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Norman Finkelstein sinks to a new low
cgis.jpost.com — Alan M. Dershowitz on the "scholarship" of Norman Finkelstein, the "historian" who has quite a following on digg. In his latest display of "academic integrity" Finkelstein attempts to make fun of the victims of the recent "bulldozer attack" in Jerusalem.
wpi97- 27 diggs
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- danilche, on 07/07/2008, -0/+11Anti-semitism never goes out of style, does it?
The synagogues are still burning, and 'Itbach al yehud!' is ever a popular slogan. - kieranmaine, on 07/07/2008, -4/+4Sadly Finkelstein ruined the valid point he was trying to make - it read like a bad digg comment, which always whip up antagonistic arguments that further no one understanding.
It's interesting that Dershowitz misses out this part of the fake news story "Related stories: Israeli bulldozers obliterate 10,000 Palestinian homes. Go to page 40 of the Fashion section.".- wpi97, on 07/07/2008, -0/+11Finkelstein did not have a valid point. The bulldozer attack in Jerusalem was an act of barbarism, just like Hamas rocket attacks, and there is no excuse for it. Finkelstein appears to be only interested in gaining notoriety, not in contributing anything useful to the study of history or to the discussion, let alone the solution, of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
- kieranmaine, on 07/07/2008, -0/+2I thought his point was that the Jerusalem bulldozer attack received a lot more media attention than any bulldozing of Palestinian homes. However he doesn't really go into details about the destruction of the homes, so doesn't really help much.
- yonoz, on 07/07/2008, -0/+11His point is very clear - "Israelis only care for their own suffering". As someone who's been following Israeli media and activist groups, I'm sure you'd agree that it is hardly valid.
It's quite clear to me that Finkelstein relies on anti-Israel sentiments for publicity and support. This is indeed a new low, but it is what I have come to expect of him. - kieranmaine, on 07/08/2008, -0/+5I agree that "Israelis only care for their own suffering" is invalid and his fake news story makes light of murder - which overshadows the point about Palestinian suffering.
Anti-Finkelstein sentiment aside lets examine what he says regarding the reporting of the Jerusalem attack vs Palestinian home destruction. The Jerusalem attack got on the front page of the BBC news website. I was aware of it within a few hours of it happening. I'm sure I'll remember the event for quite sometime to come. Now, of the 10000 Palestinian homes that Finkelstein claims to have been bulldozed, I can't remember any instances of these being reported anywhere on the BBC news site. I searched the BBC news site and found articles about homes being bulldozed and a couple of reports that had UN figures of 3500 and 1650 people homeless. I might have read these at the time, but I can't remember them being front page news.
Just as killings in Jerusalem were a brutal crime, making 1000's homeless is criminal. Although the pain and suffering inflicted on those affected by the Jerusalem killings must be immense, seeing ones house destroyed must also cause untold misery. However this misery seems to not receive the same level of reporting as the Jerusalem murders.
BTW, I've only spent about an hour reading a smattering of articles of Palestinians homes being bulldozed, so my knowledge on the subject is like swiss cheese.- yonoz, on 07/08/2008, -0/+7Quid pro quo - the BBC also does not report on the reasons these homes were demolished.
- wpi97, on 07/07/2008, -0/+11Finkelstein did not have a valid point. The bulldozer attack in Jerusalem was an act of barbarism, just like Hamas rocket attacks, and there is no excuse for it. Finkelstein appears to be only interested in gaining notoriety, not in contributing anything useful to the study of history or to the discussion, let alone the solution, of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
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