-Caveat Lector- ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 03:21:58 +0300 From: lena bahou <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [AL-AWDA] Fwd: FW: Norman Finkelstein on Thoughts on the Unthinkable >> >> >>Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 7:52 PM >>Subject: Norman Finkelstein on Thoughts on the Unthinkable >> >> >>[Controversial author Norman Finkelstein (The Holocaust as an Industry) >>gives his view of the attacks on the US and its aftermath. He makes the >>point that the only way to prevent more scenes like the ones we witnessed >>on >>September 11 is to stop looking at the world in "Us vs Them" view and >>begin >>to recognize the humanity of all people. This can lead us to examine the >>world that America has had such a strong hand in building and that has >>produced the sort of people who carry out the attacks we saw last week. >>Finkelstein points out there are no easy answers and, what should be >>obvious >>but sadly is not, that sustained military campaigns are not going to solve >>this problem. The solutions will take much longer, and will require that >>we >>change a global system where a minority of the world lives in luxury while >>a >>majority is increasingly driven to desperation. His words are not easy to >>hear, and perhaps many will disagree, but they offer a different way of >>approaching current events. - MP] >> >> >>Remarks at DePaul University Teach-In >>13 September 2001 >> >>by Norman G. Finkelstein >> >>The events this past Tuesday immediately evoke shock, horror and fear. >>However, they weren't the same as a natural disaster - a typhoon or >>volcanic >>eruption - which also evoke shock, horror and fear. The catastrophe on >>Tuesday was also politically significant. To explain why, I want first to >>suggest a comparison >> >>The Kennedy assassination was for my generation what this past Tuesday >>will >>henceforth be for yours. In fact, the Kennedy assassination lacked >>political significance - ultimately it was more like a family tragedy - >>whereas Tuesday was, as I've said, politically significant. The >>comparison >>I want to suggest is with a related episode. After Kennedy was shot, the >>African-American leader, Malcolm X, invoked the metaphor of "chickens >>coming >>home to roost." This prompted public outrage and led to his expulsion >>from >>the Nation of Islam. What Malcolm X meant, of course, was that the >>violence >>the US indiscriminately inflicted on others had now struck home. >> >>No one in this room is more pained and anguished than me by the ghastly >>and >>colossal crime committed this past Tuesday. Many of my former students >>worked in the World Trade Center and likely now lay dead in the rubble. >>There are my friends who I've been unable to reach, the neighbors in my >>building,. - the World Trade Center was a very tall building, and the >>inventory of my connections with it commensurately long. Apart from >>reacting with altogether justifiable anger and sorrow, however, it is our >>responsibility to think through what happened - to make sense of what >>happened - and to do what's within our power to prevent a recurrence of >>this >>horror. >> >>Many people in this room will not like what I'm about to say. But the >>stakes are too high for telling lies. Now more than ever we must tell the >>truth (as we understand it), regardless of consequences. >> >>The easy answer to Tuesday is simply to shake our heads in disbelief at >>these crazed-lunatic-fanatic-fundamentalist Middle >>Eastern-Arabic-Islamic-whatever. To write them off as a species apart >>from - indeed, several rungs below - ourselves. The tougher answer is >>recognize the humanity in these people, to acknowledge their suffering and >>degradation - and toughest of all - to take a hard look at ourselves and >>the >>responsibility we bear for their torment. >> >>Like most every year, this past June I visited Palestinian friends in the >>Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. For the first time in more than a >>decade of traveling there, I took notice of a qualitative change in >>popular >>sentiments. My Palestinian friends - with only a couple of exceptions - >>now >>supported terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians. (I arrived soon after >>the >>disco bombing in Tel Aviv.) Unable to go along with this change of heart >>- >>I could understand but never support the targeting of civilians - I also >>warned that this was a disaster on practical grounds. Palestinian terror >>attacks would eventually bring forth a crushing Israeli retaliatory >>strike. >>Palestine would be no more. Their reaction? After decades of unendurable >>suffering, these Palestinians no longer cared. The scenario I conjured >>didn't frighten. One Palestinian in Rafah kept repeating: "It's 'To be or >>not to be.'" Another invoked Samson and the Temple. They were prepared >>to >>die - and to take along as many of their Israeli oppressors as they could >>with them. Is this so hard to