When’s this Chicago show comin to Broadway??

by on January 9, 2009 6

I gather there were 1000 people in this hall at University of Chicago yesterday, and many had to be  turned away, to hear Abunimah, Finkelstein and Mearsheimer talk Gaza.

Mearsheimer and Finkelstein agreed that Israel was the roadblock to
peace. “The bottom line is, what’s going on has little to do with
rockets and mortars…. Everyone knows what the solution is,” Mearsheimer
said. “As [Israeli prime minister] Ehud Olmert said, if Israel
continues on the present trajectory, it will end up as an apartheid
state. That is not good. For Israel’s sake, you should want to settle
this conflict.”

Abunimah, however, disagreed with the feasibility of a two-state
solution, saying that it was merely an “illusion” created by “what I
call peace-process industry.” For Abunimah, the ineffectiveness of
international organizations was just one frustration among many over
the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Finkelstein’s final lament was the usual caliber of debate on the issue.

“I’ve been involved with this for a long time, and it’s rare that I
listen with such attentiveness to the other speakers on the panel,”
Finkelstein said.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Gaza, US Policy in the Middle East

{ 6 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Jim Haygood says:
    January 9, 2009 at 2:01 pm

    I'm glad to see the real debate is finally making it to the US–that is whether there will be one, two or several states.
    Personally, I say use every means possible (media, deception, terrorism) to force Israel to accept the Four State Solution (State of Hezbollah in Lebanon, State of Hamas in Gaza, Legitimate Palestinian State in Jordan, Legitimate Jewish State in Israel, without Jerusalem and 100% right of return for Palestinians only).

  2. delia says:
    January 9, 2009 at 2:32 pm

    I have to agree with Abunimah. The peace process scam is just a routine, and Israel must go through the motions if it wants to prolong the status quo indefinitely. Besides, a peace conference is always followed by a nice little war, in which Israel gets to show off its new toys from America.

  3. D. says:
    January 9, 2009 at 2:50 pm

    Only Abunimah's speech has been posted–

  4. Jim Haygood says:
    January 9, 2009 at 8:03 pm

    Of course the gibberish in post no. 1 was not written by me. My imposter can't even do good parody.

  5. MM says:
    January 9, 2009 at 11:14 pm

    can't even do good parody

    At least he spells your name right, Jim!

  6. Caleb says:
    January 15, 2009 at 4:02 pm

    Cleaner audio from all three panelists is posted here:

    http://ashahed.blogs.finalcall.com

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