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AddReply(461462,"I wonder how many of these TBs are written by the same person?","sk","USA","07/08/09","The same themes come up (e.g., factual inaccuracies), but almost always these TB claims have no meat on them, lacking specifics.\n\nThen there\'s the \"It\'s not professorial\" theme.  I don\'t think this is on his reading list, though.\n\nFrankly, Plaut, unlike most columnists here, is often very entertaining.  In this case, I am delighted to see vicious ridicule of such a leftist stinker--and yes, anyone who prattles about \"Palestine\" and visits these Amalekites, is indeed a leftist.\n\nMaybe you LC defenders should get a little civilization into you. Start with Bach.");
AddReply(460085,"Shallow fellow","Edwin Svigals","NYC","07/05/09","Cohen\'s songs are tolerable but shallow (as is his understanding of politics and his status as a Jew)- he\'s a has-been that nobody wants to listen to except perhaps Fatah assassins (o yeah, he\'s big in Ramallah:))\nLearning that his portfolio went kaboom made my day even sunnier...");
AddReply(459303,"Leonard Cohen","Jew","Israel","07/03/09","If he wants to meet Arabs, let him meet with the Hamas and help to free Gilad Shalit.");
AddReply(458970,"Re: Buddhism","Gastone","Trier","07/02/09","I stand corrected, and am glad to hear that. Actually, I always wondered how buddhism and LC\'s strong biblical imagery go together. Just a few hours ago I heard him recitate \"If it be your will!\" in Cologne. Goosebumps!");
AddReply(458868,"He should fear becoming another Daniel Pearl.","Michael","Galut","07/02/09","");
AddReply(458652,"To #27","","","07/01/09","He is NOT Buddhist! (He never was, he only used \"zen\" as an exercise of the mind, not as a religion). He\'s not Christian either. He is a Jew keeping Shabbat ...");
AddReply(458634,"LEONARD COHEN","JACOB ZEDER","ATLANTA","07/01/09","Cohen has always considered himself Jewish. He has stated on several occasions he had a perfectly good religon and just went to study Zen because he respected the teacher.His current concerts are getting rave reviews (I know stupid hippy leftest). Check some out on you tube, it will give you goose bumps. I too wish he would not play in Ramallah but how many artists play in Israel period?");
AddReply(458538,"One important factual correction","Alan Perlman","Har Hevron","07/01/09","Great article by Plaut. But I would offer one factual correction. The best show on B&W TV at the time was \"Leave It To Beaver.\" And as I understand (though I cannot testify to the veracity of this), the show used to be shown live until one episode when June said to Ward, \"Ward, weren\'t you a little hard on the beaver last night?\"");
AddReply(458390,"What a bitter diatribe.","Warren","Portsmouth","07/01/09","There are far too many factual errors in this article for me to take this guy seriously as a \"Professor\". What happened to basic research? I don\'t agree with his views on Mr Cohen at all, but even objectively I am astonished at Mr Plaut\'s appalling diatribe. Is this the state of Israel\'s academia? Bitter and xenophobic potshots at anybody who may not entirely agree with a fundamentalist Jewish point of view? I want to punch you in the mouth, \"Professor\" Plaut, for writing such sour, insular and  uninformed rubbish.");
AddReply(458387,"To #26","","","07/01/09","What are you talking about? How did you come do such a nonsense? No SPIT on him but PITY on you ...");
AddReply(458377,"No clue","Gastone","Trier","07/01/09","You are both misinformed and terribly preoccupied by stereotypes.\nCohen is probably the most influential songwriter of all time: There are more than 1700 cover versions of his songs - unequalled even by Dylan and the Beatles.\nAnd, as said beforde, his  former) financial problems didn\'t have anything to do with stock markets - his manager had nicked all his money. As regards religion, he\'s actually buddhist nowadays - but heavily influenced by both Christianity and his jewish origin. A true cosmopolitan and, as a brilliant poet and songwriter, a well-suited mediator between cultures.\n");
AddReply(458322,"LEONARD COHEN","PAUL GUREVICH","NEW YORK","07/01/09","LEONARD COHEN IS TO ME A \'CONCENTRATION CAMP APOLOGIST JEW\'. HE THINKS THAT MAYBE THE NAZIS WERE SOMEHOW RIGHT IN PERSECUTING JEWS. JUST AS THE ARABS ARE SOMEWHAT RIGHT IN KILLING JEWS. I SPIT ON HIM.");
