Hello Mr Finkelstein

I would like to begin by stating that i truly appreciate you as a person and your work. You are a true inspiration for all people all over the world who stick up for their rights or for the rights of others , that don’t have the possibility to speak for themselves or their words are demonized because of hidden interests.

In the context of the recent events involving the israelian army activity online has intensified from both parts. Only that from one part , those in defense of Palestine ,it comes natural from people’s principles and honest system of beliefs while from the other part is well organized and it reminds me of the meetings of the communists , with big and well synchronized parades , where all people are wearing the same color , i am saying this because i live in an ex communist country somewhere in south east europe

Arguments invoked are always the same when they ran out facts to present , facts that can be quickly debunked by even the ones that are not experts in this matter. They always appeal to words like ” anti-semitism” , “holocaust” or “jew hater”. Words that you’ve heard many times for sure as this is their standard procedure

I was saying that both the online and offline activity regarding the Israel - Palestine issue has intensified and you represent a real role-model , a real inspiration for everyone trying to stand up for what he truly believes

People like you should be idols and not cartoon characters produced by the brainwashing hollywood industry

You said yourself “Don’t put me on a pedestal or you’ll be disappointed” but the truth is that somewhere in the history you will be considered a hero and i’m saying this with a firm belief. You surely are aware of the words of Theodor Hertzl , who presided the first zionist meeting :“It is essential that the sufferings of Jews….become worse….this will assist in realization of our plans….I have an excellent idea….I shall induce anti-Semites to liquidate Jewish wealth….The anti-Semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews. The anti-Semites shall be our best friends.”

Decades later the holocaust happened..and it exactly fits the description of those word of Hertzl…just like a plan that was going forward without any kind of flaws

One can’t help think about it and draw conclusions based on this and other information put together. Like the banks involvement in the war , like the role played by probably the most powerful jewish banking family in the Napoleonic war, that lead to taking over the power ( from all points of view : political ,morale , if i can use that term when relating to power, and financial) in England by that banking family, the same England that later controlled Palestine. Even if about 100 years passed between those events in all that time the circle of power in England remained the same as after the Napoleonic wars

Just like the words of Hertzl the jews were demonized by the “chiefs” zionists in order to take advantage of what was to happen next. The idea wasn’t new, it didn’t belonged to Hertzl , but most probably he borrowed it from someone who thought of it a couple of decades ago. As all over Europe there was a campaign in newspapers of that time , in which the jews were demonized or dehumanized . Campaigns that had as most prolific writers people with close ties to that banking family that took the reign of England after the napoleonic war.

I’ll give you an example from my own country, Romania. back in 1867 i believe there were a couple of articles that appeared in a french newspaper , written by a romanian , Eugeniu Carada , who studied in Paris , the article was called : ” The jews, vagrancy and the minister Bratianu” , as you can figure it out it was a defaiming article towards jews. One may say , so what, there were a lot of jews in Romania at that time and some romanians were anti semites. This may be true but the writer of the article , Eugeniu Carada was the one who pushed over the years , from 1870 to 1880 the setting up of the setting up of the central romanian bank. There are many records of him making often visits to London and Vienna , cities were the Rothschilds family have the biggest influence. The national Romanian Bank that took an huge loan only after 10 years of its existence from the Rothschilds. So Carada had no personal opinions , he only put in application a plan of others.

It is well known that the Rothschilds made huge pressures in that period in many countries across the globe for setting up central banks. An entire system of central banks that they controlled, this meant invincibility … Also Carada used to write for other newspapers in France , newspapers that represented the interests of one banking family , the Rothschilds. “La semaine finaciere”, another newspaper for which Carada wrote often, was most probably founded with this purpose alone, as that banking family in Paris needed more an more influence in order to expand , and in that period they were targeting the rail roads.

The idea of making demonizing jews and using anti semitism existed long before Hertzl and it was most probably thought of by the Rothschilds

Average zionists just like average people all over the world were used as weapons against the jews , and sadly , it worked , before the war , after the war , and even in our days is still working.

The zionist teenager that uploads videos on youtube on how he is proud of being a zionist ( the kind of people similar to that girl that burst into tears at one of your speeches as how she is really suffering only by hearing the word holocaust) , that makes radical comments on every forum sustaining “the cause” , that invokes “hate of jews” is just a tool in their hand, a tool that in his heart believes that is doing the right thing , finding for the state that they finally have . Opening their eyes is the hardest thing to do , if not impossible , but if will ever be achieved only then the conflict between Israel and Palestine will cease. Starting at the top is useless , the bottom is what holds everything together

I said at the beginning as how somewhere in the timeline of our history you will be looked on as a hero , bu if things in our world won’t change and will continue to evolve like hey are doing now , you will be seen as a hero because mr Alan Dershowitz and others like him wants so…

I must admit , since i’m not from US , i’ve never heard of Dershowitz until reading Finkelstein . Harvard or no Harvard the educational system is more and more corrupt everywhere in the world , the teachings got are what some want it to be , a school only for the elites will never be respected , teachers of only the elites will never get any respect and the offsprings of powerful people , in their vast majority , wouldn’t be able to make a living if born in an average family but with the same mind and judgement they have at the moment

I said you will be a hero if those like Dershowitz wants so because i see a very big possibility of what happened in the 2nd world war to happen again. More and more things fit the puzzle again after so many decades. There are again tries of demonizing and dehumanizing the jews under different hidden methods . And it looks like no matter the protests from all over the world Israel continues to play God with Palestine . Those who are defending these kind of actions are either doing it on purpose or are either having an intelligence coefficient way under the common sense limit. I’m saying this because it appears that their arguments are meant to cause more irritation and more disagreement in the west. Just like in the years of the world war two

If there’s another plan like that of Hertzl in existance there’s a big probability a new war and maybe even a new holocaust . maybe they are trying to place Israel somewhere else on the map this time. Only God knows

I only wish that there was someone like you to speak out on the issue of the International Monetary Fund , how it was created , the circumstances , the legality , their involvment in the entire world , the consequences , someone like you to be able to speak up against them like you did against Dershowitz , someone to keep calm even when he’s angry , someone ready to sacrifice his career for the this purpose.

It is very sad what happened to your academic career , but this shows the entire world once again that they have the power and thus the true meaning of mass manipulation

It was really funny to see the reactions of Dershowitz , the way he gestured , the way his eye twitched . If bet my life that if you were to ask him something and he would be connected to a lie detector , the machine would go in flames for all that duplicity of his. But you know who are said to be masters of duplicity , the girls staying home with their children at day and working nights on the streets … The same basic behavior characterizes Dershowitz

I will take the liberty of giving you an advice, although i am not really in te position of doing that , but i do that only because it may be of help to you in these harsh times and in at time you are attacked from many sides.

You ma consider an interface for your website under which you will be able to give live speeches online. I know for sure that there are many people worldwide that would love to hear you talk and interact live with you. People all over the world are respecting you , your beliefs, your work. you gave lots of speeches but for example a simple 60 years old from France or Spain or Canada can’t attend your speech as he has to ravel a lot to reach London or US.

I am sort of an online freelancer and i am giving you this advice from this perspective. It may be a worthy to take in consideration way of making an income.

You can have speeches once every two weeks , with registration for the speech closing before the day of the speech. With a registration fee of your choice , with interacting to those who attend by answering their questions , with commercial on your website about when the following speech will be so people will have time to register , you can also give a possible 5 themes ( or a number of your choice) on what the speech should be about and let those who register to chose the theme by voting like in polls. You can work the details with with someone with knowledge in this field , you’ll need a system of accepting online payments and also an interface through which you can communicate with those who will attend your online speech

i just can help giving advices. I wish to be wrong on this one but i don’t think your health is in the best condition. You said yourself you are a sedentary person and all who watched “The trials of Norman Finkelstein” could see you eating mostly fast food. Sedentarims and fats food is a lethal combination whose effects can not be reversed. A soup once in a while will do miracles ( i am not a fan of soup but i eat it ) or a meal cooked on your own will give you tremendous satisfaction , just like a walk in your favorite park full of green can clear your mind and charge your batteries , not to mention that will help you get some exercise for half an hour a day

Being a freelancer i used to have the same life style you mentioned ( sedentarism , computers , fast food) until i realized how much i am harming myself and i did what i mentioned above and both the body and the mind feel better, even if i am about half your age.

It will always help you in not putting to heart the personal attacks on you

Best of luck mr Finkelstein and remember you are a true inspiration for people worldwide !

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Dear Dr. Finkelstein,

I came to New York yesterday to hear you speak at NYU. First I want to say thank you for your dedication commitment to clinging to the truth. Second, I made the trip from Baltimore, where I currently reside, because of some of the things that I heard you say in the various interviews and talks you’ve made that are circulating in the information cloud we call the internet. Although I am thoroughly impressed with your intellectual rigor and capacity, the statements that caught my attention mostly came from your personal life. Namely how you grew up in a “peculiar” household, where your mother was often hysterical about the injustices of the Vietnam War as a result of her re-lived trauma as a holocaust survivor . I heard you say in another interview that yours was a “peculiar and even maybe eccentric sensitivity to human suffering” that drove you to become active in politics and invest all of your being towards shedding light and truth on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In the documentary film about you, you spoke of how you had to overcome the purely emotional indignation you felt during the war in Lebanon in 1982 in order to clearly articulate your thoughts (after discovering Dr. Chomsky).

I took the day off from work at Johns Hopkins University to hear you talk last night, because I think you may be the first person that I’ve encountered who mirrors the challenges that have plagued my activism for many years. As a child of Oromo political refugees from Ethiopia living with the constant reminder of the ruthless violence that caused so many Oromos to flee Ethiopia, and as a human rights activist in a universally humanist manner, I can recall many frustrating conversations (which often involved intense and emotionally charged tears) with others- not necessarily opponents of my politics, but even those I worked with. I couldn’t understand why I was so affected by the suffering I’d learn of in my university classes and in the daily papers, that I’d feel so completely defeated while others could hear these things and not be so fundamentally shaken. I am writing this to you now because, by your example, I feel that I am not alone. I think I know the hyper-sensitivity you speak of very intimately, and am working very hard to conquer its paralyzing effects on my work and my overall outlook on what kinds of positive change are still possible in the world.

I hope I’m accurately understanding your story, but it seems to me that what makes you a unique scholar and activist is the chronology of your life events. Where most scholars in academe seem to be in pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake or for prestige and recognition, your scholarship seems to have been a means to an end. In short, as I told you last night as you signed a book for me, you are a dear inspiration to me and your example has proven to me that there is, in fact, an outlet for such strong and at times overwhelming reactions to human suffering. As a result, I have recommitted myself to the rigorous journey of critical investigation in my social justice work. For all of the condemnation you regularly receive from your critics, I hope you can accept my humble admiration for your courage.

