Barry Chamish re: Steven Plaut, Daniel Pipes and The Jewish Press
It's great to see Barry Chamish respond to Steven Plaut's (Shimon Peres) slander and set the record straight for those interested in the plain truth of the matter.
Barry Chamish
Now to the vulgar slander that appeared in the Jewish Press last week.
First, some background:
Before I ever heard the name Daniel Pipes, it was reported to me that he had mounted a campaign of slander against me. Until then, I didn't realize that not only was he a member of the Council On Foreign Relations (CFR), he was almost entirely funded by them directly or by proxy. His prominence was not due to any innate talent; he had an in. His father, Richard, was head of the CIA's Soviet department through the Cold War.
Pipes turned to writing mediocrities with names you don't know like Goldwasser, Balint and Plout.
Their assignment was to write to every site and newsgroup which published me, threatening them if they so continued. The first two, I surmise, saw how they were used and backed off. What remained was the third mediocrity, Plout.
Now I never publish his name simply because he doesn't deserve any publicity on my coattails. Leave it be said that he is a professor, virtually unknown in Israeli academic circles, and he once wrote a book, apparently about the local boy scouts movement. I looked it up on Amazon. It is number over a million, meaning it's sold about twelve copies.
Pipes tried to cover his tracks by setting up a phoney grudge between me and him. That didn't work because, if I had to, I would choose a much worthier grudge match. But he took on his assignment with vigor and not much intelligence. After being caught in the act with sites loyal to me, he played the same game using pseudonyms in places like Rotter.net and Israel's Wikipedia. But he was too dumb to cover his tracks well.
His style of slander was repetitious enough but the big giveaway was referring to Pipes and leaving links to his site everywhere he showed up. The best giveaway though was, accidentally or not, now and then, thoughtfully including his e-mail address in the comments supposedly by other people.
His most vicious slander was a long term attempt to portray me as a Holocaust denier. For that I am suing him next week. In the Jewish Press article, to save himself in court, he admitted it wasn't true. But in the wake of it, he employed a few devotees with names like Efratguy to spread the same lie.
Consider this letter just received from a blog owner:
I posted your email in my blog and someone in new jersey did a search for "daniel pipes shill blog" and found us, and then several visitors came from Tel Aviv straight to my site. They anonymously said a few rude things about you and now they're just lurking. I was amazed at how quickly they showed up AND the fact that there were probably a hundred returns to that search...think they went to every one of them and badmouthed you? anyway, my blog is at http://nord.twu.net/acl/news.html
Stay safe... looks like you're enemies are pretty desperate to shut you down. I couldn't believe it when they called you a neo-nazi and a holocaust denier!
On the Pipes/Plout partnership:
Israel Insider
On Pipes's fine organization:
http://www.newswithviews.com/guest_opinion/guest82.htm
A few of the letters sent to the Jewish Press were forwarded to me. I'm told many more were sent and I can't begin to express my gratitude to all these wonderful people. Let us categorize the arguments. First, the writers noted the article had no research, no scholarship, but it sure contained a lot of hate:
"Virtually every "question" raised by the conspiracists about the Rabin assassination has by now been fully explained away and answered:"
Only error and misdeeds have to be explained away, like trying to "explain away" lipstick on your shorts.
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It is surprising to me that the Jewish Press would support such weak quasi-intellectualism as was present in the conspiracy article by Steven Plaut. One can never judge the truth by just labelling something mental illness and writing it off like that. Every true Dayan (and scientist as well) understands that every detail of a claim must be examined carefully before a conclusion is reached as to its veracity or lack thereof.
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Next, the writers expressed the suspicion that the article was commissioned by people a great deal more powerful than the "author:"
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Tell me, dear Mrs Klass, do you have any idea who could possibly have been paying whom to make fun of a very good and serious man called Barry Chamish and whose political fortunes are supposedly served by it?
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One wonders why the author of this article finds the official gov't line so much more credible than the obvious conclusion which the above facts lead to. One also wonders if he doesn't have similar biases in his poohpoohing other conspiracies, in particular the Rabin Assassination which he has written about extensively in defense of the gov't position.
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Plaut then quotes a certain "seminal book" by Daniel Pipes. The entire Plaut article thus strives to resemble a scholarly review of another scholarly work.
This sort of writing just proves that he is either a mole or a tool of the Federal Government.
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The author then goes to the fallacy of logic (argument ad hominem) and links Barry Chamish to fringe neo-Nazi and Holocaust revisionist groups. I can attest, that as a conservative in some political aspects, nonetheless my writings have appeared in the web-pages of the far left in America. The fact of the Internet is, that anyone can cut and paste the writings of anyone else. So much for the spurious use of argument ad hominem by the individual to whom I address.
