My very first political hate mail!

I just received, for the first time ever, random hate mail from someone who noticed I disagree with their view of how to best serve Israel’s interests:

Rough translation: "LEFTIST PIECE OF GARBAGE WHO LICKS THE ASS OF THE JEW-HATING ARABS... YOU ARE THE SEED OF AMALEK, RABBLE ESCAPED FROM EGYPT. YOU SHOULD BE EXILED TO SDEROT YOU PIECE OF FILTH. AMEN, MAY A KASSAM ROCKET FALL UPON YOU, SCUM OF THE EARTH."
Rough translation: “LEFTIST PIECE OF GARBAGE! WHO LICKS THE ASS OF THE JEW-HATING ARABS… YOU ARE THE SEED OF AMALEK, RABBLE ESCAPED FROM EGYPT. YOU SHOULD BE EXILED TO SDEROT YOU PIECE OF FILTH. AMEN, MAY A KASSAM ROCKET FALL UPON YOU, SCUM OF THE EARTH.”

(This is apparently in response to a couple of comments I made here [Heb] about the strange scare tactics the IDF is using against the popular struggle in Nabi Saleh, which you can read about in English here.)

Unfortunately this person’s user account appears to have been deleted. I was hoping to be able to talk to them (in a somewhat more polite and conciliatory way.) Oh well.

11 thoughts on “My very first political hate mail!”

  1. Hey Michael,

    I’m sorry you’ve got this. But on the plus side I think it means you’re making an impact… which is a good thing. well done!

    1. Spanish. When I was trying to learn Danish it was Danish… It’s a surprisingly useful tool for language learning… I’ll never forget how to say “share” or “like” in either language. :)

  2. I don’t think trying to engage these people is correct procedure. I think you’re supposed to try to engage the police.

    1. Hear-hear.

      Neither the style nor the rapid disappearance make it sound like you are being invited into dialog. More like you’re being ambushed.

      1. Clearly. To get some kind of chance of dialog, I posted a new reply on that article, addressing my pen-pal and saying they’re wrong about me and I’d love to talk with them.
        They won’t likely read it, but if they do they will be pretty damn confused!

    2. Hi Shoshana,

      It’s ugly, it’s revealing, but it’s not against the law. And I think Pete is right.

      1. Maurice, I really don’t know about the law, but can you go around cursing and threatening other people with impunity?

  3. I actually don’t care if it’s legal or not. It wouldn’t cross my mind for a second to try to retaliate in a court. This individual would not, I imagine, “better their ways” after being told off by a judge. They’d just have even more contempt for the court and for “lefties”.

    There’s no use getting worked up over something like this. (I did at first, for a few minutes.) This person is clearly acting on fear and anger (which is a defense mechanism against fear.) They are driven to confrontation, perhaps out of despair, which is a perfectly reasonable reaction to what’s going on in Israel/Palestine. I’m driven by despair as well, some of the time, when it comes to Israel (I’d be posting more about linguistics and education if I weren’t feeling that despair).
    But when a person acts out their hate and anger there’s nothing to gain by responding with further confrontation, hate or anger. That gives them control of the situation. Responding with an attempt at dialog and at least some measure of compassion takes control away from them and can potentially do something (however little) for that fear/hate.

    I’ve been thinking lately that if we are ever to achieve peace, justice and normality, at some point we have to start engaging the Israeli mainstream and right wing. These are groups whose political outlook is dominated by fear, and often hate. Israel’s politics of rapid response to fear and hate — which have been there longer than the state — have not gotten us anywhere so far, and as hard as it is, we have to unilaterally disengage from them.

    P.S.
    For unspectacular reasons, I hardly slept last night. This is my excuse for being so contemplative, as well as for anything illogical or silly I may have written today.

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