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21 Responses to “Neuwirth Loses Libel Case Against Tikun Olam”

1. D. says:

   November 28, 2007 at 8:11 AM

   I’m so glad to hear you won the suit. Nice to know the First Amendment still lives.

   Reply
2. H. says:

   November 28, 2007 at 8:42 AM

   Way to go Richard, you commie pinko al qaeda terrorist supporter pedophile apologist swine.

   You get the joke, right?

   Reply
3. A. says:

   November 28, 2007 at 10:01 AM

   Daniel Pearl?? Wasn’t he killed by thugs in Pakistan? How is he relevant to any of this?

   Perhaps a straitjacket and a rubber room are what Neuwirth really needs.

   Reply
4. Richard Silverstein says:

   November 28, 2007 at 3:00 PM

   Hucklebee: We’ve heard fr. one of Rachel’s friends, no doubt. I swear, if I wanted to elicit sympathy I couldn’t have made up better hate than this guy/gal.

   Reply
5. H. says:

   November 28, 2007 at 3:15 PM

   Richard – Sorry about that. that didn’t go over right. I was trying to be sarcastic and show how silly her lawsuit was. I figured you’d laugh. I tried to insuiate that it was a joke/sarcasm. All hail the 1st amendment and thick skins!

   Reply
6. Richard Silverstein says:

   November 28, 2007 at 5:57 PM

   I’m sorry too. You have no idea how many people have commented seriously here using precisely the terms you did to insult me. I didn’t get the joke & I apologize. But don’t worry–unlike Rachel Neuwirth, I wouldn’t try to sue you even if you did mean it (which thankfully you didn’t).

   Reply
7. H. says:

   November 28, 2007 at 7:15 PM

   Thanks. That’s going to save me a trip to Dewey & LeBoeuf!

   Stay strong Richard.

   Reply
8. P. says:

   November 29, 2007 at 5:53 AM

   Congratulations, Richard.

   Reply
9. J. says:

   November 29, 2007 at 8:26 AM

   Richard, congratulations on this victory. Part of me was a bit envious that your blog merited a libel suit — I don’t think anybody on the right has noticed mine, besides the people who, legitimately, leave comments. But the truth is that I am sure it was a harrowing experience for you, and now you are vindicated. I hope Cecelie S. writes this up. And I am happy for Joel Beinin, too.

   Jerry Haber, a.k.a., the Magnes Zionist

   Reply
10. s. says:

    November 29, 2007 at 10:52 AM

    Kol Hakavod, Richard!
    I hope this empowers all the sane individuals and organizations out there who are afraid to speak out.
    You’ve probably heard of the Jewish congregation whose members don’t dare speak out on Israel/Palestine because they’re afraid of the Rabbi, and the Rabbi keeps silent on these issues because he doesn’t want to upset the congregation :)

    Reply
11. Richard Silverstein says:

    November 29, 2007 at 12:51 PM

    Shamai: That’s funny & would be typical of the paranoia this subject can induce in people.

    Reply
12. Z. says:

    November 29, 2007 at 3:46 PM

    “She noted that Hitler took care of those who were traitors first (not sure what this means exactly).”

    Perhaps she refers to “The Night of the Long Knives” when Hitler had rival Nazis murdered.

    Zhu Bajie

    Reply
13. J. says:

    November 29, 2007 at 4:07 PM

    Shammai could have told you about the true story of the leftwing baal-koreh (Torah reader), a noted Israeli human rights lawyer, who was barred in a modern orthodox shul from publicly reading from the Torah when a rightwing congregant complained about him. T

    Only he is too modest to tell such stories — and I am deeply ashamed to have to repeat them.

    Jerry

    Reply
14. y. says:

    November 29, 2007 at 4:40 PM

    Congratulations Richard, glad to hear the good news!

    Reply
15. T. says:

    November 29, 2007 at 5:09 PM

    Well first congratulations! This is an excellent victory for free speech on Palestine and Zionism. I didn’t understand the point you made about ‘Rachel’s key defense’ since she was the plaintiff and you were the defendant, but I assume you meant her primary argument rather than defence.

    I don’t think Zhu Bajie is right that the reference to ‘traitors’ is to Roehm’s and other blackshirts murder. They weren’t considered traitors but dangerous radicals whose ‘anti-capitalism’ (in the eyes of the industrialists and army chiefs) would endanger the Nazi project. I think the reference is more sinister – to the placing of socialists, trade unionists and other anti-fascist Germans in Dachau etc., where of course most were murdered. They were the traitors because they were seen as internationalists and therefore traitors to the Volk.

    By coincidence, I sued The Times in London for defamation earlier this year and the settlement has just been agreed, which involves agreed damages paid to the Palestinian Friends of Bir Zeit University charity and an apology on the link below.
    http://timesonline.typepad.com/david_aaronovitch/2007/11/tony-greenstein.html

    Some may think this an attack on free speech but I would disagree. The accusation, totally false, that I have spent most of my life intimidating and harassing Jewish students, i.e. that I am anti-Semitic, is designed to close down free speech. Numerous times when having been invited to speak on campus the allegation that I am ‘anti-Semitic’ is raised. This is a way of closing off this particular attack.

    Anyway well done!

    Tony Greenstein

    Reply
16. Richard Silverstein says:

    November 29, 2007 at 6:27 PM

    Thanks, Yaman. As someone who faced almost precisely the same type of legal persecution, I only wish your case could’ve gone better.

    Jerry’s story of the baal koreh reminds me of the midrash about sinat chinum which destroyed the Temple: pointless hatred between brothers which so weakens the Jewish fabric that the community is destroyed.

    Reply
17. BartBlog - The Blog of BartCop.com » One Small Step For Blogkind says:

    November 29, 2007 at 9:42 PM

    [...] the Shag Fund scandal*. But former fellow Open Source Politics blogger Richard Silverstein has just successfully defended himself from a libel lawsuit brought against him by Rachael Neuwirth for content on his blog**: Tonight is not a good night for [...]

    Reply
18. K. says:

    November 30, 2007 at 5:34 AM

    I’ll add my congrats at your backbone and success. as one more prone to serious insults (I would have included “and your mama dresses you funny”) I also applaud your restraint. Compared to the daily insults throughout the blogosphere, yours remains the domain of a real mensch.

    Kudos, to you, sir, and keep up the good works.

    Reply
19. AS says:

    November 30, 2007 at 7:26 AM

    Richard, congrats — I’m glad for your sake that you won the suit; and this also tends to confirm my suspicion that the rabid anti-Arab types out there are not so much “people with strongly held opinions different from mine” as “complete idiots.”

    Reply
20. G. says:

    December 1, 2007 at 10:18 PM

    You’ve helped draw a line in the sand Richard, thanks and congrats.

    Reply
21. (1.9) ‘The New Anti-Semitism’ And Media Watch Groups: A Final Point On Language. « A New Place Of Exile says:

    May 16, 2010 at 5:14 AM

    [...] http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2007/11/28/neuwirth-loses-libel-case-against-tikun-olam… [...]

    Reply