MuzzleWatch Protests Darfur Protesters

I'll leave it to BlueTruth to tell the story. But I do want to relay this quote from their analysis, because the observation perfectly captures JVP's reliance on ad hominem attacks:

And of course, in JVP-world, ANY group that supports the Jewish people's right to self-determination is a scary-right wing group — in the same way that if you are standing at the North Pole, every direction that you look is south.

I wonder how MuzzleWatch would read if you stripped from their posts the numerous attempts to slur groups they disagree with as "right wing." Would there be anything left?

British Theater Caves In to Anti-Zionist Pressure, "Muzzles" Israel Celebration

Forgive me for borrowing from the MuzzleWatch crowd's language for the headline. I wanted to see how it feels to use "caves," "Zionist," "pressure" and "muzzle" in the same sentence. (I admit, the bombastic self-righteous outrage feels kind of good!)

Anyhow, here's the story: Ynet reports today that

London's Bloomsbury Theatre decided Tuesday to cancel a planned Independence Day show organized by the Zionist Federation of Britain and Ireland.

The Bloomsbury was set to host a show celebrating Israel's 61st Independence Day, including a set preformed by a military choir, but announced it would be cancelling it as a result of appeals by various groups campaigning for the rights of Palestinians filed following the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

According to a report by the Guardian, the event has been moved to a new, undisclosed venue. "A number of groups had contacted the Bloomsbury to protest the show," said a theatre spokeswoman. "Obviously, we couldn't have them perform here."

Obviously.

And will MuzzleWatch protest this shameful censorship? Obviously not.

Two Statements of the Day

Is it so wrong to have a "statement of the day" when I thus far post less than once a week? I hope not, because I have today not one, but two statements of the day.

The first is the longer of the two. It's full of 3+ syllable words, and perhaps will require more than one reading. (It reads more naturally in its original context.)

This is Melanie Phillips' reference to

the foaming fury amongst the Israel-bashers, whose edifice of lies is maintained by casting critics who dare to call this by its proper name as a supremely manipulative lobby merely peddling their own paranoid propaganda -- and whose nefarious power is supposedly proved in turn by their very protests.

In other words, it's a reference to the well-practiced technique, utilized by Israel's opponents, of trying to stifle debate by accusing others of stifling debate.

The process is all too common: It begins with a statement or column or book that lies about or unfairly demonizes or delegitimizes Israel. People express that this statement lies about Israel (or perhaps that the book demonizes... or whatever other combination of the above you'd prefer). Inevitably, Israel's most dogmatic critics scream out against the lobby that tries to squash criticism. How dare they try to squash criticism!? How dare they speak out?! How dare they speak??

Oh wait... who's trying to muzzle whom?

Statement number two is shorter. There are no 3 syllable words. It's more funny than it is piercing. But then, maybe it's equally piercing. Tia, a reader from the West Coast (Jewish Voice for Peace's home turf) brings to my attention this pithy statement, used to describe JVPers:

Proud to be ashamed to be Jewish.

Perfect. Just perfect.

Some Lobby Sarcasm

A blogger at Jewlicious lightens the mood by mocking claims that the lobby stifles free speech:

You see how CAMERA stifles free speech right there, by pointing out that a university professor who had no trouble publishing an op-ed critical of Israel used a false quote to impress upon his readers how evil Israelis really are. Talk about the effectiveness of the “Israel Lobby.” It only took five years for those powerful, wily Jews to get an egregious quote to be removed from a newspaper with some stature. Yes, those stifling Jewish voices at CAMERA are really punishing Israel’s critics!

You can read the rest of the post here.

J Street Chutzpa

A new video by J Street — "the anti-Israel pro-Israel lobby" (okay, that's not their motto, though maybe it should be)— calls for the Jewish community to "speak out against" Israel's controversial new Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman. The video make its point by referencing a couple of Jewish leaders who expressing concern about Lieberman.

Putting aside the questions about Lieberman and his views, I have to say it took a lot of chutzpa on the part of J Street to quote Eric Yoffie, leader of the reform movement, in the video.

After all, this is the same Yoffie who described J Street's position against Israel's recent Gaza operation against Hamas as "a mistake" and "very wrong," not to mention "deeply distressing because they are morally deficient, profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment and also appallingly naïve."

Yoffie protested specifically that J Street

could find no moral difference between the actions of Hamas and other Palestinian militants, who have launched more than 5,000 rockets and mortar shells at Israeli civilians in the past three years, and the long-delayed response of Israel, which finally lost patience and responded to the pleas of its battered citizens in the south.

You certainly won't find those quotes in J Street's video: