Fear and Loathing at J Street Conference-- Scanning The Blog Reports

Our friend Solomonia broke this story today: Richard Silverstein tosses someone out from the bloggers' conference that Silverstein organized at the J Street confab in DC. That particular event was not "officially" part of the J Street meeting-- except that it was in a room provided by J Street, with staff (including bouncers) provided by J Street. And the reason this person, who was sitting quietly and taping the proceedings, was tossed? Because he happens to hold opinions that Richard Silverstein disagrees with-- pro-Israel opinions. Richard is just fine with inviting outspoken opponents of Zionism to his little coffee talk, but the presence of someone who he considers to be on his enemies list gets him all verklempt. (I'm sure there were others in the room who Silverstein didn't recognize, and I look forward to hearing their reports.)

More eyewitness reports are trickling out of the conference: Elie Wiesel being publicly mocked , while Rabbi Eric Yoffie being heckled for daring to suggest that the Palestinians had some minimal responsibility for the current situation because they had voted for the genocidal Hamas. And J Street already appears to be trying to distance itself from the "pro-Israel" label.

I'm looking forward to more reports, especially after the conference is over and some of the other observers can write openly about it. (Richard, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're not watching you).