I zapped a hijacker

I failed to mention the other day that I had banned a voluble commenter, though he did not violate our rules re obscenity, hate speech. No, what he was doing was hasbara thread-hijacking: He would jump on a post with several comments that had nothing to do with the post but were pure hasbara. Trying to hijack the thread and use our readership for his pro-Israel forum. Yes I know, some folks on my side sometimes do the same, but generally it’s after the comments have moved along. This felt like abuse, a blight on the discussion, and Adam and I are paying for the microphone. To be clear: I don’t mind hasbara folks; I welcome them. I welcome their efforts to justify Israel’s actions, I welcome the whetstone of their ideas. I recognize that my ideas will go nowhere if I’m not engaged at some level with that community. But I’m not down with the hijackers. Thanks to Annie.