by Jan Poller
Posted by permission. Emphasis added to certain key items.

Ira Forman’s (Executive Director, National Jewish Democratic council) letter of October 24, 2006 is incorrect. The events that he describes are not the events that happened. I was there, I lived them. Mr. Forman did not.

I am the person who brought the anti-Semitism of MoveOn.Org and its forum to the attention of numerous people including bloggers and editorialists. Here are the facts:

* I have been following MoveOn.Org since they came to my attention during the first anti-Iraq invasion demonstrations when they teamed up with Stalinist Ramsey Clark and International Answer.

* From the beginning, MoveOn.org had anti-Semitic posts. The posts were not anonymous. The same people were posting this anti-Semitism from the time I got on until they shut down the forum. They had names and they had to be approved with a valid e-mail address by MoveOn.Org personnel.

* Initially, I was approved. I would dispute the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel posts. Because of this, my messages were frequently deleted. I was barred from posting on the forum. Two or three more times I created a different user ID and each time I disputed the anti-Semitic remarks and each time I was kicked off and my posts were deleted.

* The people who posted these anti-Semitic remarks were not censored.

* All of the above shows that the forum was monitored (which they said they did, supposedly to get ideas for MoveOn.Org). For MoveOn.Org (and Eli Pariser in particular) to say that it wasn’t monitored is just a lie.

* Mr. Forman’s statement that there were tens of thousands of postings each week is also not true. There are about 25,000 postings a year or about 500 a week. MoveOn.Org limits forum members to 3 posts per day.

* I wrote a letter on April 1, 2004 to MoveOn.Org pointing out that they let anti-Semitic remarks stand but they deleted mine and the blocked me from posting. They never answered.

* Eli Pariser can call the postings “abhorrent” or anything he wants. It doesn’t matter. Actions matter.

* All the other MoveOn forum members who protested the anti-Semitism (and there were precious few) were punished the same way I was.

* Mr. Forman claims that the membership of MoveOn.Org was against these remarks. If you look at the voting on the anti-Semitic posts, it was overwhelmingly in support of the anti-Semitism.

Again, MoveOn IS NOT an open forum as shown above.

Jewish voters can take discomfort in the knowledge that MoveOn.Org and its Jewish leaders (Eli Pariser, Noah T. Winer and George Soros) IS a haven for anti-Semitism and had no problem joining up with International Answer.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Republican or Democrat. I was a lifelong Democrat and became an Independent because of the philosophy of MoveOn.Org and other “progressive” organizations.

Jan Mel Poller

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Related: Anti-Semitism, Elections

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