Israeli soldiers and medics are seen at the scene of a terrorist attack at the Givat Asaf junction in the West Bank, Dec. 13, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Ammar Awad.

An op-ed in Haaretz last week by Kobi Niv was headlined, “Shooting at Soldiers of Occupation is Legitimate.”  It is sick.

According to Niv, “Shooting at an occupying army is a legitimate action according to any law. And unfortunately, in Ofra and its sister settlements, in Hebron and its environs and in all the territories occupied in the 1967 war, we are an occupying nation and army. … These areas do not belong to us and not one person in the entire world … recognizes our rights or ownership over these lands. We are a nation, an army, a security service and settlers who are occupiers there.”

He goes on to say that it is the “right of any people around the world who are living under an occupation, … to rebel against the occupier and to try to remove him from their land. Thus, shooting at soldiers of an occupying army, in this case an Israeli one, is a totally legitimate action, by any moral or legal standard.” [Emphasis added]

A phrase mistakenly attributed to Lenin famously referred to those who work against their own people’s best interests — and in support of their enemies’ — as “useful idiots.”  There can be no kinder words than this to describe Niv and all those who agree with him.

Ronn Torossian is a public relations executive.