Hi. Here's an exchange which prompted today's essays.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
From:
To: "Ed Pearl" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 9:26 PM
Subject: Re: Ilan Pappe: Genocide in Gaza,
Alyah Strauss visits Los Angeles
On Sep 7, 2006, at 2:13 PM, Ed Pearl wrote:
>> http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5656.shtml
>>Genocide in Gaza
>>Ilan Pappe, The Electronic Intifada, 2 September 2006
Ilan Pappe is an anti-Semite, a Marxist, and in 1996 was a Communist
Party candidate for the Knesset. He has openly advocated the
destruction of Israel. I'm astonished that you would give column
space to this revisionist who pulls faux history out of his ass. And
if you subscribe to Pappe's garbage about Israel, then your
newsletter is no longer welcome in my mailbox.
Please remove my name from your mailing list.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ed Pearl" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To:
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 6:14 AM
Subject: Re: Ilan Pappe: Genocide in Gaza,
Alyah Strauss visits Los Angeles
Look at what you write. You haven't addressed a single issue or
position Dr. Pappe poses in his article. Not one. About those you
pose, he is in favor of one democratic state for both Jews and Arabs,
the same position of Einstein and Freud, and of my own upbringing.
Karl Marx was as Jewish as you or I, a brilliant analyst who changed
the reading of history, with no relation to Josef Stalin. Einstein's fear
for the soul of Judaism being severely damaged is exemplified by your
ill-tempered blast, designed not to enlighten, discuss or debate, but to
close the mouths, minds and spirit of Judaism.
I'll go with Albert. I honestly have no idea why you waited for Pappe
to appear before wanting off my list, but your request is granted,
with sadness.
Ed Pearl
Norman Finkelstein on "the New Anti-Semitism"
excerpted from an interview on Democracy Now - Aug 30, 2006
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/30/1418200
AMY GOODMAN: ....Our guest is Norman Finkelstein, professor at DePaul
University in Chicago, professor of political science, author of Beyond
Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History. The issue
of Human Rights Watch -- I guess he's talking about Amnesty International --
and then to the New York Times of being anti-Israel.
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Well, it depends on what standard you're using.
Throughout most of the world, I think American media, generally, and the New
York Times, in particular, are considered very pro-Israel. I suppose in
certain extreme fanatical corners of the universe, they're considered
anti-Israel, but if you look at -- you know, you take an ordinary incident,
and it's useful to look at ordinary incidents.
Take the case in June of this year when there was the killing of the
Palestinian family in Gaza Beach, and there was the famous scene of the
ten-year-old girl wailing beside her father. Now, there were two ways the
story could have been reported. There was the official Israeli version. They
claim they had nothing to do with the killing of the family and the firing
of the shell. And then you had the version of Human Rights Watch, which is
one of the leading human rights organizations in the world. They sent over
an expert to examine all the available evidence. He concluded that the
evidence was overwhelming that the Israeli government was responsible for
the deaths of that family.
What did the New York Times do? It reported the Israeli government version.
Then it reported the Human Rights Watch version. And then, a few days later,
the Human Rights version disappeared, and the New York Times stated that the
deaths that occurred on Gaza Beach, we don't include as among those for whom
Israel is responsible. Why? Because the Israeli government said it wasn't
responsible.
Now, that kind of reporting you haven't found in the United States since the
days of the Daily Worker, when it reported on the Stalin purge trials to
take the word of a government against the word of a human rights
organization, and then to simply deposit the findings of the human rights
organization in Orwell's memory hole. Human Rights Watch disappeared. Israel
wasn't responsible. Why? Because the Israeli government said it wasn't
responsible.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to go to this issue of criticizing organizations or
people who criticize Israeli military policy, calling them "anti-Israel,"
and then there's always the step beyond, "anti-Semitic." Your comment.
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Well, first of all, it has a long history. Every time
Israel comes under international pressure, as it did recently because of the
war crimes committed in Lebanon, it steps up the claim of anti-Semitism, and
all of Israel's critics are anti-Semitic. 1974, the ADL, the Anti-Defamation
League, puts out a book called The New Anti-Semitism. 1981, the
Anti-Defamation League puts out a book, The New Anti-Semitism. And then,
again in 2000, Abraham Foxman and people like Phyllis Chesler, they put out
these books called The New Anti-Semitism. So the use of the charge
"anti-Semitism" is pretty conventional whenever Israel comes under attack,
and frankly it has no content whatsoever nowadays.
If you open up, like, Phyllis Chesler's book, The New Anti-Semitism, she
says Jewish feminists are anti-Semites, NPR is anti-Semitic, BBC is
anti-Semitic, Los Angeles Times is anti-Semitic, New York Times is
anti-Semitic, Washington Post is anti-Semitic. Everybody is anti-Semitic.
The term is devoid of any content. Anyone who ever criticizes Israel is
anti-Semitic.
What does the evidence show? There has been good investigation done, serious
investigation. All the evidence shows there's no -- there's no evidence at
all for a rise of a new anti-Semitism, whether in Europe or in North
America. The evidence is zero. And, in fact, there's a new book put out by
an Israel stalwart. His name is Walter Laqueur, a very prominent scholar.