Very simply put; Barry Chamish writes with a bias to Israeli nationalism and Daniel Pipes is a Neocon. There you have it.
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But what really peeved the writers, was the "author's" insinuation that I, and anyone who thinks as I do, is "mentally ill." Now here's where things get interesting:
Israel's Plague of Conspiracism
1-Conspiracism is probably best characterized as a form of mental illness. Are you a licensed psychiatrist?
2-Some researchers in psychiatry plainly agree.....WHO?
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Commentary: International Relations, Research & Education
Vocabulary words used incorrectly by individuals who consider themselves intellectuals create misrepresentation, but what is even more bizarre is how loosely some individuals use non existent terms or words.
There are many slick unsavory characters from all walks of life who probably contribute to numerous unsolved mysteries.
There is no reference to "conspiracism" or "Conspiracists" in legal or medical terminology or any reference to a diagnosis of "conspiracism" as a mental illness or "plague".
Conspiracy: in Criminal Law occurs when two or more persons conspire/ plan an unlawful act, which becomes unlawful when done by the concerted action of the conspirators.
Civil Conspiracies: the term "civil" is used to designate a conspiracy which will furnish ground for a civil action,as where, in carrying out the design of the conspirators, overt acts are done causing legal damage, the person injured has a right of action.
Reference: Black's Law Dictionary-Fourth Edition
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His faulty logic goes like this: Because some people believe in conspiracies, all people who believe in conspiracies suffer mental illness, and therefore promote anti-Semitism thus they are dangerous and you should avoid them.
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When I have questioned Plaut about his passion against Chamish, he was totally steadfast. No facts in the world could sway Plaut from his attitude. His answers were full of emotion. He did not answer my questions just lashed back about Chamish being crazy.
As I see it, Plaut has a personal dislike for Chamish and the Jewish Press fell prey to it. If it is not a personal dislike, it is probably part of a campaign to discredit Chamish so the truths he does discover are not given validity. I guess that would make it a conspiracy, and since I am the one to suspect it, by Plaut's definition that would make me mentally ill.
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Daniel Pipes may be an 'expert' on the Middle East but it is news to me
that he is also a serious student of psychology. To describe all those
who come to grips with some of the most serious conspiracies - and their
cover-ups - as paranoid delusions, - means that a huge percentage of
Israel needs to be in the padded cell recommended by this supposed
academic.
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At risk of being called a conspirator by Plaut, and therefore mentally ill by his definition, I question why Plaut is so vehemently opposed to Chamish's work that he would spend so much time and effort to discredit him.
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Conspiracy theories are like Chassidishe Maises (miraculous stories of Tzaddikim) If you believe all of them you're a fool, if you don't believe any you're in denial!!!
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Now look at this remarkable exchange, sent to me. The reader merely suggested that Plout appear on Tamar Yonah's radio show on Arutz Sheva to explain his views, because she often has me as his guest. What is Plout's answer? He calls Tamar "mentally ill."
I asked Plaut if he'd be prepared to be interviewed on
Tamar Yona's show. This was his reply!!
--- Steven Plaut wrote:
I do not debate with the mentally ill.
On Thu, 19 Jan 2006, > wrote:
Dear Mr Plaut Chamish often is heard expounding on Tamar Yona's Arutz 7 show. If she invited you, would you be prepared to be interviewed by her (by phone) to bring up the points you've raised in your interesting "Plague" article?
Yaakov
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In his defense petition to the court at the upcoming suit, plout submitted reams and reams and reams of quotes from my work. He knows every word and nuance of my writing. In fact, he knows it far better than I do. I certainly never read anything he's "written," so if he doesn't like my stuff, why doesn't he just ignore it? What is the reason for this obsession.
As you will soon see, many readers assume he is on Pipes' payroll and just wants to impress the boss. That answer is not entirely satisfactory to me. He attacks his mission with way too much vigor.
Can you imagine anyone working day and night, non-stop, just to put an end to my writing success? There have to be more sinister causes.
And I found one. A clinical psychologist working for an American prison service took the trouble of reading plout's "work" and analyzing it. His professional conclusion has to be the right one:
I suggest that the evidence indicates that Steven Plaut is suffering from an acute form of mental illness known as "Arrested Development." This mental illness is characterized by denial of the obvious. This mental illness usually develops in childhood as a psychological self-defense mechanism for survival in an abusive home. Mr. Plaut in fact is in denial of a truism that nearly every mature psychologically balanced adult acknowledges, id est, "The annals of history are replete with accounts of conspiracies."
