July 01, 2006

Engage in rage about Israel's Gaza assault?

I follow that headline with a question mark because it's not entirely clear if Engage is enraged by Israel's Gaza assault. See their post here:
The Committee for Two States has called a protest for tomorrow, Friday 30 June, outside the Israeli Embassy in London.

17:30 to 18:30 at the corner of Kensington Place and High St Kensington (High St Kensington Tube)

Israel out of the West Bank and Gaza!

Two nations, two states!

No to Israeli state terror, no to Hamas terrorism!

Added by David Hirsh at June 29, 2006 07:10:25 PM.
Now what are they saying? This, as you can see was posted by David Hirsh. All Engage posts it seems are posted by either David Hirsh or Alexandra Simonon. Are they Engage? Or does Engage amount to all of its contributors?

Just recently, Engage started running articles by people with whom they disagree. This could have been a smart move but they already had such a reputation for disallowing legitimate comments and misrepresenting the writings of Israel's genuine critics it was too late by the time they did it. The point here is that, for credibility's sake, Engage does run articles that run counter to its (I think that's David Hirsh's and Alexandra Simonon's) own view. So simply reporting that the "Committee for Two States" has announced a protest does not mean that Engage supports the protest. But if Engage does support it, does that mean that Hirsh and Simonon support it or that these people do:
Alexandra Simonon, Managing Editor
David Hirsh, Goldsmiths College, University of London, Editor
Jane Ashworth, Project Director
Jon Pike, Open University, Chair
Simon Pottinger, Campaigns
Paul Gamble, Campaigns
Richard Gold, North West organiser, Manchester
David Seymour, Lancaster University, Book Reviews Editor
Josh Cohen, Goldsmiths College, University of London
Linda Grant, Writer, Journalist
Norman Geras, Normblog, Manchester University
Robert Fine, Warwick University
Shalom Lappin, Kings College London

Advisory Editors of Engage:

Adrian Cohen, Liaison (aka Malachi)
Alan Johnson, Edge Hill College of Higher Education
Alison Diduck, UCL
Arieh Lebowitz, Meretz USA, Jewish Labor Committee
Ben Gidley, Goldsmiths College University of London
Bernard Maro, Universite Paris 6
Brian Brivati, Kingston University, London
Charles Asher Small, Yale University
Christine Achinger, University of Nottingham
David Cesarani, Southmapton University
David Herman, Film Maker
David T., Harry's Place


Another curious thing is that when they ran articles by Irene Bruegel, Richard Kuper and Lisa Taraki, they attracted a lot of comment, mostly adverse. Well this incitement against plucky little Israel hasn't attracted any comments (as at 21.15). Or has it? You see, it seems to me that if Hirsh and Simonon are the only ones to post the posts, then they are presumably the ones to moderate the comments. So perhaps they have been stopping comments. Leaving aside that this means that David Hirsh might have been in on Alexandra Simonon's Alf Green ruse, You know, the one where she uses a bogus name to be even more abusive and disingenuous than she is under her real name, and to support her own and David Hirsh's articles and to sign the Euston Manisfesto twice. What I am asking is, does everyone listed on the "about Engage" page support the protest against Israel? If not, do a majority support it? How do they communicate and decide? And have there been any comments for or against the protest?

I think we should be told.

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