Mahzor

New York Public Library

Churches

Sarajevo Haggadah

Mah Nishtanah

Sarajevo haggadah

Antaea Darom

Israeli women's art

Action

Torah as music

Ben Heine

Action

ceramic bowl

Mohammad Said Kalash, "Offering Reconciliation" exhibit (photo: Ilan Amihai)

Action

Punch and Judy/Pinchas and Jamila

Avi Katz

Action

David Grossman

Ben Heine

Action

Eldrige Street shul

Lower East Side

Action

Dove

Ben Heine

Action

Two birds

Hoda Jamal

Action

Israeli and Palestinian boys

from documentary, Promises

Action

Cat in the Hat

Yiddish version

Action

Daylight through the Wall

Banksy: graffiti art on Separation Wall

Action

Maurice Sendak's Brundibar set

New Victory Theater (photo: Nan Melville/NYT)

Action

Daniel Barenboim, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Palestinian-Israeli musical ensemble (photo: Kerstin Joensson/AP)

Action

Great Day on Eldrige Street

N.Y.'s klezmer greats celebrate shul rededication (photo: Leo Sorel)

Action

Joint Appeal for Peace

(Avi Katz)

Joint Appeal for Peace

Ketubah, Ancona, Italy (1772)

(Jewish Theological Seminary library)

Ancona ketubah

Posts Tagged ‘steven-plaut’

« Older Entries

Steven Plaut’s Sockpuppet Defense

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

HNN did Steven Plaut the enormous and unwarranted favor of republishing his anti-Finkelstein bilge from Frontpagemagazine. I was rather shocked that a serious history website would provide a forum for a smearmeister like Plaut who, after all has no academic credentials to judge Finkelstein’s work. However, I was pleased that HNN published a defense of Finkelstein by Mark Levine.

What was passing strange about the comment thread for Plaut’s HNN piece was the appearance of a figure who clearly is a sockpuppet for Plaut himself. You’ll notice the shill ‘haim itzhak.’ If you read his comments carefully you’ll notice that he knows things about Plaut that pretty much only Plaut himself can know. He knows, for example, the fine points of his conviction (as twisted and distorted through Plaut’s filter) for libel by an Israeli appeals court. He knows the precise value of the Israeli shekel compared to the dollar on the date of the lower court ruling against him and the value on the date of the appeals court ruling. He knows that Plaut is a “professor” at the University of Haifa, rather than an adjunct as I claimed. Who other than Plaut (and Neve Gordon) would know that he’s appealed his case to the Israeli Supreme Court? One of his sock puppets claims Plaut to be “one of Israel’s leading academics.” Who, other than Plaut would make such a laughable claim? Finally, no one other than Plaut would use the typically Jewish brownshirt rhetoric of calling me a “kapo.” He’s a serial smearmonger against people like Neve Gordon and many others. It practically is his calling card.

But the sock puppetry that was the most hilarious was when ‘haim-itzhak-Plaut’ urged the real Plaut to sue me for libel. I replied, of course, that I’m ready and waiting to defend such a suit, my lawyers having developed a certain expertise in defending against frivolous libel suits.

I’ve alerted HNN’s editors of Plaut’s devious behavior and hopefully they’ll take some action against him since he’s clearly violated the site’s commenting policy:

In order to post comments on HNN’s discussion boards, readers must register their email address and provide their real name. Pseudonyms may be used but only with prior permission from HNN…The real, verifiable name of the poster must be made known to HNN, which will hold that information in strict confidence. Once a pseudonym has been assigned, the user must continue using only that pseudonym…

Though the fact that they published his piece to begin with makes you wonder at their editorial judgment.

Plaut is also known for circulating a celebratory “jingle” on the death of Prof. Tanya Reinhardt. When she died tragically of cancer he distributed a mock song “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead,” to the Alef list. He or someone in cahoots with him in turn deviously appropriated the e mail addresses of the Alef list to disseminate his “tribute.”

He is also strongly suspected of vandalizing the Wikipedia articles of multiple ideological adversaries. He is even suspecting of vandalizing his own article by removing factual information added there by others.

A stellar example of the human species.

UPDATE: in an earlier version of this post I claimed that a second commenter in the HNN thread, ‘art eckstein’ was also a sockpuppet for Plaut. Art Eckstein is actually a real person who teaches at the University of Maryland. I apologize for this error. However, my claim about ‘haim itzhak’ stands rock solid and I am firmly convinced of its accuracy.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Blogs-Tech-Science, Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | 5 Comments »

Masada2000 and Jewish Cyber-Bully Culture

Friday, August 10th, 2007

I published this piece last week at Jewcy during my guest bloggging gig there. It goes over some material and sources my readers may be familiar with. But rest assured there’s a new development: Masada2000 is DOWN AGAIN! Read on for more:

Everyone knows the internet can be a nasty place. Foul language, hate, invective, inanity, you name it. But what’s less known is that the Jewish web can be equally nasty. We Jews have a reputation for being disputatious and the internet is no exception. I’ve been blogging for nearly five years. People have wished cancer on me, called for me to be raped by Arabs and killed by “righteous Jews,” called my children “simian,” claimed I taught them to manufacture Palestinian suicide bombs, etc.

