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Sharansky gets pied; israelinsider crosses the line

A notorious American-Jewish anti-Israel activist chucked a pie at Natan Sharansky this week as he was beginning a lecture at Rutgers University.

While the demonstrator’s move was certainly “distasteful,” I ultimately find it more disconcerting that israelinsider, a blatantly pro-Israel news site funded by the Bronfman Philanthropies, somehow finds it responsible journalism to publish the perpetrator’s telephone number and private e-mail address. Perhaps what he did was dickish, but that’s just wrong…It’s bullying. After all, <sarcasm>I’m so sure getting hundreds of phonecalls from pro-Israel fanatics calling him a piece of shit is going to make him feel all that much better about the intentions of Jewish people.</sarcasm>

18 thoughts on “Sharansky gets pied; israelinsider crosses the line

  1. I disagree. If it’s OK for him to pie someone, then it’s OK for someone else to publish the perp’s ID info.
    Especially, when he proudly takes the credit for it on Indymedia.

  2. so what you’re saying is, you think it’s okay to bully people you disagree with? he pied a notoriously scummy politician (felt that way by some israelis themselves not just crazies like greenhouse) and you think it’s ok to call him up and curse him out?

  3. Sharansky a notoriously scummy politician? first i’d heard of it. all i’d heard about him was the refusenik stuff he’d spent years for in russian prisons, a pretty righteous social policy and some really powerful anti-fascist statements, including, about prison:
    “if your heart is free, a prison is never a prison” and such. what is his notorious scumminess?

  4. mo1, I agree with the previous post. You made up the “notoriously scummy politician” out of whole cloth.
    And throwing a pie isn’t bullying?
    I think that anyone who pies a public figure deserves that kind of response. Freedom of expression works both ways.

  5. next to sharon, sharansky is one of the biggest supporters of illegal settlements. the fact that he feeds the apocalyptical mania of frummie settlers is disturbing and ultimately scummy.

  6. Natan Sharansky is an inspiration to many and you would be lucky if you accomplished even 1% of what he has in his life to date.
    Also, the fact that you generalize with the expression “frummie settlers” shows your ignorance. Do you even live here in Israel? If not, I suggest you get your facts right, or you run the risk of sounding ignorant.

  7. dude, i used to live in the old city; my sister’s a member of the jewish legion; i know what goes on in chevron & i know what type of stoking of jewish ethnocentrism the israeli government partakes in to mobilize the settler movement .. don’t give me that shit

  8. It is very nice that you lived in the old city (while you were on a program, no dout) and that your sister isthe member of some Jewish organization. But I LIVE here. I pay taxes too, so I have a say in what goes on. And to characterize settlers as “frummies”, which may I add is a derogatory word for religious people, is not only ignorant but offensive.
    Many of the “settlers” you speak of, and whom I have the pleasure of knowing, are not driven by “apocalyptical mania” (whatever that means, but I assume you are referring to some religous ideal of Greater Israel). They are driven either by the relatively cheap housing, or the area itself. And the ones driven by their religous convictions are not all gun-toting militants, but law-abiding, decent people.
    You should ask yourself – if Israel allows Arabs to live within its borders, what is wrong with Israelis living within the final borders of a palestinian state?

  9. many of those settlements, including what little is left of the “illegal” ones, most of which have been if not fully dismantled, then at least constantly harrased by police, are hwere the freest, independant anarchistish Israeli culture is happening. i’m not talking about places like tapuach, where the sickness is clear, but i don’t think that’s what Natan Sharansky is into either. i get the sense of him, from speeches and appearances, that he’s one of the few genuine idealists active in israeli politics, supporting really controversial places and ideas if he’s convinced of their righteousness.
    did you hang out in the Israeli parts of the Shtachim, with the dope smoking flower kids who build their own houses and grow their own food? or just the weird American neighborhoods?

