CiF is running out of Israel-bashing arguments. Yigal Bronner’s article is proof. I read it a couple of times (which is good for me where any CiF article is concerned) because I couldn’t believe at first that the CiF coven could commission such unmitigated rubbish.
My first reaction (to the second reading) was one of irritation at Bronner’s whingeing tone. What sort of a sad act spends time searching through an off-the-wall website simply so that he can construct a straw man argument-type article for CiF?
My second, when I looked through some of the frankly strange comments below the line, was whether this was a pathetic attempt by CiF to irritate CiF Watch. I came to this conclusion because suddenly people were being allowed to mention CiF Watch in the comments section and their comments were not deleted, at least not immediately!
Masada2000 is one of thousands of crazy right-wing sites on the internet but Bronner, because he is writing for CiF which hates Israel and its people, battens onto it and tries to make it into the equivalent of a five course repast for the baying wolves below the line to feed on.
In effect, Bronner has constructed a straw man by presenting Masada2000 as if it were holy writ and the definitive standard by which all Jewish supporters of Israel operate and construe the world. However this particular straw man argument is obviously and fatally flawed because Masada2000 is not taken seriously by the vast majority Jews, who are probably as repulsed by it as he is. It suits Bronner’s and CiF’s purpose, however, to try to have us believe the opposite.
Bronner certainly puts a great deal of energy into trying to convince us. Having put that first tendentious premise in place so that he can then vent his spleen (and excite the Guardianistas) by inveighing against it, he then goes on to do this by describing in detail some of the more ripe comments on Masada2000, together with the by now obligatory reminder on CiF that Masada2000 also insults Palestinians. However, the more he writes the less clear is the point of what he is writing. Is the poor man hurt that a crazy site should have listed him in their “S.H.I.T.” list for his views about his country, or is he being used by CiF to take another swipe at his country? Whichever it may be, it seems that Bronner has never heard that he should stop digging when he is in a hole.
Trying to find any point of substance in this article – apart from its obvious one, which is to undermine Israel and Jews, which is really nothing new on CiF – is rather like trying to catch smoke. There is a temptation to extrapolate from what is actually there onto what CiF’s motives might be for commissioning it.
Here are some hypotheses:
(1) CiF has simply run out of substantial arguments to make. The golden goose of Israel/Jew-hatred has simply stopped laying. There has to be a limit to the number of times CiF can reinvent the wheel, after all.
(2) Judging by the comments below the line, and the publicity for CiFWatch (for which many thanks to Seaton) CiF is becoming so desperate as to hope that Bronner’s article will check CiFWatch’s progress. It has become evident, particularly in regard to the Alderman affair, that CiF is losing its grip quite seriously. Could this article be a misguided attempt to open the door to (gasp!) criticism of CiFWatch by name, or is there a more sinister agenda – to try to link CiFWatch with the off-the-wall Masada2000 in a crackpot attempt to discredit us alongside it?
(The reader should note that I did not write “reasoned criticism” above. That would be too much to hope for. For CiF to criticise this blog in a reasoned fashion would imply firstly that it acknowledges our existence, and secondly that it respects our right to reply to what it says. Since Seaton behaved in such a despicable fashion towards Professor Alderman because he wrote an article for us, reasoned criticism from CiF or the Guardianistas will, I think, be a very long time coming).
(3) The final, parsimonious hypothesis: that CiF is finally nearing the end of its list of useful idiots upon whom it can call and pay £75.00 to spout rubbish.
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COMMITTEE FOR ACCURACY IN MIDDLE EAST REPORTING AND ANALYSIS
A Drowning Blog Clutching at a Straw Man?
CiF is running out of Israel-bashing arguments. Yigal Bronner’s article is proof. I read it a couple of times (which is good for me where any CiF article is concerned) because I couldn’t believe at first that the CiF coven could commission such unmitigated rubbish.
My first reaction (to the second reading) was one of irritation at Bronner’s whingeing tone. What sort of a sad act spends time searching through an off-the-wall website simply so that he can construct a straw man argument-type article for CiF?
My second, when I looked through some of the frankly strange comments below the line, was whether this was a pathetic attempt by CiF to irritate CiF Watch. I came to this conclusion because suddenly people were being allowed to mention CiF Watch in the comments section and their comments were not deleted, at least not immediately!
Masada2000 is one of thousands of crazy right-wing sites on the internet but Bronner, because he is writing for CiF which hates Israel and its people, battens onto it and tries to make it into the equivalent of a five course repast for the baying wolves below the line to feed on.
In effect, Bronner has constructed a straw man by presenting Masada2000 as if it were holy writ and the definitive standard by which all Jewish supporters of Israel operate and construe the world. However this particular straw man argument is obviously and fatally flawed because Masada2000 is not taken seriously by the vast majority Jews, who are probably as repulsed by it as he is. It suits Bronner’s and CiF’s purpose, however, to try to have us believe the opposite.
Bronner certainly puts a great deal of energy into trying to convince us. Having put that first tendentious premise in place so that he can then vent his spleen (and excite the Guardianistas) by inveighing against it, he then goes on to do this by describing in detail some of the more ripe comments on Masada2000, together with the by now obligatory reminder on CiF that Masada2000 also insults Palestinians. However, the more he writes the less clear is the point of what he is writing. Is the poor man hurt that a crazy site should have listed him in their “S.H.I.T.” list for his views about his country, or is he being used by CiF to take another swipe at his country? Whichever it may be, it seems that Bronner has never heard that he should stop digging when he is in a hole.
Trying to find any point of substance in this article – apart from its obvious one, which is to undermine Israel and Jews, which is really nothing new on CiF – is rather like trying to catch smoke. There is a temptation to extrapolate from what is actually there onto what CiF’s motives might be for commissioning it.
Here are some hypotheses:
(1) CiF has simply run out of substantial arguments to make. The golden goose of Israel/Jew-hatred has simply stopped laying. There has to be a limit to the number of times CiF can reinvent the wheel, after all.
(2) Judging by the comments below the line, and the publicity for CiFWatch (for which many thanks to Seaton) CiF is becoming so desperate as to hope that Bronner’s article will check CiFWatch’s progress. It has become evident, particularly in regard to the Alderman affair, that CiF is losing its grip quite seriously. Could this article be a misguided attempt to open the door to (gasp!) criticism of CiFWatch by name, or is there a more sinister agenda – to try to link CiFWatch with the off-the-wall Masada2000 in a crackpot attempt to discredit us alongside it?
(The reader should note that I did not write “reasoned criticism” above. That would be too much to hope for. For CiF to criticise this blog in a reasoned fashion would imply firstly that it acknowledges our existence, and secondly that it respects our right to reply to what it says. Since Seaton behaved in such a despicable fashion towards Professor Alderman because he wrote an article for us, reasoned criticism from CiF or the Guardianistas will, I think, be a very long time coming).
(3) The final, parsimonious hypothesis: that CiF is finally nearing the end of its list of useful idiots upon whom it can call and pay £75.00 to spout rubbish.
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