It's called The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism. It just came out, 2006, from
Oxford University Press. He looks at the evidence, and he says no. There's
some in Europe among the Muslim community, there's some anti-Semitism, but
the notion that in the heart of European society or North American society
there's anti-Semitism is preposterous. And in fact -- or no, a significant
rise in anti-Semitism is preposterous.
The people who write this stuff -- you know, you just quoted Mr. Weiner that
Mr. Abbas is not a member of the PLO. If you read these people -- Phyllis
Chesler, her book The New Anti-Semitism had lots of praise by serious
intellectuals like Paul Berman. She keeps saying in the book that India is
an Arab country, and she's very emphatic about this, that India is an Arab
country. That's the level of intellectual, you know, debate and discussion
in this country when it comes to the Arab world.
AMY GOODMAN: Didn't the ADL come out this week with a statement about
Amnesty International?
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Yeah, the ADL came out with a statement that Amnesty
International is borderline anti-Semitic, and that's pretty conventional
from the ADL, that these organizations are anti-Semitic or then, you know,
in other cases, they accuse individuals or organizations of being Holocaust
deniers. None of this -- first of all, as I said, it's pretty commonplace in
these organizations. The Simon Wiesenthal Center recently issued a statement
condemning the United Church of Christ for being not borderline
anti-Semitic, but functionally anti-Semitic, because they oppose the wall
that Israel is building in the Occupied Territories.
Anyone who's a critic of Israel becomes an anti-Semite. And the truth of the
matter is, the real anti-Semites, they don't really care about -- or the
real Holocaust deniers, which is their other favorite epithet to hurl at
people or expectorate at people who are critical of Israel --
So you take the case, you know, now there's a lot of discussion about the
Iranian president's statements denying the Nazi Holocaust. Whether he
actually did or not literally, I'm not going to get into now. It's not so
important. For argument's sake, let's say he did do it. He denied the Nazi
Holocaust. Now, you heard Mr. Weiner. He's very fond of Abbas. He says Abbas
has nothing to do with the PLO. Now, you take Abbas. Abbas is an authentic
Holocaust denier. He wrote his doctoral dissertation denying the Nazi
Holocaust. He published it as a book in 1982. He said less than a million
Jews were killed during World War II. He denied the Nazi gas chambers. Now
there you have a real Holocaust denier. You don't have to really probe the
meaning of his words. It's pretty straightforward. Well, he's the American
favorite now. Everybody loves Mr. Abbas, because he does the American
bidding. So they don't care that he's a Holocaust denier.
Let me just give another pretty indicative example. Take the case of Ronald
Reagan. Nowadays many people are fond of Reagan. You listen to rightwing
radio, which I listen to all the time, and you listen -- everyone loves
Reagan. Everybody forgets Reagan was the one who went to Bitburg, gave the
speech saying that the Nazi soldiers, including the Nazi -- the Waffen-SS,
were victims, just like the Jews in the concentration camps. That was his
famous statement at Bitburg. The ADL, which claims to be so vigilant about
Holocaust denial, the ADL gave him their Torch of Liberty Award.
Then, just this past -- two years ago, Berlusconi, the president of Italy --
AMY GOODMAN: Former.
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Former president of Italy, gave this speech praising
Mussolini and saying all the charges against Mussolini were false, he was
basically a good guy. Three weeks -- three weeks after he gave his speech --
and remember, Mussolini passed the Anti-Semitic Laws, at the end of his
regime, sent Jews to their death. Three weeks after he gave his speech, the
ADL, Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, who is now accusing Amnesty of
borderline anti-Semitism, they gave him the distinguished Statesman of the
Year Award, had a big gala for him, and even fairly conservative economists
like Robert Solow, Paul Samuelson, Modigliani -- okay, they're not
conservative by conventional standards -- mainstream economists. They wrote
a very irate letter to the New York Times: Why is the ADL giving this guy an
award? Well, the answer was simple. Because at that point, he was the only
European leader who was very pro -- he was very pro-Israel. They don't care
about Holocaust denial. They have no interest in it.
Let me give you one example, just --
AMY GOODMAN: Ten seconds.
NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: Yeah, one example, just from what you were airing a
moment ago. You heard the speech by Rumsfeld, where he says that Iraq is
like the Nazis in the 1930s. Now, remember, the tenet of the Holocaust
industry is, never compare the Holocaust to anything else. Never compare,
and if you compare, they say you're a Holocaust denier. But that side is
always comparing. The Mufti of Jerusalem was Hitler. Nasser was Hitler.
Saddam Hussein was Hitler. Hezbollah is now Hitler. Iran is Hitler. Hamas is
Hitler. Iraq is Hitler. They're the worst Holocaust deniers in the world, by
their own definition. They're always comparing.
AMY GOODMAN: Norman Finkelstein, I want to thank you for being with us,
professor of political science at DePaul University in Chicago. His new book
is called Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of
History.
