Jerusalem Post Writer Fired for Justifying Palestinian Terror

Good for the Jerusalem Post.

The Post‘s in-house radical leftist opinion writer, Larry Derfner, was fired today for actually justifying Palestinian terrorism against innocent Israeli citizens as a means of “resistance.” The invaluable Israel Matzav found a piece by Isi Leibler in a rival paper, Israel Hayom, that deserves wide exposure. Derfner, who writes on his blog, “I was fired from the Jerusalem Post today,” is well on his way to becoming a martyr on the anti-Israel feverswamp blogs and soon, no doubt, may even have an elementary school named after him in Gaza or Ramallah.

Leibler’s piece is essential reading:

Today, both in Israel and abroad, there are Jews who retain the wretched tradition of these renegade predecessors and identify with those who seek to destroy their people. They are few in number, but their influence extends beyond their Jewish fringe status because many occupy prominent roles in universities, the media and the arts. Of late, much of the Western liberal media has been promoting and idolizing them.

A few days ago, I was alerted to an unprecedented and obscene extension of such behavior, emanating, to my profound regret, from Larry Derfner, a senior professional staff writer for the Jerusalem Post. Only days after Israeli infants and families were brutally murdered by terrorists near Eilat, Derfner publicly stated that the murder of Israeli citizens was a justifiable weapon for Palestinians to employ in order to overcome the “occupation.”

…Whereas Derfner is regarded as an in-house leftist opinion writer for the Jerusalem Post, his chilling outburst extends way beyond traditional far-Left efforts to apply moral equivalence between Israelis and terrorists. In fact, Derfner actually scolds those on the Left who condemn Palestinian terrorism.

To avoid any misunderstanding, let me be specific about what Derfner actually said. He asserted that in fighting for their “independence” Palestinian terrorists are “justified” in targeting and deliberately murdering innocent Israeli women and children. He even explicitly said that “whoever the Palestinians were who killed the eight Israelis near Eilat last week, however vile the ideology was, they were justified to attack” and it was the Israeli government that was “to blame for those eight Israeli deaths.” He opined that it was high time for Israelis to appreciate “that terrorism in the face of a rejectionist Israeli government is justified … even to kill Israelis.”

He stated that while he endorsed the right of Palestinians “to use terrorism against us,” he did not wish to see Israelis killed and like Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, he felt that terrorism (while justifiable) can be counterproductive to the Palestinian cause. However Israeli “blindness” was “compelling the Palestinians to engage in terrorism” and by exposing the “unjust” Israeli government as being “to blame for these Israeli deaths,” it would contribute to “ending the occupation.”

Derfner conceded that such remarks would encourage Hamas, but was not unduly concerned because Hamas was already committed to Israel’s destruction. It was more important for him to ensure that Israelis recognized that by their behavior, “they are compelling Palestinians to engage in terrorism,” rather than worrying about whether his remarks would be quoted approvingly on Hamas websites. In fact, the Arab media has already widely reproduced his remarks, highlighting the fact that he is a prominent Jerusalem Post contributor.

Derfner concluded his shocking remarks with the extraordinary statement, “Writing this is not treason. It is patriotism.” That a person justifying the murder of innocent women and children in his own country can describe himself as a “patriot” makes one question his sanity.

In a twisted sense, Derfner is probably right in that his remarks are not treasonous. Although there may very well be grounds for the attorney-general to charge him with incitement to murder, his remarks are so vile that they go beyond treason. They display an utter lack of sensitivity, humanity or compassion for the tens of thousands of Israeli families who, since the creation of Israel, have lost loved ones, murdered by the barbarians whose actions Derfner justifies as being due to “harsh” Israeli government policies.

Read the whole thing