Richard Silverstein, a liberal Jewish blogger, has come under attack from right wing nationalists and religious hard liners. In his blog Tikun Olam, Silverstein has posted a statement sent to his lawyer from David Yerushalmi-who accusing him of libel.
Blogger Richard Silverstein. Image via HuffingtonPost
“I am reluctantly forced to revisit the statements your client, Richard Silverstein, has made about me on his blog. When he first attacked me personally and stated that I was a fascist, racist, and Kahanist, I ignored them, even as others of his ilk provided these baseless statements “legs” allowing countless more “eyes” the opportunity to read what your client understood and represented to be carefully calculated factual statements about me. These statements are demonstrably false and your client made them knowing they were false or acting recklessly in this regard. This recklessness I believe was established in his deposition testimony in the Neuwirth case.”
Yerushalmi is a Washington DC based lawyer. In 2010, ThinkProgress reported on his questionable views on Islam and Islamic law. Yerushalmi claimed in an article for American Thinker that,
“Islam was born in violence; it will die that way. Any wish to the contrary is sheer Pollyannaism. The same way the post World War II German youth were taught by their German teachers and political leaders to despise the fascism of their fathers, with strict laws extant still today restricting even speech that casts doubt on the Holocaust, so too must the Muslim youth be taught from the cradle to reject the religion of their forebears.
Richard Silverstein, a moderate voice on Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is target of strong criticism from many in the blogosphere. Jewlicious accuses him of
“..veritable personification of moral decrepitude?”
Israellycool went a step ahead and called him a pro-terror, anti-Israel blogger.
Committee to Protect Bloggers has a detailed post on legal troubles pushed on Silverstein's way and has also urged people to support Silverstein's work and his right to express his views.
