Lee Kaplan Caught Posing as an Arab

I was reading some back-and-forth between "Defender of Western Civilization" Bill Levinson and Nadeem Muaddi, a Christian Palestinian, and an organizer of the upcoming Fifth National Student Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, to be held at Georgetown University.

It seems as though Muaddi wrote a book review of "Witnessing for Peace" by Bishop Munib Younan back in July. His review is titled "A Call for Christian Martyrdom." "Martyrdom" is a highly charged word in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If you would like to read Muaddi's take on the concept of martyrdom, do so here:

http://www.jerusalemites.org/articles/english/july2005/30.htm

First of all, Muaddi writes:

"Living in a region of the world where occupation, oppression, apartheid, and suicide bombings have become the unfortunate norm, Bishop Younan’s claim that the “theology of martyria” is a “concept misunderstood” is not only refreshing, but long overdue."

Muaddi equates suicide bombings with occupation, oppression, and apartheid. He calls all four of them "unfortunate." Perhaps "unfortunate" is an understatement, but by regarding them all in the same vein, he makes clear his opposition to suicide attacks.

He then writes:

"Muslim fundamentalists have mistakenly “tied” the concept of “martyrdom to death”. "

So he sets parameters for what he does and does not consider "martyrdom" worth advocating. Any sort of "cult of death" is not on his agenda.

Bill Levinson, either mistakenly alarmed by what he perceived as a call for Christians to kill and die, or else simply eager to discredit pro-Palestinian activists by any means necessary, wrote an article denouncing Muaddi for encouraging suicide bombings.

http://www.israpundit.com/archives/2006/01/ism_to_recruit.php

Israpundit, which is hosting this article, is gracious enough to provide space for discussion. The first comment, available on the same page, is Muaddi's response. He informs Levinson that he is seeking damages for libel, since Levinson appears to be deliberately misrepresenting Muaddi's views. Muaddi closes with this:

"Your actions are not only morally reprehensible, but illegal. You will be hearing from my attorney soon."

Springing to Muaddi's defense is a commenter using the name Chaim:

"Is this guy for real? Bill, what level of education have you reached? Read the guy's article; nowhere can you infer that he's trying to recruit Christian martyrs at this conference. That's just assinine to suggest that, and Israpundit how dare you post such garbage."

Then, in defense of Levinson, we get Abu Abubu, who says:

"I honestly doubt that Chaim is real. It's probably Muuadi under a Jewish name. Levinson's article hit the nail on the head, though."

So then, Levinson directs us here (http://www.israpundit.com/archives/2006/01/response_to_nad.php),
where he says he responds to Muaddi's "insults and threats."

Muaddi responds again. Then Abu Abubu:

"You have to excuse Nadeem. His referring to Bill Levinson as "little Billy" is classic in Arab culture. He has to belittle Bill as a man and talk to him as if a boy in order for Nadeem to dissemble his endorsement for terrorism properly and to cover his lies. (. . .)

As an Arab myself, I know you Nadeem: Kus Eumek. You are dissembling to destroy Jews and to dismantle Israel, the best friend the Palestinians ever had. (. . .)

Again, a dare: Write a public article and say you condemn any manner of suicide bombing, shooting , knifing, rock throwing against the people of Israel as a solution to the conflict. No conditions. Noo euphemsisms like "legitimate resistance."

You won't do this, because you use Arabic-style rhetoric referring to murder as "resistance" and "right of return" as dismantling Israel. And it kills you when one of your own like me points it out."

Abu Abubu makes the following claims:

-He is an Arab.

-He is frustrated by Arabs who use Jewish names so as to pretend that any Jews other than crazy and stupid ones sympathize with Palestinian grievances.

-He is frustrated with Arabs in general, who either are anti-Semitic, or supporters of terrorism, or both. But not him. In fact, not only does he oppose anti-Semitism, he opposes all opposition to Israel, since Israel is "the best friend the Palestinians ever had." And he's in a position to know all of this, because he is an Arab.

The assertion that "Israel is the best friend the Palestininas ever had" seemed to me like the kind of thing Lee Kaplan would write; in fact, the entirety of Abu Abubu's comments are reminiscent of Mr. Kaplan's style.

Israpundit, I found out, moderates posts from first-time commenters, presumably to filter out spam. In order to determine whether a person is leaving his or her first comment, the site requires commenters to leave an e-mail address. So many things online require an e-mail address that it helps to have multiple addresses, so that our personal or business mailboxes are not overrun with stuff we don't want, be it spam, listserv stuff, or hate mail. The minute I ran my cursor over Abu Abubu's name, the e-mail address listed with it jumped at me. I had seen something very similar to it before.

The e-mail address is TheHussar [at] netzero.net. A google search of that address brings up this page:

http://books.dreambook.com/chenault/chenault1.html

It seems as though Abu Abubu was not thinking back five years when he used that as his throwaway address. Way near the bottom of the page, on June 28, 2001, the guest book is signed as follows:

Name: Lee Kaplan
E-mail address: thehussar [at] netzero.net
Where you reside (City/State/Country) : :California
Ancestor/Family a member of 11th Kentucky Cavalry CSA?:Not Sure
How did you like this website?:neat
Other Comments: Was wondering if this unit carried henry rifles
Thursday, June 28th 2001 - 09:08:41 AM.

Mr. Kaplan is not an Arab. I contacted Mr. Kaplan for comment. He denies having posted as Abu Abubu, or even having seen those comments before I pointed them out. He does, however, praise Abu Abubu's comments as being "well-written." He, of course, cannot deny that Mr. Abubu's given e-mail address belonged to none other than Mr. Kaplan. However, he claims that the address is one of many that are collectively used by the entire staff of his newly updated website, stoptheISM.com. He says that it was probably "one of the Arabs with stoptheISM.com" who used the name Abu Abubu, but when pressed to provide more information and vindicate himself once and for all, Mr. Kaplan declined, citing privacy concerns.

Mr. Kaplan's claim seems suspect; first of all, the e-mail address in question was used by Lee Kaplan before the ISM itself even existed, even before the September 11th attacks. Certainly a high-profile site like his --if it even has any need for multiple e-mail accounts-- can set some up other than old personal accounts of its individual members?

Secondly, Abu Abubu makes arguments which are racist in nature; he epitomizes Arabs, ascribing to them the nastiest traits imaginable, using one of the meanest vulgarities he can, and then claims that he is within his rights to do this, because he is an Arab himself. This is the exact same behavior that Lee Kaplan, under his own name, decries about Jews: Jews who support Palestinian rights are anti-Semites (or mentally ill individuals) who "use" their ancestry to legitimize anti-Semitism. While I understand Mr. Kaplan's supposed concern for the privacy of multiple Arab members of StoptheISM, I can't help but suspect that they don't exist; or else, if they do, they would have enough self respect not to post comments which demean the entirety of all Arabs but themselves.

Mr. Kaplan's failure to convincingly explain this preponderance of evidence makes it quite clear that --assuming he would not get caught-- he pretended to be an Arab so that he could make comments he could never say under his own name. This sheds light on some of Mr. Kaplan's ulterior motives for his campaign to discredit everyone and anyone who has ever criticized the occupation. It also calls into question the integrity of his tactics.