In Praise of Himself

In further evidence that Ha’aretz has completely lost the plot, they have published a piece from none other than anti-Israel blogger Richard Silverstein.

The piece – entitled In Praise of the Jewish Blogosphere – is nothing more than an exercise in self-promotion, and an attempt by Silverstein to get more readership, and blast those who oppose his virulently anti-Israel views.

In praise of the Jewish blogosphere

By Richard Silverstein

I began my blog, Tikun Olam, in February, 2003, one month before the Iraq war began. Even more than opposition to the imminent war, what motivated me was my passion to speak out on behalf of Israeli- Palestinian peace. Military force, I have always believed, though it might serve a legitimate defensive function, ultimately could never resolve the conflict. I have been dedicated to this cause all my adult life, but until blogging developed, I had no regular, public means of expressing my views.

It was lonely at first. The world of blogs, not to mention of progressive Jewish ones, was much smaller five years ago. But what drove me was seeing blogging as a personal expression of angst, passion, anger, identity – whatever are your deepest emotions.

In the beginning, I reached out with mixed success to other like-minded bloggers. In 2005, I created Israel-Palestine Forum, for progressive discussion, and in the hope that this would amplify our message in the greater blog world. But bloggers are fiercely independent creatures. They don’t necessarily want to be organized or part of a community. So I’ve had to adjust my ambitions and set humbler goals.

After five years of blogging, 2,000 posts, and 6,000 comments, I have a modest but substantial readership with 200 subscribers and 200,000 unique visitors annually. I would like my impact both on the blog world and the broader debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be larger. But bloggers are often seen by “serious” journalists as shouters, dilettantes and dabblers rather than serious participants in the media discourse. While these generalizations sometimes are true, many of us break important stories and do serious independent research. Some of us have sources, life experience or expertise that few journalists have.

In the age before blogs, Jewish leaders were like political bosses. They ruled their roosts, and anyone who questioned them was easily frozen out of communal discourse. Their politics were conservative and generally supportive of the Israeli right. For its part, the Jewish media was a corporate entity that largely expressed the views of such leaders. The few dissenting individuals and organizations made barely a ripple in the communal pond.

Blogs have changed that. Now, Jewish “bosses” can be held up to immediate public scrutiny. When Abraham Foxman, of the Anti-Defamation League, refused to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, the Jewish press and bloggers took him to task and he backed down. When the Jewish Telegraphic Agency published a quote falsely attributed to Desmond Tutu equating Israel with Hitler, the MuzzleWatch blog brought this to the Jewish community’s attention, and JTA corrected the record.

More importantly, when Israeli policy goes off the rails, as it did during the Second Lebanon War, peace bloggers published almost minute-by-minute coverage documenting the carnage and folly of the military-political decisions that informed the conflict, demonstrating the power of the Internet to circumvent the control of governments and centralized authority.

And if most Israelis who supported the war while it was happening concede today that it was a failure, I would argue that that is, in part, because of the dissenting voices in the Israeli and world media, including blogs like mine and others, which caused a reconsideration of both the cost of the war and the supposed benefits touted by Israel’s politicians and generals.

Bloggers conducted a furious debate for and against the war. No one could pull the plug on us, and even if we weren’t feared or noticed by the Olmerts and Halutzes of this world, we could have our say and people listened.

Not that all’s always well in the Jewish blog world. The breaking down of communal consensus has caused a breakdown of civility, and some blogs are characterized by a barrage of hate, invective and verbal assault.

There has also been a steep rise in partisanship. More radical, violent and racist ideas get more attention than they ever did in the past. I have been unsuccessfully sued for libel for calling militant pro-Israel activist Rachel Neuwirth a “Kahanist.” The owner of another far-right site, Masada2000, started a mock blog in my name, which included pornographic references and a stolen image of my son and me, with a caption saying we were making bombs (we were baking cookies). Masada2000’s owner also threatened me with genital mutilation. Members of the Kahanist Jewish Task Force Web site wished that I would get cancer of the rectum. It would be wrong to see these merely as aberrant Jewish expressions or the actions of lone troubled individuals (though they might be that). For the Internet has given nuts a huge megaphone to amplify and spread their hate.

My aim is to improve the Jewish blogosphere by encouraging more liberal voices to join the debate. We need more prominent communal figures and even journalists to understand the power of blogs and begin writing their own. Some, like Leonard Fein, Bernard Avishai and Daniel Levy have already done so. But there is room for much more. And, as more newspaper readers migrate to the Web, I’m hoping that the mainstream media both in Israel and America will expand their interest in blogs and incorporate what we have to say into their reporting.

Notice how Silverstein talks of the “breakdown of civility”, and blogs which are”characterized by a barrage of hate, invective and verbal assault,” as if his is not one of the prime examples of this.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, feel free to read any of my posts on Silverstein.

But if you really want to be entertained, you have to read the talkbacks to his article.

Here’s a sample for your reading pleasure.

The most remarkable thing about RS is that he is always trying to provoke and insult people, then he brands them all as kahanists even secular leftists of the two state solution. And without a shame he then proceeds to whine and complain about being bullied by cyber kahanists. A truly amazing creature.

One particularly memorable episode i have of R.S. is when he appeared on one blog run by a Palestinian from Montreal frequented by Israelis. The Palestinain guy had just composed an essay in Hebrew (he was making MA that included Hebrew studies) and Israelis came to his blog and were trading with the Palestinian guy jokes in Arabic. An absolutely hilarious scene. Here our hero appeared and started with his usual anti Israel rants. Nobody was interested in politics at that thread, including the Pal. guy and so R.S ended being ignored.

I am an avid Jewish blogosphere reader & have followed some of Mr. Silverstein`s stories & commentary… he is a trouble-maker! He is anti-Israel & has been downright hateful to his fellow Jewish bloggers… to put it mildly.

Saying you enjoy the music of Gilad Atzmon doesn`t count as praise of Israel.

I have no problem with opinions that differ with mine. The problem that I have with Silverstein is that he is a bully who hurls invective at those he disagrees with and runs crying when he gets what he dishes out. That he is the Jewish blogosphere`s premier bully is ironic given how he seeks to portray himself as a victim rather than a perpetrator. Those of us who care about coherent discourse and the viability of the Jewish blogosphere have learned a long time ago that the best way to deal with Richard Silverstein, is to ignore him.

Silverstein is a brilliant thinker. He has my full endorsement!

Name: Neville Chamberlain

City: London

The worst thing about the ultimate self-hating Jew Silverstein is his incessant, annoying WHINING. His posts are endless angry whine-fests and we can practically see his veins popping and feet stamping. This loser has no dignity and doesn`t care that he comes across as a screechy female. Even if I agreed with anything he says (that`ll be the day), I wouldn`t be able to get through one post without cringing with embarrassment at his childish temper tantrums. Repulsive.

If you identify with the post-Zionist Left and want polemics strengthening your existing beliefs and prejudices, you might like Silverstein`s blog. If you want dialogue and clarification of facts and positions, forget it.

2 thoughts on “In Praise of Himself”

  1. Little Dickie Kapostein, the real name for Richard Silverstein, is a fanatic anti-Semite and Neo-Nazi who seeks Israel’s annihilation and a new Holocaust. The semi-literate Silverstein would like to be the next Jewish Neo-Nazi after Norman Finkelstein crashed and burned. There has never been an act of Arab savagery against Jews he does not justify, nor an act of Jewish self-defense that he supports. His blog is little more than his exercise in political masturbation, trying to draw attention to himself. He has been unemployed for years.

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