Preemptive Snipe at Voices of Reason

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Nine months before Antony Loewenstein's book on the conflict in Israel and Palestine, Voices of Reason, has even been published, it's under attack. Loewenstein, who is a progressive member of the Jewish community and a Sydney-based freelance journalist, unsuccessfully made several attempts to ask the right-wing Australian Labor Party parliamentarian and Jewish community member, Michael Danby, some questions on the issue. Subsequently Danby wrote a letter to the editor of Australian Jewish News, arguing that Loewenstein's publisher, Melbourne University Press (MUP), "should drop this whole disgusting project. If they proceed, I urge the Australian Jewish community, and particularly the Australian Jewish News, to treat it with dignified silence." In response, MUP CEO Louise Adler wrote that "condemning a book prior to publication is appalling ... Danby’s proposal is inimical to the central Jewish values of tolerance and open debate."