Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Elder of Ziyon
Anis, the guy who wrote the "Free Gaza" song that I parodied and who threatened legal action against me, has a section of his website called "The Faked Interviews." These are a must-read for their sheer cluelessness.
What Anis does is he creates a dialogue between his "faked" self and a "faked" opponent, where Anis gets to write both sides of the argument and therefore manages to make his opponents look like fools. As anyone with a high-school education knows, this is called a "straw-man" argument and it proves nothing, except perhaps the ignorance of the debater about his opponents' positions.
His arguments against Zionists, for example, are pretty much dedicated to the idea that Zionists have no legitimate arguments and they therefore tirelessly evoke "anti-semitism" to shut up their opponents.
Well, he has now honored me with a "faked interview" with Elder of Ziyon.
Cluelessness seemingly has no limits.
For example, he completely misses the point of the Rachel Corrie song I just wrote:
Faked Anis: Hate speech is not allowed on YouTube.Anis (sorry, "Faked Anis") reads the Corrie satire - written from the perspective of an Arab terrorist who partners with the ISM to mislead idealistic college students into conflating "resistance" with peace - as if these are words I believe!
FEZ: It is my freedom. You are for freedom, aren't you?
Faked Anis: You are not free.
FEZ: Of course I am. I called Rachel Corrie an idiot and a tool of terrorists.
Faked Anis: She was killed by an Israeli tank when she defended the human rights.
FEZ: Her death was a victory.
Faked Anis: I saw that you wrote that on your blog.
FEZ: Her death has been the best thing since the SS Liberty!
Faked Anis: You wrote that, too.
FEZ: Yes! And I am proud of it.
Faked Anis: This is your level.
FEZ: I think you meant that as an insult.
Faked Anis: I said: this is your level.
FEZ: You won't get away with insulting me, you bastard.
Who can deny that Rachel Corrie's death was the best thing to happen from the pro-Palestinian perspective since the USS Liberty? The tragic death of a misguided student is not something Israelis or Zionists celebrate, but it was a propaganda bonanza for those who want to see Israel disappear. The words "Rachel Corrie" are used in arguments in much the same way that Anis accuses Jews of using "anti-Semitism" - as a club to end all arguments. (And she was not "killed by an Israeli tank", either.)
And those who read this blog would know that I would never insult my opponents as crudely as Anis imagines.
Let me be clear: No, I do not believe that the Free Gaza movement would be so stupid as to bring bullets and guns to the Gaza shore. That was exaggeration for the purposes of the parody - that's how humor works. But like all humor, it must have a grain of truth, and the ISM, with which Free Gaza is closely associated, has in the past actively aided terrorists.
From perusing Anis' blog - not an easy feat in itself as it is difficult to navigate without a map - I do not believe that Anis himself is a terrorist or even very sympathetic to terror. But a surprisingly large number of NGO members and his fellow"peace activists" are on the record as supporting "armed resistance", "by any means possible" - including suicide bombing. (Sources upon request.) To publicize that fact in a humorous way is in no way "hate speech." Anyone who thinks it does simply does not understand what hate speech is. (As far as "copyright infringement" goes, read the comments by erkwit on the YouTube video page.)
The attention is flattering, I must say. The only part I feel bad about is that I pride myself on being fairly precise in what I write and I am astonished that someone can read my blog and misunderstand what I am saying so badly. Perhaps I overestimate the intellect of a small portion of my audience.
