I was sent the following email earlier in the week, in Hebrew – “I am a Jewish Australian- Israeli student at Melbourne Uni. I served as a tank commander in the IDF, with pride – and my friend translated the message:
Dear Mr. Loewestein,
I couldn’t ignore your posters that are all over the university. It’s a shame that a Jew like you humiliates his people and foments so much anti-Semitism. It is people like you who are the cause of so much hatred towards Israel. Even the left in Israel wouldn’t think of committing a crime such as yours.
It is you, the Socialist group, weak and ignorant, that are using emotional manipulation via selective information.
My dear Antony, there has arisen a new group at the university called ISF [Israel Stands Forever], whose aim is to fight and shut the mouths of people like you.
In every place that you’ll be. We’ll be there too.
In every place where sprout your dirt, we’ll sprout back. [a Hebrew slang roughly meaning “ruin someone’s name” or “say something bad about them with no good reason”]
In every place where you’ll talk, we’ll talk back.
Of course this is all in the spirit of politics and civility.
A Jewish friend commented:
I’m struck by the explicit goal to “shut the mouths” of people they don’t agree with. I mean, it’s such a bizarre and explicit totalitarian reaction and they have no consciousness at all of their mirroring fascist mentality.