COMMENTS ON NORMAN FINKLESTEIN'S NEW BOOK

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COMMENTS ON NORMAN FINKLESTEIN'S NEW BOOK - "BEYOND
Professor Norman Finklestein of DePaul University in
Chicago and an expert on zionism (the subject of his
doctoral dissertation), Jewish and Israeli history and
the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict has just
completed a very important book. It's called "Beyond
Chutzpah" and it's about Israel's and its supporters'
"misuse of anti-semitism and abuse of history." The
book is extremely well written and reflects Dr.
Finklestein's brilliant scholarship, keen analysis and
scrupulous integrity. In style, the book is powerful
and elegant and will greatly impact all those who read
it.

Dr. Finklestein showed great courage tackling a
subject as sensitive and vitally important as Israeli
war crimes and crimes against humanity and how they're
able to deflect them from public view, especially in
the U.S., by creating or resurrecting the myth of a
virulent and pervasive "new anti-semitism" as well as
exploit "The Holocaust" as a "unique" event in history
only affecting the Jews under the Nazis.

Dr. Finklestein knew full well because of his great
credibility, integrity and reputation for meticulous
scholarship he would have to brace for the inevitable
assault against him after or even before publication.
It certainly came and quite viciously - cancelled
scheduled appearances to discuss his book, an effort
to keep it from being published and more. If he were
unimportant, unknown or produced mediocre work, he
probably would have been ignored. But by attacking
him, his critics (with no credible evidence to support
them) acknowledged just the opposite, and by doing it
by relying on little more than hollow ad hominems,
they showed themselves to be on the defensive and had
no other recourse. Using a familiar metaphor, you
could say when the (Israeli) emperor was shorn of its
protective clothes, its defense was to deflect
attention elsewhere, blame its victims to justify its
own abuses and attack all adversaries as anti-semites,
liars, terrorists or their supporters or whatever else
they thought might work for them.

Professor Finklestein documents in great and
impressive detail what this reviewer has known for a
considerable time from my own extensive reading and
following events in the "occupied territories." For
many years I've occasionally discussed Israel's
shocking and callous treatment of the Palestinians
with friends and acquaintances. At times I've stunned
and disturbed them when I explained that beginning
with the deliberate "ethnic cleansing" in 1948 to the
present, Israel created a racist, apartheid state even
worse than in South Africa and went on to treat the
Palestinians as brutally as the Nazis treated them,
except for the death camps - especially after 1967.
And after that crucial year, these policies were
supported and financed by all U.S. governments.
Israel's overwhelming victory in their "six day war"
when the U.S. was beginning to be bogged down in
Vietnam clearly showed the Johnson administration how
important a strategic ally this nation was and how it
could be used in that vital region as "our cop on the
beat" (using Noam Chomsky's characterization) along
with Iran (under the Shah).

read more at: snoedel.punt.nl/ - Unsubscribed , posted 12/29/05

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