Did Larry Derfner Deserve to Be Fired?
August 30, 2011 10:53 by Pesach Benson
If you haven’t been following the furor of Larry Derfner’s take on the Eilat attacks and Palestinian terror, the Jerusalem Post fired the veteran columnist.
The original commentary, “The awful, necessary truth about Palestinian terror,” — published on Derfner’s personal blog – justified Palestinian terror:
But while I think the Palestinians have the right to use terrorism against us, I don’t want them to use it, I don’t want to see Israelis killed, and as an Israeli, I would do whatever was necessary to stop a Palestinian, oppressed or not, from killing one of my countrymen . . . .
Whoever the Palestinians were who killed the eight Israelis near Eilat last week, however vile their ideology was, they were justified to attack. They had the same right to fight for their freedom as any other unfree nation in history ever had.
In response to the blowback, Derfner removed the post (subsequently, our colleagues at CAMERA republished it) and apologized. But the Jerusalem Post fired the columnist, telling Derfner it received hundreds of notices of subscription cancellations.
I’ve seen enough blog posts assessing Derfner’s commentary and apology, but I want to know what readers think. So I’m putting the question up for debate.
Did Larry Derfner deserve to be fired from the Jerusalem Post?
Tlozzy
12:03 pm
Aug 30, 2011
He most definitely deserved to be fired. Imagine if a journalist wrote that the London bombers were justified in the actions, relatively soon after the incident. There would be absolute uproar and right so yet when it comes to Israel, saying things like Derfner did, results in him being heralded as a “hero speaking out against the occupation” by elements of the left.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
14 
2
A F
6:52 pm
Aug 30, 2011
“Imagine if a journalist wrote that the London bombers were justified in the actions, relatively soon after the incident.”
You mean, like calling them “sassy”?
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/105251/sassy-suicide-bombers/cliff-may
To answer the question: While it is correct and generally a good idea to have columnists at a newspaper that have differing views, there is such a thing as “going too far”. Derfner has the democratic right to voice his views… and the Post has the democratic right to not serve as his soapbox anymore.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
5 
0
dsch
4:26 pm
Aug 30, 2011
For a long time, i’ve felt that Larry Derfner’s column should be expelled, but not simply because he’s left-wing. It doesn’t bother me that Gershon Baskin, Ray Hanania, Jeff Barak, Alon-Ben Meir are published there in the JP too. Their articles are well-written and articulate, even if I don’t agree with them. That’s what a fair press is about. But Derfner’s columns were no more journalistic in character than a mediocre angry blogger banging his thoughts on a keyboard. They were simply insult-fests for anyone to the right of Yossi Beilin. They were rarely better quality than a talkback with proper spelling. His research was shoddy at best, if existing at all. His overwhelming theme was that anyone to his right was a raving Neanderthal lunatic. Good riddance. Let him stick to his own blog.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
15 
2
Steve Mann
4:34 pm
Aug 30, 2011
I am totally for freedom of speech as long as others have the opportunity to respond- In this case they did- They cancelled their subscriptions to the “Post” -
So Larry you had your say and your readers had theirs- Thats fair-
And by the way who aid these terrorists were not free- as you suggested. They were free enough to roam the area and kill!
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
8 
1
WadiAra
6:15 pm
Aug 30, 2011
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Agree or Disagree:
2 
12
Steve Mann
11:20 am
Aug 31, 2011
AS democratic as the BBC- the Guardian- the UK Observer and Independent-
How about as democratic as RT T.V- Press T.V- al Jazeera.
Tried getting or finding a pro – Israeli article on any of the above-
Even their Jewish journalists are anti-Zionists.
Agree or Disagree:
2 
0
War Larry Derfner zu Recht gefeuert worden? « Medien BackSpin
7:47 pm
Aug 30, 2011
[...] HonestReporting Media BackSpin, 30. August 2011 [...]
Agree or Disagree:
0 
0
Naftush
11:39 am
Aug 31, 2011
For years Mr. Derfner never let a fact get in the way of a clever-sounding concept. In the piece that got him fired, he extended this policy to a clever-sounding falsehood: that Israel “compels” Palestinians to employ terrorism — making every last Israeli deserving of gruesome death even though this outcome would make Mr. Derfner sad. He admits to nothing of the Palestinians’ decades of sellout leadership (long preceding the establishment of the State of Israel), alignment with users of mass violence and abuse far beyond the Palestinian context (Hitler, Nasser, Saddam Hussein, and the various Syrian arch-murderers), subscription to sick delusions (as in this week’s resurrection of the organ-harvesting charge and endless recourse to antisemitic fables), and terrorism among their own. Firing Mr. Derfner seems like the obvious thing to have done even if no subscriber had cancelled.
Well-loved. Agree or Disagree:
10 
1
Steve Mann
7:30 pm
Sep 01, 2011
Talking about being fired – I have just, so to speak- been fired from the UK Guardian comments page on line-
They were going through their usual , at least once a week, “Stirring” it up for Israel bit-
Getting fed up with this- I commented so- and decided to join the messages with the wonderful innovations that have come out of the Israeli Universities, especially in medicine- being totally off topic of course. Further commenting that they as a newspaper never report on these advancements discovered in Israel.
Low and behold all my comments were deleted and was informed that future messages would have to go through the moderator-
So any advise on how to promote Israeli innovations through a media that only desires to castigate Israel?
Agree or Disagree:
2 
0