And as a recent Jewish Forward article points out, I’m not the only one. There are Jewish cyber-bullies everywhere (including in the comment thread for this very article):

Orthomom.blogspot.com, which covers Long Island’s Orthodox Jewish communities, was the subject of a recent lawsuit brought by a local elected official who charges that she was slandered on the blog. Last February, the official, Pamela Greenbaum, who serves on board of education in Lawrence, N.Y., filed a lawsuit in a New York state court in an attempt to force Google, whose subsidiary hosts the blog, to reveal Orthomom’s identity. Greenbaum claims that she was called a “bigot” and an “antisemite” on the blog.

In response to Greenbaum’s lawsuit, Public Citizen, a national public interest group that has played a lead role in defending free speech on the Internet, rushed in to defend Orthomom and filed a motion to quash. A decision in the case is still pending.

When Chaim Rubin of Life of Rubin defended Orthomom one of his commenters began berating him for his support of her. The going got nasty and Chaim banned him. The commenter decided to get even and created a blog called Ploni Baloney solely devoted to mocking Chaim. While he believes he knows the identity of the anonymous blogger he has no solid proof. That’s precisely the problem with cyber-bullies. They are obsessed to the point of mania. But they prefer to lurk in dark, slimy places.

Steven Plaut is another Jewish cyber-bully who sees it as his role in life to protect the Jewish people from anyone who’s ever voiced any criticism of Israel. As Rebecca Spence wrote in The Forward:

In 2006, Neve Gordon, a dovish politics professor at Ben-Gurion University, launched a civil suit against Steven Plaut, a hawkish professor at the Graduate School of Business at the University of Haifa, for referring to him in an article published online as a “fanatic anti-Semite” and a “Judenrat wannabe,” among other slurs. Plaut lost and had to pay more than $18,000 in fines to Gordon. Plaut is now appealing the case.

masada2000 jewish women need a good reamingMasada2000 Kahanist rape fantasy?

But there is one website that is the sine qua non of Jewish cyber-bullydom. Masada2000 has everything: naked men, dildos, Ariel Sharon in drag, Michael Lerner half-naked in a bath tub, and 7,000 Jews on the S.H.I.T. list. Who could ask for more? What is Masada20000 you ask? It’s a strange beast run by someone who conceals his identity behind the moniker Big Al. Big Al is angry in the same way Meir Kahane was angry. Angry at Jewish peaceniks, the Fifth Column of the Jewish people. And doubly angry at perfidious Arabs. Masada2000 has a fetish for what I call Jewish porn. It’s obsessed by homosexuality and Nazism. Jews on the S.H.I.T. (Self-Hating and Israel-Threatening Jews) are ‘fags,’ kapos’ and ‘Judenrats.’ It’s as if the site owner absorbed the poison the Nazis spewed against Jews and become what he hates–a Jewish Nazis.

If you’re an enemy of the Jewish people in their book, you clearly deserve no privacy and the List often displays images of victims and their private e mail addresses.

ariel sharon in dragSharon in drag under the caption: “America’s bitch whore”

I have a personal confession to make. I am on the S.H.I.T. List. In fact, when one of the site’s ‘friends’ or perhaps the owner himself notified me of my “membership” I began a campaign to get the site taken down. Besides the fact that it featured an image of me that I owned and thus violated my copyright, I thought that any site that said that Jewish female peace activists “deserved a good reaming” deserved to be reamed itself. When their webhost took the site down they moved it to a Mormon webhost who didn’t seem to mind nudity and lots of F-words directed at “sand niggers” and the like.

Ultimately I failed. No matter how many examples I provided to Bluehost of multiple blatant violations of their Terms of Service, they preferred Masada2000′s loot to common decency. But I’m pleased to say that where I failed, someone else succeeded. And a day without Masada2000 is day with lots of sunshine as far as I’m concerned. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you how Masada2000 was brought down since I don’t want to let any of its friends in on the secret.

No doubt, you’ll read in the comment section below some Kahanewannabe pledging that ‘Masada2000 will live forever’ and such like. Perhaps. But making life tougher for those who spew hate is truly a mitzvah. And to the site’s supporters I say, please don’t talk to me about freedom of speech. Freedom of speech does not allow you to violate the law or invade the privacy of thousands of victims by printing their e mail addresses. Besides, when the site has been taken down it has not been because of its political speech, but rather because it violated the host’s Terms of Service or violated other provisions that regulate websites (sorry for being so vague). There are many other websites that present a Jewish nationalist perspective without breaking laws and invading privacy.

Miriam Felton Dansky also wrote about Masada2000 in Flack-Listed at New Voices.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Mideast Peace | 2 Comments »

Was Finkelstein’s Mother a Kapo? Dershowitz Says ‘Yes’

Tuesday, June 12th, 2007

Douglas Carpenter, a forum member at Democratic Underground, yesterday pointed me to one of the most odious, scurrilous pieces of garbage I’ve read on the web since…well, since a Jewish Task Force poster wished cancer of the rectum on me. And who do you think we have to thank for this swinish filth? Why, none other than that very model of rectitude, Alan Dershowitz.

A little background. Norman Finkelstein’s parents both were survivors: his father of Auschwitz and his mother of Maidanek. After the war, she testified in war crimes trials against the officers of her camp.

