Israellycool

Self-positioned poster boy for victimhood of nasty blogger behavior - Richard Silverstein - seems to think acceptable blogger conduct includes modifying reader comments and publishing them in their modified form, without any note as to their modification.

Below is a screenshot of a comment thread on his blog (needed since he could very well change the comments again). At the top is a comment I submitted, which as you can see is awaiting moderation by the author and is not visible to other readers of his site. The comment directly below it is my comment as it was published by Silverstein.

By modifying and then publishing my comment, he is misrepresenting the totality of what I said. And even if you argued that the parts he omitted are not substantial, the mere fact that he omitted them is problematic, and illustrates that he had a problem with them. 

This is just another example of his dishonesty and disregard for “netiquette,” as I pointed out last year:

I have corrected him on a number of occasions, pointing out errors in

his posts. Instead of doing the honest thing and

inserting/acknowledging the corrections via updates to his posts, he

just makes the corrections.

Furthermore, despite the fact that he habitually deletes comments of mine, he makes a point of leaving up the ones in which I pointed out his mistakes. The net result is to render my comments meaningless, since his posts do not contain the error to which I am referring.

By manipulating and modifying reader comments, as well as updating his own posts in a material way without any acknowledgment, he is being patently dishonest in an attempt to advance his arguments.

While I truly find Silverstein’s actual views reprehensible - not to mention poorly argued - it is his right to express them. What really bothers me is the dishonest way he is conducting the discourse, especially hypocritical considering his own gripe with bad blogger conduct.

Why am I bothering posting about this? Because I think it is important that anyone who happens to visit his site and read his posts and accompanying comments know about the inherent dishonesty. I think it also sheds light on how he can so easily espouse the views he does.

Nasty Jewish Lefty blogger Richard Silverstein is revelling in the fact he has been cited in a number of articles regarding his “victimhood.” So much so, that he has become a real-life Obi-Wan Kenobody. Here’s part of a post of his from yesterday:

I don’t know why Jewish wingnuts like Steven Plaut or Rachel Neuwirth taunt me. They only end up making me stronger.

Uncanny.

And the similarities don’t end there.

..comes courtesy of my friend Richard Landes: Palestinian Suffering: Who’s Responsible?

Few people have suffered more constant misery and daily oppression in the last 50 years than the Palestinians. The key issue, however, concerns not the amount — although it has obviously been grossly exaggerated — but the source of that suffering.

Read the rest at Richard’s blog.

Dr. David Yeagley:*

And people wonder at my love for Jewish people. When one is absorbed in such psychological archetypes as found in Jewish history, how can one not feel awe and affection for the people whose history has traced out the truth of human experience? How can one not be thrilled to know the Jews are still here, in the land of the living? The truth about eternity, about God, about life, it was all mapped out in scripture. That map was written in their blood. The path is carved in their souls. Scripture is the record of Jewish experience. It is the manual of the human spirit. Scripture was created by Jewish experience. The Creator used them, for the benefit of all. Their struggles, their failures, their triumphs, their love, their sorrows, this is all sanctified. This is the Collective guide. This is the Archetype.

I find myself the beneficiary, at least vicariously, of the Jewish experience. How can I feel anything but appreciation and gratitude, and even a fearful reverence for Jewish people. Their personal problems? Their hangp-ups? Not something I dare assert, or delve into, or plead. God created them. I say therefore, beware God.

* Previously mentioned in this post

Please keep Cathy and Maia in your prayers.

And thank you Cathy for enriching so many lives through your writing.

Israeli bloggers like to joke that wars and terrorist attacks are good for business.

 

When katyusha rockets rained on Israeli cities in the North this summer, English-language bloggers say the number of visitors to their online Web logs reached all-time highs. “If things ever got peaceful here, the interest in our blogs would definitely drop,” admits Brian Blum, the former Californian who says traffic on his blog, This Normal Life, doubled during the tense summer weeks in July and August.

 

Indeed, Anglo bloggers, as well as those who study them, say that the Lebanon war has increased the visibility and readership of English-language blogs here. Though numbers have petered out since the summer highs, bloggers insist that their growing readerships have given them a greater platform for sharing their perspective with people around the world.

 

“There was a huge wave of discovery during the war,” explains Lisa Goldman, the blogger behind On the Face, who says the number of hits on her site grew from 1,000 to 100,000 unique visitors a day during the war.

 

“The numbers went down again after the war, but some of that momentum was sustained. I gained a much more cosmopolitan audience.” Goldman, a Canadian-born journalist, was blogging furiously throughout the war and her postings, together with those of Lebanese bloggers, were featured on a number of major news outlets, including the Washington Post, Le Monde and the Guardian. Her high-profile blog, together with others across the country, gave readers around the world a sense of what ordinary Israelis were going through, she says.

 

“It gave outsiders a more nuanced view of what people are thinking,” says Goldman. “There was definitely a huge shift to the blogs for alternative sources of information.”

 

According to Yael Kaynan, a lecturer in the communications department at Ben-Gurion University and a member of the university’s Burda Center for Innovative Communications, interest in English-language blogs spiked during the war. “The interest in Anglo blogs is absolutely greater now than before the war,” she says. “The war prompted people to look at Anglo blogs within Israel and find out what is going on here.”