***
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/757768.html
Last update - 11:55 03/09/2006
Gaza's darkness
By Gideon Levy
Gaza has been reoccupied. The world must know this and Israelis must know
it, too. It is in its worst condition, ever. Since the abduction of Gilad
Shalit, and more so since the outbreak of the Lebanon war, the Israel
Defense Forces has been rampaging through Gaza - there's no other word to
describe it - killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling,
indiscriminately.
Nobody thinks about setting up a commission of inquiry; the issue isn't even
on the agenda. Nobody asks why it is being done and who decided to do it.
But under the cover of the darkness of the Lebanon war, the IDF returned to
its old practices in Gaza as if there had been no disengagement. So it must
be said forthrightly, the disengagement is dead. Aside from the settlements
that remain piles of rubble, nothing is left of the disengagement and its
promises. How contemptible all the sublime and nonsensical talk about "the
end of the occupation" and "partitioning the land" now appears. Gaza is
occupied, and with greater brutality than before. The fact that it is more
convenient for the occupier to control it from outside has nothing to do
with the intolerable living conditions of the occupied.
In large parts of Gaza nowadays, there is no electricity. Israel bombed the
only power station in Gaza, and more than half the electricity supply will
be cut off for at least another year. There's hardly any water. Since there
is no electricity, supplying homes with water is nearly impossible. Gaza is
filthier and smellier than ever: Because of the embargo Israel and the world
have imposed on the elected authority, no salaries are being paid and the
street cleaners have been on strike for the past few weeks. Piles of garbage
and obnoxious clouds of stink strangle the coastal strip, turning it into
Calcutta.
More than ever, Gaza is also like a prison. The Erez crossing is empty, the
Karni crossing has been open only a few days over the last two months, and
the same is true for the Rafah crossing. Some 15,000 people waited for two
months to enter Egypt, some are still waiting, including many ailing and
wounded people. Another 5,000 waited on the other side to return to their
homes. Some died during the wait. One must see the scenes at Rafah to
understand how profound a human tragedy is taking place. A crossing that was
not supposed to have an Israeli presence continues to be Israel's means to
pressure 1.5 million inhabitants. This is disgraceful and shocking
collective punishment. The U.S. and Europe, whose police are at the Rafah
crossing, also bear responsibility for the situation.
Gaza is also poorer and hungrier than ever before. There is nearly no
merchandise moving in and out, fishing is banned, the tens of thousands of
PA workers receive no salaries, and the possibility of working in Israel is
out of the question.
And we still haven't mentioned the death, destruction and horror. In the
last two months, Israel killed 224 Palestinians, 62 of them children and 25
of them women. It bombed and assassinated, destroyed and shelled, and no one
stopped it. No Qassam cell or smuggling tunnel justifies such wide-scale
killing. A day doesn't go by without deaths, most of them innocent
civilians.
Where are the days when there was still a debate inside Israel about the
assassinations? Today, Israel drops innumerable missiles, shells and bombs
on houses and kills entire families on its way to another assassination.
Hospitals are collapsing with more than 900 people undergoing treatment. At
Shifa Hospital, the only such facility in Gaza that might be worthy of being
called a hospital, I saw heartrending scenes last week. Children who lost
limbs, on respirators, paralyzed, crippled for the rest of their lives.
Families have been killed in their sleep, while riding on donkeys or working
in fields. Frightened children, traumatized by what they have seen, huddle
in their homes with a horror in their eyes that is difficult to describe in
words. A journalist from Spain who spent time in Gaza recently, a veteran of
war and disaster zones around the world, said he had never been exposed to
scenes as horrific as the ones he saw and documented over the last two
months.
It is difficult to determine who decided on all this. It is doubtful the
ministers are aware of the reality in Gaza. They are responsible for it,
starting with the bad decision on the embargo, through the bombing of Gaza's
bridges and power station and the mass assassinations. Israel is responsible
now once again for all that happens in Gaza.
The events in Gaza expose the great fraud of Kadima: It came to power on the
coattails of the virtual success of the disengagement, which is now going up
in flames, and it promised convergence, a promise that the prime minister
has already rescinded. Those who think Kadima is a centrist party should now
know it is nothing other than another rightist occupation party. The same is
true of Labor. Defense Minister Amir Peretz is responsible for what is
happening in Gaza no less than the prime minister, and Peretz's hands are as
blood-soaked as Olmert's. He can never present himself as a 'man of peace'
again. The ground invasions every week, each time somewhere else, the kill
and destroy operations from the sea, air and land are all dubbed with names
to whitewash the reality, like 'Summer Rains' or 'Locked Kindergarten.' No
security excuse can explain the cycle of madness, and no civic argument can
excuse the outrageous silence of us all. Gilad Shalit will not be released
and the Qassams will not cease. On the contrary, there is a horror taking
place in Gaza, and while it might prevent a few terror attacks in the short
run, it is bound to give birth to much more murderous terror. Israel will
then say with its self-righteousness: 'But we returned Gaza to them.'
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