- S

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Dear Norman Finkelstein,

I have never written a fan letter before, and to an academic and dissident it seems even more out of place. But, I feel compelled to do so to you. I do considered myself a “fan” of Norman Finkelstein—or rather, as I would like to think of myself, a colleague in training. And hope, if your schedule and work load allows, to exchange a few letters with you.

Before I go too much into the details of what I mean by this, I think it is worth telling you a little bit about myself, and the first time I came across you and your work. On a few occasions I was lucky enough to catch interviews and debates with you on Democracy Now! At the time, I knew very little about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—only that it was a highly contentious issue that involved grave injustices. Regardless, I was immediately impressed with what you had to offer on the matter. Your razor sharp skepticism and high sense of morality seemed to clear through the fog of propaganda and humbug. I knew that if I ever had a real desire and chane to learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that I should reach for a Finkelstein book.

Lucky for me that desire and chance did occur. However, it did start of tragically. I used to lived in Olympia, Washington—the home of Rachel Corrie, an activist acquaintance of mine. I don’t have words to describe the horror that myself and many others felt when the news broke about her murder. It was as if reality had bent itself and nothing was the same. I remember marching in the streets with a strange mixture of outrage and vulnerability. I kept replaying the last very brief conversation I had with Rachel at the Evergreen State College. After her death it has become impossible for me to shake the tragic awareness that all serious social change work has elements of martyrdom in it. After someone you know dies, everything about social justice work becomes more personal and immediate.

In 2007-2008, I enrolled in a Masters program at the University for Peace in Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica. The University for Peace was established by the United Nations, and is dedicated to providing higher educational studies to those who are interested in international relations and peace studies. However, like all bodies of the United Nations, its noble rhetoric is severely limited by a variety of factors: funds, lack of direction, a greater commitment to diplomatic niceties than social justice. Regardless, I was fortunate enough to meet a handful of very good teachers. One such teacher was Victoria Fontain—who had worked as a journalist in the Middle East, and had a particular interest in media studies and terrorism. Under her very loose guidance I wrote my Masters thesis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Beside the personal attachment I had to the conflict via Rachel and Olympia, I had over the years grown very interested in some of the more academic and philosophical questions raised by the conflict. I was really interested in Israel’s claim to its “right to exist” since it seemed like a very unique and arrogant position. I don’t know of any other state that has every tried to claim such a right. And if taken seriously by international legal institutions, it seems it would make both revolution and session illegal—thus nullifying the right to self-determination. In my musings on the subject, I would sometimes wonder if things would have been any different for the former Soviet Union if it was able to seriously claim its right to exist to the international community during perestrokia and its subsequent collapse? Would the United Nations have stepped in and considered the Commonwealth of Independent States an illegitimate criminal organization because it was seeking to “murder” a state? Israel’s claim to its right to exist as a state is even more perplexing considering it has never claimed it borders and therefore does not meet the legal definition of a state under international law. It seems quite obvious to anyone who looks into the matter, that throughout its history Israel has consistently claimed a double-standard. When arguments are made against the occupation Israel has claimed that such remarks threaten its exist and therefore violate international laws and standards. However, when people claim that state recognition—including any such right to exist—requires the responsibility of each state to declare its borders, Israel asks for special treatment because of its unique history.

In the end though, the right to exist and how a state is defined did not become the focus of my paper. Instead, I focused more on the need to look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict more as a conflict concerning human rights—in particular the right to self-determination—rather than a conflict over land. I tried to make the argument that self-determination was more intimately related to the idea of social justice than it was statehood—and that while statehood could express self-determination, it could also hinder it if that state was authoritarian or established on unjust terms. Essentially, I wanted to counter the argument that the Bantustanization of Palestine could in any away be considered a viable solution to the problem—even if such Bantustans did give Palestinians a “state.” I found that reading your work and listening to your lectures over the internet was extremely helpful in forming my arguments. Especially your understanding of the various strands of Zionism. Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict was extremely instrumental in forming some of my core ideas under the conflict. I think you made it clear that though all strands of Zionism believed in Jewish self-determination and the celebration of Jewish culture, not all strands believed that this meant that Jewish statehood was necessary, even though social justice for Jews was. As you point out, the statehood Zionists were at first a minority within the Zionist movement; their success was really a product of their overlap with British and later American ambitions to control the Middle East.

When I finished with my education at the University for Peace, I moved to Chicago which was a difficult transition for me. When I arrived I had a personal life full of turmoil, a serious lack of friends, was jobless, and felt very alienated from the left-wing activist community. I have always lend more to an anarchist sentiment in the terms of organizing and vision. For the most part, much of the activists in Chicago seemed to be more rooted in a Marxist-Leninist tradition—and if not rooted in them, highly influenced by them. I don’t mean to encourage sectarianism, but the rejection of liberalism and that I find a lot of Marxist-Leninist have deeply troubles me and makes it difficult for me to work with them or want to work with them. It seems to me that a lot of people glorify the countries that the United States (and Israel for that matter) are at odds with. It is often the case that the while the crimes of the United States are front and center (as they should be for all Americans) the crimes of China, North Korea, Iran and Cuba are ignored or explained away (as they shouldn’t be for anyone). Apparently, the ANSWER coalition even went so far as to organize a demonstration against the green movement in Iran because they believe it was a “fake” social struggle organized by Western imperialist—essentially repeating the Chavez line.

I also found it difficult to organize with people around Israeli-Palestinian issues. I don’t know if you remember, but I wrote a somewhat frantic letter to you a few months agon asking you on the efficacy of an organization dedicating its resources to trying to dissolve Chicago’s sister city relationship with the Israeli city Petch Tikva. I found your response helpful, and brought to the group’s attention the inherent hypocrisy and problems with the campaign—but my remarks fell on deaf ears. In the end, I convinced no one of my position—nor did I think I ever get an appropriate response to the questions I raised. At first I tried to just have an agree-to-disagree attitude with the group, but as time went on I felt more alienated by people’s choice of tactics, and the issue of hypocrisy began to weigh more heavily on me. A few weeks ago I decided to leave the group.

To me, it appears that many of the people in Chicago who work on Palestinian issues have been very influenced by two ideas: the one-state solution, and a BDS campaign which targets all of Israel. The prevalence of these ideas makes sense considering that they are both supported by the website Electronic Intifada, and the website’s staff is based here. Personally, I don’t understand how the two positions can be held together. People who I have talked to who support a one-state solution admit that the only way that option could come about is if there was a large Israeli-Palestinian organization that has the political power to rival and eventually overthrow both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority. That type of organization of course doesn’t exist, and would require a very strong left-wing anti-imperialist movement in Israel for it to form. At the same time, when I have mentioned the likelihood that a blanket BDS campaign would have on alienating the Israeli left, the response from the blanket BDS supporters is that this doesn’t matter because there is no Israeli left in the country. Israel has moved so far to the right that there is no one left to fear alienating. I think that the one-state solution and the reasons for a blanket BDS tactic both are based on serious misreadings of the situations, but even if one of them is true than the other one surely can’t be.

I think that BDS can be an important tool, but like Chomsky says it needs to be well directed. BDS is a blunt instrument, it only works if it is sharpen to attack those most in power. Unfortunately, this perspective—at least among people I’ve talked to about it—appears to be in the minority among activists. I really believe that the Israeli-Palestinian peace movement could benefit from an open letter written and signed by some like you, or perhaps professor Chomsky, calling for a more rational BDS campaign—which instead of focusing on minor cultural things like movies, dance performances, and sister city relationships—takes aim at corporations profiting from the occupations, settlement constructions, and United States aid to Israel.

Because of these differences and my own personal struggles, I found myself painfully stepping away from a lot of my activist ambitions, and dedicating more time to reading and writing. This included listening to several of your lectures. I was particularly interested in your comments on Gandhi—a historical figure that I have read a lot on. His contributions and ideas on non-violence I think have been grossly misunderstood, and I was pleased to discovered that—like so many other things—you were able to cut through the hype and see Gandhi for much of what he was. I find that when most people who are not familiar with Gandhi read him for the first time, they are often confused and surprised about three things: 1) he belief that while non-violence is morally superior to violence, this does not mean that violence is wrong in all situations or at all times, 2) that he believed that the oppressed had the principal responsibility for free themselves and 3) that he believed that there was a prevailing force which connected not only people’s private and public lives, but also humanity with the rest of the universe. For most people trained in Western political thought and philosophy, all three of these ideas seem counter-intuitive and contradictory. But, when you are willing to step into Gandhi’s mind, it is easy to see their interconnectedness and eloquence.

As you pointed out, Gandhi really understood the relationship between violence and non-violence not as opposites, but as stages. Consciousness for him was the development of a person’s moral courage and integrity. People who are totally submissive are at the bottom. They have no will of their own, and therefore had no sense of right or wrong. For Gandhi complete submission is a type of nihilism. If all there is is obedience, then really there is nothing at all. Completely obedient people do not love—not themselves, not others, not even their masters. All they do is fear. People who oppress others were morally better than those who were totally submissive, because at least they had a will; for Gandhi, being a leader is always more meaningful than being a follower. But, in trying to impose their will they become overly dependent others. In my reading of Gandhi it seems he believed that to have others get you your food, clean your house, and fight your wars when you were capable of such things was a type of humiliation, even if it put you in a privileged position. It separated you from your surrounding community, and crippled your sense of freedom and connectivity with others. Those who rebel against oppression violently are on a higher plain. They have a strong will and a sense of connectivity with other people, but they are unable to fully love because they don’t love their enemies. Those who rebel against oppression non-violently are at the highest stage. Their sense of connectivity includes even those who are oppressing them.

As you have pointed out, he made it quite clear that if your didn’t have the moral fortitude to use non-violent resistance, then you should use violent resistance—because at least that would be better than submission. The best way I have found in describing this idea to others is in saying that Gandhi would despise those who refused to fight a war out of cowardice; he would think that those who went into battle fully armed were brave; but he would think that those who went into battle completely disarmed were by far the bravest—and of course, they are.

Essential to developing that bravery was learning how to stand-up. He once wrote that he thought the responsibility for India’s independence was more on the part of Indians than it was the British. To many people, that appears like a fairly harsh statement—almost as if he is blaming the victims for their own oppression and letting the British off the hook. But again, I think this is a misunderstanding. Freedom is nothing if it is not chosen, and for Gandhi it should be chosen above all else, even one’s own personal security and, in some cases, life. The truth is no one can liberate the oppressed but the oppressed, and it is essential for the oppressed to realize this if they want to be free. I think that he thought much of what dragged down the Indian independence movement was the internalized sense of helplessness among Indians. For so long they had taken orders from the British that they were incapable of making decisions for themselves. Even in their resistance from the British, they were still waiting for the British to tell them what to do. Gandhi wanted to make it clear that freedom was something that was only realized through struggle. Only through the struggle for freedom does freedom exist at all. The moment we give up on freedom, the moment we no longer use it, is the moment it ceases to be. I think Gandhi would have great sympathy for an ACLU t-shirt that I saw once which read: “civil liberties, use them or lose them.”