Naturally, Finkelstein wanted to ask his mother a thousand questions about her experience. But he felt he couldn’t. When you feel you can’t discuss a subject with someone you love and respect, it allows your mind to fester obssessively on matters you simply can’t know. As a child deeply sensitive to injustice and moral issues, Finkelstein wondered about why the good died and why those who lived, survived. Were the good saintly and the survivors less so? Did one have to betray one’s moral code in order to survive? Did his mother do so?

This is how Finkelstein movingly portrays the issue:

Except for allusions to relentless pangs of hunger, my mother never spoke about her personal torments during the war, which was just as well, since I couldn’t have borne them. Like Primo Levi, she often said that, being “too delicate and refined, the best didn’t survive.” Was this an indirect admission of guilt? Much later in life I finally summoned the nerve to ask whether she had done anything of which she was ashamed. Calmly replying no, she recalled having refused the privileged position of “block head” in the camp. She especially resented the “dirty” question “How did you survive?” with the insinuation that, to emerge alive from the camps, survivors must have morally compromised themselves. Given how ferociously she cursed the Jewish councils, ghetto police and kapos, I assume my mother answered me truthfully. Although acknowledging that Jews initially joined the councils from mixed motives, she said that “only scum,” reaping the rewards of doing the devil’s work, still cooperated after it became clear that they were merely cogs in the Nazi killing machine. When queried why she hadn’t settled in Israel after the war, my mother used to reply, only half in jest, that “I had enough of Jewish leaders!” The Jewish ghetto police always had the option, she said, of “throwing off their uniforms and joining the rest of us” — a point that Yitzak Zuckerman, a leader of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, made in his memoir. (It was always gratifying to find my mother’s seemingly erratic or harsh judgments seconded in the reliable testimonial literature.) Still shaking her head in disbelief, she would often recall how, after Jews in the ghetto used the most primitive implements or even bare hands to dig bunkers deep in the earth and conceal themselves, the Jewish police would reveal these hideouts to the Germans, sending their flesh-and-blood to the crematoria in order to save their own skins. One of the first acts of the ghetto resistance was to kill an officer in the Jewish police. On a sign posted next to his corpse — my mother would recall with vengeful glee — read the epitaph: “Those who live like a dog die like a dog.” Still, if she didn’t cross fundamental moral boundaries, I glimpsed from her manner of pushing and shoving in order to get to the head of a queue, which mortified me, how my mother must have fought Hobbes’s war of all against all many a time in the camps. Really, how else would she have survived?

Here we have a morally nuanced discussion of a very complex issue. But Dershowitz blows nuance and truth to smithereens in his twisted recapitulations:

“[Finkelstein] suspects his mother of having been a kapo (‘really, how else would she have survived?’ he asks rhetorically)…”
–Frontpagemagazine

He suspects his own mother of being a kapo and cooperating with the Nazis during the Holocaust”
–Dershowitz’s official Harvard University Law School website profile

Finkelstein even doubted his own mother’s denial that she was a kapo, asking whether her frequent statements that “the best didn’t survive” constituted “an indirect admission of guilt?” The most he was willing to do was “assume” that his mother answered him “truthfully.” But he questioned even that assumption: “Still, if she didn’t cross fundamental moral boundaries, I glimpsed from her manner of pushing and shoving in order to get to the head of a queue, which mortified me. . . . Really, how else would she have survived?” (p. 174)
–The Case for Peace

And of course, wherever Dershowitz has taken a dump, his litter mate, Steven Plaut, isn’t far behind to add to the stench:

…Apparently relying on information supplied to him by Dershowitz, Professor Steven Plaut of Haifa University has recently stated:

While Finkelstein likes to defend his own anti-Semitic ravings by claiming his parents are themselves Holocaust survivors, Dershowitz recently revealed that Finkelstein’s mother was in fact a collaborator with German Nazis during the war. (“DePaul U Confronts Amerikan ‘Empire,’” FrontPageMag.com (3 January 2006); posted on this web site under “The New Year Begins”)

So let’s sketch out the rhetorical argument here. Dershowitz lies his way into a claim that Finkelstein believes his mother was a kapo. Then, for the coup de grace, Plaut multiplies the offense by claiming that Finkelstein himself claims that Finkelstein’s mother was a kapo.

My right-wing friends here don’t like my calling Dershowitz an “academic brownshirt.” Well, give me a better phrase to describe this evil human being. In Jewish tradition, we believe that words not only hurt, they can figuratively kill. That is why, I believe, so many Jews have been great writers. We are sensitive to the power of words. If we are a people of words, a people of the Book, how can we not be deeply wounded as a people by odious Jews such as Dershowitz?

This guy is a Jewish Matt Drudge (Drudge may be Jewish for all I know but you get my point). In fact, he seems worse than Drudge since unlike Drudge he can get on CNN, Huffington Post and other media outlets seemingly at will. What will it take before the MSM acknowledges that Dershowitz has long ago crossed a moral red line and doesn’t deserve to be given a public forum for his odiousness?

