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SHUNNED AGAIN

The silencing of Antony Loewenstein ... will it never end?

UPDATE. Even lefties are tiring of the Silenced One.

UPDATE II. All this attention—Antony was “silenced” again in today’s Sun-Herald—and still Ant is averaging only 657 hits per day.

Posted by Tim B. on 08/19/2006 at 09:54 PM
  1. The pileated pro-palestinian propagandist writes an absurd book and when practically everybody who has had the stomach to read this particular tome piles on, the author claims he’s being silenced. If Antoine had any real friends, they would have taken his laptop away from him and locked him in a closet until the desire to write a book had passed.

    Posted by paco on 2006 08 19 at 10:20 PM • permalink

  2. How long before “they’re trying to silence me” becomes “they tried, but they coudn’t silence me!”

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 08 19 at 10:30 PM • permalink

  3. or even “couldn’t.” Grr.

    Posted by Dave S. on 2006 08 19 at 10:30 PM • permalink

  4. The Jewish central command must be losing it. The all powerful controlling jews cant silence one dumb f#$% whose contribution to society is in writing crap that is not worthy of being used to wrap up dead fish.

    Come to think of it, if I had submitted research papers of the caliber of his writing, I would have failed miserably and would be flipping burgers at McDonalds…

    Posted by la_ozzie on 2006 08 19 at 10:32 PM • permalink

  5. Its an indictment on psychiatry. You are delusional about one thing and you get locked up. You are delusional about a range of things and you get a book contract.

    Posted by captain on 2006 08 19 at 10:40 PM • permalink

  6. captain

    The only thing Ant could contract, is something that makes him itch, or worse.

    What a lovely thought.

    Posted by El Cid on 2006 08 19 at 10:47 PM • permalink

  7. At Readings’ bookstore on Lygon St, Carlton, Loserstain’s book is ranked 5 on thier sales list. They must have a lot of ‘browsers’.

    Posted by Nic on 2006 08 19 at 10:52 PM • permalink

  8. Either that or that is where the non-Green family live. Or, perhaps his recent request for financial support is to keep those sales flowing.

    Posted by captain on 2006 08 19 at 11:11 PM • permalink

  9. "“‘I know there’s a great deal of anger, anguish and frustration that I’m not being patriotic to my cause,” he says. “But democracy to me is about diversity of views and a lot of people who write (hate mail) to me clearly don’t believe in democracy and probably shouldn’t be living in a democracy. They think my views don’t have a right to be heard. What are people afraid of discussing?””

    “Antony, this is my seventh or eighth post to your blog. I strongly disagree with you and I have the gravest of doubts about your motives. I’m no expert on these things but it would not surprise me if you are an emotional retard who has some festering ancient greivance with your family and you are using this thing that any of us could pick up to hit with. If you have a problem with your mother, fine. That just proves you are a fucking puerile dickhead.”

    “But you can’t leave the rest of us alone? That you could not give a stuff about lying? You care so little about your own reputation for intellectual and practical honesty? You support murderers of innocents and fascist liars in this personal battle of yours? That proves something about you that is far worse.”

    “You are a liar Antony, to the very core of your soul. That is my view. Why do you think my view does not have a right to be heard? What are you afraid of discussing?”

    Just posted on Loewenstein’s blog.

    I reckon my 100% record is pretty safe. He has never allowed anything from me to appear.

    Posted by geoff on 2006 08 19 at 11:14 PM • permalink

  10. #9 geoff, that’s what you get for speaking truth to puer.

    Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 08 20 at 12:03 AM • permalink

  11. Why does he get away with it?  With saying that he’s being silenced?  With the lies about Israel?  With the free ride from journalists and historians?

    Posted by saltydog on 2006 08 20 at 12:17 AM • permalink

  12. Speaking of being silenced the Angry Ant is not the only one.Swinish Capitalist I have FINALLY recalled the moniker of the Greens Beauty who graces a State Parliament
    da da ....Giz Watson..Anyone supply a pretty picture?

    Posted by crash on 2006 08 20 at 12:22 AM • permalink

  13. The more I read about Antony, the more I become convinced that the guy is not real. I mean he can’t be. The guy has got be a made up character - made up in the name of satire.

    Is it just me or has anyone noticed that there are striking similarities between Antony & another well known satrical characetr - Boratfrom Kazakhstan?

    Just look at the similarities - both are travelling “journalists” from (what can be termed by most) as far away & exotic countries. And both are rabid jew-haters. One recently released a book and the other has a movie coming out. If Antony grew a porno style moustache (someone get Dan Lewis), then it would be alomst impossible to differentiate between the two.

    I wonder if Sascha Baron Cohen is behind this character too (a character designed to expose and satirise anti-Semitism in society)? Or could it be our very own home-grown jewish comedians like Austen Teyhus or John Safron?