Now we have to ask ourselves why Steven Plaut feels compelled to write missives containing such bitter vitriol? In a google search for Mr. Plaut's writings I discovered that nearly everything he writes is a tirade or a screed. His articles almost without exception are written in the attack mode. He reminds me of a two year old screaming to get his demands met. It is obvious to me that Mr. Plaut is crying out for help. He has an identical psychological profile as the inmates whom I counsel in the state prison system. He appears to be unbalanced. He needs to get help soon.
We are clearly dealing with one very sick individual.
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Now let us look at the anger the writers felt at the Jewish Press. First, it was reported to me by several people, that the paper didn't have the courtesy to reply to their letters:
I just wrote to the Letters to the Editor. I've heard nothing back.
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Other writers reported they refused to grant me an equal hearing:
A situation has developed in The Jewish Press where serializing Barry's essays has been replaced by serializing non-stop, primitive attacks against Barry, WITH NO RIGHT OF RESPONSE.
This is not right.
And I say that it is not right as a journalist who has been a member of the U.S. Society of Professional Journalists for 16 years, a member of the Foreign Press Association in Israel for 15 years, who produced a nationally syndicated radio show in New York (The Barry Farber Show), was a Business and Finance Reporter with Reuters' second largest bureau worldwide, in New York, and worked with CBS Television National Network News, in New York.
This is NOT RIGHT.
You cannot maintain the pretense of The Jewish Press being a serious newspaper -- unless you simply want to be seen as another Shtetl Jewish organizational rag -- if you go on and on and on publishing these Trash Barry Chamish "commentaries" and "letters-to-the-editor", NEVER allowing your victim a right of response.
This is an OUTRAGE.
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A group of Orthodox Jews would be the last group I would expect to go along with smearing another person as you allowed to happen in your paper. Using the Laws of Evidence as a standard, do you excuse yourself because you are not acting in a court. Well, you are acting in the court of public opinion. Perhaps you also ignore the possibility that what you printed was loshen hora.
Decency on your part would have posted the opposing opinions next to each other and let the reader come to his own conclusion.
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Others felt the newspaper may have been on the take, and the "author" certainly was:
If this article did not come 'covered in money' then a modicum of research on your part would have shown the entire thrust of the article to be completely invalid. If it did come 'covered in money' then you should have prominently displayed the 'sponsor'.
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Two writers demanded an apology to me or they would stop reading the amateurish rag for good. Below is one good example:
I won't be hitting your website ever again, and I will be asking my friends and family to find their Israel and Jewish news elsewhere. Unless, of course, you'd like to apologize to Barry Chamish IN PRINT. I am utterly outraged. I plan to post my opinion about this all over the web (see the Weekly Thought in the blogspot of Solongroup.org). You have no idea how large a sector of society you are offending. Take that into consideration at your next board meeting.
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But everyone agreed the paper printed blatant libel:
The Jewish Press should be ashamed to allow this kind of vulgar slander to appear on its pages.
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I have an appeal. I took the article to my attorney Dov Even Or and he advised me that it was amongst the most blatant and libelous hatchet jobs he's ever seen. But a suit from Israel would bankrupt me even before it was heard. I can afford to sue a plout from here but can't reach the jewish press without a New York based-attorney. If anyone can represent me on contingency, we have an easy victory and a great way to get Israel's anguish publicized. Please write me if you can take on a trial for justice...that will pay for itself.
I never had such good reaction so quickly.
The Americans For A Safe Israel website checked plout's holocaust denier charges against me and found them to be lies. In an act of true morality, I add for a change, the webmaster banned plout from every appearing on his list again.
Bravo, truth!
Barry
OK, last time around,
I checked Stormfront, they quote him, nothing to indicate that he had submitted material. As I pointed out to you earlier your articles are also quoted many places I doubt you submitted them to. . He is always identified as pro-Israel and a holocaust 'believer'. They quote him simply because he raises questions looking for accountability from the Israeli government. What a concept !
I also checked out other websites of the revisionist genera, they ALL cite him as pro Israel and anti revisionist. Not a one made any tiny effort to identify him as an ally. Several had vehement opposition to his appearing at the event that Pipes was so worked up over. Daniel Pipes would have done much better to have appeared with him to debate the revisionists. That's water under the bridge now, he didnt and the event didnt happen.
Barry Chamish did not " write a single piece for the nazis about his family", I had read that article before it appeared on that website. I suspect they copied it off other sites. As I believe is the case with the other articles, all of which are openly pro Israel and anti revisionist.