Dershowitz’s ally, Plaut, as well as other far-rightist wingnuts accuse me regularly of being a ‘kapo.’ But of course it is much more heinous to accuse Mrs. Finkelstein of this since she actually was a survivor. No one in their right mind credits anything Plaut and the other nutjobs would say about me and so I don’t worry that anyone could mistake their lies for truth. But still the battle against these odious lunatics must be fought.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Politics & Society | 29 Comments »

Aussie Dave Threatens Tikun Olam With Lawsuit

Friday, June 8th, 2007

Now, we add Aussie Dave of Israellycool as a new honorary member of the right-wing pro-Israeli cyber-bully fraternity attempting to intimidate Tikun Olam with threats of lawsuits. Yesterday, Dave weighed in on my comment thread about an old incident that still rankles him. One thing led to another and before the night was out Aussie Dave had really worked himself into a lather. Looks like the guy really, really wants to sue me.

It goes back to a series of posts I wrote here attacking his administration of the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards (JIB) nearly two years ago. I claimed then that the competition was structured either intentionally or unintentionally to guarantee that right-wing blogs like Little Green Footballs, Treppenwitz and several others would win in many categories (and guess what–they did!). I think I used the term “nepotism,” by which I meant that the Awards seemed like they were “all in the family” so that blogs reflecting Dave’s ideological viewpoint would be almost guaranteed to win. I complained there were few left of center blogs nominated. I complained that the Awards seems designed for pro-Israel boosterism. In my specific critique of the nominated right-wing blogs I included Israellycool and what I thought was a particularly condescending post Dave wrote defining what a “good Arab” is.

Dave, who is very thin-skinned and self-absorbed, accused me of calling him “corrupt” and a “racist.” We had a long, knock down drag out argument in which I explained that I never wrote the word “corrupt” and didn’t intend to claim that he had accepted money or conducted the Awards immorally as that word tends to connote. This didn’t satisfy Dave, of course. He has this habit of taking things you say and upping the rhetorical ante as lawyers tend to do. I accuse him of “nepotism.” To Dave, that becomes a charge of “corruption” despite my explicit denial that this is what I intended.

As for the “racist” claim, Dave doesn’t like most Arabs or Palestinians. Especially not ones resisting the Occupation. Dave doesn’t even oppose the killing of innocent civilians during targeted assassinations (“…this does not mean that I oppose all targeted killings where innocent people are inadvertently killed”). There are a few good Arabs for Dave. They’re the ones like Nona Darwish, Walid Shoebat and Tawfiq Hamad who attack their religion (or former religion) as corrupt and embrace Israel as a light unto the Middle East (“Yunis Owaidah [is] a PLO Arab who is proud of the fact that he “collaborates” with Israel”). You can call such an attitude toward Arabs whatever you like–extreme condescension, cultural arrogance, etc. But I’d call Dave an Islamophobe at the least. Some people might use a stronger word. And if you look at what I wrote in context, the owner of Jewlicious accused me in the comment thread of claiming Dave was a “raving genocidal racist.” I denied the first two words of that phrase, but not the last.

In writing this JIB series, I found a picture of Dave at the PJM site, where he was then affiliated as a resident blogger (he is no longer affiliated and claims that he resigned rather than was dismissed by PJM). As I periodically do with a relatively small minority of my posts, I displayed his image with one of my JIB posts. Dave told me in no uncertain terms that he didn’t like the caption. But he NEVER told me he owned copyright; NEVER told me to take it down; NEVER filed a DMCA or Cease and Desist order which provides legal notice that you wish someone to remove something that violates copyright. I assumed that PJM owned copyright to the image since I found it there. To be fair, Dave claims that he said at his site that he wanted the image taken down (though I’ve never seen the link). Why he would assume I would read it there is beyond me since I make it a point of never visiting his site unless I really have to do so. Besides, this would not constitute a fair notice of copyright infringment.

A month ago or so I challenged Dave and Jewlicious to disassociate themselves from Steven Plaut, who’d quoted their previous attacks on me at the fake blog Plaut created in my name. Dave, of course, dismissed my anger over Plaut’s defamation as trivial. Instead, Dave complained once again about the image (over 15 months AFTER the image went up at my site). I replied, if the picture bugs you so much why didn’t you ever ask me to take it down. He said, now that you mention it it does bug me and take it down or I’ll sue. I did take it down for a time. But his braying attitude annoyed me so, that I decided to obliterate his image and display a black space where his face had been, saying in the caption that the image didn’t refer to anyone mentioned in that post. This was lame and I shouldn’t have done that. I should’ve removed the image and left it at that as Dave demanded.

Now, there is no image at all displaying at that post. But again, until a few weeks ago Dave has never made any specific claim of copyright infringement either legally or otherwise. Now, he’s itching to sue me. And he reminds me how formidable an opponent he’s likely to be. Here are some of his promises/threats. They start at shouting level and get progressively shriller:

You said I was booted from PJM and this is a LIE!

What kind of person throws an allegation to the public, and then tells the subject “Prove otherwise.” And if that wasn’t bad enough (from moral, ethical, and halachic perspectives), you ban the subject so they can’t even prove otherwise (and I have email exchanges to prove otherwise which I will likely post on my blog to show what a liar you are).