understand? >> >>My late mother was a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto and Maidanek >>concentration camp. I once asked her what she thought as news filtered >>back >>during the war that the Russians were indiscriminately bombing German >>cities >>with a massive toll of civilian lives. "I wanted the Germans to die," she >>replied without hesitation. "I knew I wouldn't live, so I wanted them to >>die, too. We cheered the Russians. We wanted them to destroy anything >>and >>everything German. We wished them death every second of the day because >>we >>faced death every second of the day." >> >>The United States government - a government the responsibility for which >>we >>all share - directly and indirectly inflicts misery and horror on large >>parts of humanity. For most of us, this misery and horror - whether the >>systematic destruction of Lebanon in 1982 or Iraq in 1991 or Serbia more >>recently - possessed all the reality of a video game. It was mass murder >>without consequence; it was almost fun. Now we reap the terrifying >>whirlwind that we have sown. >> >>Since the end of World War II the US has not faced any real enemies - or, >>at >>any rate, sustained threats to its "national interest." The Soviet Union >>was basically a conservative and - as becomes depressingly clearer each >>day - basically a stabilizing force in world affairs. (It won't be long >>before we will be looking back nostalgically at the "international >>communist >>conspiracy.") In Southeast Asia and Central America we fought wars and >>proxy wars but no vital American interest was at stake. Since the demise >>of >>the Soviet Union, the official enemies of the US - Iraq, Libya, >>narco-terrorists. - have been phantoms and figments of our own conjuring >>to >>justify inter alia ever-escalating military budgets. >> >>The US gloated over its new status of the sole superpower. Carrying on >>with >>breathtaking arrogance and swagger, just in recent memory the US rejected >>an >>international war crimes tribunal and an agreement on germ warfare, walked >>out of the Kyoto agreement and the Durban conference, sought to dismantle >>the ABM treaty, and on and on - the list is quite long. The assumption >>hitherto has been that there was no price to be had for being the sole >>superpower: one could do as one pleased with complete impunity. It seems >>that Washington will now have to rethink that assumption. >> >>But it is not only our leaders in Washington who must engage in some >>serious >>and tough reflection. All of us in this room must also think hard about >>our >>lives. Most of us have carried on like there was no world out there. >>Everyone else wanted to be like us so we didn't need to know or worry >>about >>the world beyond the tips of our noses (except as a potential vacation >>spot). We didn't bother to read newspapers. We certainly didn't waste >>time >>learning foreign languages. (Doesn't everyone speak English?). We had >>far >>too many problems of our own to worry about the problems of "them." But >>on >>Tuesday the world came crashing in. Now we really better worry about the >>problems of "them" - not as an act of charity but as a necessity for >>survival. >> >>Indeed, it seems to me we really need to ask the very toughest questions >>about ourselves. Isn't there something fundamentally wrong when a small >>handful of people are bloated with so much wealth that they're practically >>ready to explode when so much of humanity is reduced to a dog's existence? >>In fact, that metaphor isn't exactly right since canines in the US >>generally >>receive more concern and care than the half million or so Iraqi children >>who've died on account of US sanctions. >> >>There's no simple answer to what happened on Tuesday. After the first >>atomic device was detonated it was Einstein, I think, who said that >>everything has changed except man's way of thinking. This I'm afraid is >>the >>biggest danger now confronting us. Washington's response to what happened >>will likely be yet more of the same. Retaliatory strikes of a devastating >>magnitude; new national security measures that will further erode our >>basic >>freedoms. Leaving aside moral and civil libertarian concerns, does anyone >>here really believe this will stop terrorist attacks? >> >>The only hope is if, after the horrors of this past Tuesday, our way of >>thinking also changes. >> > _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ================================================================= http://al-awda.org To sign Al-Awda's petition to terminate US aid to Israel go to: http://al-awda.org/terminate_aid_petition.htm To sign a letter asking Intel Corporation to disinvest from Israel go to: http://al-awda.org/campaign/intel_letter.htm ================================================================= Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition is the largest network of grassroots activists dedicated to Palestinian human rights. 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