Though Gandhi’s writing very rarely ventured outside of political and social issues, he seemed quite certain that there was some cosmological reason for the success of non-violent struggle. This view I think helps explain the depths of his convictions. He wasn’t just struggling for India’s independence, he saw himself as defending creation itself. I think that this creed is best summed up in a quote by Martin Luther King Jr: “the universe is on the side of justice.” A lot of things that people would find trivial mattered for Gandhi because he always looked for the grander principle behind everything. Those principles embodied creation itself, and ignoring them seemed to suggest that nothing mattered. He often said that “truth is God”–which is actually a fairly strange statement. I think most people understand this to mean that people should follow the truth as they would follow God—devoutly use reason, evidence, and their own moral conscience when making decisions. I’m sure that Gandhi partly meant this, but I think he also had another meaning which is often ignored and less understood. Truth—like God—is creation. Within all things in the universe there is a certain integrity or internal consistency, a logos. Without this “truth” stuff won’t exist. Human beings can decided to either be a force for creation, by developing their own sense of moral integrity, or a force for destruction, by living with double-standards and contradictions. This is sometimes referred to as Gandhi’s religions views, but I have a hard time stating it as such. Gandhi’s religion was so pantheistic and ecumenical that it is hard to refer to it has a “religion.” He originally said “God is truth,” but after learning about western atheism switched the creed to “truth is God.” It is hard to refer to a belief as religious when it is adjusted to include even those who are against religion.

I think that you are right on target with the idea that if Gandhi’s general principles and strategies were applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict it would help in pushing through some of the conflicts major impasses. For Americans, which I think I should be most concern with, the most important Gandhian lesson is the importance of education and publicity. Turning the tide in the conflict rest on the ability of the American people to see the struggle for Palestinian independence as a moral force in the world. Even though I think most Americans say that they would like to see an end to the conflict and a two-state settlement, they still have a tendency to see the whole issue in the terms of peace—rather than the terms of peace and justice.

I want you to know, that perhaps more than anyone I can think of, I believe that you are playing a pivotal rule in helping to educate others. You definitely have provided activist like me with a solid arsenal of intellectual tools to explain the situation to people who are uniformed. I began this letter by saying I was a fan, but I would like to end it more as a pep coach. I can say that if I was in your position it would be easy to feel a bit helpless and demoralized. You are constantly dealing with a situation of endless tragedies, and when you speak out against them, you are marginalized, told to shut-up, or ridiculed. I don’t know how you take all this abuse, but I want you to know, that with me you have definitely have had a positive and profound effect. Please, I want you to keep up the good work. In a lot of ways your personal struggles, and the struggles of the Palestinians, reminds me—most fittingly—of a Gandhi quote: “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” Eventually, we will all win.

My only regret is that I couldn’t have finished this letter sooner. I noticed on your website that you are not checking your email for awhile. Regardless, when you come to Chicago, I want you to know that I’ll be in the audience, and—maybe if I’m lucky—I could get a chance to talk to you face-to-face someday. Until then, best wishes.

Sincerely,

Marco Rosaire Rossi

P.S.

The first thing I ever read on Gandhi was a pocket sized collection of his quotes complied by the famous Catholic monk and dissident Thomas Merton. In my opinion, it still remains the shortest and best introduction to Gandhi’s ideals. Any time I feel confused or unsure of my interpretation of Gandhi’s work, this is the first book I turned.

There are two quotes that Merton choose to include in the book that explain Gandhi’s evolution from “God is Truth” to “Truth is God.” The first one describes the importance of this change to Gandhi and his overall spiritual beliefs:

My prayerful search gave me the revealing maxim ‘Truth is God’ instead of the usual one, ‘God is Truth.’ That maxim enables me to see God face to face as it were. I feel Him pervade every fiber of my being.

The second quotes explains in more detail what Gandhi meant by this transition:

Undoubtedly prayer requires a living faith in God. Successful satayagraha is inconceivable without that faith. God may be called by any other name so long as it connotes the living Law of Life—in other words, the Law and the Lawgiver rolled into one.

The key phrase to understanding in this passage is “the Law and the Lawgiver rolled into one.” Spiritually, Gandhi went through a dramatic evolution during his lifetime. Perhaps even more dramatic than his political beliefs. Originally, Gandhi was an orthodox Hindu. He slowly transitioned into an abstract monotheist who thought that God revealed himself in a variety of ways. And then, transitioned again into a pantheist. Toward the end of this life, he seemed to believed that God was not simply the creator, but also the creation. He made the universe but He also was the universe, or at least the natural laws which governed the universe.

This move from focusing on the Lawgiver to the Laws themselves is what allowed Gandhi to have religious tent big enough include even atheist. Even though atheist don’t believe in a God, they do believe in natural laws—which for Gandhi’s sake represented God. He said that atheist believed in the effects of God, even though they may have not believed in God, and for Gandhi, that was tolerable–though not completely to his liking. He never fully gave up on the idea of a creator, but towards the end of his life he seemed to be more interested in the meaning of creation as such–hence the moving of “Truth” to the front of the maxim rather than the back.

There is a book out there that I haven’t had read, but would really like to get my hands on. It is called Gandhi As We Have Known Him and its main thesis is that Gandhi was nudged towards his pantheism by a few close humanist friends. I think this makes sense considering the ironic and intimate relationship that atheism and pantheism have had historically. They are complete opposing extremes (God doesn’t exist, God exists in everything), but in their opposition they find an unlikely common ground. Neither of them focus on the certainty of a creator, but rather the beauty of creation itself. There are few philosophers, Spinoza for example, who is often claimed as a hero for both sides. The only really difference appears to be that while most pantheist hold out some hope that there is a creator, atheist remain skeptical.

In an everyday way the maxim that “Truth is God” affected Gandhi because he seemed quite convinced of two things: one, that without a belief in natural laws a person could not engage in nonviolent struggle; and two, that somehow these laws were connected to the human capacity to love unconditionally. I think that this makes perfect sense. Gandhi was asking people to put their lives on the line. He won’t do it, or expect others to do it, unless he thought there was something out there bigger than people’s own individual lives. And, that love—especially loving your enemy—could change the world.

The question is of course is there something bigger? Does love actually change the world? Is there any basis to go on this besides faith, and if not, are moral atheist really no different than religious people? Personally, I think there is and I think there are reasons beyond blind faith. But, I will be the first to admit that is a very difficult idea to feel secure in. People wave many flags. Having one that says “Truth” and “Love” is more likely to get snickers than to inspire people to take to the streets. I disagree with Gandhi on several things—for example, I am an atheist—and think that in some ways he was superstitious, regressive when it came to sexuality, and backwards looking in the terms of technology. But, I do agree with him that Truth and Love matter, and if you don’t think that they matter then you can’t successfully engage in social change work. India is not perfect, but with Gandhi reminding people of those ideas it managed to have a sweeter freedom than if he wasn’t there at all.

That is how I understand what he meant by “Truth is God.” Below is revised version of my letter.

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Referring to your film “American Radical”, I recently saw a scene from it which has become especially famous for your excellent response and handling of the situation, namely the “Crying Girl” scene, on youTube. I then read several hundred of the comments and was utterly aghast for several reasons.

Unfortunately, the great majority of the viewers have completely misunderstood the scene. The common consensus is that she is German-Jewish crying ‘crocodile tears’ for Holocaust victims. Nothing could be further from the truth. She is clearly German, this is apparent from her accent. But not Jewish – which becomes obvious with her opening remarks to you, where she breaks down and starts to sob after stating what offense you caused with remarks about Nazis to GERMANS. I can only assume that these comments were made by foreigners; no-one familiar with Germany or her people would ever see her as anything other than only German. Nor would anyone European follow this quite daring assumption of youTube viewers, considering that for obvious reasons there are NO young, under-25, GERMAN Jews (the G/J population at present is around 108,000. An absolutely negligible percentage of the whole German population of nearly 80 million).

The reason and motivation of the young lady in voicing her distress with “Nazi and German” statements is that as most young Germans, she is a carrier of the heavy burden of eternal guilt. Guilt from her ancestors, her people, who committed incomprehensible evil. Which evil horrifies her more than anyone, and for which all dislike of THEM is perfectly justified. But not of HER. SHE is not a Nazi. She has nothing to do with this, she is very different, times have changed, things have changed, Germans have changed. All of this you are not acknowledging, in fact, you are negating it. This is what cuts her to the quick and really does wound her deeply – she herself feels accused of being a Nazi. This is most awfully unfair, so she needs to tell you about all the changes, all the hard work towards redemption that has been done, in order to then gain your APPROVAL. To be given validation and praise for NOT being a Nazi. In other words, her tears are really FOR HERSELF – she does not understand how you cannot understand the ‘new situation’, why you seemingly do not differentiate between ‘then’ and ‘now’, leaving her truly hurt at being so maligned. Her speaking to you is not remotely connected to the subject of your lecture, the Palestinians, it is all about her. Instead of talking about the past and reminding her of suffering Palestinians, what you should have said is: “Kudos, little redhead - I applaud you for feeling like any normal person would”.

The 2nd thing I was aghast about, as well as utterly revolted by, is the sheer, unbelievable, horrendous HATRED and naked anti-Semitism in far too many of the comments. The most horrible insults and disgusting, vile, violent suggestions are freely made. This terrible hatred so plainly visible is seriously frightening, it literally makes one fear for this world. It also lets one understand the constant, deep-seated fear and ever-lasting paranoia of a Dershovitz or Foxman – reading these poisonous outpourings, one begins to see why so many Israelis and her screeching apologists are of the “We are under attack, anything to survive” mindset. I was shocked to see that there are indeed still some propagating such evil. Ironic to think that those commenters could never, ever proclaim only 10% of their sickening hate speech IN GERMANY - seeing hate speech is thankfully a crime here, they’d be arrested right after the first volley. As they should be. It goes without saying that the language used is just as outrageous and repulsive. Nothing against the odd swear word, but the vulgarities merrily thrown at each other here boggle the mind. In the end one comes away feeling that instead of a serious discussion of the subject, it is used as an opening for a despicable hate-fest. It is a terrible shame that this particular scene containing more than one very serious message has been so sadly misconstrued and at least on youTube only serves as fodder for the most appalling bigots.

