Yesterday John Mearsheimer wrote that David Harris of the American Jewish Committee was refusing his offer to debate him, after Harris had accused Mearsheimer of running from debate. I wrote to Harris's aide, Ben Cohen, today, but have heard nothing. It seems this is not the only case of the AJC liking to slag its critics without granting them a platform.
Ben White writes from England:
Z-Word Blog is run by the American Jewish Committee, purportedly to provide "commentary, analysis and information on the debates about Zionism, anti-Zionism, antisemitism, the Middle East and much more". Recently, they published a 'review' of my new book, Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide, by Jonathan Hoffman from the British Zionist Federation.
The comments, which must be moderated to be published, include:
Great review Jonathan exposing Ben White for the fraud and holocaust denying antisemite that he is.
And I wonder whether White sees himself as the reincarnation of Goebbels?
Today, I completed a response to Hoffman's piece, which I've put on my own blog. You'll see that amongst other things, Z-Word have allowed Hoffman to publish straightforward untruths about my book e.g. that I never mention the Gaza disengagement.
I tried to leave a link to my response on the Z-Word thread. It was not allowed. Ben Cohen then did a new post specifically on not having allowed my comment through:
"…we try to allow a range of comments on this blog. But Ben White? No. While you’ve got to grin at his sheer chutzpah, White needs to understand that the ban on Jonathan Hoffman attending the launch of his ridiculous excuse for a book means that he is, as a direct consequence, not welcome here."
So the 'range of comments' includes the claim that I am the 'reincarnation of Goebbels', but not my link to a response piece which points out that Z-Word have published untruths about a published work. Even those sympathetic to Z-Word have been questioning the logic…
Incidentally, Hoffman was indeed banned from the launch but not by me. He was banned by the charity War on Want, something I knew nothing about, on the grounds that he had previously disrupted other events.Hoffman's piece – apart from containing falsities about my book, also disputes the illegality of the settlements. Is that a position of the AJC?
