This is in regards to the article on "Israelites".
Danny writes "I don't frequently post on this list, but I do read it and have been following the discussions taking place here. I am on the verge of getting into a major flame war with RK. Rather than do that, I have decided to follow Ed's example and leave Wikipedia for a while."
I am puzzled and astonished to read this. The flame war is coming from Danny alone.
I have been trying to talk to him and work with him, but Danny refuses to talkm literally. I have tried to make peace with him, and have repeatedly requested that he contribute to the article, instead of making personal attacks. I have added new material, and explicitly asked Danny to comment on this material, and offer any constructive criticism he would like to. But Danny refuses to contribute to any articles, and simply writes ad homenin attacks.
For whatever reason, Danny simply fills the Talk pages with implications that I am ignorant, he attacks the beliefs of mainstream scholars, he refuses to clarify his statements, and he makes unilateral deletions without explaining what the problem is.
Worse, he also now claims that he, and apparently he alone, has the right to decite what is NPOV, and has repeatedly implied that the views of any scholar other than him are not worth describing in the article And all this is despite my repeated requests for conversation and discussion. These remarks are still on the Talk page in the Israelite article.
Frankly, I am terribly confused. These recent actions by Danny are not like him at all, and until two days ago we had a good relationship! But after he saw just one sentence he disapproved of (I said that Jews are descendents of the Israelite tribe of Judah, and refugees from some of the other tribes.) he begain fixated on some imaginary claims that have to with "racial purity" or something, and never let go of this idea.
Danny then refused to speak to anyone about the issue, and simply implied that Jews were lying about their heritage. Since this particular Biblical minimalist position is used on the Internet by anti-Semitic groups on a daly basis, I was extremely concerned, and I told him so. NO ONE ACCUSED HIM of being an anti-Semited. Rather, I asked him to clarify precisely what he meant. Yet instead of writing clarifications, he made personal attacks. (In later days he did make some clarifications, but he still refuses to bring forth any sources at all to back up his position.)
Ironically, the ONLY person on Wikipedia in recent days to offer any support for Danny's claims has been ME. I went out of my way to add material, in the article on the "History of ancient Israel and Judah", on both Biblical minimalism and Biblical maximalism, with sources, bibliography and weblinks. Danny, mysteriously, refuses to give any support for his own position.
Danny's most recent remarks about me are, to put it charitably, incomprehensible. He attacked me by claiming that I was writing nonsense, that literally every proposed addition I had offered was wrong...and then he admits that almost every proposed change I made was, in fact, correct! He then concludes that I am totally wrong. In a word, "Huh?".
He has continually attacked me for beliefs that I don't have, and keeps imagining that someone is trying to prove that Jewish people are some sort of "racially pure" group, whatever that means. Yet no one is making such a claim. And its not just my point of view; other people have joined in on the Talk pages, trying to explain this to Danny, but he insists that his mis-reading of the material is correct. I went through his comments one at a time, and explained to him that he was attributing many beliefs to me that I don't have, and that he was attacking claims that I was not making. Further, I explained that some of his beliefs I actually agreed with! Yet all he gave in return was silence.
All of this disturbs me greatly, as this is not like Danny at all. I just can't explain why he refuses to talk, why he refuses to explain his position, why he refuses to back up his own position, or why he is making up all sorts of attacks on non-existent beliefs, and attacking me personally.
This is not right, folks. This is justplain wrong.
Robert (RK)
===== "I prefer a wicked person who knows he is wicked, to a righteous person who knows he is righteous". The Seer of Lublin [Jacob Isaac Ha-Hozeh Mi-Lublin, 1745-1815]
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