Glenn Greenwald Goes All Out in Defense of Professor Joseph Massad's Anti-Semitic Screed

I'm a firm believer in free speech, and if it was me I wouldn't have taken down Columbia Professor Joseph Massad's vile essay attacking World War II-era supporters of a Jewish homeland as "Zionist anti-Semites." But I wouldn't be going to bat for such vile people either. Not so for Glenn Greenwald, who's been on a Twitter jihad attacking Al Jazeera for removing Massad's hate-piece.

Al Jazeera publishes an article by Columbia Professor Joseph Massad, then deletes it when usual suspects complain electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

If you want to read the Joseph Massad Op-Ed published then deleted by Al Jazeera, it's still herem.aljazeera.com/story/20135127…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

If Al Jazeera is going to delete an Op-Ed it itself published, shouldn't there be some explanation?Did someone err in publishing it?
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

If you only want to publish things that don't upset anyone, please don't go into journalismelectronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

Jane Mayer: "'Chilling' isn’t quite strong enough, it’s more like freezing the [journalism] process into a standstill.” #ChillingEffect
— Freedom of the Press (@FreedomofPress) May 19, 2013

One thing I refuse to do is explain difference b/w a) objecting to censorship of Argument X & b) defending Argument X electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

I don't know why, but it always shocks me that so many people can't distinguish between "X shouldn't be censored" & "I agree with X"
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

I emailed Al Jazeera earlier today for some explanation on this - still no answer: they have to provide one electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 19, 2013

Al Jazeera now deleted the mobile version of the Massad Op-Ed, too- who would do this without explanation?electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 20, 2013

Dear Al Jazeera: if you think you can delete your Op-Ed, refuse to comment & have everyone move on, you're very wrong electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abun…
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 20, 2013

There are a lot of great journalists at Al Jazeera, many of whom are very upset by the deletion of the Massad Op-Ed.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 20, 2013

Here's the problem for Greenwald: Even the most ardent free speech advocate would still recoil from defending Massad --- because people like this are perverting the history of the Holocaust in promotion of a second Holocaust against the Jews. William Jacobson has the story, "Al-Jazeera runs then deletes anti-Semitic screed by Columbia Univ. Prof. Joseph Massad":

Even Mondoweiss, yes Mondoweiss, the harshest of websites when it comes to Israel, had trouble stomaching Massad’s arguments:

Well, with Massad we’ve come a long inverted way. He sees the Jewishness that most Jews celebrate as colonial and – criminal.

Massad stops short – I think – of a Euro-American Jewish Zionist conspiracy to dominate the world.

Understanding Jewishness at war with the world and with Jewishness itself. It’s a tough sell.

Now the Massad article is gone from Al-Jazeera (h/t @GlennGreenwald). Spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories was not too much for Al-Jazeera initially, but perhaps the attention called to the screed was too much. I’d be curious if the article ran in non-English versions of Al-Jazeera and if it has been removed there.

More at the link. And really, if Mondoweiss has second thoughts, then, boy, that's really gotta be some over-the-top screed.

In any case, check Greenwald's timeline for updates.