The late Jean Kirkpatrick, former U.S. Ambassador to the UN, referred to those among the American hard left who were hyper-critical of their own country yet strangely silent in the face of Soviet totalitarianism as the “blame America first” crowd.
Though much has been written about the death of Jawaher Abu Rahmah, our friend Yaacov Lozowick’s latest meditation on the propensity of the Israeli hard left to not only “blame Israel first” but often contribute to the assault on the very legitimacy of their state, is thoughtful and penetrating.
Lozowick said:
“What has however been striking in this story is the alacrity, indeed, the overt and obvious need of certain far-left Israeli figures -journalists, NGOs, bloggers, they all know who they are – to convict Israel of a crime. I can understand, and even appreciate, Israeli observers who wish to hold our military to a high moral standard. Yet it would be reasonable to expect that when such observers detect wrong-doing, they’d try to get it fixed, out of a feeling of shame at what our side sometimes does. What’s not defensible is the way some of them go out of their way, and bend over backwards, to make certain the IDF is guilty; indeed, they’re at the forefront of casting doubt on any official attempt to clarify the facts. For these home-grown enemies of Israel, if there’s any doubt whatsoever, there’s no doubt: the Israeli troops are criminals, the investigating organs are liars, their defenders are thugs, and of course sooner or later the criminals will have to be brought to trial and if they’re not it will be further proof of Israeli culpability.”