AddReply(458235,"WTF?","Warren","Cherbourg","07/01/09","My man, aside from the multiple factual errors, you singularly prove yourself to be entirely ignorant of Cohen\'s later career, and without the brains to be able to interpret the man\'s work beyond some petty surface scrabbling. You seem a petty old Jew with a great chip on your shoulder.");
AddReply(458226,"LC: World\'s oldest liberal arts major","Danny","US of Obamerica","07/01/09","Leonard Cohen appeals mostly to bookish women and nerdy guys.  He could easily be the world\'s oldest liberal arts major. Listen to the themes that recur in his music: depression, existential angst, sexual frustration, social deviance...It might play well in certain circles in Tel Aviv, but it\'s hardly the stuff to get Palestinian toes tapping.  I am sure that in Ramallah they would rather listen to Egyptian singer Shaaban Abdel Rahim performing his smash hit \"I Hate Israel.\"");
AddReply(458073,"To #18","From-diaspora","","06/30/09","L.Cohen is NOT an anti-Jewish artist, he is not a Leftist. And he IS competent in Torah and Judaism by great deal! Do you know anything about him and his work at all, I wonder ?");
AddReply(458068,"Too many factual mistakes","Jardena","","06/30/09","Mr.Prof., the \"newer numbers\" that you critisize are from 80s. And your explanation/interpration is absolutely off the trail. Your usage of the words is even worse.");
AddReply(458048,"David Ha\'ivri, Gefen doesn\'t deserve any of your money","Jew","Israel","06/30/09","How can you buy anything from a man whom you know wants to destroy your home and in fact all of Yosh?");
AddReply(458000,"A Cohen Song","one man","somewhere","06/30/09","\"Night Comes On\"\n\nProfessor? What is the function of an artist but to put to words, music, painting, photographs, or the like, events so that others might take notice of what is occuring? In some places artistic expression is the ONLY way around sensored and brainwashing main-stream media. Most of the press outside of Israel rarely relates occurences there or presents any \"First hand experiences\" of those living through it. And what is taught about \"Ethics of Speech\" Perhaps a mirror to your own soul might do you some good.");
AddReply(457963,"Shame on you, Professor!","Oskar","Prague","06/30/09","Prof.Plaut, your article is full of nonsenses, rubbish and lies. Are you really a teacher? There are so many sources available. I cannot understand why the hatred? L.Cohen is a good man I am not sure about you.");
AddReply(457900,"Oh, Steven, please grow up! 2","Janet Kasten Friedma","Kochav HaShacar","06/30/09","We were young and gullible when we first learned Cohen\'s songs. We were Jews without Torah, and our wholesome Jewish instinct for spirituality got sidetracked into religion substitutes including Art, New Age meditation, Communism, anti-war or other political causes. Indeed, Leonard Cohen himself was probably swept up by the spirit of those times and by his OWN lack of Torah knowledge to become the Leftist that he is today. Cohen, never a superstar, but quite famous for writing these songs, is unlikely to disavow them now, in his old age. We, who have had the privilige of moving to the Land of Israel should remember: You can take the Jew out of the Diaspora; but taking the Diaspora out of the Jew is a lot harder. We can express disapproval of Cohen and other anti-Jewish artists not by fantasies of punching him in the face, but by refraining from consuming the \"product\" that he sells. ");
AddReply(457862,"Oh Steven, please grow up!","Janet Kasten Friedma","Kochav HaShacha","06/30/09","Leonard Cohen gets on your nerves?! So don\'t listen to him! I don\'t know what you teach at Haifa U. but surely your education would enable you to find healthier relaxation than watching TV, be it Cohen, Simpsons, or the Palestinian uh, er, IBA news. 40 years ago you earned money and female attention by singing Cohen\'s songs. So did lots of people, many of them Jews of varying degrees of assimilation. Nobody forced us to listen to those songs; even then radios had on/off buttons. Nobody forced us to sing the songs, buy records, songbooks, concert tickets or anything else that put money into Cohen\'s pocket. We did it willingly! We \"bought in\" to a culture which now, 40 years later, we understand to have been wrong. If the mistakes of our youth are embarrassing, we must learn from those mistakes! Stop supporting skewed \"culture\" by buying tickets&discs, clicking onto their sites, etc.");
