The Nauseating Sideshow that is Lee Kaplan

Lee Kaplan, the suave-looking gentleman above, has hit the media jackpot of the netherworld that is the right, and will be on Bill O'Reilly's show Thursday.  In honor of such a lackluster occurrence, let's examine this fellow a little more. 

Many involved in work on Israel/Palestine are familiar with him.  He mainly dwells over on FrontPageMag.com, where he writes "articles" that consistently have "terror," "hate" or "jihad" in the title.  His "research" consists of stuff he either blatantly makes up or hyper-exaggerates. 

Kaplan is exceptionally proud of his "undercover" work.  Among other activities, this has involved putting on blackface and pretending to be Pakistani at the 2004 conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement.  Ehud at Cal Tzedek has recently revealed Kaplan's online penchant for pretending he is Arab and using this Arab identity to defend himself on blogs. 

As I mentioned earlier, Kaplan is also on the board of the neo-McCarthyist Bruin Alumni Association.  In November, he became the Director of Communications for the rabidly Islamophobic organization, the United American Committee, which on February 1 held a national so-called "Rally Against Islamofascism Day." 

Finally, Kaplan is the brains (and I use that term loosely) behind the website Stop the ISM.  Here he claims that the ISM is affiliated with the killers of Malcolm X, "eats its own useful idiots," and "makes Israeli children and the elderly go to bed hungry." 

The sites main assertion, in what appears to be a brilliant display of inductive logic, since the two groups have similarly worded names, is that Palestine Solidarity Movement is actually the International Solidarity Movement.  Yet the whole site, which is premised on that claim, fails to offer any actual evidence to prove it.  Instead, it serves up a wholesale libel-fest of paranoia and disparagement with no actual proof to be seen.  Welcome to the Crazyland Sideshow, with Lee Kaplan as your host.

Comments

[Ehud]

Scott,

Kaplan will be on O'Reilly THURSDAY, not today. Please update accordingly.

[scott]

Thanks Ehud, just changed it.

[Ringo the Gringo]

Great guy, Lee Kaplan.

The IMS are a bunch of useful idiots.

Excuse me, make that ISM.

Doh!

Angry White Kid, heh....Spoiled White Ingrate is more like it.

Grow up school boy.

[Tom]

I might add that Kaplan is associated with "Dafka", a group that was involved in violent acts on the UC berkeley campus. As a result, Hillel disassociated itself from Dafka.

Frontpagemag.com also associates itself with Cinnamon Stillwell, a supporter of the "Jewish Defense League", recognized as a terror organization by just about everybody, including the FBI and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
http://tomjoad.org/stopthejdl.htm

Looking at Kaplan's "United American Comm." website, it strikes me that it mirrors the worst of the really slimy anti-Jewish sites. The same themes are used "Wake Up America" "Muslims are taking Over"... appealing to that same very xenophobic heart of too many in our nation.

[Ringo the Gringo]

Tom,
"Dafka", a group that was involved in violent acts on the UC berkeley campus."

Got a link?

The ISM openly supports real terrorist groups including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbollah. These groups are fanatical, anti-Semetic, fascistic and theocratic yet they are supported by Leftwing activists. Why?...Because of the sick appeal of cultural-relativism that rots the minds of most Leftists and destroys their ability to see evil. That's why so many well meaning people like you blindly supported mass killers like Stalin and Mao in the past century.

Not all Leftist are blind though. Read Terror and Liberalism by Paul Berman:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393057755/qid=1139688115/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-4715769-5159817?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

..or the essay A Moral Failure by Norman Geras (published on the eve of the war in Iraq):
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110003834

[Koppers]

That wouldn't be the ISM that throws bags of faeces and used sanitary towels at IDF soldiers, would it?

[Truth]

Lee Kaplan rocks. He was the first to uncover the assholes in the ISM and what a bunch of liars they are. The world needs more journalists like him.

[Amilee]

I agree that Kaplan rocks. I think he's a damned good writer and hope he leeps up the pressure on the ISM, a group of revolutionary wannabees and misfits.