You still maintain that he has 'collaborated' with the neo-nazi sites, even after you said you did not say that he had no nazi views. You just cant keep from coming back to that canard.
Mr Plaut what I have been spending several hours doing was going over the links and websites that you cited to substantiate your accusations against Barry Chamish. To this moment there is not a single piece of evidence in what you cite to remotely substantiate your allegations and charges.
You also mix in terms such as 'deranged' in your allegations, although you are not a doctor. And you make statements that he is so ''desperate for attention that he will even publish his conspiracy nonsense on their websites.''.
The overwhelming conclusion I come to is that you have an incredible personal bias against Chamish that honestly affects your judgement regarding him. Your personal dislike is so strong that you cannot make a statement about him without going back to the items that have already been shown to you to be without merit.
Re to Daniel Pipes, he is an outspoken advocate of another arab state. You can decide for yourself whether he is pro-Arab or not. His writings are on record for his support of the Arab state.
Bottom line sir, in view of your strong and unjustified allegations amounting to unsubstantiated smears of another pro-Israel Israelite I am removing you from membership of AFSI and banning your articles on the AFSI list. I am cc'ing this to the list owner and other moderators.
Sincerely,
Yaacov Levi
Moderator
AFSI
Now you may not like the politics of the next site but look what it reveals about this plout. He is a genuine crook and nut. And more is pouring in. Court should be fun next week.
CounterPunch
One of FrontPages's most pernicious writers is Steven Plaut, a man who "could be thought of as Israel's Daniel Pipes" (Pipes is the instigator of Campus-Watch), and is someone who "launched an Internet site on which he publishes articles that typically espouse far-right positions" [6]. Given that Plaut was born and raised in the US, educated at top US universities, one would have hoped that he had learned the finer points of living in a democracy; however, he now lives in Israel, and this may have dulled his sensibilities.
For an insight into Plaut's integrity and civility the following incidents should warn anyone about the character of this person:
" a young political philosopher and human rights campaigner from Ben Gurion University, Dr. Neve Gordon, was accused by an extreme right-wing polemicist from Haifa University, Dr. Ste[v]en Plaut, of being a supporter of Norman Finkelstein, whose book, The Holocaust Industry, led many on the Right to associate him with Holocaust deniers. When Gordon decided to sue him for libel, Plaut subsequently disseminated articles attacking Gordon on the Internet, including on some extreme right-wing Kahanist sites. Morton Klein, the head of the Zionist Organization in America, also weighed in against Gordon by writing to the President and the Rector of Ben Gurion University questioning the continued employment of Gordon and protesting his libel case which, Klein argued, was an intervention in the civil liberties of Plaut because it denied Plaut's right to freedom of expression! [...] Writing under assumed names, Plaut has a long history of attacking, labeling, and targeting left-wing scholars in Israel. One anonymous article appeared under the name of Socrates in the Middle East Review of 2001. " [7] (emphasis added)
Here is a recent example where Plaut savages Jonathan Cook, an important free-lance journalist who frequently writes on Palestine and the Middle East. Plaut easily brandishes the "anti-Semite" slur and here he demonstrates hyperbolic tendencies:
Cook is a self-proclaimed "freelance journalist". He is in fact a vicious anti-Semite openly endorsing Palestinian mass murder of Jews. The very fact that he has never been deported nor jailed by Israel speaks volumes about the extent to which the Israeli government is really willing to defend the country and Israelis. Cook writes anti-Israel propaganda for the Egyptian anti-Semitic daily al-Ahram the anti-Semitic British daily The Guardian, al-Jazaara [sic], and just about any other anti-Semitic outfit you can think of.[8]
In 2004, Plaut lifted the email list of an electronic discussion forum based at the Univ. of Haifa [9]. Then, using this list, a co-conspirator called "Rocky" proceeded to send hateful emails to the forum posing as someone called Yusuf, a "Zionist Palestinian", who also was "your token Arab who adores Israel". "Rocky" then made the mistake of using CC instead of BCC to forward one of his diatribes. The ensuing email exchange between "Rocky" and Plaut discussing the faux pas was revealed when "Rocky" repeated the mistake by sending it to the entire distribution list! It would make amusing reading were it not for such a sordid attempt at deception, the smearing of others, and interfering in a discussion of Israeli academics on how to obtain a modicum of justice for the Palestinians [10]. Furthermore, one could well imagine the furor if a Palestinian academic were to pose as a malevolent prankster in a Zionist website posing as Moshe "your token Jew who adores Palestine." Plaut's activities demonstrate a lack of integrity and honesty. Perhaps one would expect higher standards from a Princeton educated professor, but maybe in Israel, in a business school, this is considered par for the course. These facts notwithstanding, he is a regular contributor to FrontPage!
