I’m digressing again, I know, but tonight I happened to listen to this interview- and came to the conclusion that the scholarship, honesty, passion, and courage of Norman Finkelstein - shouldn’t be missed by anyone who cares about humanity. That’s you. Right?
Both of his parents were survivors of the death camps in Germany; They moved to the United States and raised their highly intelligent - compassionate son, who grew up hearing their accounts of the War - and develped his keen ear for ‘injustice wherever it might be found’. (Superman is nervously smoking in the corner.)
Finkelstein has said of his parents that "they saw the world through the prism of the Nazi Holocaust. They were eternally indebted to the Soviet Union (to whom they attributed the defeat of the Nazis), and so anyone who was anti-Soviet they were extremely harsh on" Wikipedia (Amazing what a close perspective will do.)
After a prodigious education including a BS at Binghamton, Finkelstein received his Masters and his PhD from Princeton, eventually doing his PhD dissertation on Zionism - ‘From the Jewish Question to the Jewish State: An Essay on the Theory of Zionism.’, which choice of topic jump started his notoriety, his difficulty holding an academic position, (or a job) and his lifelong friendship with Noam Chomsky.
A prolific writer - if methodically focused on one controversial topic, here is a list of his works:
2019: I Accuse!: Herewith A Proof Beyond Reasonable Doubt That ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda Whitewashed Israel, OR Books, New York (2019), ISBN 9781682192276
2018: Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom, University of California Press, Oakland, California, January 2018, ISBN 9780520295711
2014: Method and Madness: The Hidden Story of Israel's Assaults on Gaza, OR Books, New York (2014), ISBN 978-1-939293-71-8
2014: Old Wine, Broken Bottle: Ari Shavit's Promised Land, OR Books, New York (2014), ISBN 978-1-939293-46-6
2012: Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel is Coming to an End, OR Books, New York (2012) ISBN 978-1-935928-77-5
2012: What Gandhi Says About Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage, OR Books, New York: 2012, ISBN 978-1-935928-79-9
2011: Goldstone Recants. Richard Goldstone renews Israel's license to kill", OR Books, New York (2011), ISBN 978-1-935928-51-5
2010: This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion. OR Books, New York: 2010. ISBN 978-1-935928-43-0
2007: Dennis Ross and the Peace Process: Subordinating Palestinian Rights to Israeli "needs", Institute for Palestine Studies, Washington, D.C. ISBN 978-0-88728-308-6
2005: Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History. University of California Press: Berkeley, 2005. ISBN 978-0-520-24989-9
2000: The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, Verso; ISBN 1-85984-488-X.
1998: A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth (co-written with Ruth Bettina Birn), Henry Holt and Co.; ISBN 0-8050-5872-9.
1996: The Rise and Fall of Palestine: A Personal Account of the Intifada Years. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, ISBN 0-8166-2859-9.
1995: Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, Verso; ISBN 1-85984-442-1
1987: From the Jewish Question to the Jewish State: An Essay on the Theory of Zionism (thesis), Princeton University.
And his latest -
I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom Paperback – January 21, 2023
Besides a prodigious writer, Finkelstein is also a poet.
Norman Finkelstein
‘Welcome to Tribal World! We're killing everybody, of course,
killing those like us and those unlike us too.
We're hijacking the tragedies, denying history, denying the deniers,
denying that it will all become history…’
Norman Gary Finkelstein
Choamsky said of him concerning his controversial commentary (such as his withering analysis of Alan Dershowitz's book ‘The Case for Israel’) and his writings:
I told him, yeah, I think it’s an interesting topic, but I warned him, if you follow this, you’re going to get in trouble—because you're going to expose the American intellectual community as a gang of frauds, and they are not going to like it, and they're going to destroy you.
So I said: if you want to do it, go ahead, but be aware of what you're getting into. It's an important issue, it makes a big difference whether you eliminate the moral basis for driving out a population—it's preparing the basis for some real horrors—so a lot of people's lives could be at stake.
But your life is at stake too, I told him, because if you pursue this, your career is going to be ruined. Well, he didn't believe me. We became very close friends after this, I didn't know him before.
‘Along the way, Finkelstein recalls his own life in radical politics and his close encounters with cancel culture, which left him unemployed and unemployable. He situates his personal story within broader debates on academic freedom and poignantly concludes that, although occasionally bitter, he harbors no regrets about the choices he made.’ Amazon book review
I think I’m going to become close friends with him too. Even if he never knows it.
Here’s an outlet for Finkelsteins books:
https://www.orbooks.com/norman-finkelstein/
Don’t miss the interview.
VJCB