Hmm, AISH horror stories…

Well, there was the cult-like love bombing. They give out free trip to Israel, Chile, New York, Europe (Prague), etc. The rabbis went way out of there way to act cool and invite everyone to their Shabbat parties, where everyone under 21 was given tons of vodka. While we were drunk, they started talking about life in the West Bank settlements.

Then they made a “Jewish Leadership” class for us which was really about “Why you need to be a fundamentalist and ARABS SUCK.” More subtle promotion of West Bank settlements. One time, they told us that we had to always obey God and listen to God in every situation. I figured this was ridiculous, so I said “well, what about Baruch Goldstein?” The guy got visibly angry and said Goldstein was a hero, the Arabs deserved it, etc. Another time, I mentioned my (low-prestige) job and the guy said he could hook me up with a better one in Ariel (a settlement) and said that the whole citizenship and hiring process would take a month. When I criticized him for this, everyone just called me a know-it-all, etc. These guys lurk around college campuses recruiting people for this.

The Troll of the Week Committee is ready for them!

The photograph of the Star of David was first circulated last week on the Mondo Weiss blog, which belongs to US investigative journalist Philip Weiss, who describes himself as an anti-Zionist. In spring 2009 Weiss traveled to the Gaza Strip and joined a Code Pink: Women for Peace contingent.

IDF sources said it was possible the Star of David was carved into the ground to mark the location – for the air force – of soldiers who were operating nearby. The diameter of the star’s lines was relatively small, the sources said, leading to the conclusion that the star was carved not by a tank but perhaps by a jeep.

(I included the second paragraph above because the IDF excuse was so patently absurd.)

Jewish Star in Gaza filed causes stir

It’s pathetic how many trolls pass through here. I guess Phil is doing something right.

BSD now’s agenda was made pretty obvious by the provocative choice of name. I am not one for advocating others be banned, but in his case, his rasin d’etre is simply to waste everyone’s time by bogging the debate down in irrelevant minutia and debates abotu what is or isn;t anti semitism.

What gave him away for me was his repeated attempts to play dumb when incovenient issues have been raised. He pretended that the suggestion that palestinians were decendants of the Hebrews was blowing his mind, as though iy were somehow a new and a new and controversial theory.

First, no ‘armed struggle’ is legitimate, according to him. Then because the struggle would be against Israel, hence Israeli soldiers, hence mostly Jews – he straw mans it to ‘you advocating for violence against Jews?’

I’m sick of his instigating. The guy is a troll, and we shouldn’t be wasting time with insincere people like him who purposefully make dishonest arguments to derail discussion.

I’m going to bump this exchange of his, and I hope people here email Phil and Adam. We don’t have consistent moderation, but we should at least get rid of people who aren’t here to discuss the issue, but rather to purposefully smear the blog.

I’ve heard Jews misinterpret it as well. They tie the religious saying to historical Jewish suffering. So it comes out to something like, Jews have an obligation to help others because of their suffering, which was unjust and simply because they were Jews (chosen).

I can’t recall her name, but she was a childhood friend of Finkelstein, and was featured in his documentary.