THE STILL SMALL VOICE OF A JEWISH BLOG
Silverstein, Richard

Israel e News

Fe b 2 2008
Israel

January 25, 2008 Several readers have asked to read this original,
expanded version of the article Haaretz published yesterday under
the title, In Praise of the Jewish Blogosphere:

I began my blog, Tikun Olam, in February, 2003 precisely one month
before the Iraq war began. But even more than my budding opposition to
the upcoming war, what motivated me to begin blogging was my passion
to speak out on behalf of Israeli-Palestinian peace. I spent all my
adult life dedicated to this cause, but until blogging developed I
had no regular, public means of expressing my views.

As someone who has always loved writing but not been a professional
writer, it was important to have a public means of expression since
I didn’t have a regular journalistic outlet. For years, I’d written
letters to the editor (i.e. Haaretz, the Irish Times or Los Angeles
Times). But having something published once in a blue moon was far too
frustrating. And because I was neither a professional journalist nor
an academic specializing in this subject, my ability to get articles
published was minimal.

So when I began reading about weblogs, as they were called then,
and the technology behind them, I decided to throw myself into it
with as much passion as I devoted to learning Microsoft Word in 1986,
shortly after it was first developed.

It was lonely at first. The world of blogs was much smaller then. The
world of Jewish blogging even smaller and the world of progressive
Jewish blogging even smaller still. At times, I wondered for whom I was
writing. But I kept telling myself that even if I was only writing for
myself that would be dayenu. First and foremost, a blog is a personal
expression of angst, passion, anger, identity-whatever are your deepest
emotions. Of course, everyone wants an audience. But if you don’t
have something deeply felt to say, then there’s no reason to have one.

In the beginning, I reached out with mixed success to other bloggers
with like-minded views. In 2005, I created a progressive discussion
forum, Israel-Palestine Forum. I thought creating a Jewish blogging
community was a worthwhile goal in itself; but that this also would
amplify our message in the greater blog world. Bloggers though are
fiercely independent creatures. They don’t want to be organized. They
don’t necessarily want to be part of a community. And they surely
don’t want to do what you think they should do. So I’ve had to adjust
my ambitions and set humbler goals.

After five years of blogging, 2,000 posts, and 6,000 comments, I have
a modest, but substantial readership with 200 subscribers and 200,000
unique visitors annually. The Guardian’s Comment is Free and American
Conservative Magazine have published my work. I have guest blogged
at the "alt-Jewish" website, Jewcy. Reporters have interviewed me
for stories in the New York Times, Jewish Forward, Jewish Week and
Seattle Post Intelligencer.

But my impact both on the blog world and the broader debate over the
I-P conflict is still less than I would like. The mainstream media
doesn’t beat a path to your door and even progressive sites like
Huffington Post, Salon, Slate, and The Nation already have journalists
covering this issue and aren’t looking for new voices. Al achat kama
v’kama, the mainstream media, who are even less interested. Bloggers,
except for the best known, are generally seen as second class
citizens. Their writing is viewed as less trustworthy than "real"
journalism. Bloggers are seen by "serious" journalists as shouters,
dilettantes and dabblers rather than serious participants in the
media discourse. This of course causes bloggers like me endless
heartburn. I know that many of my posts deserve wider distribution,
but since I’m not a major political blogger like Juan Cole, Markos
Moulitsas or Eric Alterman, I have no traction.

Despite the difficulties I outlined above, blogs have played a
critical role in the American Jewish community and their importance
will only continue to grow. In the age before blogs, Jewish leaders
were like political bosses. They ruled their roosts. Once installed,
they were rock-like presences and stayed in their positions seemingly
forever. Their word was halacha l’moshe mi’sinai. Anyone who doubted
it was easily frozen out of communal discourse. The leaders’ politics
were conservative and generally supportive of the Israeli right. The
Jewish media was a corporate entity that largely expressed the views
of such leaders.

Certainly, there were dissenters regarding the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict like Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg and others. There were also
progressive Jewish peace groups over the years like Breira and New
Jewish Agenda. But with few financial resources, small memberships,
and young, inexperienced staff, these groups formed barely a ripple in
the communal pond. Their voice was heard mostly by those who already
subscribed to their ideas. They were easily sidelined.

