The missing Facebook page! UPDATE!

It was a dark & stormy night. Actually it was day after day with continual dreariness. This is a short story about how a Facebook site disappeared and it contains an additional tale about how some bigots were sent to checkout a Presbyterian (EPC) pastor and harass him.

I prayed about befriending the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) so I could write on their Facebook wall. I decided not to but then discovered that it was possible with out befriending them—although I am not sure why. Any way every so often I would comment if they linked to a particular bad article. A very few times I told them it was interesting if I found it so. And then some of my friends discovered that they could comment and did so.

The IPMN too often links to some very bad sites, including sites that are heavily anti-Semitic. They have linked to Veterans Today which targets not only Israel but also Jews in particular. Veterans Today blames Israel for 9-11 and insists, like all anti-Semites, that the Jews are trying to control the world including the United States government. VT has a lot of sister sites with many of the same writers. IPMN also links to the sister sites and/or the writers. And one of the writers sometimes published on VT is Jim Wall the former Editor of the Christian Century. Wall, who has his own blog, is definitely an anti-Semite and has friends who are even more so.

Recently David Fischler who blogs at Reformed Pastor, wrote an article entitled, “When an Anti-Semite Does Political Analysis.” It was about Wall’s article, “With South Carolina Victory, Gingrich Rides Adelson Money Train Against Obama,” In Wall’s article he insisted that Newt Gingrich would win the GOP presidential primary in Florida because of a Jewish man, Sheldon Adelson, who is pro Israel. Wall went so far as to state that the Jews of South Florida would vote for him. Fischler among many other things pointed out that 75% of the Jews in Florida are Democrats and the Primary in Florida is a closed one meaning that one has to vote for their own registered political party. Also as Fischler wrote:

… the real point is that Wall’s weaving a classic anti-Semitic conspiracy theory: Adelson is the Jewish money man, controlling the politician who will do his bidding, and who apparently all by himself buy the politician a presidential nomination for the purpose of giving blind and total support to the Jewish state.

This story was on Wall’s blog, Wallwritings, and linked to by IPMN. I had been invited to post something once on the IPMN Facebook site when I found it too hard to place a copied link in a comment. So I decided to post Fischler’s analysis. And I made a few comments so people would know what they were reading and why I posted it. I think it was about a day later, perhaps two days, the IPMN Facebook page disappeared.

I wrote to Carol Hylkema asking what had happened to their Facebook. She wrote me back “We’ve taken it down temporarily while we figure out the best way to monitor the postings.” So I can only suppose that my link posting broke the camel’s back. But this story has a twist. Wall must have been infuriated because he immediately subscribed to Fischler’s blog and then some of his fellow anti-Semites came over to Fischer’s blog to harass him.

You can read all of the comments here: http://reformedpastor.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/when-an-anti-semite-does-political-analysis/#comments

So this is two stories and one theme, anti-Semitism. I am certain there will be a sequel, and I will write about it when it happens.

UPDATE: The Facebook is back up with this message:

"Dear IPMN Facebook Friend,

We have been posting articles, videos and more here on Facebook as a place where dialogue can take place and show the diversity of opinion on the conflict in Israel/Palestine, and to serve as a clearing-house for information not readily available in one place in the media. Mostly, this forum has been respectful and meaningful though ther...e have been times when comments or posts have had to be taken down as they were deemed offensive.

This fan page has been staffed by volunteers (IPMN has no paid staff at all), which makes it difficult to monitor all the comments that are posted here. Unfortunately, Facebook does not have a setting that suits our needs at the current time and we will be moving this clearing-house to our Twitter page. We hope that you will be able to follow us on Twitter where we will be continuing to post links to important articles and information. If you are not a Twitter user, you can still bookmark our page and check in on it on a daily basis, without a Twitter account. If you are a Twitter user, we ask that you follow us on twitter and keep the conversation going.

We have been told by many of you that the range of information we are posting here makes IPMN a good source for solid and current information. We will continue to provide links to news and events in Palestine as well as Israel, vis-à-vis the 44-year occupation and the facts on the ground pertaining to it, on Twitter.

Please bookmark this page and visit regularly or better yet, follow IPMN on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/#!/IPMN

And don’t forget to peruse our network’s website where we have a LIVE newsfeed on our homepage. Our Newsfeed is supplied by Ha’aretz, BBC Mideast and Electronic Intifada:

www.theIPMN.org

THANK YOU!
Twitter

twitter.com"


Dice picture by Christopher Juncker