By the way, I AM a lawyer and I am compiling some of your defamatory statements about me (incl. accusing me of being corrupt wrt the JIBs and making an agreement with LGF, accusing me of racism) which I will be reviewing. And don’t bother trying to change the offending entries…I have a nice catalogue of screenshots and archived posts.

I am seriously considering making an example out of you.

To which I replied:

I’ll post anything at my site that would prove what you said is true. I just won’t publish yr comments calling me a liar.

I can’t believe you’d do something as foolish as trying to take me to court. But it’s yr call. I have both a Seattle and Los Angeles law firm already representing me. A lawsuit would provide me with a great megaphone to both defend myself and let the larger world know about my blog.

His response:

Did you hear what I said? I AM a lawyer. I am glad you have a law firm representing you, since when sued, it is your right to have one. Just know that I am a very good lawyer, and will take you to court if I believe I have a good case, and will achieve my objectives.

To which I replied:

So you’re a lawyer. So you’re a very good lawyer (if you do say so yourself). You want me to shiver in fear? Forget about it. If you have a good case, then you go right ahead. I’ll be waiting. You can say anything you want in an e mail. A judge will hopefully hold you to a higher standard.

His final ‘bloodcurdling’ reply:

Don’t worry, I will.

As best I can see these would be his grounds, I displayed an image of him that he knew all along was on my blog; and it took him well over a year to request that I take it down, which it now is. I’m a lying hypocrite. I accused him of being “corrupt” (which I didn’t). And I called him a “racist.”

Some might see this as an attempt to punish me because I’ve written things about Aussie Dave he really, really doesn’t like. Some might see this as Dave’s attempt to squelch someone whose political views about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are anathema to him. With three websites displaying infringing images of me and two threats of lawsuits, some might see this as a budding alliance of pro-Israel right-wingers like Rachel Neuwirth, Steven Plaut, Jewish Task Force, Masada2000 and Jewlicious out to “get” someone whose blog has needled them for far too long (in their minds). I’m the uppity Jewish nigger (remember that slightly chilling phrase: “I’m seriously considering making an example out of you?”). I’m the nail that sticks up from the board that needs to get a good hammering back into its proper place. Or as Jewlicious’ owner wrote so charmingly at his blog, I’m that “whiny bitch.”

A chilly wind is blowing in the Jewish blogosphere.

UPDATE: Since originally writing this post, I have learned that an anonymous party claims ownership of the fake blog referred to above, furthermore stating that Steven Plaut has not participated in its creation. A reporter tells me Plaut has denied his involvement. So while I have no idea whether the anonymous party is being truthful, it is possible that Plaut is either not involved in the blog, is partially involved, or that the blog claimant is lying and Plaut is fully responsible. I don’t yet know for sure which is the case. My impression of Plaut’s authorship was based on the firm conviction of another victim of a very similar fake blog that Plaut was responsible.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Mideast Peace | 4 Comments »

Jewlicious Violates Copyright, Joins in Plaut, Masada2000 Cyber-Bullying Campaign

Monday, June 4th, 2007

R. Simeon said: There are three crowns. The crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood and the crown of kingship. But the crown of a good name excels them.
(Ethics of the Fathers 4:17)

A few days ago I wrote a post about Alan Dershowitz’s attacks against Norman Finkelstein apparently coordinated with serial potty mouth Israeli uber-nationalist Steven Plaut. I suggested that Dershowitz be careful because, as the old saying goes: lie down with dogs rise up with fleas. It now appears that Jewlicious has a serious flea infestation.

I find CK at Jewlicious to be one of the snarky, smug and more objectionable figures in the Jewish blog world. “Whiny bitch” was one of the choicer epithets he’s hurled at me. The man once actually called himself a “liberal” and fancies himself somewhat of a progressive when it comes to Israeli politics. Plaut, who has created three separate blogs to defame Israeli peace activists, used a Jewlicious post to smear me at Little Dickie’s Diaper Droppings (see link for selections of some of the more offensive material from what is henceforth known as the ‘defaming blog’). I challenged CK by asking whether he wished to have himself and Jewlicious associated with dirtmongers like Steven Plaut. Now, we all have the answer.

One of the tactics Plaut and Masada2000 have used in their cyber-bullying campaign against me (and in the case of Masada2000–thousands of other Jewish peace activists in its S.H.I.T. List) is to feature their images along with defaming, often vulgar captions. Both Plaut’s defaming blog and Masada2000 displayed images of me for which I held copyright. After filing a Digital Millenium Copyright Act notice with the specific webhosts for each, both images were removed. But boys will be boys and these boys think they’re toying while not realizing that DMCA is not a toy, but a law with teeth and serious provisions for multiple violations. They coordinated their copyright violation by displaying the same image of me at the two sites. And now Jewlicious has joined the fray by becoming party to the copyright war. CK also stole a new one of my images and, after defacing it uploaded it to his server so that Plaut could direct link to it at the defaming blog.

I would ask my fellow Jewish bloggers–is this behavior you condone? Would you participate in a campaign againsts a fellow Jewish blogger orchestrated by someone like Steven Plaut, who cloaks himself in anonymity in creating the defaming blog? If not, I hope you will speak up in your blogs against such cyber-bullying and blatant law breaking. If you won’t, I would ask why not? Do you not think the same treatment could be yours some day? And wouldn’t you want me and your fellow bloggers to come to your aid?