    Posted by Kidon on 2006 08 20 at 12:36 AM • permalink

  14. Here’s a line from the comments over there.  Weathergirl is trying to find online reviews of Ant’s book:

    Gawd, every second article I find is by Ted Lapkin or Margot[sic] Kingston! Are there no other people to critically evaluate the book?

    Poor Margo.  She appears to be the Rodney Dangerfield of the blogosphere.

    Posted by kcom on 2006 08 20 at 02:26 AM • permalink

  15. The lefties seem to have problems spelling Loewenstein’s name, too.

    Posted by James Waterton on 2006 08 20 at 02:32 AM • permalink

  16. God, I just wish The Silenced One would just damn well shut up.

    Posted by geoff on 2006 08 20 at 06:14 AM • permalink

  17. #7
    Readings is a big supporter of Loewenstein (and MUP). The same week that Lapkin got the figure of 318 from Bookscan the buyer at Readings told me that about 10, 000 copies of My Israel Question would have been sold! This was in answer to my question of why MUP were doing a second print run.

    Posted by daphne on 2006 08 20 at 07:37 AM • permalink

  18. I think this sums up Loewenstein better than anything else I’ve seen or read!!

    On his only trip to Israel Loewenstein stayed with his cousin Ronald Green. Here is what Green wrote to the Jewish News about his cousin AL:

    INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY

    I was under no illusions that Antony Loewenstein’s book would turn out to be fair, or indeed accurate, after hosting him in Israel when he did his “research”.

    I place the word in inverted commas, since it was all too apparent that Loewenstein was interested in hearing only what motivated his personal agenda.

    A typical example was when he returned after a day out and announced that the people he spoke to had told him that Israelis made life very difficult. When I asked him who gave him this information, he told me that the people were “Arabs in East Jerusalem”.

    On another occasion, when I asked him if he had seen a certain newspaper article, he told me that he “didn’t read the Jerusalem Post because it was too right-wing”!

    I would have expected a “journalist” to at least look at differing opinions.

    It was not just intellectual dishonesty that struck me, but an abysmal lack of knowledge about the history of the area. I was astounded that someone with so little knowledge about his subject would have the temerity to write a book, and even more so that a publisher would agree to lend its name to the finished work.

    If the world needs another anti-Israel/anti-American diatribe replete with Jewish conspiracy theories, they have it in Loewenstein’s book. This particular book is even less accurate than the others.

    It is not, of course, surprising that Robert Fisk endorsed Loewenstein’s book, but it does tell us what to expect of an author who hitches his star to the likes of Fisk and John Pilger. Perhaps that is the greatest service the book does: it thoroughly discredits the author from the word go.

    Ronald Green
    Ramat Hasharon, Israel

    Then Loewenstein responds to his cousin on his blog:

    Green, on the other hand, is my cousin (which he doesn’t disclose in the letter). It’s an odd forum - in the Australian Jewish News of all places - to engage in a family slanging match, but perhaps it’s not surprising. I portray Green and his family in the book as anti-Palestinian, racist, anti-German and anti-Arab. It was painful to see one’s family, however distant, display such traits. Frankly, I suspect he hasn’t even read the book (and is a failed novelist himself.)

    And further Loewenstein bile:

    Ronnie Green is beset with this sickness. Within Israel, his attitude is sadly not uncommon. His recollections of my time with his family are woefully inaccurate, but then, he does accuse my book of containing “Jewish conspiracy theories.”

    So, Loewenstein goes to Israel, stays with his cousin and then completely undoes him, ridicules him and belittles him in {i]My Israel Question.

    And when his cousin complains about being treated in this way, Loewenstein gets upset about Green using a public forum to demonstrate his shock and horror at his cousin AL’s behaviour.

    Wow, what a fella. If AL treats his own family in this manner why should any Jew who is not related to the turncoat expect a “fair go”?

    He is a disgusting low-grade creep. He’d turn on his own father for a fee or 5 mins of fame.

    Posted by daphne on 2006 08 20 at 07:55 AM • permalink

  19. #13

    Is it just me or has anyone noticed that there are striking similarities between Antony & another well known satrical characetr - Boratfrom Kazakhstan?

    Just look at the similarities - both are travelling “journalists” from (what can be termed by most) as far away & exotic countries. And both are rabid jew-haters. One recently released a book and the other has a movie coming out. If Antony grew a porno style moustache (someone get Dan Lewis), then it would be alomst impossible to differentiate between the two.

    You rang?

    Borat and Antony - A Comparison.

