On July 4, Amazon spammed its customers with advertisement of Norman Finkelstein's virulently anti-Semitic book, Image and Reality of the Israeli-Palestine Conflict. On May 30, Amazon similarly advertised Beyond Chutzpah: on the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History. I have never received any other ad from Amazon.

On April 4, in an unprecedented move, Amazon deleted all reviews of Obadiah Shoher's Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict. A few days later, Amazon forced its subsidiary Booksurge to terminate publishing contract with Shoher whose book is now available for download from www.samsonblinded.info . Google earlier banned advertising of the Samson Blinded for "unacceptable content." Shoher, indeed, is pro-Israeli, yet realistic and critical of Israeli policies.

Obadiah Shoher, an anonymous politician, abandons myths and moralizing in favor of realpolitik. He argues for raw efficiency of antiterrorist operations and shedding liberal idealism. Shoher asks inconvenient questions and gives honest answers. Amazon does not like that. Anti-Semitic lampoons by Norman Finkelstein are more to Amazon's taste.

I'm never visited Amazon and so I'm not familiar with what went on there.
Just by going on your word, the problem here seems not about politics, but rather about the money grubbing jerks at Amazon.
They should have an advertising policy where they don't advertise politically or religously sensitive products.

It's funny how anything critizing Israel is automatically 'anti-semitic'. The term anit-semitic is very, very outdated and I don't think it applies to Israel today. I very much doubt that Israel is still 'semitic', in that it got mixed up with a lot of nations before occupying and then settling in Palestine making the racial categorization of 'semetic' very weak. My point is that, considering the-sometimes-bloody history of mankind, all people suffered equally, yet you find nobody talking about 'anti-english' or 'anti-german', not even 'anti-indian'. The first vote option would be very 'anti-palestinian', if they did.
As for the vote, I would have liked to choose option 3 but I think a measure of cencorship is sometimes required in particular areas, politics not included. I took option 4 but here I would vote against political and religious cencorship in particular, if that option is available.
And I disagree with codecruncher too. Amazon should advertise whatever they want to advertise as it is their business afterall. Religiously/Politicaly sensitive people should grow up a little (no offense).

Shiela; since I have no source of evidence except your report, I agree with you that what Amazon did is not fair to Obadiah, though I think there is more to this than you observed, especially that I'm sure the people at Amazon are not idiots, and would not be mindlessly 'grubbing for money'.

If I turned this thread intoto a political debate, I apologize in advance.

And please don't label me as 'anti-shiela'. It's not wrong to have different views, you know...

Oh man - I think I bit the bait. Google 'Amazon touts anti-Israeli views' and check it out. Shiela appears to be an active member in some 138,000 forums well maybe a little less but its obvious, its a campaign not a single 'I want your opinion, CGNeers'...
Which makes me much more doubtful of the case...  

man i don think its right to bring political opinons into fourms due to it turning into a madhouse over debate but i beive its nne of their fucking business and censrship is wrong period free media is what they need

Amir wrote:

man i don think its right to bring political opinons into fourms due to it turning into a madhouse over debate but i beive its nne of their fucking business and censrship is wrong period free media is what they need

Man I think it's right to learn some English grammer eh? See my sig.


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MBlueD wrote:

Oh man - I think I bit the bait. Google 'Amazon touts anti-Israeli views' and check it out. Shiela appears to be an active member in some 138,000 forums well maybe a little less but its obvious, its a campaign not a single 'I want your opinion, CGNeers'...
Which makes me much more doubtful of the case...  

You actually Googled it?  I never would have thought to do that.  Oh well, at least the topic isn't some kind of hidden advertisement....or is it?  

MBlueD wrote:

It's funny how anything critizing Israel is automatically 'anti-semitic'.

This sort of thing happens with all minority groups.  There's always some fools who automatically declare racism when something happens to them.  What they don't understand is that they are making the rest of them look bad when they do this.
Awhile back, some people (mostly teenagers) in Toronto, Canada were arrested and accused of planning a bomb attack.
After that, there was all this squawking from Islamic clerics and Immams about how their community was being negetively portrayed in the city.  Of course, NOBODY in the media or any of the politicians said anything remotely negetive about the Muslim community.  Even in the Middle East, all their talk about how the West hates Islam is a load of crap;  Their reasons for terrorism and fighting have absolutely nothing to do with religion.

MBlueD wrote:

And I disagree with codecruncher too. Amazon should advertise whatever they want to advertise as it is their business afterall. Religiously/Politicaly sensitive people should grow up a little (no offense).

Well, I'm not THAT sensitive.  
I was looking at it more from a business point of view.  People in the business of selling are better off staying politically correct.  Amazon's choices and actions seem more about a quick cash infusion, at the risk of annoying a significant group of their customers.  It's somewhat ironic that after I posted my first reply, I found an article in the business section of my local newspaper regarding Amazon's stock woes.
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MBlueD wrote:

If I turned this thread intoto a political debate, I apologize in advance.

I don't see any reason to apologize.  

Amir wrote:

man i don think its right to bring political opinons into fourms due to it turning into a madhouse over debate but i beive its nne of their fucking business and censrship is wrong period free media is what they need

There's nothing wrong with posting messages about politics in forums.  Anyway,  it's not like there's a ton of people posting messages (not related to game problems) here.  

MBlueD wrote:

Oh man - I think I bit the bait. Google 'Amazon touts anti-Israeli views' and check it out. Shiela appears to be an active member in some 138,000 forums well maybe a little less but its obvious, its a campaign not a single 'I want your opinion, CGNeers'...
Which makes me much more doubtful of the case...  

Well I guess Israel is possibly trying to tilt peoples views of Isreal during the war.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-2289232,00.html

dragonman4 wrote:

Well I guess Israel is possibly trying to tilt peoples views of Isreal during the war.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-2289232,00.html

That's horrible.  Doing that certainly doesn't give the Israelis any boost in credibility for their war against Hezbollah.  Israeli cyber-terrorists?  Sheesh...