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Dear Dr. Finkelstein,

I hope this letter finds you in good health.

I am a Saudi students currently pursuing my studies here in the US (Colorado in specific) and I am aiming to become a journalist. This past year I have had to deal with many issues that made it literally the worst year of my entire life. I lost my best friend in a car accident that happened on campus, that triggered inherited clinical depression which was diagnosed only about a year later, I started taking medication in hopes of trying to do well in school where at the time. I have been doing engineering while having a scholarship with a Saudi oil company. Even they knew I was ill and all they still kicked me out for having bad grades. Even though I got them letters from my caregivers that I was not doing well in school. Anyways, I have taken this opportunity to pursue my dream of being a journalism writer. My precursor was doing well in the TOEFL test required to enter colleges in English-speaking nations. I have been writing ever since.

I still get bouts of despair from time to time. I have not been supported by any of the administrators who could make my grades vanish and get a medical withdrawal in order to transfer to my desired university. The admission people at the other university are even worse. Despite what happened with me all their focus is purely in terms of grades and they cannot trust that I can do well if they admit me right away due to my “downhill trend” in grades. Even though the courses that I did badly in would not have been useful at all over there. It seems like they care more about GPAs than seeing me for who I am and giving me a fair shot at my dream. Being in my current institution has only been contributing to my deteriorating mental health and I might be forced to transfer and after taking one or two more semester here. I do not feel like I would be able to do well, mainly because I feel repulsed by the institution and my colleagues here. The only thing that is good about it is that my loving fiancee is here.

It just seems like the entire world is against me and like I am doing my part but the rest are not doing theirs to aid me.

I happened to stumble upon the clip of your talk at the University of Waterloo and I could not believe what I have seen. I then saw American Radical and viewed more clips and articles about you and your conflict with Dershowitz in specific. I do not how you can stand it when people keep accusing you of untrue accusations when they are the ones who seem to be talking nonsense, even your debaters. I have been dabbling with politics for some time and it is another thing that I had forced on me. For you see my grandfather had been arrested by the Saudi government at some point in the sixties accusing him of being a Communist and his brother was tortured to death by them. His remains were never found. Furthermore, I come from a Shi’ite family and city and I am discriminated against in Saudi Arabia for being one, even though I do not even practice anything. We are being discriminated against in terms of full rights and to not be treated as second-class citizens. There isn’t even any form of acknowledgment of our existence. AlQaeda and such other Sunni-extremists want me dead more than any Jew or Christian.

Because I have a Saudi passport, I have to go through a secondary inspection every time I land at a US border and get me registered and have hours of my life taken from me. I would have to be escorted by a DHS officer and that makes me look like a criminal in public view. I am discriminated everywhere I head because of two things that I feel like I am not. I do not even feel like I am a Saudi and I do not feel like I belong from anywhere else, either. To me it is the worst thing that a human being can feel, to not belong anywhere. The most I feel belonging to is here in Colorado yet I am here on a temporary basis and I will have to go back to Saudi after my studies are over. After all this I would have given up on anyone and everything and on life in general. What I have seen from you made me feel otherwise. Even though you have been discriminated against and had your right to tenure denied and and having your career decided for you by so-called “intellectuals”, you still have not given up on the message you are trying to spread. Naturally I am opposed to Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians but it was never a blind opinion with me. I was not an obligatory opinion forced on me by default just for being an Arab “Muslim”. I actually looked up all that was necessary for me to have a good understanding of the situation. Other Shia from my city do not like Palestinians for the mere reason that they think Palestinians hate the Shia even though Iran, which has a Shi’ite leadership and majority, opposes Israel and supports Palestine. I have seen how ignorant and shallow people can be first hand. Despite all the bad publicity I can still distinguish right from wrong, yet I cannot fathom how your opponents think that they are right about what they state and how they think it is preposterous that you think that they are wrong. Your perseverance has inspired me and given me hope in humanity again. I will keep trying to accomplish my goal without leaving any stone unturned. I do not know if you would ever be in Denver but I would love to attend a lecture or debate where you would make an appearance.

I wish you the best and I hope that people can open up their minds and see how much dirt they have been fed.

Sincerely,

The Eternal Discriminatee

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Dear Norman,

I attended a lecture last night by Erik Fosse, who worked alongside Mads Gilbert at Shifa hospital in Gaza during the Israeli attacks. It was heart-wrenching stuff, and he showed photos and told stories which both saddened and infurieted everybody in attendance. He told us how he had worked at that hospital several times before, and the fact that he was a westerner was not something that anybody cared about, or even noticed. When they arrived during the attacks, however, everybody greeted them like rock stars. And the reason, obviously, was that he and Gilbert were the only westerners there, and the Palestineans realized that they might at least serve as witnesses to their destuction.

Fosse also described how they could hear those unmanned drones circling the city constantly, so the IDF clearly knew who they were killing. It’s pretty hard to contrast Israeli statements bragging about how they hit 90% of their targets with the number of children killed. He emphazised how Gilbert and himself were lucky enough to have their family safe back in Norway, while the Palestinians working at the hospital knew that their families were in constant danger (everybody had portable radios in their ears to keep updated on which neighbourhoods were being bombed). One time the wife and two kids of one doctor arrived seriously injured, while the doctor was on duty. Luckily the both survived. The doctor’s cousin, pregnant wife and two other kids weren’t so lucky, though. It just went on and on.

On Tuesday a documentart was aired on Norwegian tv which revelaed how Norway sold weapons to Israel in the months leading up to the attack. Since it’s illegal for Norway to sell weapons directly to Israel while they are at war, it sold them indirectly through the U.S (through a corporation called NAMMO). It’s been three days since it aired, and not a single word of discussion has been raised about this appalling fact. We have a leftist coalition government at the moment, so the opposition obviously aren’t going to raise a word of protest. It’s a disgrace.

Just wanted to let you know that the Norwegian state’s image as a friend of the Palestinians is a blatant lie.

Best,

Dag Sørås (Oslo, Norway)

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Hi Norm ,

I just came back from the South ….What a scenery !!! What nature !!!!and definitely what people …

Will tell you one story :

A man had a daughter from a previous marriage and 3 children from a 2nd marriage . Anyways,during the 2006 War the daughter left her mom to be with her dad …to cut the long story short the father lost all of his children during the Israeli invasion …The father then remarried and again had children from his new wife …when asked how could he remarry and have children …His answer was ” I will not allow Israel to kill my hope in Life …I will not allow it to overpower me ….I will not allow it to steal life away from me …I am giving birth to children who will fight Israel” …

My dearest Norm, don’t worry ….This time Israel will pay the biggest price ever ….

I met so many freedom fighters in the South …God bless them ….Such peaceful souls …full of courage and kindness …We were laughing all the whole time …Such hope ….Such faith …Such pride ….I felt so small….

The only thing that was bitter about my trip was the news of the bombardment of Gaza…I am in so much pain that I can’t even write about it now ….But believe me Israel is digging its own grave …you can’t abolish 1.5 million people ….NO ONE CAN ABOLISH THEIR EXISTENCE ….NO ONE

I am back in Beirut now …will resume my work 2omorrow ….Wish me luck …

Take care ,

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Dear Friends, “When I see 1.4 million trapped in a situation of collective punishment, without rights, I have to raise that, and I will go on raising it.” These are the words of Mary Robinson, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former president of Ireland, who was one of the few outsiders permitted to enter the Gaza Strip in November. She told the BBC on November 4th that it was “almost unbelievable that the world doesn’t care while this is happening…Their whole civilization has been destroyed, I’m not exaggerating.” Since Israel tightened its closure of the Gaza Strip in June 2007, eighty percent of Gaza’s residents have been pushed beneath the poverty line. More than 50,000 children are seriously malnourished, with half of those under the age of two suffering from anemia. Gaza’s only power plant has been functioning at less than 50 percent of its capacity due to fuel cuts, water is polluted, the sewage system has broken down, medications are in short supply and more than a million people have been dependent on daily emergency assistance. More than 250 patients had died after being denied permits to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment. Conditions deteriorated still further in early November when Israel slammed the door shut on even emergency fuel and food supplies. On November 14, the UN announced it had to suspend the distribution of food to 750,000 people in Gaza’s refugee camps because “our warehouses are effectively empty.” The Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip is not just killing the spirit and sometimes the lives of Gazans, half of whom are children. It is also destroying all hopes for a peaceful future in the region. Studies carried out by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP), founded by Dr. Eyad el-Sarraj in 1990, show a frightening rise in trauma, as children fall victim to night terrors, loss of appetite, insomnia, and symptoms of panic and aggression. Adults are suffering from panic disorders, depression and psychosomatic disorders as they struggle to cope with the deeply inhuman situation. Former US president Jimmy Carter was right to call the siege “an atrocity, a crime, an abomination.” The staff of GCMHP has moved into high gear in its efforts to help the people of Gaza overcome the psychological effects of the violence that surrounds them, and confront the all-pervasive despair and depression. Please let them know they are not alone. You can help the GCMHP alleviate the psychological suffering of the Palestinian people by writing a check to the Gaza Mental Health Foundation, and sending it and your contact information to the Gaza Mental Health Foundation, PO Box 495, Boston, MA 02112. The Gaza Mental Health Foundation, Inc. was established in 2001 to raise funds in the United States to support the critically important work being carried out by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program. Your donations, which are fully tax-deductible to the extent provided by the IRS Code, are forwarded in their entirety to the GCMHP. You can find out more about the Gaza Mental Health Foundation by visiting our website, www.gazamentalhealth.org/ This moving YouTube video will give you a closer look at what the people of the Gaza Strip are facing while much of the world is standing silently by. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=DSzn7XLLM7c Thank you for your generosity and for choosing to take a stand against the collective punishment of the people of the Gaza Strip. Sincerely, Dr. Nancy Murray President Gaza Mental Health Foundation, Inc.

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Ponder the following: What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter? What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review? What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class? What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was divorced? What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after she was severely disfigured in a car accident? What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married? What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization? What if Cindy McCain had graduated from Harvard? What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.) What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker? What if Obama couldn’t read from a teleprompter? What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes? [Was it really as many as that? Thought it was five. Still a bunch -- VG] What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem? What if Michelle Obama’s family had made their money from beer distribution? What if the Obamas had adopted a white child? You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are? This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference. So let’s consider some other stuff like educational backgrounds: Barack Obama: Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations. Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude Joseph Biden: University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science. Syracuse University, College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.) John McCain: United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899 Sarah Palin: Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism Education isn’t everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world.

