially right after a terror attack like this last one that killed eight Israelis near Eilat. And there are lots of good reasons for this reticence, such as: You don’t want to further upset your own countrymen when they are grieving, you don’t want to say or write anything that could be picked up by Israel’s enemies and used as justification for killing more of us. (These are good reasons; fear of being called a traitor, for instance, is a bad reason.)

But I think it’s time to overcome this reticence, even at the cost of enflaming the already enflamed sensitivities of the Israeli public, because this unwillingness to say outright that Palestinians have the right to fight the occupation, especially now, inadvertently helps keep the occupation going.

...

But if, on the other hand, we were to say very forthrightly what many of us believe and the rest of us suspect – that the Palestinians, like every nation living under hostile rule, have the right to fight back, that their terrorism, especially in the face of a rejectionist Israeli government, is justified – what effect would that have? A powerful one, I think, because the truth is powerful. If those who oppose the occupation acknowledged publicly that it justifies Palestinian terrorism, then those who support the occupation would have to explain why it doesn’t. And that’s not easy for a nation that sanctifies the right to self-defense; a nation that elected Irgun leader Menachem Begin and Lehi leader Yitzhak Shamir as prime minister.

It's time to lock Larry Derfner in the cage and throw away the key. It's time to stop carrying his drivel in the JPost. The Post fired Naomi Chazan for a lot less.

The JPost is looking into it. There's currently a blog (which as I understand it, need not be approved by the editors) on the Post's website calling for Derfner to be indicted for incitement.

Jonathan Tobin adds:

In doing so, Derfner has exposed the fundamental flaw in the left’s position on terror. His obscene post will, as he predicted, lead some of his fellow countrymen to call him a traitor, and Israel’s enemies will cite it in defense of their policy of murder. But the significant aspect of this piece is it shows how pious liberals who believe the blame for the conflict falls upon the Jews are inevitably led to the justification of murder.

Derfner claims, despite all the evidence of the past 18 years of peace processing, the blame for the continuation of the conflict falls squarely on Israel and no one else. He says the Palestinian terrorists are merely fighting for their “independence” against an evil Israeli “occupation.” But, as even Shimon Peres has said, if the conflict were just about the Palestinian desire for an independent state, it would have been over more than a decade ago when Yasir Arafat chose to reject Ehud Barak​’s offer at Camp David in July 2000. Since then, that offer has been repeated and rejected. But that is meaningless to Derfner, because he and those who think like him have never been really been interested in the Palestinians or what they do or want. His focus is hatred of the Israeli right and the settlement movement, and to discuss anything else, even if that means ignoring the truth about Palestinian nationalism and its implacable desire to destroy Israel no matter where its borders are drawn, is a distraction.

To Derfner’s way of thinking, so long as Israel is not unilaterally surrendering to the Palestinians, it is provoking, nay “compelling” them to murder Jews. For him, there is no “cycle of violence” which wrongly treats Palestinian murder and Israeli self-defense on the same moral plain. As far as he is concerned, the Arabs are in the right and the Israelis in the wrong, and therefore the latter has no logical right to complain about being murdered. Derfner claims he wishes the Palestinians wouldn’t employ terrorism since, presumably, he is not happy to see people slaughtered in this fashion and wouldn’t like it if it happened to him or his family and friends. But he says it’s time for Israeli leftists to stop denouncing Arab terror because it’s hypocritical. That is the crux of his position, and one has to admit there is more logic to it than the Jewish liberals and leftists (who will, no doubt, condemn his words), will admit.

Read the whole thing.

For those wondering about Mrs. Carl's attempt to cancel our JPost hard copy subscription... it continues to show up every day.

Labels: Israeli Left, Larry Derfner, Palestinian terrorism, self-hating Jews

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:32 AM