Barry Chamish
Now to the vulgar slander that appeared in the Jewish Press last week.
First, some background:
Before I ever heard the name Daniel Pipes, it was reported to me that he had mounted a campaign of slander against me. Until then, I didn't realize that not only was he a member of the Council On Foreign Relations (CFR), he was almost entirely funded by them directly or by proxy. His prominence was not due to any innate talent; he had an in. His father, Richard, was head of the CIA's Soviet department through the Cold War.
Pipes turned to writing mediocrities with names you don't know like Goldwasser, Balint and Plout.
Their assignment was to write to every site and newsgroup which published me, threatening them if they so continued. The first two, I surmise, saw how they were used and backed off. What remained was the third mediocrity, Plout.
Now I never publish his name simply because he doesn't deserve any publicity on my coattails. Leave it be said that he is a professor, virtually unknown in Israeli academic circles, and he once wrote a book, apparently about the local boy scouts movement. I looked it up on Amazon. It is number over a million, meaning it's sold about twelve copies.
Pipes tried to cover his tracks by setting up a phoney grudge between me and him. That didn't work because, if I had to, I would choose a much worthier grudge match. But he took on his assignment with vigor and not much intelligence. After being caught in the act with sites loyal to me, he played the same game using pseudonyms in places like Rotter.net and Israel's Wikipedia. But he was too dumb to cover his tracks well.
His style of slander was repetitious enough but the big giveaway was referring to Pipes and leaving links to his site everywhere he showed up. The best giveaway though was, accidentally or not, now and then, thoughtfully including his e-mail address in the comments supposedly by other people.
His most vicious slander was a long term attempt to portray me as a Holocaust denier. For that I am suing him next week. In the Jewish Press article, to save himself in court, he admitted it wasn't true. But in the wake of it, he employed a few devotees with names like Efratguy to spread the same lie.
Consider this letter just received from a blog owner:
I posted your email in my blog and someone in new jersey did a search for "daniel pipes shill blog" and found us, and then several visitors came from Tel Aviv straight to my site. They anonymously said a few rude things about you and now they're just lurking. I was amazed at how quickly they showed up AND the fact that there were probably a hundred returns to that search...think they went to every one of them and badmouthed you? anyway, my blog is at http://nord.twu.net/acl/news.html
Stay safe... looks like you're enemies are pretty desperate to shut you down. I couldn't believe it when they called you a neo-nazi and a holocaust denier!
On the Pipes/Plout partnership:
Israel Insider
On Pipes's fine organization:
http://www.newswithviews.com/guest_opinion/guest82.htm
A few of the letters sent to the Jewish Press were forwarded to me. I'm told many more were sent and I can't begin to express my gratitude to all these wonderful people. Let us categorize the arguments. First, the writers noted the article had no research, no scholarship, but it sure contained a lot of hate:
"Virtually every "question" raised by the conspiracists about the Rabin assassination has by now been fully explained away and answered:"
Only error and misdeeds have to be explained away, like trying to "explain away" lipstick on your shorts.
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It is surprising to me that the Jewish Press would support such weak quasi-intellectualism as was present in the conspiracy article by Steven Plaut. One can never judge the truth by just labelling something mental illness and writing it off like that. Every true Dayan (and scientist as well) understands that every detail of a claim must be examined carefully before a conclusion is reached as to its veracity or lack thereof.
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Next, the writers expressed the suspicion that the article was commissioned by people a great deal more powerful than the "author:"
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Tell me, dear Mrs Klass, do you have any idea who could possibly have been paying whom to make fun of a very good and serious man called Barry Chamish and whose political fortunes are supposedly served by it?
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One wonders why the author of this article finds the official gov't line so much more credible than the obvious conclusion which the above facts lead to. One also wonders if he doesn't have similar biases in his poohpoohing other conspiracies, in particular the Rabin Assassination which he has written about extensively in defense of the gov't position.
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Plaut then quotes a certain "seminal book" by Daniel Pipes. The entire Plaut article thus strives to resemble a scholarly review of another scholarly work.
This sort of writing just proves that he is either a mole or a tool of the Federal Government.
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The author then goes to the fallacy of logic (argument ad hominem) and links Barry Chamish to fringe neo-Nazi and Holocaust revisionist groups. I can attest, that as a conservative in some political aspects, nonetheless my writings have appeared in the web-pages of the far left in America. The fact of the Internet is, that anyone can cut and paste the writings of anyone else. So much for the spurious use of argument ad hominem by the individual to whom I address.