Blogs have changed that. Now, Jewish "bosses" like Abe Foxman
(ADL) or Jack Rosen (AJCongress) can be held up to immediate public
scrutiny. When Foxman refused to acknowledge the Armenian genocide,
the Jewish press and bloggers took him to task and he backed down.

When JTA published a false ZOA claim that Desmond Tutu equated
Israel with Hitler, Jewish Voice for Peace’s Muzzlewatch brought the
fraud to the Jewish community’s attention forcing JTA to correct the
record. When a Minneapolis Jewish community staff member advised a
local college that Tutu was anti-Israel and the college rescinded a
speaking invitation, Muzzlewatch was again able to lead the debate
causing the college to back down. None of this would have happened
before blogs.

Even more importantly, when Israeli policy goes off the rails as
it did during the Lebanon war, peace bloggers published almost
minute by minute coverage documenting the carnage and folly of the
military-political decisions that informed conflict. Perhaps for the
first time in human history bloggers on both sides of a war could not
only read the words of those on the other side, they could communicate
with the "enemy" almost in real time. I think this had a tremendous
impact on blog readers because reading the unfiltered suffering of your
enemy had the effect of breaking down the will to fight on both sides.

Within Israel and the American Jewish community, there was a consensus
in favor of the war while it raged. Not so in the blogosphere where
there was a furious debate pro and con. But what was most important
to me was that progressive bloggers had a place to speak truth to
power during those dark days. We could rail against the blindness,
callousness and lies emanating from the IDF spokespeople and
politicians. No one could pull the plug on us. And while it is true
that we may not have been feared or even noticed by the Halutzes and
Olmerts of this world, we could have our say and people listened.

I am not the first to note that blogs have democratized communication
and political debate. But this is especially true in the formerly
top-down structure of the Jewish communal hierarchy. Malcolm Hoenlein
doesn’t give me marching orders. Neither does AIPAC. I march to my
own drummer. And that is the beauty of the blog.

Not that all’s always well in the Jewish blog world. Along with this
democratization of the means of communication has come a maelstrom
of conflicting opinions. The breaking down of communal consensus has
caused a breakdown of civility and an accompanying barrage of hate,
invective, and verbal assault. Just look at the Haaretz, Jerusalem
Post or Ynet talkbacks if you want to see evidence of such chaos. And
the talkbacks are moderated! Imagine if they weren’t.

There has also been a steep rise in partisanship. More radical,
violent and racist ideas get attention than ever did in the past.

Reasoned debate has almost become a thing of the past. Instead,
people go for the jugular. I have been unsuccessfully sued for
libel for calling militant pro-Israel activist Rachel Neuwirth a
"Kahanist." The owner of another far-right site,

Masada2000, started a mock blog in my name which included pornographic
references and a stolen image of my son and me baking cookies
to which a caption was added claiming we were making Palestinian
suicide bombs. Masada2000’s owner also threatened me with genital
mutilation. Members of the Kahanist Jewish Task Force website wished
that I would get cancer of the rectum.

It would be wrong to see these merely as aberrant Jewish expressions
or the actions of lone troubled individuals (though they might be
that). For the internet has given wingnuts a huge megaphone with
which to amplify such hate and bring it into the mainstream.

Over the past few months, an anonymous right-wing hoax e mail campaign
flooded the inboxes of American Jews. It sought to portray Barack
Obama as a stealth Muslim presidential candidate who would bring the
views of Al Qaeda into the White House. In a close Democratic primary
and general election, these types of smears don’t have to have much
credibility nor do they have to.

All they have to do is instill fear and doubt into the minds of a
relatively small group of voters in order to have a critical effect
on the elections. While Goebbels championed the "big lie" these
slandermeisters work by planting small seeds of doubt in the minds
of many.

Blogs can represent the highest values and ideals of Jewish
tradition. And they can also represent the basest emotions lurking
in the Jewish breast. Often they are somewhere in between. But there
is no going back to the days of yesteryear.

I work to improve the Jewish blogosphere by encouraging more liberal
voices to join the debate. We need more prominent communal figures and
even journalists to understand the power of blogs and begin writing
their own. Some like Leonard Fein, Bernard Avishai and Daniel Levy
have already done so. But there is room for much more. And I’m hoping
that the mainstream media both in Israel and America will expand
their interest in blogs and incorporate what we have to say into
their reporting.

The opinions and views articulated by the author do not necessarily
reflect those of Israel e News.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress