The JTA and A Case of Instant Censorship
I subscribe to the daily news service provided by the JTA, “The Global Network Service of the Jewish People”. One of its stories today was headlined Book puts Foxman in “lobby” fight.
Abraham Foxman (in America) is the national director and chairman of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), one of the componement parts of the awesomely powerful Zionist lobby. He has just had published a new book, The Deadliest of Lies, The Israel Lobby and the Myth of Jewish Control. (According to reviewer Jeff Barak, the book “successfully demolishes the claims of two American academics <Mearshimer and Walt> that US policy in the Middle East is biased towards Israel, to the detriment of American interests, because of the power of the Israel lobby.”)
The JTA’s report contains this paragraph:
On the question of whether Jewish groups are in the censorship business, Foxman is guilty to some degree of wanting it both ways. He worked hard to defend his own name in the Judt episode, but he defends the right of the AJCommittee and other Jewish groups to protest invitations to objectionable speakers. And if such efforts are successful, he argues, the blame rests solely with the institutions that comply, not the Jewish agitators.” (My emphasis added).
I thought it was worth devoting a little time and effort to composing and submitting a comment to JTA. I settled for the following two paragraphs:
Good Heavens! I find myself ? the Gentile author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews? in agreement with Abraham Foxman on one point. He says, in effect, if the Israel lobby is successful, blame those who give in to it.
Which is why I often say on public platforms, and write ? Don’tblame the Zionist lobby because it is only playing the game according to the rules. Doblame America’s pork-barrel system of politics which puts what passes for democracy up for sale to the highest bidders.
A few seconds after I presssed the Submit button, the JTA’s moderator-and-censor rejected my post.
I took that to be another indication, one of many, that my name and the title of my book, Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, are red flaggedby the Zionist lobby in all of its manifestations and all – media institutions especially -who are frightened, actually terified, of offending it. The problem with the title of my book for supporters of Israel right or wrong is that it reflects in seven words two related truths for our time.The first is that the sleeping giant of classical anti-Semitism is being re-awakened in the nations of the mainly Gentile Judeo-Christian world where most of the worlds Jews live as integrated citizens. The second is that a prime cause of the re-awakening is the behaviour of Zionism’s monster child, Israel.
The JTA reports Abraham Foxman as standing by the point that Jews who feel so inclined are “not wrong” to move against speakers to whom they object. “It’s their expression of freedom of speech”, he said.
The JTA obviously believes that I am not entitled tofreedom of speech.
It did, however, decide that the following comment from Victor Galindo was suitable for publication. “Bravo Mr. Foxman. When the anti-Semities and anti-Israelis (is there any difference?) accuse us Jews of “intimidation”, then we know we are winning. Of course we should intimidate and destroy them.”