Very simply put; Barry Chamish writes with a bias to Israeli nationalism and Daniel Pipes is a Neocon. There you have it.
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But what really peeved the writers, was the "author's" insinuation that I, and anyone who thinks as I do, is "mentally ill." Now here's where things get interesting:
Israel's Plague of Conspiracism
1-Conspiracism is probably best characterized as a form of mental illness. Are you a licensed psychiatrist?
2-Some researchers in psychiatry plainly agree.....WHO?
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Commentary: International Relations, Research & Education
Vocabulary words used incorrectly by individuals who consider themselves intellectuals create misrepresentation, but what is even more bizarre is how loosely some individuals use non existent terms or words.
There are many slick unsavory characters from all walks of life who probably contribute to numerous unsolved mysteries.
There is no reference to "conspiracism" or "Conspiracists" in legal or medical terminology or any reference to a diagnosis of "conspiracism" as a mental illness or "plague".
Conspiracy: in Criminal Law occurs when two or more persons conspire/ plan an unlawful act, which becomes unlawful when done by the concerted action of the conspirators.
Civil Conspiracies: the term "civil" is used to designate a conspiracy which will furnish ground for a civil action,as where, in carrying out the design of the conspirators, overt acts are done causing legal damage, the person injured has a right of action.
Reference: Black's Law Dictionary-Fourth Edition
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His faulty logic goes like this: Because some people believe in conspiracies, all people who believe in conspiracies suffer mental illness, and therefore promote anti-Semitism thus they are dangerous and you should avoid them.
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When I have questioned Plaut about his passion against Chamish, he was totally steadfast. No facts in the world could sway Plaut from his attitude. His answers were full of emotion. He did not answer my questions just lashed back about Chamish being crazy.
As I see it, Plaut has a personal dislike for Chamish and the Jewish Press fell prey to it. If it is not a personal dislike, it is probably part of a campaign to discredit Chamish so the truths he does discover are not given validity. I guess that would make it a conspiracy, and since I am the one to suspect it, by Plaut's definition that would make me mentally ill.
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Daniel Pipes may be an 'expert' on the Middle East but it is news to me
that he is also a serious student of psychology. To describe all those
who come to grips with some of the most serious conspiracies - and their
cover-ups - as paranoid delusions, - means that a huge percentage of
Israel needs to be in the padded cell recommended by this supposed
academic.
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At risk of being called a conspirator by Plaut, and therefore mentally ill by his definition, I question why Plaut is so vehemently opposed to Chamish's work that he would spend so much time and effort to discredit him.
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Conspiracy theories are like Chassidishe Maises (miraculous stories of Tzaddikim) If you believe all of them you're a fool, if you don't believe any you're in denial!!!
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Now look at this remarkable exchange, sent to me. The reader merely suggested that Plout appear on Tamar Yonah's radio show on Arutz Sheva to explain his views, because she often has me as his guest. What is Plout's answer? He calls Tamar "mentally ill."
I asked Plaut if he'd be prepared to be interviewed on
Tamar Yona's show. This was his reply!!
--- Steven Plaut
I do not debate with the mentally ill.
On Thu, 19 Jan 2006, > wrote:
Dear Mr Plaut Chamish often is heard expounding on Tamar Yona's Arutz 7 show. If she invited you, would you be prepared to be interviewed by her (by phone) to bring up the points you've raised in your interesting "Plague" article?
Yaakov
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In his defense petition to the court at the upcoming suit, plout submitted reams and reams and reams of quotes from my work. He knows every word and nuance of my writing. In fact, he knows it far better than I do. I certainly never read anything he's "written," so if he doesn't like my stuff, why doesn't he just ignore it? What is the reason for this obsession.
As you will soon see, many readers assume he is on Pipes' payroll and just wants to impress the boss. That answer is not entirely satisfactory to me. He attacks his mission with way too much vigor.
Can you imagine anyone working day and night, non-stop, just to put an end to my writing success? There have to be more sinister causes.
And I found one. A clinical psychologist working for an American prison service took the trouble of reading plout's "work" and analyzing it. His professional conclusion has to be the right one:
I suggest that the evidence indicates that Steven Plaut is suffering from an acute form of mental illness known as "Arrested Development." This mental illness is characterized by denial of the obvious. This mental illness usually develops in childhood as a psychological self-defense mechanism for survival in an abusive home. Mr. Plaut in fact is in denial of a truism that nearly every mature psychologically balanced adult acknowledges, id est, "The annals of history are replete with accounts of conspiracies."
