Comment Rules

My wish is that the comment threads here would become a community of sorts for those interested in Israeli-Palestinian peace and the other subjects about which I write. Like any community, there should be room for disagreement (and certainly agreement). There should be education, ideas, jokes, criticism–everything that makes up a full-throated discussion of the issues.

The comment threads of this blog are moderated. Civility even in disagreement is a first principle here. Those who cannot control their bile are not welcome.

First time comments are moderated. Once I approve your first comment no subsequent comments of yours will be moderated unless you violate the rules. I require any commenter to respect the following no matter what their political views:

1. insults, baiting, vulgarity, harassment or abuse directed toward the blog owner or other commenters are not tolerated.

2. do not republish entire articles or comments from external sources; publish an excerpt with a link.

3. support claims you wish to make using sources and links; do NOT make unsupported claims. The more outrageous the claim the more I insist on evidence. If you don’t provide it, then don’t expect to be taken seriously. Links to sources like Debka, LGF, CAMERA, MEMRI, Middle East Forum, Palestine Media Watch, Campus Watch, Stoptheism, Cactus48, or other propaganda sites will be removed. This blog does not promote right-wing or extremist anti-Zionist sites.

4. anyone creating false (yes, it’s happened) or multiple identities will be banned.

5. comments which deny the existence of either the Israeli or Palestinian peoples are unacceptable.

6. comments which justify the annihilation of either people will not be tolerated.

7. comments which abuse the Holocaust and Holocaust terms (’Judenrein,’ etc.) for propaganda purposes may be deleted. Also, use terms like ‘anti-Semite,’ ‘anti-Israel,’ ‘genocide,’ and ‘Nazi’ VERY carefully as they are quite often misused. Calling the Gaza withdrawal “ethnic cleansing” is incendiary propaganda and not legitimate argument. Such abuse is grounds for banning.

8. comments which call Jewish commenters “enemies of the Jewish people,” “kapos,” “self-haters,” and similar smears are grounds for immediate banning.

9. comments must be on-topic.

10. I reserve the right to set limits on the number of comments certain commenters may publish each day if an individual publishes an inordinate number on a regular basis. I spend a great deal of time interacting with commenters because I think it’s important.  If you flood the threads you’re abusing my hospitality and interfering with writing this blog.

Those who comment here are guests in my home. Anyone who treats my home, me or readers with disrespect will receive no respect in return. Anyone who violates the rules above may find comments moderated or banned. Anyone who is a troll, stalker, or abuser may be banned.

Blogs are the property of the owner. If you can’t say what you like here following the rules you’re welcome to create your own blog and have your say there.

There are 6,000 comments here at the time I write this. Most take issue with my views, which is fine. But comments containing vicious, obscene, abusive, racist content have forced me to write these rules.

E-mail: Readers who send private e-mail should specify whether or not they wish their correspondence to be private.  Otherwise, your message may be published either in paraphrase or quotation.  If your e-mail is sufficiently nasty or hostile even a demand for privacy may not be honored.  Believe it or not, I have had a few readers heap abuse on me via e mail and then have the chutzpah to set a condition that I may not publish their views.