  10. You should ask yourself – if Israel allows Arabs to live within its borders, what is wrong with Israelis living within the final borders of a palestinian state?
    you should ask yourself, what is wrong with the israeli government using your tax dollars to build housing in palestinian territory–which serves only to encroach into the areas of indigenous peoples, as is demonstrated by the path of the new security wall–as opposed to using that money to subsidize housing in israel proper.
    cheap housing isn’t the reason people move to settlements; it’s just an incentive offered by the israeli government. the reasons are political and religious–and primarily religious:
    when i was at aish, esther jungreiss gave a lecture on why we shouldn’t let the palestinians have our land and how they needed more young and abled bodied people to move to chevron to prevent the holy land god gave us from falling into arab hands. my friends told me ariel sharon gave them the same spiel when they went on birthright–“make aliyah! we’ll pay for it! move to a settlement in the west bank! we’ll pay for it!”
    you’re telling me that orthodox fanatics don’t take advantage of mesmerized ba’al t’shuvah kids by duping them into believing living on a settlement is the jewish equivalent of strapping on a suicide belt?
    and uh, apparently you don’t know what’s going on on the settlements if you don’t know what the jewish legion is. they’re the jewish militia defending the settlers: http://www.jewishlegion.net/

  11. Nice discussion y’all are having here. The bottom line is that us Yidden are an entity unto ourselves. Whether we accept that or not, non-jews will remind us of that time and time again. What will happen to the pie thrower is that he will be assimilated out of the Jewish people – 1 or 2 generations top. As for the current State of Israel, it serves the Jewish people by fighting for our physical survival.The government should acknowledge that it’s an impossibility to have a democracy and allow non-jews full citizenship and rights(demographics if I must spell it out). Yet there are self-destructive Jews like the pie thrower who would like nothing more than the destruction of the Jewish state as well as their own destruction.

  12. Mobius,
    Just because I haven’t heard of the Jewish legion does not make me oblivious to the settlements. I know plenty of people who live in these areas. And for the record, cheap housing is VERY MUCH A REASON for people moving to settlements. Let me remind you that I live here, and not on some Aish program. I speak to people. I can count at least 8 friends of mine living in the territories because of the cheap housing.
    Your comparison of telling people to live on settlements with strapping on a suicide belt is ridiculous. I suspect you use such offensive analogies to cover the weakness of your argument.

  13. and i suspect, in turn, that you turn a blind eye to, or intentionally cover up, the very wretched behavior of your fellow jew to advance an agenda that oversteps the boundaries of legitimate jewish survival. you’re acting like the stuff i’m describing doesn’t go on. i have hundreds of relatives living in israel, and dozens living on settlements… don’t talk to me like i’m clueless because i spent the time i was living there in a yeshiva. i wasn’t a tourist on birthright.
    you still refuse to acknowledge, however, that it would make more sense–on all levels–for israel to take the money they’re using to subsidize illegal settlements, and to pour it into subsidizing housing in israel proper. why you won’t admit that is likely because you’re one of the apocalyptical types lending themselves to the jewish side of jihad. “if i move to a settlement for god and israel, then surely moshiach will come!”
    it is just like saying, “if i blow myself up on a bus…”
    let me ask you a few questions: #1. are you frum? #2. were you born in israel or did you emigrate there? #3. are you ashkenazi? #4. how old are you?

  14. i’m not a product, i’m a refugee — i felt as though they were a cult trying to brainwash me into staying in israel, moving to a settlement, and giving them 20% of my salary for the rest of my life. so i came home. they still call me for money.

  15. Mobius,
    You are making a hell of alot of assumptions. This discussion started after you dissed Natan Sharansky, and now you are accusing me of being an “apocalyptical type” (whatever that really means).
    Living in yeshiva is hardly like living in the day-to-day Israel. It is an isolated environment. You seem clueless because of your gross generalizations about settlers, and your propensity for making outlandish points in hyperbolic language, rather than sticking to facts.
    Look back at my comments and tell me where I said there are NO settlers who act out of religious conviction. I made the point that you can’t generalize, and I also took offense to your term “frummie”, which is derogatory, not to mention your comparison of settlers to suicide bombers.
    My own personal views are not really relevant, but I make them clear on my blog. Given that you are going to keep screaming that I am “frummie apocalyptical settler” or something along those lines, I will answer your intrusive questions anyway. I am a 29 year old immigrant from Australia, and have lived in Israel for 3 years, after having been there for a year on a program. I have a wife and two children. I am ashkenazi. I am certainly a religious Zionist and proud of it. BUT to make it VERY CLEAR to you, if there would be a guarantee of peace if we dismantled some settlements, I would support that (although I personally believe that the settlements are not the obstacle to peace, and that the palestinians have not given up their dream of destroying Israel).
    If you want more insight into my beliefs and views, go visit my blog.

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