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From: r.alsukhni[at]hotmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: FW: [Fwd: SHAME ON U ARABS !!!!]. Thanks to the jew supporters of Palestinians
Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:04:39 -0300

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From: “Ramzi & Zeina”
zeina_ramzi[at]yahoo.com
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 2:42:14 AM
Subject: Denied the right to go home (text in e-mail)

June 21, 2008

I am Palestinian – born and raised – and my Palestinian roots go back centuries. No one can change that even if they tell me that Jerusalem, my birth place, is not Palestine, even if they tell me that Palestine doesn’t exist, even if they take away all my papers and deny me entry to my own home, even if they humiliate me and take away my rights. I AM PALESTINIAN.

Name: Zeina Emile Sam’an Ashrawi; Date of Birth: July 30, 1981; Ethnicity: Arab. This is what was written on my Jerusalem ID card. An ID card to a Palestinian is much more than just a piece of paper; it is my only legal documented relationship to Palestine. Born in Jerusalem, I was given a Jerusalem ID card (the blue ID), an Israeli Travel Document and a Jordanian Passport stamped Palestinian (I have no legal rights in Jordan). I do not have an Israeli Passport, a Palestinian Passport or an American Passport. Here is my story:

I came to the United States as a 17 year old to finish high school in Pennsylvania and went on to college and graduate school and subsequently got married and we are currently living in Northern Virginia. I have gone home every year at least once to see my parents, my family and my friends and to renew my Travel Document as I was only able to extend its validity once a year from Washington DC. My father and I would stand in line at the Israeli Ministry of Interior in Jerusalem, along with many other Palestinians, from 4:30 in the morning to try our luck at making it through the revolving metal doors of the Ministry before noon – when the Ministry closed its doors - to try and renew the Travel Document. We did that year after year. As a people living under an occupation, being faced with constant humiliation by an occupier was the norm but we did what we had to do to insure our identity was not stolen from us.

In August of 2007 I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC to try and extend my travel document and get the usual “Returning Resident” VISA that the Israelis issue to Palestinians holding an Israeli Travel Document. After watching a few Americans and others being told that their visas would be ready in a couple of weeks my turn came. I walked up to the bulletproof glass window shielding the lady working behind it and under a massive picture of the Dome of the Rock and the Walls of Jerusalem that hangs on the wall in the Israeli consulate, I handed her my papers through a little slot at the bottom of the window.

“Shalom” she said with a smile. “Hi” I responded, apprehensive and scared. As soon as she saw my Travel Document her demeanor immediately changed. The smile was no longer there and there was very little small talk between us, as usual. After sifting through the paperwork I gave her she said: “where is your American Passport?” I explained to her that I did not have one and that my only Travel Document is the one she has in her hands. She was quiet for a few seconds and then said: “you don’t have an American Passport?” suspicious that I was hiding information from her. “No!” I said. She was quiet for a little longer and then said: “Well, I am not sure we’ll be able to extend your Travel Document.” I felt the blood rushing to my head as this is my only means to get home! I asked her what she meant by that and she went on to tell me that since I had been living in the US and because I had a Green Card they would not extend my Travel Document. After taking a deep breath to try and control my temper I explained to her that a Green Card is not a Passport and I cannot use it to travel outside the US. My voice was shaky and I was getting more and more upset (and a mini shouting match ensued) so I asked her to explain to me what I needed to do. She told me to leave my paperwork and we would see what happens.

A couple of weeks later I received a phone call from the lady telling me that she was able to extended my Travel Document but I would no longer be getting the “Returning Resident” VISA. Instead, I was given a 3 month tourist VISA. Initially I was happy to hear that the Travel Document was extended but then I realized that she said “tourist VISA”. Why am I getting a tourist VISA to go home? Not wanting to argue with her about the 3 month VISA at the time so as not to jeopardize the extension of my Travel Document, I simply put that bit of information on the back burner and went on to explain to her that I wasn’t going home in the next 3 months. She instructed me to come back and apply for another VISA when I did intend on going. She didn’t add much and just told me that it was ready for pick-up. So I went to the Embassy and got my Travel Document and the tourist VISA that was stamped in it.

My husband, my son and I were planning on going home to Palestine this summer. So a month before we were set to leave (July 8, 2008) I went to the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC, papers in hand, to ask for a VISA to go home. I, again, stood in line and watched others get VISAs to go to my home. When my turn came I walked up to the window; “Shalom” she said with a smile on her face, “Hi” I replied. I slipped the paperwork in the little slot under the bulletproof glass and waited for the usual reaction. I told her that I needed a returning resident VISA to go home. She took the paperwork and I gave her a check for the amount she requested and left the Embassy without incident.

A few days ago I got a phone call from Dina at the Israeli Embassy telling me that she needed the expiration date of my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card. I had given them all the paperwork they needed time and time again and I thought it was a good way on their part to waste time so that I didn’t get my VISA in time. Regardless, I called over and over again only to get their voice mail. I left a message with the information they needed but kept called every 10 minutes hoping to speak to someone to make sure that they received the information in an effort to expedite the tedious process. I finally got a hold of someone. I told her that I wanted to make sure they received the information I left on their voice mail and that I wanted to make sure that my paperwork was in order. She said, after consulting with someone in the background (I assume it was Dina), that I needed to fax copies of both my Jordanian Passport and my Green Card and that giving them the information over the phone wasn’t acceptable. So I immediately made copies and faxed them to Dina.

A few hours later my cell phone rang. “Zeina?” she said. “Yes” I replied, knowing exactly who it was and immediately asked her if she received the fax I sent. She said: “ehhh, I was not looking at your file when you called earlier but your Visa was denied and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid.” “Excuse me?” I said in disbelief. “Sorry, I cannot give you a visa and your ID and Travel Document are no longer valid. This decision came from Israel not from me.”

I cannot describe the feeling I got in the pit of my stomach. “Why?” I asked and Dina went on to tell me that it was because I had a Green Card. I tried to reason with Dina and to explain to her that they could not do that as this is my only means of travel home and that I wanted to see my parents, but to no avail. Dina held her ground and told me that I wouldn’t be given the VISA and then said: “Let the Americans give you a Travel Document”.

I have always been a strong person and not one to show weakness but at that moment I lost all control and started crying while Dina was on the other end of the line holding my only legal documents linking me to my home. I began to plead with her to try and get the VISA and not revoke my documents; “put yourself in my shoes, what would you do? You want to go see your family and someone is telling you that you can’t! What would you do? Forget that you’re Israeli and that I’m Palestinian and think about this for a minute!” “Sorry” she said,”I know but I can’t do anything, the decision came from Israel”. I tried to explain to her over and over again that I could not travel without my Travel Document and that they could not do that – knowing that they could, and they had!

This has been happening to many Palestinians who have a Jerusalem ID card. The Israeli government has been practicing and perfecting the art of ethnic cleansing since 1948 right under the nose of the world and no one has the power or the guts to do anything about it. Where else in the world does one have to beg to go to one’s own home? Where else in the world does one have to give up their identity for the sole reason of living somewhere else for a period of time? Imagine if an American living in Spain for a few years wanted to go home only to be told by the American government that their American Passport was revoked and that they wouldn’t be able to come back!

If I were a Jew living anywhere around the world and had no ties to the area and had never set foot there, I would have the right to go any time I wanted and get an Israeli Passport. In fact, the Israelis encourage that. I however, am not Jewish but I was born and raised there, my parents, family and friends still live there and I cannot go back! I am neither a criminal nor a threat to one of the most power countries in the world, yet I am alienated and expelled from my own home.

As it stands right now, I will be unable to go home – I am one of many.

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Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 15:28:03 -0400
From: ghossein[at]optonline.net
Subject: a Jew with a gun !
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

To Ehud,

“a Jew with a gun, a land that i made my own…”

On May 27th, Haaretz published an editorial titled: “Who’s Afraid of Norman Finkelstein”? Why should a scholar, an “old style Jew without a grip in a firm land” be feared at all? Could it be that he has a weapon more powerful than yours? A weapon, no gun, no bulldozer, no F-16, no Apache helicopter, no bulldozer, no cluster bomb could possibly silence? A weapon he carries with him wherever he goes, even on airplanes !

One of the major lessons of the Holocaust has to be: never forget what racism can do to a people, your own or any other. In the case of Norman Finkelstein, his passion for justice can be traced to what racism did to his beloved parents, in the Maidanek and Auschwitz concentration camps, a memory he vowed “to never forget or forgive”. For over 20 years, he has been defending the rights of victims, Jews and Palestinians alike. But if he never held a gun to do it, does it mean he didn’t have to “face killers”?

Isn’t time.,Ehud, to face the truth? For one, you might be able to fight Dr. Finkelstein more effectively, using his own weapon. The land you made your own was Palestinian land. How did it become your own ? Listen to Moshe Dayan, a war hero: “Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of Arab villages and I do not blame you because geography books no longer exist” (Address to the Technion, quoted in Haaretz, April 4, 1969). 419 Palestinian villages were destroyed. Add to this 35 massacres, thousands of Palestinians killed, 750.000 driven from their homes and you have your answer. It happened in 1947-48 and has since remained your favorite modus operandi: violence and the smothering of the truth. Unless you start burning books (or shooting them) Norman Finkelstein and the likes of him will keep upholding the truth, with plenty of factual evidence. No matter how long it takes, they will win this struggle. That much history has taught us.

I could go on and on but you have no time to read, you are busy “protecting” yourself. Let me just add this : 64% of Israelis would like their government to talk to Hamas. And guess who refused to march in the Israel Day Parade, yesterday, in New York City? Israelis ! Although the organizers made a special effort to reach out to them. They must know that 60 years later there is nothing to celebrate. They must know that occupation, settlements, a wall, checkpoints and collective punishment are nothing to brag about and in no way should become the new style Jewish values. Give us the old ones any time. They are the human values we all can share.

Mirene

(an atheist, with no grip on any land and no gun for sure) .

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Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 12:37:46 -0700
From: privetcontact-local[at]yahoo.com
Subject: Dear former Jew. please stopusing my people for your promotion. gey yourself a life without us..
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Mr. Finkelstein

you might have been a jew at birth.
your mom could be a jew.
yet, as one who never held a gun to face killers
you blame us for protecting our self from your present friends.
a bunch of humanoid who wish to place your nation under water.

so.
a Jew you are not.
as an American who plays with the people who wish its death -
in the U.S. you are not wanted

so you are left being the lowest form of being.
the old style Jew without a grip in a firm land.

not a Jew, Not anything.

could You please make a living malicing another nation?

a Jew.
(with a gun, land that i made my own. with a Jewish pure sole.) Ehud

Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 05:35:43 -0700
From: privetcontact-local@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: Dear former Jew. please stopusing my people for your promotion. gey yourself a life without us..
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

“NEFESH ” what is inside you . pardon my spelling.i did spend time at war field protecting my famely from friendly Arabs on the hunt for 700 shekel primoum for every dead Jew.
i shuld have taken spelling lab in english.
maybe then i could aford to be so kind as you? give my other chik to the bombs?

maybe then, i whould have become the killer you blaem me to be?

