The Latest Attack Against Israeli Civilians

by Gary Fouse

Israeli security forces and emergency personnel work at the scene of a shooting attack, near the Israeli settlement of Ofra, in the occupied West Bank, Dec. 9, 2018.

On Sunday, seven Israelis were shot and wounded  as they waited at a bus stop near the West Bank settlement of Ofra. It is believed two gunmen, who were driving past the bus stop, were responsible.

One woman, who was pregnant, was listed in critical condition. Her baby was delivered prematurely by doctors at the hospital.

This, of course, is hardly a rare occurrence, but given the recent remarks at the UN by Temple University professor and (now former) CNN commentator, Marc Lamont Hill, it is to be hoped that some enterprising journalist (or better yet, one of Hill’s students) might ask Hill if this is what he means by legitimate resistance. In his UN speech, Hill defended the right of Palestinians to engage in violent resistance against Israelis. When CNN fired him, professors all over the country, like Juan Cole at the University of Michigan, jumped to his defense.

In October 2010, British journalist (I use that word lightly) Ben White, another apologist for Palestinian terror, came to speak at UC Irvine. (He  travels the world speaking against Israel and has spoken at UC Irvine on more than one occasion.) His appearance came on the heels of another similar attack against Israeli civilians that August in which four people were murdered.. When asked about that by critical audience members, White dismissed the victims as “settlers”. When reminded they were human beings, his response was, “They were settler human beings”.

Arguably the most shocking case of Palestinian slaughter against Israelis living in the West Bank was the infamous 2011 Fogel family massacre in which two Palestinians snuck into the Itamar residence of the Fogel family and slaughtered them as they slept. Among the dead were the parents and three of their children, one an infant whose throat was slashed in its crib. The Palestinian populace celebrated the “heroic” act of their killers by dancing in the streets and passing out candy.

I wonder what Mr Hill thought of that.

The truth is that in all the years I have witnessed people like White speak at UC Irvine and other campuses on behalf of the Palestinian cause, I don’t recall any of them speaking out against Palestinian terrorism. Instead, like Hill, they defend the right of the Palestinians-including Hamas- to use “legitimate resistance to the occupation”. It is a shameful position to take.