Explaining the newly coined ‘Israel Derangement Syndrome’

Julie Hartman, a 24-year-old woman with whom I do a weekly podcast (“Dennis & Julie”), described the anti-Israel world perfectly: A vast number of people suffer from Israel Derangement Syndrome.

The description is, of course, based on the widely cited “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” which supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party deride as nonsense. Though I voted for former President Donald Trump and thought he was a very good, at times excellent, president, I never used that term during the four years of the Trump presidency. I did not regard opposition to Trump as necessarily an expression of psychological pathology.

Eventually, however, I changed my mind. I came to believe that much Trump hatred was rooted in psychology, not moral reasoning. This was particularly so regarding conservatives who became “Never Trumpers.” Given that the left had taken over the once largely liberal Democratic Party, and given that the left is the greatest threat to freedom and the entire American experiment since the Civil War, the only explanation for why a conservative would vote for a leftist rather than for Trump had to be a psychological one.

Whether or not one subscribes to the existence of a Trump Derangement Syndrome, “derangement syndrome” perfectly explains support for Hamas and the Palestinians (at this time, the two are largely the same, just as “Nazis” and “Germans” were largely the same, and therefore used interchangeably, during World War II).

On Sept. 21, The New York Times provided a perfect example of Israel Derangement Syndrome in a column written by Michael Walzer, a professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., titled “Israel’s Pager Bombs Have No Place in a Just War.”

As is well known, recently pagers used by Hezbollah terrorists exploded, killing a handful of them and wounding hundreds more. Amazingly accurate, the exploding pagers killed very few noncombatants.

Hezbollah is the Shiite and Lebanese equivalent of the Gaza-based Sunni Hamas. Like Hamas, Hezbollah has one purpose: to kill as many Israelis as possible and eradicate the Jewish state. Hezbollah has fired more than 8,000 rockets into Israel in an attempt to kill as many Israeli civilians as possible. Tens of thousands of Israelis have fled their homes in northern Israel and have not returned in nearly a year.

That Israel is being attacked for killing Hezbollah terrorists is proof that, according to the vast array of Israel-haters — the political, media and academic left, and Muslims in the Western world — Israel is not allowed to defend itself. It should now be obvious that the current hatred of Israel is not a result of Israel’s bombing of Gaza. When Israel targets Hezbollah terrorists — and only Hezbollah terrorists — it is equally condemned.

Which brings me to the Times column by Walzer.

Walzer writes: “The explosions on Tuesday and Wednesday were very likely war crimes — terrorist attacks by a state that has consistently condemned terrorist attacks on its own citizens.

“Yes, the devices most probably were being used by Hezbollah operatives for military purposes. This might make them a legitimate target in the continuous cross-border battles between Israel and Hezbollah. But the attacks ... came when the operatives were not operating; they had not been mobilized and they were not militarily engaged. ... It is important for friends of Israel to say: This was not right.”

According to Professor Walzer, terrorists can only be killed when they are “operating,” “mobilized” or “militarily engaged.” If they are not doing so, it is a “war crime” to kill them. Furthermore, the mere fact that these members of Hezbollah had those pagers — devices the professor admits “probably were being used by Hezbollah operatives for military purposes” — means these terrorists were “operating.” That’s why they had them: to plan and carry out operations against Israel.

That, dear reader, is derangement.

Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host whose column is distributed by Creators Syndicate. He may be contacted at dennisprager.com.