When Will the Penny Drop?

“Comment is Free” for once published a decent article on the Israel/Palestinian conflict that presented a moderate Palestinian viewpoint. If this, together with the fact that Seth Freedman was demoted to CiF Belief, is a signal that the Guardian editorial policy is undergoing change then this is certainly to be welcomed but somehow I’m not holding my breath because change at the Guardian is often short-lived.
Besides the comment thread was a cesspit of antisemitic comments once again, the perpetrators of whom were “Comment is Free” regulars that the Guardian refuses to ban. As MindTheCrap astutely observed:

MindTheCrap

9 Nov 2009, 12:49PM
It is interesting that on this rare occasion that CiF actually has a Palestinian discussing internal Palestinian affairs, the knee-jerk “experts” in the CIF crowd automatically reject his views because they are contrary to their simplistic script. Which leads to the question – are they really pro-Palestinian or simply anti-Israel?

So lets start off first of all with the self-appointed defender of antisemitic speech on CiF Watch, good old Berchmans with the following tireless classic:

Berchmans
9 Nov 2009, 5:16PM
smtx01
## Quite a few Anti Semites posing as Anti Zionists today…##
Care to grow a pair and name them? If not..No to tired vague and referenceless allegations of anti Semitism from tired and vague posters! 🙂
B

Well Berchmans if you do insist.
Here’s the first one by orwellwasright taking a page right out of the Brian Whitaker playbook.

orwellwasright
9 Nov 2009, 1:33PM
InappropriateName: everything you post is so inherently flawed and full of such contradictions I’m not sure that replying isn’t akin to something masochistic:
“The old “Israeli government propaganda” myth – people still fall for it. Shame.”
Ah, so you’re suggeting that Israel doesn’t engage in propaganda; that the idea is a “myth”? And you’re to be taken seriously on here? I guess you’ve never heard of the National Information Directorate? Missed the reports regarding the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s paying people to post pro-Israel comments on forums?
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3744516,00.html
The old “Israeli government propaganda” myth” indeed. Hilarious assertion, InappropriateName…
“And Israel does that for no particular reason, does it?”
Well most objective observers are pretty clear on their understanding of why Israel breaks ceasefires, and it’s because they can’t accomplish their illegal aims of territorial acquisition in a climate of peace and reconciliation. Think about it (if you’re capable) – Israel’s territorial expansion has been conducted entirely under the guise of conflict. It is the modus operandi for the creation of Greater Israel.
“All these terrorist groups sing from the same hymn sheet. Doesn’t really matter about the name – it’s the motives that you look for.”
Not one for nuance, are you? Lump them all into the same category – makes it much easier for you to get your head around, I suppose. No matter that it completely removes context and detail – you obviously manage without that.

Then there is this one from ooh lets guess, none other than good ol’ Berchmans jumping on the orwellwasright bandwagon.

Berchmans
9 Nov 2009, 2:19PM
InappropriateName
## Has there ever been any evidence that even one post on CiF was from one of these “paid” posters? ##
It is always an own goal to suggest folk are paid when there is no need. Enough people are clearly fixated enough and angry enough to do this without cash…smearing lefties as haters seems to be all the compensation required. The fact that a tiny and occasionally brutal country can command so many posts in a Brit lefty paper…do you not find that weird?
B

And here is Papalagi true to form abusing a pro-Israel poster :

Papalagi
9 Nov 2009, 2:38PM
Sydk asks:
Was this a thread on the Journal of Psychiatry, where contributors were asked to present some of the more deranged ideas mooted by ostensibly (but seriously questionable) sane individuals.
I know that for you the idea that Palestinians are humans is a crazy idea. The reason is because you are a unrepentant racist with a criminal mind.

And here’s another one from Papalagi that reeks of Jewish conspiracy theory:

Papalagi

9 Nov 2009, 5:18PM
Millifield wrote:
A mockery is then made of international law and any nation populating or making claim to a disputed territory, from the Basque to the Kurds, could independently declare a State without negotiation. A dangerous precedent would have been set, and thereby an even more dangerous world created.
Given Israel’s history, it’s a bit funny to see you writing this. It seems that it created a more dangerous world for a lot of people, that it created a lot of conflicts and that it led to allowing some countries to attack other people and to claim that the territory of those other people are “disputed territory”. But you don’t like to talk of Israel itself as disputed territory, do you?

And what would an I/P thread be without Moeran (or Moron as we like to call him) – here’s some interesting CiF Watch trivia, Moron was a secondary school headmaster

Moeran
9 Nov 2009, 3:51PM
Papalagi
To your list of Israeli desires should be added a passive “foreign” workforce to provide cheap labour, confined except when working in secure bantustans.

Then there is this from rubberneck wishing for the destruction of the Jewish state:

rubberneck
9 Nov 2009, 12:37PM
Israel has broken every single ceasefire first with it’s illegal state assassinations of democraticaly elected representatives of the Palestinian people.
Israel has no interest with peace. It will only concede land if it loses it in a war.
It’s enemies are learning fast. Gaza is one thing but attack Iran and the end will be in sight.

And finally there is this one from KrustytheKlown:

KrustytheKlown

9 Nov 2009, 3:55PM
When Jews buy land with actual cash at three times the price it is still never ”Jewish land” but belongs to someone else in the eyes of the bigot brigade.
It’s always interesting to note when one of our Zionist friends uses the word “jews’ instead of “israelis’. They invariably do so to cultivate sympathy and a sense of victimhood (You never hear them speak of ‘Jewish tank bombers” and they’d probably accuse anyone who did use that phrase of the ol’ A.S.) And, of course, accusing people of the ol’ A.S. sp precisly what such posters do when referring to Israelis(or pre-state Zionists) as ‘jews’.
But more fascinating still is the notion that when ‘jews’ buy land, it somehow becomes ‘jewish land’. I was quite unaware than land took on the religious affiliations of its owners upon purchase (or theft). What happens? Does the plot of land go through a conversion ceremony, with a rabbi present? Or something like that?

It would seem to me that if the Guardian really wanted to solve the problem of antisemitism on its I/P comment threads it would ban each and everyone of the antisemitic posters listed above. Problem is it doesn’t and you’ve gotta wonder why.