AddReply(457822,"terrorhoids","raphael","philadelphia","06/30/09","So is it terrorism to deprive children crayons?\n\nCarter said he had asked Israeli officials to explain the blockade and why items like paper and crayons were banned from Gaza. \"I sought an explanation for this policy in Israel, but did not receive a satisfactory answer – because there is none,\" he said.");
AddReply(457818,"Too harsh for a professor","seadove","Tel Aviv","06/30/09","I think you are too harsh for using words such as \"punching him on the nose\" etc. So you don\'t agree with him performing in Ramallah? That\'s fine. But using violant words will not help in solving our domestic problems.\n\nYou can see this from a positive side. Just imagine, a Cohen, giving a performance to Palestionians, who knows? Maybe that will be the peace breaker.");
AddReply(457785,"See a shrink","Suzanne","Oxford","06/30/09","Why don\'t you get the FACTS right first? I am not even sure where to start, but one thing is that Cohen has not lost a PENNY in the stock market crash, but due to other reasons which it would have been easy to research - if you really had been interested, but it seems that here, you have just seized your long-awaited chance to \"punch Cohen\", as you have put it - never mind the \"facts\". Which does not so much speak against Cohen or say anything about him, but you...  Your article just shows how important it is to have people like Cohen and Barenboim around, and how much they are admired not to despair at biassed provocations like yours! And they are successful; it sounds as if you, a \"loser\" in comparison, but not so beautiful, has a serious problem with that. The reasons? That Leonard\'s music did not get you enough \"Saturday Night dates\"? You might know best - or at least a shrink might.");
AddReply(457783,"this article","matthew","bethlehem, pa","06/30/09","suggests that Cohen\'s politics (or lack thereof)completely undermine his status as an artist or a songwriter. I am an ardent Leonard Cohen fan, I think he without hesitation is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. Your complaints concerning his references to Christianity are weak; his Jewish heritage should have nothing to do with how he chooses to create or write for that matter. You also seem to know very little of his work. Both Cohen songs that you cite, \"First We Take Manhattan\" and \"Democracy\", do not allude to the spite, nor the contempt that you suggest them to. Your labeling him as a mere cliched folksinger is also a weak argument. It\'s perfectly okay if you do not like his music, as it is okay to disagree with his appearing in Palestine; but it does not give you the right to criticize his artistic or human merit just because you feel he betrayed his Jewish heritage.");
AddReply(457687,"Unfortunately,","Garth","Edmonton","06/30/09","You haven\'t done your research.");
AddReply(457649,"comments","r","","06/30/09","i agree with your disgust at cohen.  it\'s maybe not the best idea to say you want to punch him, but i understand. also, not the best idea to include \'black people were called colored\' in the same paragraph lauding other things. it appears that you prefer \'colored\'.  not that you do, but that\'s the context.\n   having said that, you effectivly address a deeper problem: the immersion of society in leftist thinking masquerading as \'peace and love\'. \n   this is a very important topic.  in yiddish, you know the expression, sheyna yid, a beautiful jew.  this, as you know, means one who really keeps the mitzovs and is a true mensch.\n   i hope more people will write pieces deconstructing the myth of lefty \'peace and love\' disguises for communism, collectivism and narrow-mindedness.\n   there are alot of hippies i know (and knew) who are genuinely sweet people.  the problem is that they get swayed");
AddReply(457596,"Confronting the Hippies in the late 70\'s,","Gary","Monterey, CA","06/30/09","I realized that America was in a cultural war that was unending.  The hippies came to the university that I was attending to hold a rally of anti-USA and anti-G-d sediments in front of 1,000 students.  After hearing their initial spokepersons sound off their poison, I felt brave enough to climb up on the stage and confront them sensibly next to the mike.  I said that most of us are pro-American, pro-G-d, pro-creation and pro-ten commandments.  With the roar of the crowd, these some one hundred hippies shouted the most hatred words towards the students and me that I could imagine.  That was the first time, but not the last, that I noticed satanic control of individuals - real satanic, evil control.  This hatred comes from the pits of hell.");
