Whoa there, “Ibrahim!” Aside from Noga’s point that this is not about your using an alias, but about your attempting to fool someone who approached you in good faith, there is a reprehensible principle underlying your assumed identity. Why would someone call Ibrahim ibn Yusuf “be expected” to express this anti-Zionist trash? This idea that for an Arab to be seen as authentically so s/he has to be an anti-Zionist reeks of totalitarianism.

This is getting us nowhere. You were asked a simp,e question, you didn’t want to answer it. Finis.

It’s not the Arab name or Hebrew alias that is the problem. It’s the fact that you pretend to be what you are not, by not telling your interlocutor that you are in fact an actor, someone pretending to be an Arab. Your response here amounts to: I lied, of course, but I had a very good reason to lie! As if your reasons, which make sense only to such as yourself, have anything at all to do with the fact that you used deception and subterfuge in presenting yourself to the public. Which of course diminishes whatever moral credibility you claim for yourself. If you can’t understand this very simple and basic principle, there is nothing more to say.

Do you understand your objections lack any logic? I’m using the screen name Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf to say things that someone actually called Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf would be expected to say — what’s the problem? I’m not using a pseudonym to legitimate my criticism. If I wrote here under the pseudonym Avraham Ben Yosef, then you would have a case: you’d be able to claim that I want to make it appear that my positions are supported by Jewish people; or that I’m shielding myself against accusations of antisemitism. But I’m using an Arab name to say things usually supported by Arabs — what’s the big deal?

Do you know what I’m beginning to feel? I’m beginning to feel flattered. Apparently my criticism is so articulate and difficult to rebutt that you can’t believe a stupid Arab can be behind it. You want Arabs to ridicule themselves by linking to Nazi websites, or using foul language, or making transparently antisemitic remarks.

What worries you is not that I’m legitimizing myself by using an Arab nickname; it’s that the Arabs are legitimized by having a spokeperson as coherent and rational-minded as me.

A person can reveal whatever information he wants about himself. A person is honour bound by the rules of fair play and discretion not to disclose private correspondence with people who trusted him with their information.

Under Jewish law, there is a prohibition of telling gossip, truthful remarks about a non-present person or party. For someone who has just invoked that very rule to disparage your former co-blogger, you seem to have conditioned your own voluntary truth tellng upon his breaking the confidence of his private correspondents. You demanded that he commit Lashon-Hara.

Maintaining a false persona takes very hard work, and great memory. A person can use a pseudonym and still be himself. But a person cannot use an alternative pesona, conveniently trotted out when the occasion calls for it and still expect others to trust him. If you lie about who you are, be prepared to be called on it:

“If liars make a complete invention, they apparently have much less reason to be afraid of tripping up, inasmuch as there is no contrary impression to clash with their fiction. But even this, being an empty thing that offers no hold, readily escapes from the memory unless it is a very reliable one. I have often had amusing proof of this, at the expense of those who profess to suit their speech only to the advantage of the business in hand and to please the great men to whom they are speaking. The circumstances to which it is their wish to subordinate their faith and their conscience being subject to various changes, their language has also to change from time to time; and so they call the same thing gray one moment and yellow the next, say one thing to one man, and another to another. Then, if these listeners happen to bring all this contrary information together as a common booty what becomes of all their fine art? Besides, they trip up so often when they are off their guard. For what memory could be strong enough to retain all the different shapes they have invented for the same subject?” (Montaigne)

(By the way, in the comments someone claims your real name is Alberto José Miyara, and that you teach engineering at a University in Rosario. This person also says that you’ve used the name Avraham Ben Yosef. If this is true, I ask you again: how do you think this assumed identity boosts your argument? Or is this commenter correct when he says that you have “issues?”)

For reasons that are themselves undisclosable, I can’t reveal my identity. I told this to Yaacov very clearly when he invited me to set up a joint blog. He accepted such terms; with reservations, admittedly, but he did accept them. To my surprise, however, after we had published our first few posts he wrote me to ask if I might be a certain specific person. As could be expected, I answered that since we had agreed that my identity would be secret, I wouldn’t discuss it.

From then on, events took a weird turn. Yaacov let me know that certain people had written him to ‘expose’ me as a non-Arab. He didn’t need to know my full name, but asked me to prove my Arabness. Of course, it’s very difficult to prove your ethnic origin without disclosing your name.

