Update: Here is Anna Baltzer’s speech. I lost the first minute or so due to equipment malfunction…. Oh and I forgot to say, Noam Chomsky had to scratch the event because of laryngitis. He was missed
Yesterday before more than 400 people jammed into a hall at the New School in New York, Adam Shatz, Norman Finkelstein, and Anna Baltzer had a fascinating discussion of the American Jewish relationship with Israel. “Romance,” as Shatz put it. Above is part 1, featuring Shatz’s opening and Norman Finkelstein’s presentation. I will get Baltzer’s speech up later today. I was not able to record the often energetic back and forth between Finkelstein and Baltzer over boycott of Israel (she is for it; he says it goes against international law) but I believe the New School recorded the event, and I will post it when I get it. And I will give my report on the event within a day or two.
“If they finally do the right thing, this long dark night may soon come to an end”
Well, yeah. This could be applied to any problem anywhere in the world where someone is taking advantage of another.
What kills me about Finkelstein is that he lives in America and knows how things work here. It doesn’t matter a lick if a majority of American Jews want a change in US policy toward Israel – all it takes is one or two assholes with a ton of cash to keep it just the way it is. And this is not to say that Israel as an issue is the only one worked in this way – if american public opinion was enacted, we would have national health insurance and much more money spent on schools than “defense” – we wouldn’t have the drug wars or the surveillance state. But in each case, there are large concentrations of money and power who oppose such things, so the majority opinion is ignored.
Lastly, don’t help build the fourth wall of the jewish prison shatz mentions – whatever else is true about finkelsteins arguments, they are explicitly for a jewish solution to what he considers a jewish problem. I’m thinking some more people are going to have to be involved in this.
Dan Crowther: “What kills me about Finkelstein is that he lives in America and knows how things work here…”
What kills me about Finkelstein is that I think he’s subordinating considerations of general and abstract justice to his own personal agenda. As soon as he can no longer be the lone voice of righteousness, he goes rocketing off in the other direction — just so that he can keep being the iconoclast.
So now he’s arguing AGAINST boycotting Israel? They’re to be brought to see the light by sweetness and reason? Echoes of South Africa and ‘constructive engagement.’ Was he for that as well?
Was this all only about Norm all along? Israel and the Palestinians be damned — it always was all about what will let Norm stand alone, pure, and fearlessly fighting off the mob?
It all really does strike me as a triumph of pure egoism over any more general conception of what would be just and right. Or maybe he’s just getting old and wants a nice secure slot in academia somewhere — so he’s cooling it. Either way, I’m less than impressed.
Like many, I long admired Finkelstein for his leonine courage and steadfastness. I think the sad decline in his analysis and views is due to the influence of Chomsky, whom he has cited as a major influence and close friend. The failings of NF are also Chomsky’s failings, and more, because NF makes mistakes NC would not.
See Stephen Sniegoski’s critique of NF’s denial of the neocon origins of the Iraq war.
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2012/10/07/norman-finkelstein-and-neocon-denial/
u-s-officers-in-israel-for-military-exercise
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/10/07/u-s-officers-in-israel-for-military-exercise-report/
I was intrigued by the following comment
“I was not able to record the often energetic back and forth between Finkelstein and Baltzer over boycott of Israel (she is for it; he says it goes against international law)…”
Phil, can you please provide the exact quote where Norman says that boycotts are against international law? In his voluminous writings, and uncountable talks, never once I have come across this bizarre assertion. So I would be particularly interested in the exact quote. Many thanks.