Oh and CK, since you clearly know the defaming blogger’s identity why don’t you out him for us? Or is this your usual M.O,–to lie down with the scumbags of the Jewish world who are too chicken shit to come forward and name themselves? I’ll tell you one reason why Plaut won’t unmask himself. His ass is in a sling regarding the libel suit he lost against Neve Gordon. He doesn’t want to make it too easy for people to sue him again.

I warn these three individuals and anyone else who wants to get into the copyright war that I have retained legal counsel and that I will vigorously protect my copyrights. I urge you not to act in ways that you might come to regret later when faced with legal action and potentially painful financial repercussions.

And for those of you who thought Jewlicious was a site you admired for whatever reason, you might want to think again. This is a Jew who makes common cause with a lunatic who accuses other Jews of being ‘kapos,’ ‘Judenrats,’ and ‘neo-Nazis.’ The two are a match made in Gehinom.

Svend of Akram’s Razor has written one of the most profoundly empathic responses to this imbroglio which captures my feelings even better than I’ve been able to do it myself:

There is something profoundly indecent and violently offensive about their promiscuous use of put-downs like “capo” for other Jews. It’s perhaps the only ethnic epithet in English that exceeds “n*****” in hurtfulness and malice. I’m not even Jewish and its use outrages me. I can’t imagine how insulting that must be.

It’s a new Blood Libel, this willingness to smear all Jews as homicidal sell-outs. Der Sturmer would be proud. No wonder they resort to terms like Judenrat–they’re basically Hitler Youth, albeit very confused ones.

It’s also perversely hypocritical for people who preach the loudest (and routinely cry wolf) about anti-Semitism to constantly resort to such a vicious slander against other Jews.

The Jewish Forward has become interested in the subject of Steven Plaut’s cyber-bullying and will feature a story about little Stevie this week. He won’t come out of it looking good. But I guess it doesn’t matter to him. Being known to the world as gutter scum just nurses his hate like a glass of stale beer.

I wanted to place all of this in context by saying how important it is to have your good name and how horrible it is to have someone try to take it from you by force. Quarreling over copyright violations may not seem like the best use of one’s precious time in this world. But the way I see it the bullies of the world want to take from you whatever you hold dear in life, whether that’s your portrait, your name or your reputation. I just can’t let them do that to me.

Disclosure: Copyright and Tikun Olam

Tikun Olam does periodically use images (almost entirely from the news media) for which it does not own copyright. However, unlike some other scumbags, this blog prominently declares that it will willingly and immediately remove any image if the copyright holder requests this. This has happened only once that I can recall. No one has ever filed a DMCA notice against this blog.

UPDATE: Since originally writing this post, I have learned that an anonymous party claims ownership of the fake blog, furthermore stating that Steven Plaut has not participated in its creation. A reporter tells me Plaut has denied his involvement. So while I have no idea whether the anonymous party is being truthful, it is possible that Plaut is either not involved in the blog, is partially involved, or that the blog claimant is lying and Plaut is fully responsible. I don’t yet know for sure which is the case. My impression of Plaut’s authorship was based on the firm conviction of another victim of a very similar fake blog that Plaut was responsible.

In addition, as I note here–it now appears that while David Abitbol of Jewlicious has posted a defaced image of mine at his site, he may have had no direct role in displaying this image at the fake blog. However, that site does direct link to Jewlicious, which further aggravates the copyright violation.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Mideast Peace | 34 Comments »

Computerworld Interviews Tikun Olam Over Cyberstalking

Friday, April 27th, 2007

My thanks to Mary Brandel for taking up the subject of cyberstalking in today’s Computerworld article, Five Ways to Defeat Blog Trolls and Cyberstalkers (for full page version). She interviewed me at length and we had a comprehensive discussion on the subject. This is a topic that internet free speech absolutists and blogging platforms and hosts don’t take nearly seriously enough. Personally, I think we all need to treat this not just as a free speech issue but as an issue of human dignity, respect and rights.

As I mentioned in the article, I appreciate blogging platforms like WordPress which give their users innovative plugins allowing them to exert more control, if they wish, over the content and tone of their comment threads. Further development of such features should be encouraged by the platforms. Plugin authors are playing a major role in providing the tools to combat blog trolling and other cybermischief.

The latest on my cyberstalker, Steven Plaut. I spoke with Neve Gordon this week about his libel case against the former. Gordon expects the District Court (acting as a court of appeals) to render a verdict in the case which Plaut originally lost. It may come as early as a month from now. I asked Neve whether Plaut had created a fake blog through Blogger as revenge against Gordon’s legal action. As I suspected, Plaut did create one. It isn’t active now, but thankfully it’s preserved through the Internet Archive’s invaluable Wayback Machine. This further confirms Plaut as my cyberstalker fraud blogger since he’s also created a fake Blogger blog about Roland Rance after Rance took an active role in writing the Wikipedia article on Plaut. I find it remarkable that with a pattern of fraudulent behavior such as this that Blogger would continue to stand behind the fig leaf of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

I’ve made clear before here that I understand the importance of Section 230 as a protection for web and blog hosts from third parties who upload illegal material to their servers. But Section 230 shouldn’t give a blank check to such hosts and absolve them of any responsibility to remove vulgar, defamatory material which damages the victim’s psyche and reputation. Just because you’re protected from liability doesn’t mean you aren’t free to use common sense as a host. Bsinet used such common sense in taking down Masada2000. Unfortunately, Blogger takes a more obstinate, unreasonable position.