“Nazi” you call me? is that what a former Jew think of us?

i live with many arabs. they are apset for us going away and puting them under the terorists who kill their own arabs much more then any jew ever did think of.

the dream of the democratics days of the Israeli Army.

Dream on .
in South Africa they woke up.

people like in hear have long ago taken another pasport. they can aford to give this land for free.
may god help you.
we do not need you, Hamas dose.

Ehud

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By Donna Baranski-Walker

Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 02:48:41 -0700
From: dbw[at]RebuildingAlliance.org
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Children Ready for Israel’s High Court - Pls Call Your Senators Now

Dear Friends of the Rebuilding Alliance, Friends of Al Aqabah,

Just one day remains before the Village of Al Aqabah presents its petition to the Israeli High Court. I urge you to make your call to the senior staffer for foreign policy who works for your senators and congressperson. Ask them to call the State Department and the Israeli Embassy on your behalf to ask why a village with so much American and European investement is slated for demolition. Please call today — tell them it is urgent - and watch what happens. They will call you back in a day or two to report that the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem just visited Al Aqabah and will likely attend the Israeli High Court proceedings on Thursday! Here’s an article in the Guardian providing additional background about this upswing in demolitions in Area C of the West Bank: Area C strikes fear into the heart of Palestinians as homes are destroyed: Israelis defend rules that reject 94% of non-Jewish building applications.

To get ready for the High Court on Thursday, the teachers and children at the Al Aqabah Kindergarten have been making huge signs and ” Pinwheels for Peace” A school in Nevada City California is making pinwheels for peace for them too, and a girl scout troup in Woodside, CA joined in as well. The instructions are simple — and there’s even a Quicktime movie that shows you how: “Write your thoughts about war and peace, tolerance, living in harmony with others on one side of the pinwheel. and on the other side, paint, collage or draw to visually express your feelings.”

Here’s what has been happening at the Al Aqabah Kindergarten and village as they get ready to present their petition to the Israeli High Court this coming Thursday. Last week, the children at the Al Aqabah Kindergarten made their Pinwheels for Peace:


Kindergarteners with their Pinwheels for Peace

And on this past Saturday, the children and their parents were joined by Israeli and Palestinian peace activists who helped them make signs to hold up before the Israeli High Court this Thursday, and to make Pinwheels for Peace.


The Sign to Take to Court Constructing Pinwheels for Peace



And the Governor of the Jenin Governorate along with the Minister of Tourism helped make the signs for Court too:


Dignitaries from the Government helped

More Pinwheels for Peace


Two Little Girls with their Pinwheel for Peace

And afterwards, a lot of dancing!


Lots of dancing!

You may ask why I care so much about this kindergarten. Well, I helped rebuild it. As many of you know, I founded and direct the Rebuilding Alliance, a nonprofit that rebuilds communities in conflict zones and works to make them safe. In 2003, when we were just getting our 501c3 nonprofit status, we received a grant from a family foundation to build a school that would not be destroyed. We chose Al Aqabah, because it is far away from settlements, borders, no security concerns, the Israeli High Court had just ruled in favor of the village, and they needed a new roof for their kindergarten. I brought my board members, Cindy and Craig Corrie, to visit to finalize arrangements for construction. Fred Schlomka and Huwaida Arraf joined us there too. The project was bigger than we thought (a new roof meant new walls and foundation) so hundreds of Americans and people around the world donated to raise the funds needed. Here is the location of Al Aqabah:


Location of the village of Al Aqabah in the Palestinian West Bank

Just recently I learned that 130 children attend our kindergarten — and I was surprised to see that the Japanese Embassy, the Belgian Embassy and the Norwegian People all helped build a 2nd floor on the building we made! It is beautiful, yes?
The 2 floor kindergarten in Al Aqabah

As we were building, the kindergarten and the whole town received demolition orders from the Israeli Civil Authority, for “lack of a building permit” — but the Civil Administration rarely issues building permits in Area C even through the villagers own clear title to their land. They did not lose hope — they just kept on building and parents everywhere sent their children to the kindergarten, the best and only kindergarten in the area. USAID helped them build a road, the British helped build a medical center, the Canadians, UNICEF, and UNDP helped too — and all of that infrastructure will be lost if the Israeli Army acts on the Civil Administration’s orders. There are now 35 demolition orders issued against the town. We hoped to add the newer demolition orders to our existing petition, but a due process is required for each, starting with registration at the Beit El Civil Administration level. Please note our current petition has been in process for nearly 4 years now.



I hope you will join the children of Al Aqabah and take a moment to write down your thoughts about war and peace, living in harmony, tolerance, and then use color to create your own Pinwheel for Peace. Please do all you can to spread the word - please call your Senators and Congress person and get them to help you express your concern to the Israeli Embassy and State Department.

Please call me as you hear back from your Representative and Senators — or call if you need help, advice, or links to others in your area who can join a meeting. I’ve now moved my office to a tent in front of the Palo Alto City Hall (fully networked!) where we’re making Pinwheels for Peace, calling news media, and calling congressional staffers. Let’s do all we can to help one another and win this one.

Sincerely,
Donna Baranski-Walker
650 325 4663

P.S. You can also stay in touch by posting to our “Save the Kindergarten and Village of Al Aqabah from Demolition” group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16655035154

______________________________
The Rebuilding Alliance is a 501c3 nonprofit organization (EIN 56-239 h2452).

Donations are tax deductible in the U.S.

The Rebuilding Alliance
457 Kingsley Avenue
Palo Alto, California 94301
United States

phone: 650 325-4663
fax: 650 325-4667

email: contact@RebuildingAlliance.org
www.RebuildingAlliance.org

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Date: Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:24:32 -0400
Subject: Impressions of Lebanon.
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

It was a mistake to believe I was returning to a country I knew. Seven years had elapsed since my last visit, they were bound to change country and people, considering how disruptive they had been. The first sign came as soon as I left the airport :

“What happened to the palm trees that lined the street”?

“This is now a security zone”

“You mean the trees were a security risk”?

Silence. I later understood that one doesn’t joke about security in Beirut, a car bomb is always in the back of everyone’s mind. Cell phones are pulled out the moment a suspicious noise is heard / “Where are the children”? At 10 pm. most streets are deserted.

My first impression was visual, the divide between rich and poor more flagrant than I remembered. Then came other divides, chief among them the political/sectarian one.

A great number of luxury buildings are sprouting all over the city. How does one explain that building frenzy in a politically unstable country? Did Big Business know that US ships would show up if necessary? And within walking distance from the luxury, a reminder that 9% of Lebanese are poor and 12% unemployed (I would say more). The few beautiful traditional houses are being destroyed, the trees look unhealthy. What follows focuses on Hizbullah’s contribution to the political/sectarian divide. You can look at it as the other face of Hizbullah, the one you did not mention, because you are not Lebanese, because you needed a “PhD in Lebanese Politics”. I don’t think the two faces can be separated, they inform each other. I don’t even have a high school diploma in Lebanese politics, but remembered Talleyrand who said that war was much too important a business to be left to the military. Politics shouldn’t be left to politicians either, considering the mess that is Lebanon.

At Moghnieh’s funeral, Nasrallah’s fiery speech revolved around “martyrs” and “martyrdom”, stressing the Shia aspect of “the Islamic Resistance”. When thousands of men raise their outstretched arms in approval, when kids (10-12) in dark suits, file in front of Moghnieh’s coffin, stop and salute, when condolences are presented to Hizbullah and Shiite leaders, when the shroud covering the coffin has a single name on it, Hizbullah, when a Sheik can’t pray before brushing off a modest bouquet of flowers laid on the coffin, when Nasrallah says that since he was a kid Imad dreamed of becoming a martyr and that his dream finally came true…one HAS to wonder.

Nasrallah is still using “martyrdom” as a rallying cri de guerre, an echo of his “divine victory” speech: “Our dignity is derived from the martyrdom God grants us”. “Martyrdom”, a powerful connection, central to the Shia narrative, a reference to Imam Hussein, “Chief of Martyrs”, son of Imam Ali and Fatima (daughter of the prophet) legitimate heir to Muhammad, according to Shiites. Hussein was cheated by Yazid (the Umayyad caliph) of his right to succession. Yazid’s father, Muawiyah, had broken away from the established Muslim tradition of choosing a leader by consulting the elders and prominent men in the community. Hence Hussein’s refusal to acknowledge Yazid as the legitimate successor to his father. Hussein who traveled to Kufa (where his father still had many supporters) to raise an army, was intercepted by Yazid’s forces. He fought a suicidal battle at Karbala, (92 men vs. 4.000) and was killed, along with his men and his male children (except for one). It happened on October (Moharram) 10th, 680, the tragic date forever engraved in Shiites’s memory.

Sorry for the history lesson, but I feel that this dimension of Hizbullah’s 2006 victory is significant albeit overlooked. July 2006 can be seen as a reenactment of the Karbala battle, with the right outcome. A small number of dedicated and courageous men, way outnumbered by the enemy, have avenged their beloved Imam and martyr, redressing, at last, History’s deviation. They have regained their place in the sun. The intoxicating feeling has spurred a Shia revival, in Lebanon and across the Arab World, as well as an upset in the political/religious dynamics of the region. Old wounds came wide open. Do you remember writing that Palestinian society would have disintegrated, like the Caracas barrios, were it not for Islam? Nasrallah has used Islam to mobilize the Shiite community and keep it united, but it is only one “faction” of Islam he had in mind, the followers of Ali (Shia). The 2006 “historic victory” is a Shiite one. It connects with a tragic past yet promises a brighter future. Even secular Shiites feel proud and vindicated, I saw it clearly in conversations with family members and friends, and they don’t even like Nasrallah.

How is one to accept the monolithic character of a “Party of God” only Shiites can join? And is Allah “the most merciful, the most …and most…” supposed to have a party? In his February 14th speech, Nasrallah added “God of Martyrs” to God’s 99 attributes. A Shiite God, who bestowed on Moghnieh “a most splendid medal”. May I borrow the first five words of your comment “O my God: not another Light unto the Nations”! and say: “Oh my God: not another Chosen People” !

