On Sunday, I posted a DailyKos diary, called IDF Gaza Offensive Thoughts – I Was Denounced as an Anti-Semite. I put it up to see if others who had undergone or were undergoing the same experience had anything to add.

Guess what? I was instantly denounced as a "raving anti-Semite."

Not many people who had undergone similar experiences to mine came forward, but many commenters accused me of anti-Semitism or of being somebody with a persecution complex. Or both.

There was no lack of supporters for my premise, though, that when one steps up to strongly defend the Palestinian people, fervent supporters of Israel often use the "a-S" tag without much thought, and with flimsy evidence, if any.

My route to such ill fame was through writing classical music about Rachel Corrie and the plight of Palestinians. Not many classical musicians write about this issue. A few have, but for every piece of classically-based music about this that might exist, there are plenty, perhaps over a thousand, about the World War II Holocaust against Europe’s Jewish population. And for every play such as "My Name is Rachel Corrie" there are dozens that play to the "equivalency" meme, which seems to require an artist addressing the plight of the Palestinians to spend equal time addressing the horrors visited upon Israelis by suicide bombers.

Comparing the weblog master sites Daily Kos and firedoglake over the past week has been quite interesting.

In the days before the Israeli bombings began, firedoglake published several diaries that foretold what was about to be visited upon Gazagrad. Although several diaries on the same subject were written by Kos diarists, none made the "Recommended Diaries" list that I can find, and none were noted in the roundups and diary rescues on the main page. Right now, looking down the main feature column at Kos, there isn’t a mention of this awful, ongoing war crime. Tripp Palin makes the list, as does his mother-in-law.

Since the bombings began, several Kos diaries on the conflict have made the "Recommended Diaries" list, though. One that is up there right now is extremely notable, and is written in such a way that it is hard for Zionist concern trolls and flamers to make any headway. The diary is called Stop Starting Arguments. Start Stopping Suffering. I recommend this diary to the maximum.

There are other tags used to stifle or attenuate debate on these issues, beside the batant "anti-Semite" tag. My favorite from the comments at the Daily Kos article I just recommended was this:

a charity name "Free Gaza" (0+ /0-)
Doesn’t sound neutral

I’ve watched firedoglake go through a vibrant growth process on issues pertaining to Palestinian rights and Israeli expansion. I’ve been proud to be a responsible part of that growth process here. I must say, though, that since working and volunteering directly for Democratic Party candidates and for the party itself in Alaska, since the fall of 2006, and at my own blog since 2007, I’ve given these issues less importance than I should have.

Was I gun shy from my experiences as having been labeled an anti-Semite? YES!!!

As I attenuated my wishes to write more about this set of issues and concentrated on other issues (there was no lack of the latter!), I felt guilty. I wanted to pursue writing, perhaps on the national level, about the depth, seriousness and legacy of the environmental damage caused by the completely unnecessary Jiyeh Power Station oil storage complex bombings, the greatest environmental catastrophe visited upon the shores of the Levant in memory. I didn’t. I was afraid, as I worked on Diane Benson’s 2006 campaign against Don Young, for Alaska’s sole US House seat, that if I wrote about the spill, it would be used in the Alaska press to diminish Benson’s campaign.

As I’m witnessing this devastation continue in Gaza and the West Bank, even though I’ve spoken out against Zionist aggression, I can’t help but feel that had I done more, been more effective, I could have helped.

It’s about time I had the courage to write about this here at Oxdown Gazette. I hope I can drum up the courage to write about it more directly in Alaska. It has been almost five years since I did.

What are some other tags used against defenders of Palestinian rights?