Vibrant democracy faces prospect of war

Larry Derfner By Larry Derfner February 9, 2012 | Edit

The demonstrator who said there were more cops than demonstrators was way wrong; I counted ten cops and there must have been 25, even 30 protesters. 

Sad. Pathetic. Not the protesters, but the public that will follow the government to war with Iran without a peep. Also pathetic: Peace Now, Labor, Meretz, Hadash, for saying nothing about it, either.

The demonstrators on Kaplan Street across from the Defense Ministry compound held big signs that said “Don’t bomb – talk.” I heard one car that bothered to honk.

I stopped a passerby in her 20s pushing a baby carriage, an accountant from Petah Tikva, and asked if she was for or against an attack on Iran. “We’ll see how things turn out. Whatever happens, happens.”

If the government decides to bomb, will you support it? “They sit up there, they’re smarter than me, whatever they decide, I’ll support.”

Do you think they’re going to do it? “It looks that way.”

Are you worried? “A little.”

What do you think is going to happen afterward? “I don’t really think about it.”

A guy of about 20 on a skateboard was checking out the signs. I asked if he was for against an attack.

“First of all, I’m not for war, I’m against war. But if somebody is going to attack you, if your enemy is going to attack, don’t you think you have to attack him first, for the sake of survival?”

Do you think Iran will attack us first?

“I don’t know, I’m not privy to all the information. But good luck,” he said, and skated away.

Larry Derfner

I was a columnist and feature writer for The Jerusalem Post, as well as the correspondent in Israel for the U.S. News and World Report, for many years. I wrote feature articles for the Sunday Times of London during the second intifada, and have been writing for American Jewish publications since 1990. Politically, I would describe myself as an ultra-liberal Zionist; as journalist Bradley Burston put it, I’m “probably as far left as a centrist can be.” I was born in New York, grew up in Los Angeles and moved to Israel in 1985.

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