by Bill Levinson

Muzzlewatch, the blog of Jews for Jihad A Jewish Voice for Peace just shut down all commenting capability. The ostensible reason involves bigoted comments, but perhaps fear of actual discussion of issues like Palestinian terrorism is the real reason.

From day one, it seemed clear that there was a need for a space where people could freely debate challenging political issues related to Israel, Palestine, and US foreign policy. Over time, however, the comment boards seem to have drawn in those who communicate in a more polarized fashion, and have chased away people seeking more thoughtful dialogue. Lately, the site has become a forum for posting anti-Semitic in particular, and also other bigoted and racist comments, as well as ugly personal attacks.

We wonder whether criticism of Palestinian behavioral choices like terrorism, raising children as live ammunition, and killing each other when no Israelis are handy constitutes “bigotry” and “racism” in Muzzlewatch’s book, but this is pretty standard with the Left. “Muzzling” to the Left consists of exposing its allies’ hate speech at MoveOn.org (we were accused of trying to “muzzle” MoveOn’s Action Forum), but silencing the Right, as done at Tufts University, is perfectly acceptable. Meanwhile, our own position is that people who actually use racist epithets destroy their own credibility, so the conduct is self-punishing. We wonder why only Muzzlewatch seems to be having problems of this nature. In any event, if it can’t take the heat, perhaps it should get out of the kitchen.