For example: Kaplan repeatedly and inexplicably calls JVP “The ISM’s “Jewish Voice for Peace”, a statement so strange its hardly worth addressing. ( Here, presumably, he is referring to the International Solidarity Movement.)

We have already produced Jewish Voice for Peace and International Solidarity Movement web sites that show that the two groups are working together. Now let’s take a look at Rob Lipton himself, who says the assertion that JVP is the ISM’s Jewish Voice for Peace is “a statement so strange its hardly worth addressing.”

Live from Palestine: International Direct Action Against the Israeli Occupation reports,

ROB LIPTON, Ph.D., is a longtime member of A Jewish Voice for Peace and participated twice in International Solidarity Movement activities in the West Bank during 2002. During the early 1990s he was the Los Angeles director of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a liberal media watch group.

Packing Bags for the Middle East

Dr. Rob Lipton is a poet, a scientist, a long time activist, and a co-cordinator of an organization called Jewish Voice for Peace. Lipton joined a group of 100 activist with the International Solidarity Movement as they set forth for the Middle East to show solidarity with the Palestinians

Berkeley activist faces Israeli tanks in West Bank

It wasn’t supposed to be quite so difficult for Lipton, a 43-year old public health researcher, who had previously worked at refugee camps in Hong Kong and the Cambodia – Thailand border, “I had never been to the region and it seemed like a good opportunity to see what was happening,” said Lipton.

He and his fellow protestors from the International Solidarity Movement, a one-year old grass roots organization advocating civil disobedience in opposition to the Israeli occupation, had planned a two-week itinerary to provide support for Palestinians.

Robby, are you now going to contend that (yuk yuk yuk) Lee Kaplan is the Webmaster of word-power.co.uk, or maybe that he is really Sandra Ahten, or perhaps Matt Artz of the Berkeley Daily Planet? Or maybe he is all three of them! In light of the above information, why should anybody believe a single word that you or A Jewish Voice for Peace have to say about Lee Kaplan or anyone else?

Now let’s take a look at A Jewish Voice for Peace’s Form 990 tax return for 2005. Bob Lipton, please don’t bother trying to argue that Lee Kaplan filled out your group’s tax return as follows, because we have a .pdf copy and we know he didn’t.

Also, unless you are prepared to contend that Lee Kaplan is also on JVP’s Board of Directors, you can’t really blame him for posting this on your Web site. It seems there is some difference between your Board of Directors’ report and what JVP reported to the IRS.

Letter from the Directors

Jewish Voice for Peace 2005 Annual Report

Letter from the Directors

We’ve grown from an all-volunteer organization to a globally-recognized one, with chapters already in Washington, DC, San Jose, Sacramento, and the San Francisco Bay area, and more on the way. We are able to make a footprint much larger than our means because we think and act strategically – we’re careful when we need to be, and we’re not afraid to take risks when we need to.

JVP is a trusted source for media, and we’re becoming more influential. Thanks to our supporters, we are fast becoming a force that our congressional representatives need to reckon with. Leaders of groups that give Israel their blind support are working hard against us specifically because we not only shatter their myth of representing all Jews – we show they don’t even represent a majority.

If you’ve been a JVP supporter, we hope you’ll remember how you’ve contributed to building this organization as you read on. If not, we hope the coming pages move you to jump in and join us.

Warm regards.

Liat Weingart
Mitchell Plitnick
Directors of JVP

We savvy. Liat Weingart and/or Mitchell Plitnick are REALLY Lee Kaplan (he sure gets around, doesn’t he?) and he wrote this director’s report that seems to differ from what JVP told the Internal Revenue Service: NO to, “During the year, did the organization attempt to influence national, state, or local legislation, including any effort to influence public opinion on a legislative matter or referendum…” Not only that, perhaps Lee Kaplan is also JVP’s Webmaster, and he posted http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_11.shtml

On August 15 [2005, same year as covered by the above Form 990], about 50 members and supporters gathered in front of Nancy Pelosi’s office to demand that Congress push for the removal of all settlements. It was the height of a banner media week in which we virtually saturated local television with the message that all settlements are illegal and must be removed.

But wait, didn’t JVP answer “No” to the question, “During the year, did the organization attempt to influence national, state, or local legislation, including any effort to influence public opinion on a legislative matter or referendum…” ?

This also is quite interesting:

The following was no longer available online but it was still cached by Google (we have downloaded it to make sure it does not get lost– it is no longer at Google’s cache.)

San Francisco, April 7, 2003 – Members of A Jewish Voice for Peace, together with other Jewish activists in the anti-war affinity group called “Slicha: Stop the War”, will demonstrate in front of the office of Congresswoman and Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi. They will be demanding that Pelosi strengthen her stand for peace in the Middle East. …Specifically, the demonstrators issued three demands of Pelosi:
1. To support House Resolution 141, which affirms that the United States possesses the right to defend itself against imminent or actual attack, but disavows the doctrine of preemption.
2. To support House Concurrent Resolution 111, which expresses sympathy to the family of Rachel Corrie, who was recently killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip and calls for a U.S. investigation into her death.

This also was cached by Google.
Jewish Voice for Peace Urges Defeat of California Assembly Resolution ACR 81

San Francisco, April 25, 2003 – A Jewish Voice for Peace, the largest grassroots, Jewish peace organization in the United States, called today for the defeat of California Assembly Concurrent Resolution 81. ACR 81, introduced in early April by Republican Assemblyman Tony Strickland, condemns the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority alone and holds them entirely to blame for the ongoing violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

JEWISH GROUPS CALL ON CONGRESS TO PASS RACHEL CORRIE BILL
Contact: Mitchell Plitnick 510-465-1777 (office) 510-484-6472 (cell) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

San Francisco, April 2, 2003 - Several grassroots Jewish peace organizations today urged Members of Congress to support the Rachel Corrie Resolution (H.Con.Res. 111). …Participating organizations include Jewish Mobilization for a Just Peace and Bubbes and Zaydes for Middle East Peace (Philadelphia), A Jewish Voice for Peace (San Francisco), Jewish Voices Against the Occupation (Seattle), Jews Against the Occupation (New York), Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (Washington, DC), Not in My Name (Chicago), the Tikkun Community, and Visions of Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine and Jewish Women for Justice in Israel/Palestine (Boston).

Rob Lipton’s Muzzlewatch blog entry further complains,

Why does Lee Kaplan need to be watched?
Attacks on Jewish Voice for Peace provide a perfect example of the Lee Kaplan methodology. Kaplan repeatedly rehashes falsehoods in the guise of reporting, often making up information that can be corrected with 1 or 2 minutes research on a website. Further, these falsehoods then populate the net, showing up in places ranging from Wikipedia to Masada2000.

Robby, Lee Kaplan did not write the articles that describe your own activities with the International Solidarity Movement. Nor did Lee Kaplan fill out the Form 990 tax return in which JVP reports that it made no efforts whatsoever to influence legislation. Nor did Lee Kaplan post JVP’s own Web pages that describe how JVP is “fast becoming a force that our congressional representatives need to reckon with” and how JVP “gathered in front of Nancy Pelosi’s office to demand that Congress push for the removal of all settlements.” Instead of looking for some bogeyman in its closet, behind its bushes, and of course under its bed, perhaps JVP should be looking in a mirror to find its own worst enemy.

Unlike the “free speech” Muzzlewatch site that no longer accepts comments or debate, we do. We never censor any comments (except for outright spam), so we invite Robby Lipton, Cecilie Surasky, Mitchell Plitnick, and the rest of JVP to bring it on.