My brother discovered Google’s public listing of its top five executive officers and one of them, Jonathan Rosenberg, is senior vice president for marketing. I contacted his executive assistant who, on first conversation with me understood the severe annoyance this fake blog caused me and said she hoped there was something that might be done. She asked me to forward all the supporting material to her and she said she’d bring it to the attention of someone at Blogger. Within a few minutes she replied:

…It appears that there is nothing more Blogger can do and you must go after the creator of the website.

Which is of course not true. There is plenty Blogger CAN do; but nothing that it WILL do.

My hope is that if Gordon’s victory is upheld by the Israeli court there would then be a pattern of lawbreaking established. I’ll be querying an Israeli attorney about whether I would have standing to sue Plaut in Israel (or here). If not, we may try to persuade other Israelis who’ve been similarly slandered by Plaut to sue him.

UPDATE: Since originally writing this post, I have learned that an anonymous party claims ownership of the fake blog, furthermore stating that Steven Plaut has not participated in its creation. A reporter tells me Plaut has denied his involvement. So while I have no idea whether the anonymous party is being truthful, it is possible that Plaut is either not involved in the blog, is partially involved, or that the blog claimant is lying and Plaut is fully responsible. I don’t yet know for sure which is the case. My impression of Plaut’s authorship was based on a number of factors, including Mr. Rance’s firm conviction that Plaut was responsible for the separate blog of which he is a victim.

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Blogs-Tech-Science, Mideast Peace | 4 Comments »

Jewish Gun Nuts and Wingnuts

Sunday, April 22nd, 2007

jpfo logo
I don’t know why Jewish wingnuts like Steven Plaut or Rachel Neuwirth taunt me. They only end up making me stronger and their cause weaker. When they bragged about my S.H.I.T. listing at Masada2000, the site was down within 24 hours. When they created a fake blog to defame me within two weeks I had told the world about their harassment in a front page article in the New York Times, a column in the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a KOMO radio news story. Just after April 26th, a story about their sleazy tactics will come out in Computerworld.

jpfo hitler poster
But into the breach has come yet another Jewish wingnut to taunt and hector me. I feel like Nick, the narrator of The Great Gatsby, who wonders why troubled people are so drawn to him to tell him their stories. In my case, I only wish someone as interesting as Gatsby would come my way. Instead, it was the Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO). One of their supporters wrote a comment on my post about the Virginia Tech massacre in which I’d written in support of gun control:

Join us for some REAL Tikun Olam!

http://www.jpfo.org/

jpfo un targetUN logo target

I could tell from the exclamation point that this jackass wasn’t telling me he was a blood brother. But I went over for a look anyway. I guess I’m a sucker for slowing down at car crashes (figuratively, that is). And I wasn’t disappointed.

The language of the site reminds me of the old Jewish Defense League. Lots of angry, borderline hysterical talk about our “enemies” out to get us and how we must at all costs defend ourselves. Guns, of course, figure prominently and obsessively in the site. But this isn’t your typical NRA site. This is a site warns that they’re coming to take away your guns and that you must be ready to stop them at all costs. Scary shit:
liberty bear

To destroy “gun control” and to encourage Americans to understand and defend all of the Bill of Rights for everyone.

Those are the twin goals of Wisconsin-based Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO). Founded by Jews and initially aimed at educating the Jewish community about the historical evils that Jews have suffered when they have been disarmed, JPFO has always welcomed persons of all religious beliefs who share a common goal of opposing and reversing victim disarmament policies while advancing liberty for all.

For JPFO, the cause of the Virginia Tech tragedy wasn’t the killer, but rather the University’s prohibition against carrying guns on campus! I kid you not–the screed is titled Don’t Give an Inch:

Did the rules forbidding the carrying of firearms prevent Seung Hui Cho’s senseless slaughter? Obviously not. In fact, the rules _encouraged_ his rampage because law-abiding citizens were unable to prevent Cho from completing his butchery.

The blood of those 32 innocents is on the hands of those who lobbied for victim disarmament

Really.

Here’s something every good Jewish boy or girl should brush up on: A Guide to Drilling, Reaming, and Broaching a Bolt-Action Receiver at Home

And don’t forget before you end your pleasant stay at the JPFO website to order some of your favorite accessories like the Gun Control is Racist bumper sticker, or your JPFO life membership pin, or your Adolf Hitler: All in Favor of Gun Control Raise Your Right Hand poster, or the United Nations logo bullseye target. And please don’t forget the Liberty Bear Coloring Book to educate the little ones in your life about their right to blow little squirrels to kingdom come. This is but a small selection of the treasure that is available almost for the asking.

JPFO also has an empowering message to our Jewish young people:

ENCOURAGE A TEEN TO REBEL

No, not rebel against Mom and Dad. But rebel against the loss of freedom.

We need America’s young people to wake up and stand tall against a frightening future. To grow towards self-reliance. To resist the temptations and snares of the coming Control State.