 

Kaynan, who runs her own blog, Oleh Girl, says that readers from around the world reached English-language Israeli sites, including hers, as a result of the war, with many of them coming back even after the war. “We all had a huge amount of traffic during the war and have become more popular now than prior to the summer,” she says. “I got a lot of new readers who didn’t know about me before the war.”

 

Indeed, Israeli Anglo bloggers say that news consumers are increasingly looking to blogs for alternative sources of information to mainstream news outlets. “When something happens, people rush to the blogs to see what’s going on,” Blum says. “Blogs offer personal insight into how people are coping with what’s going on. The personal experience of people like you or me or anyone is very compelling.”

 

Bloggers say there is no way of determining the exact number of Israeli blogs written in English, but those familiar with the community agree that the number, which is “in the hundreds,” continues to grow rapidly.

 

“Blogging everywhere, including here, has really taken off,” says Alex Stein, a recent British transplant who writes the False Dichotomies blog. “I’m always discovering new interesting Anglo blogs. People like to get their voice out, even if no one listens.”

 

To be sure, what used to be a small community of a few dozen bloggers who knew each other on and offline has ballooned, bloggers say.

 

“The community has changed simply because it’s gotten so much bigger,” Kaynan explains. “I used to be able to do a scan of all blogs in a day at the beginning, but that is certainly impossible now. It also used to be a much more tight-knit community, and now a number of smaller communities have formed: religious bloggers, secular bloggers, left-wing bloggers, right-wing bloggers.”

 

Because they write in English, Anglo bloggers naturally have a much wider audience than their Hebrew-language counterparts. Some native Israelis have even begun blogging in English - the “lingua franca” of the blogosphere.

 

As a result, English-language bloggers here say they have become a natural resource for people around the world looking to learn more about the Israeli experience in its various forms.

 

Some bloggers report readers in places like Lebanon and Iran, while others say they have strong readership among the right-wing American evangelical community.

 

“People who write Israeli blogs in English are very aware that they are writing for people abroad,” says Hanan Cohen, the creator of Webster, a site that aggregates English-language Israeli blog feeds. “Israeli blogospheres in Hebrew and English are totally different worlds. The blogs in English are mostly old and new immigrants who are writing from a perspective of hasbara [pro-Israel public relations], whereas Hebrew blogs are written for people locally. Many bloggers in English focus on explaining their political perspective to the people they left behind.”

 

Indeed, a number of Anglo bloggers interviewed say they started blogging as a way to explain themselves to the outside world.

 

“I wanted people to realize that we are normal,” says former New Yorker Rachel Ben David, who lives in the settlement of Peduel and blogs by the name West Bank Mama. “There is demonization of settlers in the mainstream media. People who live in Judea and Samaria are very idealistic, but they’re not necessarily crazy.”

 

“Most of us are trying to influence the public debate,” says Aussie Dave, the blogger behind Israellycool who asked that his last name be withheld. “It’s more than just talking about what we had for breakfast that day. It’s a loftier goal. Here, there’s more of a sense of purpose and urgency to blogging.”

Head on over to Harry and Ziva’s, and wish them a hearty mazal tov (that’s congratulations for the Hebraically-challenged).

Via Harry, I have discovered this blog about Black Zionists who supposedly support Israel.

According to the site, we can count on support from the likes of Sean “Puff Daddy”/Diddy/Whatever He Calls Himself These Days, Magic Johnson (”It has come to our attention that Magic Johnson is a huge supporter of Israel. BZ sources tell us that this causes some problems with his Hollywood Liberal friends - but magic says he will deal with that when he has to. Keep Fighting Magic!”), Mike Tyson (”Mike Tyson has urged his fans to buy Israeli Bonds and to support candidates who are strong supporters of Israel.”), Mr T (”Mr T has visited the west bank countless times and said he does not view the west bank as occupied territories - to him this is Israel he says!”), and Condoleeza Rice.

This sounds about as kosher as a steak on Hulk Hogan’s BBQ*  I mean, the only type of bond Mike Tyson would be familar with is a bond for good behavior. And Condi Rice?

I pity the fool who believes any of this. But feel free to prove me wrong.

* sorry, but I can’t resist getting mileage out of this. 

A few days ago, I posted about Binyamin “Bibi” Netanyahu’s new blog. At the time, I said:

I assume this is why the blog is in Hebrew. But given his gift of the gab, I certainly hope he soon launches an English blog to reach readers from around the world.

Well, someone’s listening.

Opposition Leader Binyamin Netanyahu intends to begin posting a blog in English in the future on his website, his spokesman announced on Thursday.

Netanyahu started a Hebrew blog this week in order to reach his constituents while bypassing the media and to allow him to write longer articles that the media would not publish.

It’s good to know that you read Israellycool, Bibi. But would it hurt to leave a comment once in a while?

The blog was launched Tuesday night, and it’s main purpose is to get Netanyahu’s message directly across to the public, since the media has not been giving him sufficient airtime, he’s now found a way around them.

 

Netanyahu’s associates have nicknamed the blog ‘The Bibi blog’, and are very excited about it’s launching. According to them, Netanyahu wants to reach each and every citizen, and if a blog is the only way, then so be it.