I Defended John Hawkins, So Debbie Schlussel Spreads Loshen Hora About Me

"Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel said: On three things does the world endure: justice, truth and peace, as the verse states, 'Truth and peace judge in your gates'" (Zechariah 8:16).

Last night, while reading my twitter account, I saw a post by a "nameless twitterer who once got thrown off of facebook for being a hater" calling Right Wing Blogger John Hawkins an Anti-Semite (the above mentioned twitterer has since deleted 17 hours of tweets off of his site to hide his act. And since he sent me a cease and desist email I have taken his name off the post, but he knows who he is).

IMHO, Jews have to be very careful using the term Anti-Semite, not because I believe we should be timid, but because if used too much, and for the wrong reason, the charge loses its meaning. As a Jew I feel that one thing that Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel meant by the quote above is that it is my job to defend a non-Jew like John when he is falsely accused of being of Jew-hatred. I wrote a tweet defending John. After all no one could call me an anti-Semite, I am a Jew who has been fighting for Jewish causes my entire life. That one tweet set off a chain of events that led Debbie Schlussel to call me pervert and a Kappo who should have been around in the 1930's to help lead fellow Jews to the gas chambers. But on the bright side, I was right, she didn't call me an anti-Semite

Now to be honest my relationship with John has been mostly "on-line," I did meet him a few times at CPAC. Like many of my fellow bloggers (and like me) John sends out emails every couple of days "pimping" a story on his site. Many of those stories are about Israel or other issues relevant to Jews, NOT ONCE has there been an anti-Semitic reference, line etc in any story of his I have read, nor had there been anti-Semitic references in the few conversations we had at CPAC. That doesn't mean I share all of his opinions about Israel, some of them I strongly disagree with, but in most of his writing, John and I are on the same side, and nobody in the daily minyan I go to seven days a week has ever called ME an anti-Semite (I will ask my Rabbi tonight and will let you guys know if I am a Jew-Hater).

I responded to that "nameless twitterer who once got thrown off of facebook for being a hater" that I knew John and he was not an anti-Semite. The "nameless twitterer who once got thrown off of facebook for being a hater" responded that I was the "token Jew" of the right. Gee Token? I wonder how all of the other Right Wing Jewish bloggers would react to that charge. I also wonder why someone who I supported when facebook threatened him with banishment would react in such a nasty way to me.

Today I learned what the charge was all about. Apparently Debbie Schussel has been attacking John because he took a stance that she disagreed with, read the story here. The "nameless twitterer who once got thrown off of facebook for being a hater" had decided to pass along her Loshen Hora. As a supposed Orthodox Jew she should know better.

But because of my defense of John, I started to receive vicious emails from Debbie Schussel threatening me.

Many long term Lid readers may have noticed that I recently dropped my pseudonym Sammy Benoit and began to use my real name. The reason for the pseudonym Sammy (who originally lived in Tennessee) was the untrue charges above which was posted all over the internet. One of which has stopped completely, the other who comes back every few months. My wife and I stopped caring about the taunting harassment, emails and snail mails years ago.

But apparently Debbie cares. She sent me three threatening emails threatening to reveal all. I initially posted all of her venomous emails completely, except for the links to the hate sites containing the charges described above. Then I received Ms Schlussel's "Cease and Desist E-Mail" (cc-ing her Attorney who must be a very, very, busy man). Ms Schlussel told me that her hate mails were copyright materials and I must remove them from my site. Now to be honest, I would not want venomous materials to be copyrighted in my name, but my attorney says that I should not taunt an angry woman who could write emails like that. He did say, however, that I could post her most recent email because it came after I warned her that any future emails would in fact be published. I won't this time because I respect what she used to be (and because its nearly one am).

As I always say there are good things about the internet, and there are bad, the bad part is that the people who allow charges like the ones above to be posted on their websites do not care about the truth, and in most cases there are no way to remove them from their sites (most of with are housed outside of the US), without massive legal bills, which considering the fact that I have been out of work since before Obama was elected is out of my reach

So you may soon see more things posted by Debbie and the "nameless twitterer who once got thrown off of facebook for being a hater" about me on their sites or on other sites. If you do, please let me know as I found an attorney who will help me in this particular matter pro bono.

Other than that I don't care anymore. I have been called more names in the past 12 hours than I get called during Thanksgiving dinner with my VERY liberal family.

I am not going to create a new pseudonym. Those of you who read with me or deal with me on-line know what, who I am.

Those of you who know me personally not as a virtual human also know what kind of person I am--not perfect but doing my damnedest.

Allow me to suggest the fact that this crap is being dug out of the sewer by Ms Schussel tells you a lot more about the kind of person SHE is, than the type of person I am.

UPDATE Apparently I am part of a very large club, here are a few other people that she has smeared, apparently Ms. Schlussel is a regular Loshen Hora machine. This is how she was described on Joshuapundit:

Conservative blogger and film critic Debbie Schlussel is someone I've interacted with in the past and whom I link to because, in spite of a personality that could peel paint, she has done and continues to do superb work when it comes to unmasking the creeping jihad in America.

That said, she's the sort of person who seems to delight in picking fights with others on the Right side of the blogosphere in almost a Chuckie Johnson mode, including Yael over at Boker Tov Boulder and Pam Geller over at Atlas Shrugs. TYPING IN CAPITALS and accusing her foe d'jour of G-d knows what unspeakable crime, the thought has crossed my mind more than once that she tries to diminish others with the idea of inflating herself.

Regular readers of this page will know that I have described Pamela Geller as the person with the biggest heart I have ever seen, Yael is not only a great blogger at Boker Tov Boulder, but one of the nicest people on the net. John Hawkins and I are in very good company. Along with Yael and Pamela, There is Sean Hannity and "the Great One" Mark Levin. Plus there are other bloggers who have faced Ms Schlussel's wrath:

Is Debbie Schlussel Just Plain Nuts?-Saberpoint

The Obligatory Debbie Schlussel Post-Infidels are cool

Mommy! I'm Scared of Debbie Schlussel!-Villainous Company

Debbie Schlussel Goes After Mark Levin For Supporting Hezbollah-Riehl World View

Schlussel's Anti-Hannity Allegations Investigated and Found 'Fundamentally Flawed'-Newsbusters


If anybody else has been attacked by Ms Schlussel Please email me your post and I will add.