http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts05072009.html - 'Criminalizing Criticism of Israel' by Paul Craig Roberts - describes the international effort to suppress criticism of the Jewish state. In Europe, this effort is led by Germany, and in America, it's led by the Anti-Defamation League.

The new Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act says 'Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce [radio, TV, internet] any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both. (HR 1966, SEC 3, Sec. 881a)'

It offers special protection for people who can claim to be oppressed for their 'race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability'.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, which sponsored the act, “freedom of speech does not extend to racist groups” (the ADL, a keen supporter of apartheid Israel, obviously does not include itself in this category).

Left-wing anti-fascists seem to agree with the ADL, as I explain in this post:

palestinethinktank.com/2008/05/22/the-mass-psychology-of-anti-fascism/#comment-9884

It is idiotic for leftists to help Zionism. Numerous left-wing academics have come under sustained attack from Zionists who hate our freedoms. Norman Finkelstein didn't get tenure at DePaul, Douglas Card at Oregon grovelled, Hampshire College was forced to apologize for supporting a boycott of Israel, and so on...

pulsemedia.org/2009/02/25/on-dershowitz-and-hampshire-college/

Recently, I engaged in correspondence with a major historian of the Middle East. He complimented my views, though we have tactical disagreements. He could not give me permission to publish his reply on this site alongside his name, because this site mentions David Irving, even though it does not endorse any of Irving's controversial views. Even this link would get him into trouble with the university and with the national education department. And he doesn't live in Israel.

A recent issue of Counterpunch print magazine contained a graphic description of the persecution of a liberal Peace Studies academic for her study of the Iraq war and Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

The author of the piece generally describes the Zionist manouvers which led her to leave her job at Colgate College in New York as examples of right-wing pressure. For example, Fox News and the loony right-wing site freerepublic.com both had something to say about her careful, compassionate treatment of the negative consequences of US Middle East policy. In retrospect, she says she is just as aware of left-wing and anarchist capitulation to Zionist pressure. AK Press, the anarchist publisher, is about to produce a book about threats to academic freedom. The piece in Counterpunch was originally intended for this book, but AK Press chickened out. One of their excuses was that they thought her article might be libellous. But Counterpunch showed it to their lawyer, and he said it wasn't actionable. Another anarchist excuse was that a famous left-wing author wouldn't give the article a good review. He is a friend of a professor of Peace Studies at Colgate who is sympathetic to Israel. Well, put it this way, he describes Israel's Apartheid Wall as a 'fence'. AK Press met with this jerk, and refused to meet the author. She is just as much a victim of left-wing as of right-wing complicity with Zionism. More importantly, our ability to resist Jewish racial supremacy is threatened by every move against Zionism's critics, whether the critics, or their attackers, are left, right or neither. It's not about left and right.