“WE planted the fields…brought electricity to villages…opened schools…rebuilt villages etc..” tens of placards punctuate the roads in South Lebanon, spelling out Hizbullah’s achievements. “WE”? The money for reconstruction came from Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Iran and others. The “we” business started in the 80ies.according to Lebanese communists. Hizballah has yet to acknowledge the help of the Lebanese Left in fighting the Israeli occupation or that of the 60 Lebanese soldiers who died in the July 2006 war. I wished Hizbullah had added one more placard to the many : “We have cleaned…”. The tiny piece of ground surrounding the monument commemorating the first Qana massacre was so filthy, I had to clean up. The strange part is that a big garbage can stood a few meters away, in full view and half empty. I gave a garbage bag to the Saudi friend who accompanied me “Yalla” (come on) and got a smile in return.

I understand the feeling of a newly found religious/political Shia identity, free to express itself. I understand the pride of the family member, a medical student, who started wearing the hijab after July 2006 to the dismay of her grandmother : ” are we going backward or what?” Still, by playing the Shiite card, Nasrallah is bowing to an archaic sectarian system (the Lebanese Constitution) which, he would like to change, which needs to be changed. Will he summon the courage to speak of a secular state, following the example of Turkey and Yemen, if only to alleviate the fears of the 40% Lebanese who aren’t Muslim ? Can one be against a “Jewish” state and for an Islamic one? In Lebanon, the fear of an Islamic Republic is real. Although Nasrallah hasn’t mentioned it since the 80ies, the charged sectarian/political atmosphere, the barely veiled threats / “we have other means of fighting at our disposal” , the continuous praise for the Iranian revolution on al-Manar TV, do not help to dispel the fear. (And if I keep referring to people’s sectarian background, it is simply because Lebanese did as well) .

Syria, Nasrallah’s other connection, is seen by half the country through the “occupation” Lebanon could not have ended without Washington’s help / “the devil…so be it”. Syria, like Israel, will not forget the humiliation. The present political impasse, is but one example of its meddling in Lebanese politics, to which Hizbullah is a party. In both cases the perception by half the Lebanese, is that Iran and Syria are fighting Israel and the US in Lebanon, through Hizbullah. “Syria didn’t fire a single shot when its nuclear ? site was bombarded , they have Nasrallah for that”. “The Golan is the quietest area in the Arab World”. Needless to say, my point of view, not very different from yours, just more inclusive ! was usually dismissed : ” come and live here then you can talk…”.

“We don’t want to raise our kids so he (Nasrallah) can martyr them” (literal translation) is a complaint I often heard. Hizbullah’s schools do not promote free thinking, according to Shiites who live in the Bekaa. What you called “discipline” in your Future TV interview, they call “brainwashing”. It starts at an early age. If History remembers those who resisted, mothers don’t give a damn, they’d rather keep their kids. (The choice between resistance and life is for Lebanese to make, you are right.) But don’t you think that perspective should be part of one’s understanding in any given situation? One of the things my visit taught me is that perspective (unlike principles) changes depending on where you stand. Looking at Lebanon from the US one tends to focus on the Arab/Israeli conflict. From within, the Lebanese dimension becomes an equally important part of the equation. I had to reassess my own views, in the light of the difficulties and tensions Lebanese face everyday, an important dimension we often overlook. A Lebanese poet friend of mine used to say “Lebanon is a bastard” country. It still is, I thought, unable to find a common identity. Another divide to be added to those tearing the country apart. But is a “bastard country” better or worse than pure pedigree, I don’t know. It is. A reality one cannot ignore.

As a reaction to Hizbullah’s visibility an power, the Sunnis are busy outbidding the Shiites. The divide between the two communities is the worst in the country, reflecting regional and international ones. In West Beirut, where I stayed and where Sunnis are a majority, many more women are now wearing the hijab and some restaurants do not serve alcohol (a Shiite woman told me that after the 2006 war, Iran/Hizbullah paid women to wear the hijab). You can get a religious education on TV, (Christian and Muslim), and Saudi Arabia, declared Valentine “un-Islamic”! “Le ridicule ne tue pas” ! The Sunni are training “thousands of men” in North Lebanon, according to a recent article in Le Monde Diplomatique (February 2008). One of bin-Laden’s sons, who entered the country under a false name, settling in Nahr-el-Bared, told the Lebanese journalist who interviewed him that his goal was not to disrupt Lebanon’s political system, just to establish al-Qaeda training camps ! ( Adding oil to the fire Shaker al-Absi, of Fath al-Islam, had ignited, when he implied the same). The journalist’s conclusion : whether al-Qaeda will be disruptive or not, it is well established in Lebanon, as a counterbalance to Hizbullah. Both Hariri and Syria are implicated in this mess, go figure out political alliances. Depression must be one of the few common denominators among Lebanese.

This is only part of the stuff that contributes to the palpable tension I felt for three weeks. You focused on Hizbullah/Resistance as if it existed in a vacuum. People have to feed their kids and protect them. They need jobs and stability. One of the recurrent complaints was the inability to pay for a child’s tuition, not even for books, sometimes. The general perception is that until Lebanon can elect a president (the election was deferred 15 times) nothing will change.

True Hizbullah’s victory has connected modern Arab History to its “glorious past”, building and expandeding on Nasser’s defiant gesture (nationalizing the suez canal) .True, by standing up to Israel , Nasrallah won where Arab armies and rulers have failed. True, he has become a symbol of resistance for people fighting occupation everywhere, for people standing up to hegemony. Chapeau ! But Nasrallah’s military victory has yet to be matched by a political one. If anything, Lebanese are more dependent than before on their leaders. In a tribal society, the absence of functioning governmental institutions, forces the citizen to seek help elsewhere. Nothing gets done without interference from someone “powerful” or if the citizen is willing to pay a price. Leaders are consciously keeping their respective communities dependent on them, a useful and necessary base, ready to respond to their calls. But Unless Nasrallah manages to rally the whole of Lebanon, the way he did in July of 2006 (80% of Lebanese backed him) his victory will remain incomplete. I so wish the “divine victory” had brought with it the vision and creativity of past Arab victories. Nasrallah’s defiant attitude against Israel isn’t helping the political leader. Lebanon is a fragmented country in need of mending. Unless Nasrallah addresses constructively this number one priority, outside powers will continue to play their divisive role. Besides, Lebanon might not be there for him, next time Israel attacks. Hizbullah’s tents are still pitched in downtown Beirut, empty, exacerbating an already acute economic crisis Hizbullah has helped create. Nasrallah’s political discourse is matching that of his enemies’ .” If they aren’t happy here, let them go live with their masters”. Is half the country to immigrate to the US, to Israel or to Saudi Arabia ? Can Nasrallah survive without Iran and Syria, (call them what you will). Rafiq Ali Ahmad, a well-known Lebanese stand-up comic, put it this way : ” They all get orders and pass them on to us”.

Israel must be gloating. The Arabs are actively helping the old Zionist dream of fragmenting the Arab and Muslim World. Every Arab leader, is contributing to the effort. Two down (Palestine and Iraq) twenty to go. I often wondered if Lebanon would be next. The only slim hope is that the people are not as “crazy” as their leaders. “They all lie” is the only complaint I can quote (others, too indecent). It was made by an older woman who sold me a soap bar, presumably made with olive oil. “Don’t you believe it, they all lie, like our leaders”. Next to the woman’s shop, (on my street) one of the few images that used to bring a smile. A man had opened a shop on the top and hood of his car . Every morning he would park it in the same spot and display his merchandise. Mostly flowers and plants, some toys. When I asked him if I could take a photo of his “boutique” he smiled and said “Ya sitt (madam) the boutique is well known, how about a photo of me”?

It is because Nasrallah has more stature than any Lebanese or Arab leader that he is more to blame, I feel. “The mistake of the bright is worth 1.000 mistakes” (Arabic saying). I guess I’m more disappointed with Nasrallah then “very critical of Hizbullah”, as you assumed in one of your emails. Like W (sorry!) he has squandered, on the political scene, the capital he accumulated during the Israeli occupation and the 2006 war. One would think, hope, that a victorious leader, would be magnanimous or admit to a mistake. Surely no one would perceive it as a sign of weakness. Instead Nasrallah has not budged, insisting his political demands be met. And while Lebanese leaders are bickering and threatening each other, US ships arrived in the Eastern Mediterranean adding to the existing tensions. I don’t think the Lebanese can take more tension without breaking. Pity the People.

I did not see anyone laugh in the streets of Beirut, in public places. People discuss politics, most of the time, no laughing matter. But I did meet a few persons who made up for the general gloom. Among them a little girl in Maroon al-Rass, who made fun of me, her eyes twinkling and twinkling. And one girl (13-14), just one among fifteen kids at Shatila, who wasn’t sure how to answer my question…all the others knew, with certainty, regurgitating what they were told. The family and a few friends were worth the trip, the country too much to bear. I tried to convince my sister and my two brothers to meet me in Europe next year.

Are you still looking forward to my impressions of Lebanon ?

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Alan Dershowitz again ignores the essential truth of what he states; most prostitutes have been forced unwillingly into the sex industry by brutal necessity or mostly by ruthless men who possess no moral compass and destroy many tens of thousands of women and children’s lives.

Perhaps some UN report/s on prostitution has annoyed the silly man. If so his xenophobia against the non-Israeli flagwaving independent minded states within the UN has provoked his irrational tirade. But Dershowitz himself has no moral compass and what can one expect from a pig but a grunt. Nigel McNamee

* * *

“And intellectual prostitutes, especially really good ones like Alan Dershowitz, get much more!”

“Do I look victimized?”

“You can’t blame Dershowitz for defending the dignity of his chosen profession.”

* * *

Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 13:55:30 -0400
From: bravo45 [at] gmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: “Is that how much Israel pays him per hour?” Response.

“Plagiarists are the real victims!!!!! (when held to scrutiny by the likes of Norman Finkelstein)

Oh no wait…. how much are they paid when employed at Harvard??”

May you prosper sir.. Aameen!

Writing the first time to you,
Jawad Usman.

* * *

“Prostitutes are not victims” (A.D. New York Times)

“Lebanon is not a victim” (A.D., The Huffington Post)

“Damn straight WE are victims” (A.D.’s neighbors after hearing his “opera”)

* * *

Get off your knees Dersh… You’re blowing the case.

* * *

Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:24:07 -0400
From: jakerhess[at]gmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Prostitution and victimhood

“Prostitutes aren’t victims - they’re getting paid a thousand dollars an hour,” celebrated prostitute Alan Dershowitz said today. “No; Israel is a victim. Shooting those stone-throwing teenagers, and thwarting those diplomatic overtures, really requires a lot of energy.”

* * *

Prostitutes are victims

Mr. Dershowitz, there are things you can’t measure by dollars. How can you measure bruises to the soul? Prostitutes, at least, are victims of a culture that you are contributing to … a prostitution culture. A prostitute that sells her body merely to make a living deserves more respect than “intellectuals” prostituting their knowledge to defend petty crimes and massive crimes. Taking this stand you seem to be preparing a defense in advance for yourself for the same “victimless” crime. How about if you divide 1,000 dollars by sperm count, will that make a prostitute a victim?

