Larry Derfner writes at LarryDerfner.com.
Larry Derfner
By Larry Derfner
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Opinion The Missing Information That Exonerates Jeremy Corbyn
As an anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian politician and activist for decades, British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has inevitably attracted at least some genuine anti-Semites to his party’s ranks. (Veteran pro-Zionist, anti-Palestinian politicians inevitably attract at least some genuine Islamophobes.) In an article last month in The Guardian titled “I will root anti-Semites out of Labour –…
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Opinion Israel’s Propaganda Can’t Hide the Harsh Reality of 123-0 Gaza Killing Count
The Israeli army has declared that Razan al-Najjar, the 21-year-old female medic shot to death June 1 on the Gazan border, “is not the angel of mercy that Hamas propaganda attempts to portray.” Where did the army get this idea? From a Palestinian video clip that shows Najjar tossing a smoke grenade or tear gas…
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Books Israel’s City of the Future: Portrait of a Smug Society
Excerpted from the book “No Country for Jewish Liberals.” This is a political and personal story about Israel, about how over the years it went one way and I went the other. I’m going to start where I live, literally—in the city (actually the sprawling suburban bedroom community) of Modi’in, which is truly a showcase…
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Community Black Lives Matter is Basically Right About Israel – but Very Wrong About America
This piece originally appeared at LarryDerfner.com. If describing Israel’s actions toward the Palestinians as “genocide” were the only thing wrong with the Black Lives Matter** platform, I would endorse it with a caveat over that one word, which is grossly inaccurate. Otherwise, the platform’s brief take on Israel is harsh but accurate. In fact, it…
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Opinion J Street Loses Its Focus With Peace Process Dead
What is J Street doing? Why has it begun to act in concert with unambiguously right-wing Zionist organizations such as AIPAC and StandWithUs in their efforts to kill the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement while offering no alternative for ending the occupation? Because the truth is that J Street offers no alternative anymore; now that…
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Opinion John Kerry ‘Deal’ Looks Rigged Against Palestinians
John Kerry with chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat and Israel’s Justice Minister Tzipi Livni at the State Department in Washington / Getty Images What is J Street going to say if, after urging American Jews to support the Kerry peace mission, that mission wins the support of the right-wing Netanyahu government — but not that…
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Opinion Israel’s Everyday Racism — and How American Jews Turn a Blind Eye to It
The Anti-Defamation League and the rest of the American Jewish establishment owe Jesse Jackson a big apology. They put the man through the wringer, they made him apologize in every possible forum for his “Hymie” and “Hymietown” remarks back in 1984. Yet look at the kinds of things Israeli leaders — senior government ministers, chief…
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Opinion Everyday ‘Apartheid’ and the Liberal Dream
The following items appeared in the Israeli media this month: Superland, an amusement park outside Tel Aviv, makes a policy of reserving separate days for Israeli Arab high school classes and separate ones for Israeli Jewish classes. A Jewish community pool in the Negev refused to admit a group of Bedouin children with cancer because,…
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