Anti-Israel blogger Richard Silverstein has once thumbed his nose at the truth.
In a comment* to this post that “Arabs [in Israel] walk around in perfect safety”, Silverstein responded in his usual shrill fashion:
Tell it to the inhabitants of Jabel Mukaber who would’ve been pummeled by pogromists if they’d dared venture out of their homes. Tell it to the 12 Nazareth Israeli Arabs murdered by the Border Police while demonstrating peaceably during the Intifada. Tell it to the Arabs sprayed with automatic weapons fire by Israeli Arab-hater, Natan Zenda. Tell it to the scores of Arabs who were gunned down in their village under Palmach orders for violating a curfew they didn’t even know existed during the War of Independence. Tell it to the 250 or so murdered villagers of Deir Yassin to whom Menachem Begin’s crew wanted to teach a lesson. I could go on.
Yes, he could go on and on. Problem is, he made a number of errors in his comment, and I submitted the following comment under a different name pointing this out, given his proclivity for banning me (click on below screenshot to see more clearly):
The reason for taking the screenshot was because I (justifiably) knew he would not approve it – even though there is nothing rude or offensive in it – since it shows him to have made many sloppy, factual errors.
Note I especially included my third point because Silverstein, in his very same comment above, berates a pro-Israel commenter who mispelled someone’s name:
His name is “Whitaker,” not that you’d care about accuracy.
In any event, all of the points I raised demonstrate Silverstein’s sloppy fact-checking, and his moderation of my comment demonstrates his disdain for the truth.
Again, many of you are probably asking why I bother with someone like this. After all, he is relatively insignificant (despite his delusions of grandeur), and seems to like the attention. The answer is that while one approach to spreading the truth is blogging my usual fare, another approach is to tear apart the arguments and credibility of those who make it their business to defame Israel and the Jewish people. And Silverstein – despite being Jewish – does not stop bashing Israel armed with an arsenal of lies, half-truths and distortions.
Bonus exercise: If you really have time, have a look at how he treats the commenters who disagree with him, bearing in mind his complaints about nasty behavior in the blogosphere.
(hat tip to Amir, for pointing out his comment and inaccuracies)
* Here is a screenshot of his comment in case he tries his old trick of modifying comments