But, who were those mysterious informers who had denounced me? It’s not too difficult to imagine. In the last few months I’ve been active debating Zionists on their own blogs, in some cases dealing them humiliating defeats. While English-language Zionist bloggers seem to be more tolerant of dissension, Spanish-language ones are not imbued with a comparable openness, coming, as they mainly come, from Argentina, a country still in transition to a full democracy. The result has been that I’ve been blocked from participating in quite a few Zionist blogs in Spanish. In the face of that, I decided to switch languages and participate more actively in blogs in English. One of the Argentinian bloggers, not content with having expelled me, decided to try and hinder my contribution to English-language blogs as well.

And here is where Popper comes in — or, rather, does not. When that blogger contacted Yaacov to “expose” me, a student of Popper, as Yaacov likes to call himself, could have used a little skepticism. He could have looked for all evidence that might disprove what was being said about me, and even if he found none he should have given me the benefit of doubt, since “there might be facts out there” that had escaped his radar.

But not for nothing do they say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. For all his professed admiration for Popper, Yaacov didn’t even begin to do the homework prescribed by his idol. So I helped him a little and pointed to evidence on the web according to which it would be very illogical to think that I was the person I was claimed to be. Yaacov did not comment on this and was adamant that I should prove that I’m an Arab.

Finally, I decided to give in. I offered to provide him with the full disclosure of my name, as well as with documentation that was second-best to an ADN test to prove my ethnic origin, if only he would provide me with all the details of the exchanges with his informers.

Yaacov didn’t acquiesce even to this, and I decided to call it quits, as would have any reasonable and self-respecting person in my position.

As a final thought I’ll quote Eleanor Roosevelt: “Great people discuss ideas; average people discuss events; small people discuss other people.” By the way, I understand that gossiping is looked down upon in Judaism.

That said, you seem to think that antisemitism and anti-Roma racism are the fault of the targeted groups. Read any publication of the European Roma Rights Center and you will see the obstacles which Roma face all over central Europe and the Balkans. Or read Amos Elon’s “The Pity of it All” and you will learn how all the efforts at assimilation came to a horrible conclusion with the enactment of the Nuremburg Laws.

Ultimately, “Ibrahim”, the problem is that you make all sorts of sweeping statements and then fail to back them up.

On the question of who you are, no-one is saying that you cannot write under a pseudonym. But your participation in Lozowick’s blog was founded on his trusting that you are who you say you are. Evidently, you want people to think that you are an Arab - that’s why you use the name Ibrahim ibn Yusuf. Why you want people to think that, I can only speculate - maybe you believe you will come across as more legitimate, more authentic. But if you are not an Arab, then you are perpetrating a fraud. Rather as if you described yourself as an anti-Zionist Jew and used the name Avraham Ben Yosef.

So: are Lozowick’s concerns about you justified or not? It’s a simple question.

As to the response of yours which you mention, I can’t find it on that blog. The last entry was a month ago. If you want to post it here, you are welcome to do so.

Finally, your assumption that Americans whose first language is English can’t understand Spanish is just too absurd. Some do, some don’t. But it is interesting to see how the tropes fall into place: Jews believe they are morally superior, Americans are parochial dimwits…any other dull cliches up your sleeve?

Minorities that refuse to integrate into the mainstream have always been persecuted, and it has nothing to do with fame: witness the case of the Roma.

Aren’t the Chinese and the Iranians famous for their great contributions to civilization

No, they were not as important as the Jews in the shaping of Western civilization. Also, they don’t say they’re morally superior — a claim that invites scrutiny.

while so little attention is given to other truly suffering people

I’ve already addressed that. The suffering inflicted by Jews is more amply reported, but the suffering inflicted on Jews also makes more headlines. No antisemitism there, just fame.

Now that the terrible truth that I have a blog has been disclosed, I invite you to pay a look at my latest post. There you’ll see the covers of Argentina’s foremost daily, Clarín, from the days after (a) the Jerusalem Mercaz Harav attack, which left 8 people dead, and (b) an attack on two buses in Sri Lanka, which left 21 people dead. The attack atainst Jews made it to the cover; the attack against the Sinhalese didn’t. How do you explain that?

I’ve also established that you are an occasional blogger (http://ibrahimibnyusuf.blogspot.com/), though strangely you’ve never once mentioned that.

