Delich's message was in support of a colleague who backs the boycott call. It reads: "John, in support to your link this may be a long but also an interesting reading: www.davidduke.com/general/humanitarian-disaster-595.html. No comment necessary. The facts are speaking for themselves, Jenna."

Indeed, the facts speak for themselves. The article, "Racism, not Defense, at the Heart of Israeli Politics," is an attack on the "Israeli oligarchs" by a 9/11 conspiracy theorist named Joe Quinn. It links to Holocaust denier David Irving. Ironically, it states in part

"There is much evidence to warrant an in-depth investigation of the role played by agents of Israel in the 9/11 attacks. Yet the ubiquitous, tiresome and completely baseless threat of being labelled "anti-Semitic‚" for criticizing the actions of the Israeli government effectively prevents all but the most courageous from following the leads. Coincidence? We think not...

"Just what level of power do Israeli interests wield in the halls of power in the US that any investigation into Israeli spying activities on US soil against US intelligence agencies can be so completely quashed? Would this constitute a level of power and control that would allow those interests to carry off a terrorist attack like 9/11 and have it blamed on 'Arab terrorists?'"

The blog Harry's Place publicized the story. Harry put up the photo below.

Delich and her friends decided to threaten to sue Harry's Place for libel, even though what Harry had written was perfectly true, and has gotten their Web hosting company to shut down the Web site, which is now temporarily at Jenna Delich. Engage, Eric Lee, and Modernity Blog have all written this up. They all missed some points, it seems to me.

The first point is that we seem to have settled the question of whether or not anti-Zionism is or is not the same as anti-Semitism. Delich and her friends can plead and have pleaded that it was an "innocent mistake" and that she didn't know who David Duke was. Let's assume that is true. Delich read the article by an anti-Semite at an anti-Semitic Web site and found it to be identical with her views. What does that tell us about anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism? Can anyone really believe they are different now? And this is the ideology that is fueling the boycott Israel movement, isn't it?

The second point is that if Jenna Delich really didn't know who David Duke is, and none of the hundreds of people who got that e-mail recognized the name either, then the Boycott Israel movement in the UK is evidently being lead by ignoramuses. Can anyone believe any of the "facts" and arguments they present? Isn't it logical to assume that this incident reveals what Delich and her Boycott Israel friends have been doing all along: repackaging anti-Semitic lies as "legitimate criticism of Israel" either knowingly, or because they were unaware of the nature of the source of the materials?

Most interesting perhaps, is the supreme irony that the people who rant about the "Zionists" muzzling criticism are quick off the mark to shut down a Web site that dares to tell the truth about them.

Of course, it challenges the imagination to believe that any political activist doesn't know who David Duke is, especially after he showed up in Iran at Ahmadinejad's Holocaust Denial conference. But there are some people who can believe two or three impossible things before breakfast, or at least say that they do. Mike Cushman, a Jewish anti-Boycott activist, is apparently behind the move to threaten a libel suit against Hurry Up Harry. He also wrote to members of the UCU list

"It is clear then Jenna has made a serious error and she has owned up to that and apologised so why are people still trying to beat her up about this..."

So he really buys, or is asking others to buy, the notion that she didn't know David Duke was a fascist. Cushman wrote something worse:

"This is not about whether Jenna is a racist or an anti-semite it is about trying to shoot the messenger.

Actually it is about both, if the messenger is Harry, and Cushman and Delich and their friends were doing the shooting. But Cushman seems to think evidently, that the contents of the Quinn article are correct, and that Delich is the holy messenger of Quinn.

Cushman and Delich have indeed made serious errors. But they haven't even begun to own up to them all.

Remember Jenna Delich next time you read that "anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism." Remember Mike Cushman when someone tells you, "he can't be an anti-Semite, he is a Jew." Remember Harry's Place when someone tells you about the "Zionists" muzzling criticism.

Important Update - Harry's place is still off the Web. Their hosting service is Media Temple Inc. in Culver City California. Contact: http://www.mediatemple.net/company/contact_us. Ask them if they are responsible for succumbing to fascist threats and putting www.hurryupharry.org/ off line.

Ami Isseroff