Now we have to ask ourselves why Steven Plaut feels compelled to write missives containing such bitter vitriol? In a google search for Mr. Plaut's writings I discovered that nearly everything he writes is a tirade or a screed. His articles almost without exception are written in the attack mode. He reminds me of a two year old screaming to get his demands met. It is obvious to me that Mr. Plaut is crying out for help. He has an identical psychological profile as the inmates whom I counsel in the state prison system. He appears to be unbalanced. He needs to get help soon.
We are clearly dealing with one very sick individual.
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Now let us look at the anger the writers felt at the Jewish Press. First, it was reported to me by several people, that the paper didn't have the courtesy to reply to their letters:
I just wrote to the Letters to the Editor. I've heard nothing back.
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Other writers reported they refused to grant me an equal hearing:
A situation has developed in The Jewish Press where serializing Barry's essays has been replaced by serializing non-stop, primitive attacks against Barry, WITH NO RIGHT OF RESPONSE.
This is not right.
And I say that it is not right as a journalist who has been a member of the U.S. Society of Professional Journalists for 16 years, a member of the Foreign Press Association in Israel for 15 years, who produced a nationally syndicated radio show in New York (The Barry Farber Show), was a Business and Finance Reporter with Reuters' second largest bureau worldwide, in New York, and worked with CBS Television National Network News, in New York.
This is NOT RIGHT.
You cannot maintain the pretense of The Jewish Press being a serious newspaper -- unless you simply want to be seen as another Shtetl Jewish organizational rag -- if you go on and on and on publishing these Trash Barry Chamish "commentaries" and "letters-to-the-editor", NEVER allowing your victim a right of response.
This is an OUTRAGE.
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A group of Orthodox Jews would be the last group I would expect to go along with smearing another person as you allowed to happen in your paper. Using the Laws of Evidence as a standard, do you excuse yourself because you are not acting in a court. Well, you are acting in the court of public opinion. Perhaps you also ignore the possibility that what you printed was loshen hora.
Decency on your part would have posted the opposing opinions next to each other and let the reader come to his own conclusion.
*
Others felt the newspaper may have been on the take, and the "author" certainly was:
If this article did not come 'covered in money' then a modicum of research on your part would have shown the entire thrust of the article to be completely invalid. If it did come 'covered in money' then you should have prominently displayed the 'sponsor'.
*
Two writers demanded an apology to me or they would stop reading the amateurish rag for good. Below is one good example:
I won't be hitting your website ever again, and I will be asking my friends and family to find their Israel and Jewish news elsewhere. Unless, of course, you'd like to apologize to Barry Chamish IN PRINT. I am utterly outraged. I plan to post my opinion about this all over the web (see the Weekly Thought in the blogspot of Solongroup.org). You have no idea how large a sector of society you are offending. Take that into consideration at your next board meeting.
*
But everyone agreed the paper printed blatant libel:
The Jewish Press should be ashamed to allow this kind of vulgar slander to appear on its pages.
*
I have an appeal. I took the article to my attorney Dov Even Or and he advised me that it was amongst the most blatant and libelous hatchet jobs he's ever seen. But a suit from Israel would bankrupt me even before it was heard. I can afford to sue a plout from here but can't reach the jewish press without a New York based-attorney. If anyone can represent me on contingency, we have an easy victory and a great way to get Israel's anguish publicized. Please write me if you can take on a trial for justice...that will pay for itself.
I never had such good reaction so quickly.
The Americans For A Safe Israel website checked plout's holocaust denier charges against me and found them to be lies. In an act of true morality, I add for a change, the webmaster banned plout from every appearing on his list again.
Bravo, truth!
Barry
OK, last time around,
I checked Stormfront, they quote him, nothing to indicate that he had submitted material. As I pointed out to you earlier your articles are also quoted many places I doubt you submitted them to. . He is always identified as pro-Israel and a holocaust 'believer'. They quote him simply because he raises questions looking for accountability from the Israeli government. What a concept !
I also checked out other websites of the revisionist genera, they ALL cite him as pro Israel and anti revisionist. Not a one made any tiny effort to identify him as an ally. Several had vehement opposition to his appearing at the event that Pipes was so worked up over. Daniel Pipes would have done much better to have appeared with him to debate the revisionists. That's water under the bridge now, he didnt and the event didnt happen.
Barry Chamish did not " write a single piece for the nazis about his family", I had read that article before it appeared on that website. I suspect they copied it off other sites. As I believe is the case with the other articles, all of which are openly pro Israel and anti revisionist.
You still maintain that he has 'collaborated' with the neo-nazi sites, even after you said you did not say that he had no nazi views. You just cant keep from coming back to that canard.