Our teens, on the other hand, may just want to have fun. And who can blame them?

Well, we’ve got a subversive little plan that enables you to help raise a teen’s consciousness — without work, without lectures, without strife.

Better yet, it’s fun for them — and for you.

Yes, oodles of fun.

Now, if that guy had only kept his trap shut and not tried to goad me with his comment I’d never have been the wiser about JPFO and you’d never have had the pleasure of learning of this new variety of Jewish wingnut.

Tags: , ,
Posted in Jews & Judaism, Politics & Society | 8 Comments »

Masada2000 and Neuwirth: Tag Team Mud Wrestlers

Saturday, April 21st, 2007
father son bakingMasada2000′s fraudulent caption: “They are cooking up a nice bomb they can put on an Israeli school bus to show Dickie’s commitment to Palestinian liberation.”

I’ve finally determined that Masada2000 and Rachel Neuwirth are in cahoots in creating the impostor blog, Little Dickie’s Diaper Droppings. [Note: At one time I believed Steven Plaut created the fake blog, but the owner of Masada2000 claims credit so until I discover otherwise I will take him at his word] Yesterday, I discovered Mobius’ attack on Plaut at Orthodox Anarchist and he linked to Plaut’s Wikipedia entry, whose content I found a little too favorable toward Plaut for my taste. Unlike all other Wikipedia entries, this one was locked because, it turns out, Plaut or one of his allies vandalized the article when he was unhappy with material published in it. I suggested to the Wikipedia article editor that they add material documenting Plaut’s disgusting celebration of Tanya Reinhart’s death which Plaut (through Rachel Neuwirth) sent unsolicited to members of the Alef Israeli-Palestinian discussion list.

Roland Rance, one of those editing the article wrote back to me to say that Plaut had set up a fake blog mocking him as well using the Blogger platform. Now this begins to look like a pattern. I’m also betting that Plaut was a key figure behind Masada2000 and hence became enraged at me when the site was taken down.

jonahdadpicture.jpg“My dad was mentioned in 3 newspapers because an evil man took a picture of me and my dad making cookies.”

An internet law attorney I consulted said that while there is no legal way to force Blogger to take down the site short of shaming them in the public sphere, there is a legal remedy against the creator of the blog, Plaut. I won’t go into the legal details in case Plautwirth might read this. But the defamation and damage to my reputation caused by the fake blog is definitely legally actionable.

Those of you who follow such nutcasery may know that Plaut defamed Israeli academic Neve Gordon, who won an Israeli libel suit against Plaut which is now on appeal. I definitely want to explore my legal options in Israel proper and here in the States.

A note about the two images in this post. Masada2000′s owner stole an image from this site (the first one displayed above) picturing my then 4 year old son and me baking cookies. Next to the image at the fake blog he wrote the caption:

Little Dickie (on the right) and his short but more mature companion. Little fella on left is being trained by Little Dickie (on the right) to be a shaheed. They are cooking up a nice bomb they can put on an Israeli school bus to show Dickie’s commitment to Palestinian liberation.

I told Jonah yesterday that Daddy had a story about him in the newspaper. When he asked why, I explained that a reporter for our local newspaper wrote a story about a bad man who stole the picture of both of us and put it on a website and said bad things about daddy.

The second image is Jonah’s response which he drew in kindergarten today:

My dad was mentioned in 3 newspapers because an evil man took a picture of me and my dad making cookies.

I figure I’ve got to teach my son about bad things that happen in the world and the bad people who do them. This is as good a place to start as any. I was proud and touched by his response. Plaut of course is a borderline sociopath who has little or no conscience about such things and so abusing my son in this way will trouble him not one iota. It doesn’t seem to bother Blogger much either come to think of it.

Mary Brandel’s Computerworld piece on my blog mud wrestling with Steven Plaut will come out just after April 26th. I had a long, stimulating interview with her a few days ago and she’s posed to write a thoughtful account of the issues not just involving this one incident, but the entire range of problems arising from hate, abuse and fraudulent behavior afflicting the blog world these days. I emphasized in the interview Blogger’s role and hope that a possible reference to it in the article will encourage blogging platforms and hosts to be more accountable for miscreants like Plaut, who take advantage of the ease with which any fool can create a free blog.

UPDATE: Since originally writing this post, I have learned that Masada2000 claims responsibility for the fake blog and says neither Steven Plaut nor Rachel Neuwirth has participated. So while I have no idea whether this person is being truthful, it is possible that Plaut is either not involved in the blog, is partially involved, or that the blog claimant is lying and Plaut is fully responsible. I don’t yet know for sure which is the case. I wrote my opinion above that Plaut was the author based on the source I referred to above who was subject to a similar attack and feels convinced Plaut is the author.

The fake blog was created in the immediate aftermath of a series of posts I wrote criticizing Rachel Neuwirth,which leads me to believe that she has had some direct or indirect involvement in the creation of this website. Again, I cannot yet determine the full extent, if any, of that involvement though it appears likely to me there is at least some, if not more than that.

Tags: ,
Posted in Blogs-Tech-Science, Mideast Peace | 3 Comments »

« Older Entries
Performance Optimization WordPress Plugins by W3 EDGE