[George Carty]

Ringo the Gringo: The ISM openly supports real terrorist groups including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbollah. These groups are fanatical, anti-Semetic, fascistic and theocratic yet they are supported by Leftwing activists.

There was an interesting thread on soc.history.what-if about what circumstance may have resulted in the far left being less anti-Zionist. Some of the themes mentioned are:

1. Israel is a settler state which was formed by expelling much of the indigenous population.
2. Zionist ideology is considered suspect by the far-left, because it is a Volkisch-style nationalism with a religious component.
3. The influence of Third Worldist ideologues like Frantz Fanon caused many far-leftists to believe that Third World ideologies (including pan-Arabism and Islamism) could not be imperialist. Without Fanonist influence the Arab/Israeli conflict may have been viewed not as Zionist imperialists oppressing Palestinian victims, but as a clash of rival imperialisms with the Zionists as the lesser of two evils.

[Berkeleyite]

What a smearjob on a great journalist. Kaplan was never involved with violence at UC Berkeley. In fact, one of his students in DAFKA was attacked by the Palestinians on campus. This blog proves the valuable service Kaplan performs. By the way, at CAL he had his students dress up as suicide bombers with signs on them that said "I'm the reason for the Security Fence." I consider that creative and very effective in putting the lie to the so-called "Wall" demonstrations on campus.

[Berkeleyite]

George Carty: The Jews ARE the indigenous population in the region of the West Bank. They were driven from thier homes by Jordan in 1948. It's pure myth that the Arabs who call themselves "Palestinians". Prior to 1967, a Palestinian was a Jew, not an Arab.

[scott]

Aw, Lee, that´s so cute of you to stop by my blog and praise yourself. In case you didn´t read the whole post, it mentions Ehud outing you because of your use of the email [email protected], the same one you use here.

Just so it´s clear - ¨Berkeleyite¨ is Lee Kaplan - and he´s just displayed the manipulative, dishonest way he operates.

[Lee Kaplan Fan]

Heavens! Lee Kaplan is operating in here? Certaily a terrible thing on a par with ISM activists admitting they work with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and PFLP or claiming to be "peace activists" while supporting the murders of Israelis!!! Good gwacious!!!!
Next. I suppose you'll accuse me of being Lee Kaplan, though I will take it as an honor!

Any proof for your claim? Even if true, it's quite meaningless compared to how you emrace murderers and terrorists.

[Drew]

Thanks for the brief article and the links. After hearing about this guy's writings, I went out to check some of it out. The fearmongering and vitriol shows the true face of today's conservative movement: Just say stuff loudly and often and get other people to say it until it's taken as fact.

I tend to think it's funny that the dittos repeat this guy's stuff like its gospel. Anyway, interesting comments here. Face it, the guy makes stuff up. His websites are full of lies and the man himself lies about who he is. Apparently he has this penchant for pretending to be other ethnicities in order to somehow give his ramblings some sort of cred. He was on some online discussion posing as an Arab in order to bash Arabs.

http://caltzedek.blogspot.com/2006/02/lee-kaplan-caught-in-lie.html

Now, I kind of figure that behind racism is a little fear mixed with envy. If he's a wannabe, he should just admit it and get himself a kaffiya and be done with it.

[Nora]

the funniest thing all weekend at the Rachel Corrie Foundation's PeaceWorks Conference (Olympia, WA):

from the stage:
"Um, we found a black wallet...um, Lee, Lee Kaplan? Please retrieve your wallet at the front registration booth. thanks!"

...shock and gasps filled the auditorium. People craned their necks around to see if it was, in fact, THE Lee Kaplan.

And it was.

And his face turned a nice deep shade of orangey-red. i think he left pretty much right after that.

by the way, scott, welcome back! i miss you!

[scott]

Now that is hilarious!

Thanks Nora, we gotta kick it soon.

[Lee Kaplan, Dafka Exposed -- Updated Edition]

Lee Kaplan, Dafka Exposed -- Updated Edition
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2005/01/31/17184091.php

The following is a revised version of the original article (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/12/19/17105291.php), including new updated information and links. Read more to learn about Dafka, Protest Warrior, David Horowitz; Students For Academic Freedom and Kaplan's links to Kahanism.

