Ted Turner Understood The Difference Between Israelis & Palestinians....Even if Belatedly

Following the passing of Ted Turner yesterday, I wrote a post about the day he spent as manager of the Atlanta Braves in 1977.

Today, I would like to give some thoughts on some remarks he made in 2002 about the Israelis and the Palestinians followed by his reconsideration of those remarks.

In an interview with The Guardian in June of that year, Turner had this to say:

Aren't the Israelis and the Palestinians both terrorising each other?"

The Palestinians are fighting with human suicide bombers, that's all they have. The Israelis ... they've got one of the most powerful military machines in the world. The Palestinians have nothing. So who are the terrorists? I would make a case that both sides are involved in terrorism.

Given that Turner made these remarks less than a year after the September 11th attacks they didn't go down well. Indeed, Turner took some heat in February 2002 when, while speaking to students at Brown University, he called the 9/11 hijackers "brave" Turner was chided for these remarks regarding Israelis and Palestinians as he made them the same day 19 Israelis were killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber aboard a bus in Jerusalem. Upon further consideration, Turner provided some sober second thought:

I regret any implication that believe the actions taken by Israel to protect its people are equal to terrorism. In that interview I condemned that violence on whatever side it may come. But I want to make it absolutely clear that my view was, and is, that there is a fundamental distinction between the acts of the Israeli government and the Palestinians. I believe the Israeli government has used excessive force to defend itself, but that is not the same as intentionally targeting and killing civilians with suicide bombers.

This is a nuanced view. Turner still maintained the Israeli government was using excessive force against the Palestinians. Yet Turner also recognized the difference between governmental excess and the actions of Palestinians who deliberately and wantonly murdered Jewish civilians and were rewarded for their actions by the Palestinian Authority. Turner's understanding might have come belatedly, but he did come to an understanding.

Nearly a quarter century has passed, and these facts have not changed. The Palestinians deliberately kill Jewish civilians and are rewarded for it by their government while the Israeli government defends its populace. But what has changed is our collective common sense over the matter. 

Had Turner made this statement in 2026, he would have been lauded for it by a significant segment of the Democratic Party as well as elements of MAGA (i.e. Tucker Carlson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Candace Owens). Any attempt to provide sober second thought would be perceived as 'bending the knee to the Zionists.' For Democrats, accusing Israel of committing "genocide" is fast becoming a litmus test while turning a blind eye to the acts of Hamas, Hezbollah and their sponsors including Iran. 

What makes matters worse is the proliferation of anti-Semitic violence in Australia, Canada, the U.S. and particularly in the U.K. where the Green Party is openly siding with the perpetrators. 

And it will only get worse before it gets better. Ted Turner has left this world while those of us who remain must deal with the malevolence of anti-Semitism but those who excuse, justify and rationalize it. R.I.P.