AddReply(457564,"cohen","n.brindley","kirkcaldy scotl","06/30/09","He is a performer  get out more");
AddReply(457526,"Prof(?) Steven Plaut\'s Empty Tirade","Elizabeth","Phoenix","06/29/09","Well, folks you saw it here first!   Jealousy & hatred\nall tied up in a very small but vicious package. Whatever  Professor  Plaut teaches, his \"students\"\nare not better for it obviously.  Incredible, is it not,\nthat \"a hasbeen who never was,\" has this amount of time on his hands to attempt to    denigrate a fellow human being. One would hope that his days & nights would be filled with  \na multiplicity of issues and tasks  related to whatever his academic pursuit is supposed to  be.  Thank you Professor for all those grains of\nsalt.  In closing, please note that I have not used the word \"beautiful\" once in my text.  Goodbye & Good luck Professor-man!\n                      Elizabeth, in Phoenix");
AddReply(457492,"","Rob","Wetaskiwin","06/29/09","This is the stupidest article I\'ve read in a long time.");
AddReply(457489,"Ok, ok","David Baron","Jerusalem","06/29/09","Yes, Pete Seeger and other folksingers of his era had Stalinist, Commie sympathies. They were also the biggest boosters of our own little commie banana republic until this went out of fashion (when we looked more like a winner--so stay tuned).\n\nIn terms of 2009 Palestine, they ALL have atrocious politics. So do the vast majority of American Jewry (hardly Stalinists).\n\nCan we just enjoy Leonard Cohen\'s music and poetry for what it is? And pray he isn\'t lynched in Ramala.");
AddReply(457465,"You nailed it!","Aviel47","NYC","06/29/09","I grew up in NYC...and used to attend Cohen and Velvet Underground concerts (remember NICO?). But then I grew up and became an adult. Which means I read and studied history...something that Cohen seems to have missed. Amen to your words!");
AddReply(457458,"absolutely delightful column!!","holly","ramat aviv","06/29/09","");
AddReply(457457,"continued ","David Ha\'ivri","Kfar Tapuach","06/29/09","Like many Israelis, I enjoy listening to his music along with that of Yonatan Gefen, David Broza, Ariel Zilber and Shuli Rand and have CDs of each in my car. Sure, I wish that more Jewish performers come over to the side of Jewish national pride and values like the last two mentioned did. \n\nTruth being said of all of the people you reminisce of from your 60\'s memories Leonard Cohen seems to be the least most outright offensive to Jews and their heritage. ");
AddReply(457448,"Why do you expect a Canadian assimilated Jew to be more nationalist then his Isr","David Ha\'ivri","Kfar Tapuach","06/29/09","Steve,\n\nI\'m sure that you enjoyed your personal tour though memory lane. I don\'t really see the relevance of your attack on Leonard Cohen. The Israel government established and finances the PLO autonomy. We can hardly get right wing Jewish organizations to State views to the right of PM Netanyahu. Cohen is an assimilated Jew at best and if his views and theology worse at least he hasn\'t used his fame to promote those ideas. \n\nBy coming here during the Yom Kippur war to preform for our troops in the Sinai he bought a special place in the hearts of Israeli. That appreciation is his right and can not be taken away from him even if his personal views are far from mine. Just as I totally disagree with Avshalom Vilan but respect his right as a Jew who has fought for the land and people, to voice an opinion.\n");
AddReply(457435,"excellent atricle !","J.E.L","JEW-RUSALEM","06/29/09","I hate those oldies who want so much to \"come back\"not admitting is for the money and try to still be in style...well this man,doesnt to be called Cohen,never gave a dam thinking of Israel during over 40years,and now with the pseudo free new era of hussein obama,get a ride on a pseudo peace era...No you cant Leonard...we wont spend a shekel to sleep on your music in Park Hayarkon and I really doubt any arab will appreciate your \"music\"nor your voice,not in israeli occupied land by arabs nor in real Eretz Israel...so go for it go to your fiasco you deserve it,and be on the banish list of self hating jews who praise to please the murderer ennemy.go go to their cave,like barenboim did and in your back ...they\'ll laugh I swear it to you...and you made yourself a real whirly !!!");

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