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Responding to commenters on recent bannings

Following the announcement of our new comments policy, there’s been considerable criticism of Adam Horowitz and me for a lack of transparency in banning decisions. We never explained commenter bannings in the past, but given the celebrity of Richard Witty and Jeffrey Blankfort, both of whom I consider friends, we owe readers an explanation. Adam and I discussed it yesterday, and I apologize that it’s taken this long.

We preserved Witty’s presence here over the years because he was a stand-in for American Zionist opinion and there was value in having his voice. But in the end the moderators agreed that Richard had become a troll, pulling the conversation away from the thread, repeating arguments, causing moderators too much work. 

As for Jeff Blankfort, Jeff has long provided some of the keenest analysis of the Israel lobby and how it works. I’ve relied on him for guidance in this area—just as Occupy AIPAC will feature Jeff as a speaker at the gathering this weekend, a session I look forward to attending. One thing we disagreed on and that became an issue here was the claim of collective American “Jewish responsibility” for support for Israel– when in fact there are many Jews who are not Zionists, including Adam and me and Jeff Blankfort, too. Also Jeff sought to have a discussion of the Jewish historical role in the rise of the Nazis in Germany here. As we have made clear, this is not a subject we want any part of. It generally leads to anti-semitism and Holocaust denial, which we won’t tolerate on the site, and unquestionably hurts our ability to reach out.

We have big (and transgressive) goals on this site: to change the discourse on Israel and Palestine so as to change the politics of the conflict (and stop a war with Iran). We don’t have the energy for distractions. I continue to rely on Jeff’s thinking about the workings of the lobby. I hope to feature his work here in the future, if and when he’s open to it.

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Thanks for these clarifications and honestly for taking tough choices. Mondoweiss readers, remember, nobody is owed a platform and your rights of free speech don’t mean you have the right to be given one. The job of an editor is, in part, to decide what speech to feature in a publication, and what the limits of discourse are to be, and that is perfectly appropriate.

Thank you for the clarification.

We have big (and transgressive) goals on this site: to change the discourse on Israel and Palestine so as to change the politics of the conflict (and stop a war with Iran). We don’t have the energy for distractions.

thanks for directly addressing the call from friends and readers for an explanation. i completely agree with you about the goals of this site and i respect your decision, it must have been difficult.

While I’m not a regular here I think that banning any opinion, except the ones that are clearly repetitive or of topic, is a minus for any site. Individual comments ban would be a better approach, although it would require more work. Actually I was expecting some better moderation when you extended mondoweiss, but I guess this would not be the case.
As for banning individual comments, I, for one, would like to know when my comment is not accepted because of its content, and not because some timeout occurred.
On the issue of anti-semitism, I think it should not be banned, except in the case when it advocates violence or hate, or something more easy to prove. I know this is a predominantly Jewish website, and I know the subject is difficult for you, but this trend of trying to hide some peoples opinion if they are anti-Jewish, just seems like ignoring the elephant in the room. Or not having the arguments against it. And anyway, it’s very easy to substitute Jew with Zionist and say the exact same things.

“when in fact there are many Jews who are not Zionists, including Adam and me and Jeff Blankfort, too”

What %? 5 ?

When it all falls apart the US Jewish community will be rent asunder. There are far too few who engage the tikkun olam and far too many who are tribal. It is a very Jewish tragedy.

Israel would collapse tomorrow if enough people in Eretz America stood up to the hoodlums.