Jewish professor criticizes Israel (video)

I. Rony, Sheldon S., Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Guest Prof. Norman Finkelstein, Hosts Jimmy Dore and Craig Jardula (The Jimmy Dore Show, jimmydore.com), Post-10/7/23

He must hate himself because how could he criticize the 11th most powerful military in the world, backed by Number 1? This is no time to find fault with Dictator Netanyahu, who was daily being protested in Israel by Israelis (though now all of that has magically gone away with him simply saying the magic word, "MY country is at war." Professor Normal Finkelstein, come to your senses. Get behind the War Machine.

By allowing Hamas to sneak in, while our Army was protecting our right-wing project in the West Bank, helping us steal more land for "settlements" because we're settler colonialists on a project of ethnic cleansing verging on genocide. Or is that slow genocide verging on daily atrocities and Israeli crimes against humanity? And now they've struck back, completely unexpectedly. We have to teach them a lesson. We must have revenge. We will not stand for an invasion of these animals terrorists, so we have to have an incursion onto our land, which is their refugee camp which has been under siege for 16 years after 75 years of violent occupation.

We need to make retaliatory strikes, with precision bombs given to us by our friends in the US (keep sending money, Yankees). We're dual-citizens so we go between countries. Really, it's like having Little America in the Middle East, a kind of Bantustan for an apartheid system, but don't you dare call it that, or we'll cancel you. What are all these idiots at Harvard thinking, signing a letter condemning the State of Israel, not a state but never mind that. We'll have a constitution eventually and democracy for everybody here, but we're not ready yet.

• COUNTERPOINT: VIDEO: Jewish man argues for Israel, against Palestine saying "Palestinians" did not exist [and therefore have no right of return to their land?]
• VIDEO: Hamas official: "We have not killed any civilians" (Sky News)

I'll Burn that Bridge When I Get to It

Norman X. Finkelstein, amazon.com Jan. 22, 2023

I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It!

Norman Finkelstein first made his name while still in graduate school when he exposed an acclaimed national bestseller as a hoax.

He went on in subsequent decades to subject Israel’s apologists as well as Holocaust hucksters to withering scrutiny.

In his newest book, I'll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom, Finkelstein focuses his keen forensic eye on the canonical texts of "identity politics."

After methodically parsing them, Finkelstein concludes that they’re lacking in intellectual substance.

Instead, the real purpose of identity politics is to derail a class-based movement bent on radical change.

In a long, scathing chapter, Finkelstein analyzes the cult surrounding Barack Obama, which he reveals as the ultimate product of identity politics.

The first Black president [after the nine before him who were in office before the Declaration of Independence made us the US] rose to power by having, in Obama’s own cynical words, “pulled off a neat trick” by standing for nothing except his skin color.

If “woke” liberals embraced him, it was because, beneath his hip veneer, Obama was a sure bet to prop up the corrupt status quo.

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.

“If I can’t laugh, I don’t want your revolution,” Dr. Finkelstein declares. Laced with his signature wit, readers of this book will get to laugh along with him. More