Main Entry: 1li·bel’

Thanks for confirming you can’t libel a country

‘Mostly’s comment reminds us that Israel and its supporters are doing poorly.

We are defending Israel against “lawfare” but failing to take the initiative, to wage lawfare in return.’

Is this the kind of thing you are thinking of?

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3797828,00.html

BTW – it is true that there seems to be a self-selecting coterie of about a dozen obsessives who come to CIF day after day to beat up on Israel (e.g., moron, nakomel, arkasha, papalagi, orwell,teacup, berchmans, talknic in his multiple incarnations – talknic takes sick obsession to a new level, actually – he literally cannot keep away and I must confess to enjoying taking the piss where he is concerned – Free Eora!!).

Their incessant posting makes the threads look longer than they really are but you will occasionally see dozens of recommendations for their comments, so unless they are hitting the “recommend” button themselves under various guises (and we know from a few comments that they communicate with each other and could be doing this while screaming about the Great Zionist Conspiracy) there are a few dozen lurking in the background.

So the influence of the lies, fallacies, made-up quotes, anti0Semitic references, is greater than those who choose to comment there.

how on earth could it backfire?

The objective is not to win a case or two but to put an end to the anti-Semitism and Israel bashing that is the meat and potatoes of the Guardian’s reason for existing at this time. Whether we would win the cases or not, the implications for the Guardian in terms of time and money would be horrific.

Suppose a really good legal team was put together that would spend years dragging the Guardian through the courts for every single anti-Semitic comment or letter published, one by one – heavily funded by people who had an interest in seeing the Guardian tied up in knots spending its money on its own lawyers – the level of invective would immediately drop, and n fact the wretched rag might actually be put out of business if it spent enough money.

I for one would gladly donate to the cause.

I accept that it is not just liberal circles, but the opinions are legitimised by them.

AKUS

Do you think that suing is a good idea? You may be “right” but the legal route usually backfires

It’s there: 07:18 this morning

The timidity of the response – or lack of response – only permits this kind of slander to go on.

Guardian moderators are quite immoderate, no?

Not just liberal circles.

Several observations:
1. The “big lie” technique works.
2. If enough mud is thrown (eg at Israel), much sticks.
3. I’ve encountered quite a few neutral, well-meaning people of good faith who beieve Israel devastated Lebanon, killed al-Dura, etc.

In other words, the Euroleft-Islamist jihad of propaganda and lawfare against Israel works. Israel and the Jewish community had better wake u and wage war back.

One example: At the time of Oslo, Rabin thought that “we could just re-occupy” if it doesnt work. But the Euroleft-Islamist alliance’s propaganda has prevented that, severely limiting Israel options in self-defense.

The Euroleft-Islamist anti-Israeli propaganda and lawfare must be opposed with (at a minimum) the same techniques.

Someone on the Melanie Phillips thread said that he/she believed that the main reason for this enduring hatred – even in the face of objective evidence that it is misplaced at best and frankly idiotic – is that The Execrable Al-Babbler, Brian Whitaker, Matt Seaton and Georgina Henry were in bed with Islamists like Hizb ut Tahrir.

Having read the recent eye rolling/mouth frothing contribution by Ed Husain (and I have read his book, too, in which he sets out how HuT members are made to be deliberately aggressive and hate-filled) I cannot rule that out. He may have left HuT (or he says he has) but he is still very much theirs when placed under any duress.

Canadaneil, you make interesting points. There is certainly a self-selecting bias at “the other place” and where that doesn’t work for the CiF hate fest then the moderators “select” some more, by deleting posts which disagree with the rubbish, by and large, above the line.

You know there is something in clinical research called selection bias. CiF gives huge emphasis to a bunch of folk who are obsessed with what they see as the unrivaled evil of Israel, the manipulation of the Holocaust by the jews, and the undue influence of the Israel lobby on US policy.

The more that is written supporting these points of view the more it feeds the frenzy and group think. CiF is dominated by those who have the time to beat others into submission by excessively long posts.

Someone made an interesting comment (not sure where, maybe here) along the lines that it is simply not trendy to support Israel any more especially on campuses around the world, much the same as being a member of the young conservatives. Peer pressure dicatates that support if Israel is not (and hasn’t been for some time) acceptable in “liberal circles”.