I didn’t mention it because I have this prejudice that English-speaking people are utterly unable to learn foreign languages. A prejudice confirmed by the fact that while most native speakers of English (I’m talking about the Americans) have been exposed to Spanish at school, they can’t get the gist of an article in a Spanish-language newspaper. So I didn’t think directing you to my blog would be worth it.

My apologies if you can read Spanish.

What gives you the right, Ibrahim, to advance these positions without identifying yourself?

I have this question to ask you: why do you quote Yaacov Lozowick’s accusations against me in full, but fail to quote my response? Treat me fairly.

I don’t have any obligation to identify myself, but ¿why do you think it would be important? We’re discussing ideas, not people.

I’ve also established that you are an occasional blogger (http://ibrahimibnyusuf.blogspot.com/), though strangely you’ve never once mentioned that. And by the way, I found that out not because my fellow Elders who control the internet informed me about it, but because you linked to us.

Go to your blog, and there’s a link to this very revealing passage on another blog which you were apparently involved with:

http://judeoarabconspiracy.blogspot.com/2008/07/still-shut-down.html

The fellow whose name isn’t Ibrahim has just unilaterally reactivated this blog, so I thought I’d remind you all that it’s an inactive blog, not an active one. As I wrote at the time:

Judeo-Arab Conspiracy has been active less than two weeks, but we’re shutting down. The reason for this is that I (Yaacov) raised doubts about Ibrahim’s identity, and Ibrahim did not allay them.

I explained my motivation for inviting Ibrahim to join me in this exercise here. Already then we had a built-in problem, in that my identity is clear and transparent, and Google will tell you all about me, while Ibrahim ibn Yusuf is not the person’s real name. I was willing to accept this, since I know from experience how hard it is, perhaps even impossible, to find an Arab willing to engage an Israeli in dialogue between equals. Israelis who start by beating their breasts are alright, but not the ones who are comfortable with their country. Apparently, Arabs who talk to that sort put themselves in danger in their own communities.

In my eagerness to engage in this dialogue I was obviously not careful enough. I asked Ibrahim some questions, and decided to accept his word when he responded. Perhaps this was a leftover from my “peace camp” years: we like to assume that the folks facing us are like us, their motivations are similar to ours, the only difference being that they’re on the other side of the argument. Anyway, I didn’t see any real danger in setting off on this joint project, so set off we did.

The next thing that happened was what anyone who understands the Internet could have foreseen: I began to get responses from readers who thought they knew who Ibrahim really is, readers whom I otherwise would never have encountered. Some of them supplied me with telephone numbers, creating a deeper level of contact than mere e-mails.

When I confronted Ibrahim with the information I was getting, he refrained from disproving it. Faced with the likelihood that there is nothing particularly Arab about him, I don’t see how we can continue blogging at a place that defines itself as “A joint blog of a Jewish Zionist and an Arab Anti-Zionist”.

The Challenge:

I continue to believe that Israel’s positions (though not every single action) are generally defensible, and am willing to stand up to anyone who feels otherwise. Should there be anyone out there who wishes to continue where Ibrahim was not, they know where to find me. They will, of course, need to be google-able, if there is such a word.

Until then, it is my intention to desist from responding to anyone who is not willing to stand forth and identify themselves with their positions.

Yaacov Lozowick

What gives you the right, Ibrahim, to advance these positions without identifying yourself? Why hide in the way that you do? If people are challenging your claim to be an authentic Arab anti-Zionist, why do you not disprove them? Indeed, can you disprove them?

Completely absent from your theory are events like the following: the peresecution of Jews, Spain 1384, Spain 1492, Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire, the Holocaust.

How does your theory explain these events? Were they triggered by Jewish fame, due to their Bible and their famous communities of power and influence? Why didn’t the rich and all powerful Jews manage to prevent these catastrophes?

You did not explain how this Jewish fame benefit the Palestinians. Why is the Palestinian cause so popular in certain circles, while so little attention is given to other truly suffering people, like Tibetans, or the Ahwazi Arabs in Iran, or the murdered masses in Darfur? Aren’t the Chinese and the Iranians famous for their great contributions to civilization? Do they not play some very important roles in world economy? How come their fame does not translate into fervent support for their victims?

As for the Arab attitude, allow me to make an analogy. I have several health problems. I suffer from asthma, I have trouble getting asleep, my bones are fragile and I catch colds with extraordinary ease.

But when a thorn pierces my skin, I can only think of the thorn.