Lee Kaplan, Dafka Exposed -- Updated Edition
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1718409.php

""Not only are peace advocates offended by Kaplan's modus operandi, even other Zionists have criticized Kaplan's methods. On zionist.org, Alan D. Miller criticizes Kaplan for using links to Masada 2000, a website which espouses the tactics of Meir Kahane, founder of Jewish Defense League and Kach.

Alan D. Miller writes:

If I expect Muslim organizations to distance themselves from HAMAS and Islamic Jihad, I must also expect Jewish organizations to distance themselves from the memory of Rabbi Kahane, yemach shemo. From what I can see on your website, it does not appear that you have done so. Removal of these links and an unequivocal condemnation of Kahanism would be much more persuasive than an equivocal denial of affiliation with the Kahane movement.

Kach and its offshoot, Kahane Chai, were outlawed by Israel in 1994 as terrorist organizations.""

[RE previous post is the usual lie]

As usual, the expose on Indymedia is repete with lies. There is no Will Wallace, the email for him is a fake, DAFKA was not involved in any death threats, and there are no links to Kach. DAFKA was not present at any of the events in Hayward of elsewhere. You can't refute what Kaplan writes about you all in the ISM so you lie as usual. This is why you are losing and will continue to do so. Eventually Americans will reject you all the more when they see you are a front for Hamas and its murderous agenda. Ad hominem attacks with false information are the modus operandi of those who cannot debate with facts, exactly as you do in here...Kaplan is not part of Kach and has said so, however, the leadership of the ISM has openly admitted to working with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP.

[Anon]

Who wants to bet that literally every post here in support of Kaplan was written by Kaplan himself? Wow, what a nauseatingly pathetic idiot.

[Avner Falk]

Lee Kaplan has a website called "Israel Academia Monitor" at http://www.israel-academia-monitor.com which is devoted to "exposing anti-Israeli Israeli academics." He sends out daily e-mails to a large mailng list on the same subject.

[Benyamin Solomon]

Lee Kaplan is better than you'll ever be. Dude, the PSM and the ISM are the same and even have the same site. I consider Lee Kaplan to be a hero. I for one admire his work and admire what he does. He exposes the ISM as a terror front for the genocidal terrorist groups that seek Israel's destruction. You call an organization "neo-Mccarthyist" and yet you engage in Mccarthyism by calling another group known as the United American Committee Islamophobic. You attack that group for holding a rally against Islamo-Fascism. I bet that you're one of those politically correct leftists, who call people, who condemn Islamo-Fascism, Islamophbic. If you won't condemn Islamo-Fascism, then you just disgust me. Lee Kaplan gets right to the point. He exposes the pro-terrorist activities of the ISM. The ISM advocates for divestment against Israel, which, if totally carried out, would make children in Israel go hungry. Just grow up and get some facts in your head.

[Lee Kaplan]

Just came across your blog. Let me clarify for you a few things I noticed in comments here: 1) I have never been in Seattle in my life, undercover or otherwise 2) Comments you claim are mine in here are not from me other than this and 3) The DAFKA exposed nonsense was all frabricated on Indymedia as I have never belonged to Kahane Chai or been involved with Kahanist groups nor made any death threats against anyone. You are welcome to disagree with me, but I would prefer you stick to facts. Finally, I do not "make up evertyhing" I write, but report and record only that which I see and hear. Please post this to clarify several glaring errors in your blog that are ad hominem attacks on me without any factual basis. I hope you will run this in the interest of honesty and fairness.

[Lee Kaplan]

Clarification: I have never been to Olympia, Washington, either, not just Seattle, nor attended a Rachel Corrie event
undercover oir by any other means. As for the wallet story, it sounds like someone got a free wallet claiming they were Lee Kaplan or retrieved their own wallet allowing themselves to be the butt of a joke. Let's keep to the facts. Attacking me personally has nothing to do with your personal politics.

[John Anderson]

Why don't you call yourself angry Muslim kid!