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2006 08 20 at 08:35 AM • permalink

  20. Can you imagine how much noise this guy would be making if he hadn’t been silenced?

    Posted by paco on 2006 08 20 at 11:47 AM • permalink

  21. I’ll just be happy when The Silenced One becomes The Ignored One.

    Posted by RebeccaH on 2006 08 20 at 11:54 AM • permalink

  22. Well, I see in the Lavatory Rodeo thread that weathergirl isn’t aware of any factual problems with Loewy’s book, thinks that his performance on Lateline was just dandy, and that he clearly won his debate with Ted Lapkin. I now wonder much less about her inane statements regarding her neighbour’s Hezbollah tape. She’s just another dumb, delusional leftoid.

    Posted by PW on 2006 08 20 at 01:32 PM • permalink

  23. Nic—Having worked in bookstores, let me say that those OUR BEST SELLER lists are horseradish.  They’re just a gimmick, like EMPLOYEES’ PICKS or MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION, to try to pump up sales on titles that are flagging.

    Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 08 20 at 05:43 PM • permalink

  24. #23 richard

    I agree, the bestseller lists are concoctions. They’re not based on sales but the book seller’s whims. The only real way of knowing how many books are sold is through Neilson Bookscan, or waiting 3 months for returns and remainders to be sorted out, then asking the publisher-- who may or may not want you to know..

    Posted by daphne on 2006 08 20 at 06:05 PM • permalink

  25. Well someone with access to Neilsen Bookscan may wish to post the latest tally.

    Loewenstein writes:

    “Memo to Danby and close mates: the book is now in its second printing and selling remarkably well. People are very interested in having this frank debate on the Middle East."

    Conveniently, Antony doesn’t actually disclose how many copies he has sold. Funny that.

    I suppose the “second printing” sounds a lot better than the “eliminating the amateurish fuckups reprint”.

    It also amazes me, that every single “review” I have read on his book - notably the most recent one in The Age, makes nearly no mention of the content and quality of the book itself. They are a review on the woes of a pained young author (stifled, censored, abused, oppressed, tortured, spat on, cornholed blah blah blah) taking only his word for this of course, yet seem to ignore the whole point of a so-called “book review”, as opposed to mini-biography.

    You get the impression that the ‘reviewers’ either didn’t bother reading the book, or couldn’t finish it.

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2006 08 20 at 08:39 PM • permalink

  26. Well, I just heard from an inside source at MUP that as of 18 August—My Israel Question had sold 370 copies.

    Posted by daphne on 2006 08 20 at 10:49 PM • permalink

  27. #25 dan

    To access Bookscan you need to be a member or pay a fee of $100+.

    ...makes nearly no mention of the content and quality of the book itself. They are a review on the woes of a pained young author (stifled, censored, abused, oppressed, tortured, spat on, cornholed blah blah blah) taking only his word for this of course, yet seem to ignore the whole point of a so-called “book review”, as opposed to mini-biography.

    You are absolutely right. No general book reviewer/junior journo here knows enough about middle eastern history to properly review the book. But, it is not relevant to these people anyway, because to them Loewenstein is a symbol not an intellectual. Lapkin’s critique in Crikey was dismissed by the Left because they do not want to know about factual history. And Loewenstein ignored it because he doesn’t know enough middle eastern history himself to respond.

    He represents the converted Jew, the humiliated Jew, the embarrassed Jew—who is willing to speak out and say that his people are fucked, damaged and deranged. He now calls Zionism a “sickness”. He is a traitor dressed up as a whinging victim and he claims fame by pushing his own people into symbolic gas chambers.

    The fact that he betrayed his own family’s trust and generosity should not come as a surprise to anyone. The man is a worm.

    Posted by daphne on 2006 08 20 at 11:03 PM • permalink

  28. What I find really offensive is that in many parts of the world people are REALLY silenced by means far more brutal than anything Angry Ant will have to put up with:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/korea/article/0,2763,1136483,00.html

    http://hrw.org/backgrounder/asia/vietnam0105/

    http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y03/nov03/10e8.htm

    I think if these people every time Ant whinges about being silenced.

    Posted by niobium2000 on 2006 08 20 at 11:09 PM • permalink

  29. #27 Daphne

    Actually, converted Jews are pretty good value. Converting to Judaism is no piece of cake and the massive amount of effort they need to go to in order to convert is held in high esteem by most people. For the same reason, it’s not a decision that people make lightly and I’d be very surprised if many converted Jews felt Loewenstein represented them, any more than most Jews-by-birth would.

    As you appear quite knowledgeable about Bookscan etc, answer this for me - does it count if Louise Adler sells the remaining copies for a pittance? In other words, if somebody bought 10,000 copies for $0.05 each, could they claim 10,000 copies had been “sold”? Or is RRP preset.

    Posted by Dan Lewis on 2006 08 21 at 07:53 AM • permalink

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