Mr Plaut what I have been spending several hours doing was going over the links and websites that you cited to substantiate your accusations against Barry Chamish. To this moment there is not a single piece of evidence in what you cite to remotely substantiate your allegations and charges.
You also mix in terms such as 'deranged' in your allegations, although you are not a doctor. And you make statements that he is so ''desperate for attention that he will even publish his conspiracy nonsense on their websites.''.
The overwhelming conclusion I come to is that you have an incredible personal bias against Chamish that honestly affects your judgement regarding him. Your personal dislike is so strong that you cannot make a statement about him without going back to the items that have already been shown to you to be without merit.
Re to Daniel Pipes, he is an outspoken advocate of another arab state. You can decide for yourself whether he is pro-Arab or not. His writings are on record for his support of the Arab state.
Bottom line sir, in view of your strong and unjustified allegations amounting to unsubstantiated smears of another pro-Israel Israelite I am removing you from membership of AFSI and banning your articles on the AFSI list. I am cc'ing this to the list owner and other moderators.
Sincerely,
Yaacov Levi
Moderator
AFSI
Now you may not like the politics of the next site but look what it reveals about this plout. He is a genuine crook and nut. And more is pouring in. Court should be fun next week.
CounterPunch
One of FrontPages's most pernicious writers is Steven Plaut, a man who "could be thought of as Israel's Daniel Pipes" (Pipes is the instigator of Campus-Watch), and is someone who "launched an Internet site on which he publishes articles that typically espouse far-right positions" [6]. Given that Plaut was born and raised in the US, educated at top US universities, one would have hoped that he had learned the finer points of living in a democracy; however, he now lives in Israel, and this may have dulled his sensibilities.
For an insight into Plaut's integrity and civility the following incidents should warn anyone about the character of this person:
" a young political philosopher and human rights campaigner from Ben Gurion University, Dr. Neve Gordon, was accused by an extreme right-wing polemicist from Haifa University, Dr. Ste[v]en Plaut, of being a supporter of Norman Finkelstein, whose book, The Holocaust Industry, led many on the Right to associate him with Holocaust deniers. When Gordon decided to sue him for libel, Plaut subsequently disseminated articles attacking Gordon on the Internet, including on some extreme right-wing Kahanist sites. Morton Klein, the head of the Zionist Organization in America, also weighed in against Gordon by writing to the President and the Rector of Ben Gurion University questioning the continued employment of Gordon and protesting his libel case which, Klein argued, was an intervention in the civil liberties of Plaut because it denied Plaut's right to freedom of expression! [...] Writing under assumed names, Plaut has a long history of attacking, labeling, and targeting left-wing scholars in Israel. One anonymous article appeared under the name of Socrates in the Middle East Review of 2001. " [7] (emphasis added)
Here is a recent example where Plaut savages Jonathan Cook, an important free-lance journalist who frequently writes on Palestine and the Middle East. Plaut easily brandishes the "anti-Semite" slur and here he demonstrates hyperbolic tendencies:
Cook is a self-proclaimed "freelance journalist". He is in fact a vicious anti-Semite openly endorsing Palestinian mass murder of Jews. The very fact that he has never been deported nor jailed by Israel speaks volumes about the extent to which the Israeli government is really willing to defend the country and Israelis. Cook writes anti-Israel propaganda for the Egyptian anti-Semitic daily al-Ahram the anti-Semitic British daily The Guardian, al-Jazaara [sic], and just about any other anti-Semitic outfit you can think of.[8]
In 2004, Plaut lifted the email list of an electronic discussion forum based at the Univ. of Haifa [9]. Then, using this list, a co-conspirator called "Rocky" proceeded to send hateful emails to the forum posing as someone called Yusuf, a "Zionist Palestinian", who also was "your token Arab who adores Israel". "Rocky" then made the mistake of using CC instead of BCC to forward one of his diatribes. The ensuing email exchange between "Rocky" and Plaut discussing the faux pas was revealed when "Rocky" repeated the mistake by sending it to the entire distribution list! It would make amusing reading were it not for such a sordid attempt at deception, the smearing of others, and interfering in a discussion of Israeli academics on how to obtain a modicum of justice for the Palestinians [10]. Furthermore, one could well imagine the furor if a Palestinian academic were to pose as a malevolent prankster in a Zionist website posing as Moshe "your token Jew who adores Palestine." Plaut's activities demonstrate a lack of integrity and honesty. Perhaps one would expect higher standards from a Princeton educated professor, but maybe in Israel, in a business school, this is considered par for the course. These facts notwithstanding, he is a regular contributor to FrontPage!
posted by David Ben-Ariel at 11:00 AM
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