With lack of respect,

outraged man

* * *

Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:44:51 -0400
From: david.johnson.2 [at] ulaval.ca
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Ali D

Poor Al. He really ought to cite a(another) prostitute. But how the unfortunate ladies must cruelly suffer knowing that it’s him ringing at their door — even if he does come bearing gifts from Leviev.

* * *

Too bad he’s not better-looking, younger and hotter, then he could have gone into the same line of work, made just as much and in a more honest and cleaner way in contrast to that that academic and law career of his.

* * *

“…and bear in mind, at my age the going rate is $700/hour and I don’t complain.”

* * *

From: karimguy [at] hotmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: The final mistery is solved
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 01:46:53 +0300

A thousand dollars an hour? Now we finally know how much Dershowitz pays his research assistants!

* * *

From: harth [at] cox.net
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2008 19:37:22 -0500

“I have to put in an hour and a half of back-breaking plagiarism to make that kind of dough!,” he added.

“It’s outrageous! A lot of these prostitutes haven’t even passed the bar exam!”

* * *

“I would still like to hear the opinion of the last dozen under him.”

“Is that how much Israel pays him per hour?”…

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Editor’s note: See also the related Fox News article At least they didn’t accuse me of having an affair with a lobbyist 10 years ago

---

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:11:26 -0800
From: jeffretouch-business@yahoo.com
Subject: YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

WATCH YOUR BACK!

Grand Prints
http://www.grandprints.com/
(818) 763-5743

Dr. Finkelstein,

I am sorry, but did this guy who wrote “Watch your back” as the sole text, really leave his business website on the email? I mean really? What a total ass clown. And his phone number too. What the hell is that?

“Hey die you self hating scum…. and if you need 8″x12″ prints made let me know.”

I couldn’t stop laughing. Ridiculous.

You have some special friends, Christmas cards must be a treat.

AT

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:34:31 -0800
From: jeffmoormeier@yahoo.com
Subject: Debate with Dershowitz
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Norman,

I just listened to your debate from 2003 with Alan Dershowitz and I have come to the conclusion that you are completely out to lunch.

You didn’t even look Alan Dershowitz in the eye.

You lost all credibility and I will never listen to you - ever.

jgm

From: maxillagardens1118[at]hotmail.co.uk
To: jeffmoormeier[at]yahoo.com
Subject: A debate with Deshowitz.
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:03:09 +0000

No name

Good to see that the Dershowitz - Finkelstein debate is remembered, but your sense of time is just a bit on the odd side. What on earth have you been doing for the last several years? Your best plan is to go through the sound tape and then ask yourself who came out on top. Now, no need to take my word for it since you can read up for yourself the time and money Dersh put into trying to ban Beyond Chutzpah. Why on earth would he do that ( READ the letter he sent to the governor of California ) if he did so well on the confrontation . Best of all you are now in the position to read an external exposition by Dr Frank Menetrez that shows beyond doubt that Alan Morton Dershowitz behaved as originally stated by Dr Norman Finkelstein.

Michael Shanahan

* * * * *

From: david[at]smallbonemanagement.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:39:55 -0800
Subject: Very disappointed

Dear sir. I am very disappointed with your support of terrorists. I feel you should leave America and show your true commitment to these murderers, many times of innocent people, and live with the terrorists who challenge freedom wherever they live. I can’t see how you should be allowed to enjoy the privilege of freedom when you don’t support it. Regards. David Smallbone

From: maxillagardens1118[at]hotmail.co.uk
To: david[at]smallbonemanagement.com
Subject: Being very disappointed with Dr Norman Finkelstein.
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:04:59 +0000

David Smallbone

Dear Sir

I am very disappointed to read of your obvious confusion over the concept of terrorism and I advise that you are in serious error by attempting to link the views of Dr Finkelstein with same. Now, if you study the subject you will rapidly come to the conclusion that words of commendation for Hezbollah are both proper and appropriate. Hezbollah is both patriotic and disciplined and acts under international law to preserve its populace and territory against the rapacious terrorism that is Zionism. To reduce, at least in part, your obvious confusion I remind you of the death toll for the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war. Israel was to suffer 159 dead with 79% being military personnel, the balance being civilians. For Lebanon, of the 1200 deaths 80% were civilian . David Smallbone, how could you make such an egregious error when writing to a world famous scholar in such a fashion. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

In sorrow

Michael Shanahan

* * * * *

From: dp8212@msn.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Responses to the Fox News Article
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:30:33 -0500

It was interesting reading through the numerous e-mails you received in response to the Fox News article about your TV interview in Lebanon regarding Hezbollah. Many of the respondents see you as a traitor to the U.S., as well as a self-hating Jew. And most of them aren’t even Jewish! Many of them would like to see you leave the U.S. permanently and move to Lebanon or another Arab country. Who can blame them?

Perhaps it has to do with the fact that you’re embracing a terrorist group that was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans in Lebanon back in the 1980s, as well as for the deaths of dozens of innocent Jewish civilians in a bombing at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994 ordered by Iran. Perhaps your call for Israel to be defeated left a bad taste in people’s mouths. Yes, it is a shame that MEMRI didn’t include the reasons why you feel that Israel must be defeated, but we get the idea from the remainder of the interview.

The unfortunate reality is that you are a self-hating Jew. I would suggest following the advice of the Israeli military psychologist who e-mailed you who recommended therapy. Maybe it’s not too late to get to the bottom of your self-hate problem.

DP

* * * * *

To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
From: cboylan@nyc.rr.com
Subject: Hey cum breath, here’s some really good news
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:59:10 -0500

http://www.thenews.com.pk/updates.asp?id=38629

Six rabid Hezbollah dogs killed in one fell swoop.

I only wish you had been riding with them in the car that got hit. Oh well, I guess you can’t have anything.

Don’t forget to check for lumps. You’re definitely looking a bit pre- cancerous lately.

* * * * *

To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Tragic Tripe….
From: rvfisher@excite.com
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 04:27:07 -0500

Have just wasted several hours in an attempt to find something of meaningful value in your diatribes…

A conversation with you would be a battle of wits with the unarmed….

However, should you ever have the inclination to be so humiliated, I would be happy to provide an adequate supper…

Palestine is a myth… Always has been.. always will be…

* * * * *

Subject: Hate Mail

I couldn’t help but notice all the hillbilly hate-mail you received after Fox-uh-Goebbels news article from people who called Cuba a “liberal” country. I deeply respect the classical republican ideals America was founded on. Thanks to these fools, American ideals have been bastardized. Most of the people who emailed you are so ignorant, that it would be funny if it weren’t downright frightening. They can’t even see that Liberalism built their country and allows them the right to be dumb as hell. They probably don’t even know the historical comparisons you’re making; they probably think WW2 is the codename for a deep fried burger with extra cheese wrapped in bacon. It is because of these people that great nations get destroyed. I couldn’t really understand how Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy happened…well now it’s crystal clear. They are so afraid of the truth of your positions that they have to doctor your interviews and misrepresent what you say: who are the cowards?! So afraid to let you speak!

You are a true American patriot: speaking out against real tyranny and fighting for truth and justice. And this is what America was built on. These people are so deluded that they think Palestinians are the tyrants when Israel’s state-of-the-art killing weaponry is brutalizing defenseless people every day and stealing their land. Finkelstein, true patriotism in turbulent times is hard, but the hillbillies were beaten back by Enlightened ideals in the American Civil War and after that. They’ll be beaten back again, the tide is totally in your favor.

GOD BLESS YOU, you courageous man. Please feel free to post this, so the yokels can read it, if they can that is, they will surely be distracted by shiny objects along the way.

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:22:14 -0500
From: brian@hauntedprs.org
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: TRAITOR

Traitor… filthy, disgusting TRAITOR

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:36:12 -0600
From: rmcblust@verizon.net
Subject: Israel
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

You lousy no good TRAITOR!!!

It’s time you were held criminally responsible for the “High Crime of Treason”.

Wishing you nothing but the worst, you little democrat!!!

John A. Blust
Framingham, MA

* * * * *

From: wairdog@sbcglobal.net
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Hey Norman!
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:21:55 -0600

Get a real education you sorry shit for brains!!!

I hope you move out of the United States because you don’t deserve to live here you simple-minded fink!! I wish nothing but the worst for you!!!!!!!!!

Coward!!

Come see me some time big boy and you’ll see what a “TRUE” American is like!!!

Warren Arends

Jonesboro, AR

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:12:31 -0500
From: shbernie@gmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject:
CC: midabe@aol.com

Mr Finkelstein:

I am outraged and appalled by your comments about Hezbollah. I was in Israel at the time of the war, and witnessed first hand the impact that these terrorists had on the Israelis. How can you support an organization which supports the murder of innocent people? There is absolutely no reason. Israel is so small compared to all the other countries in the Middle East. How can you possibly say that their destruction is the key to peace? They are leaders by example, they have the only Democracy in the entire region. I am ashamed that a person who knows so much about the Holocaust and the ordeals that the Jewish people have been though would support such a thing. What you are supporting Mr. Finkelstein is the murder of innocent people who only want to live their life freely. You should take some time to reconsider your stance on this issue, as you are clearly in the wrong.

SB

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:32:42 -0500
From: ertorres@optonline.net
Subject: You R a self-hater
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Dear Norman,

You, just like most Liberals, are a self-hater. Like other Liberals you are uncomfortable with the success and opportunities that our great country provides you and other Liberals. You are offended that others don’t have the same opportunities as us and the citizens of Israel. To compensate for what others can’t have, because of tyrannical governments, you and other Liberals attempt to destroy the opportunities that we enjoy. The sad reality is if you lived in Cuba or some other bastion of Liberal celebration, you would come to appreciate the greatness that you take for granted. As a “Academic” you must have traveled to Cuba or other degenerate society. The experience you were exposed to in their effort to fill your scull full of mush was their contrived version of propaganda. The real truth to those of us that have relatives in such lands is that What You Saw Ain’t What You Should Have Seen. These places are horrific Hell holes. Israel stands as a bulwark against such societies. Israel is a model society that stands against tyranny. America is the world’s superpower. Thank God for that! Evil must be destroyed or it will strengthen to battle Good. Israel battles evil everyday. Palestinians are the tools of evil. The Muslim religion is a hate-filled religion that hates among other thing YOU! If they were to conquer the Lilly–spined among us, like you, will be the first to be destroyed. Too bad you hate yourself. Too bad you do not choose to challenge those systems that would destroy liberty and freedom. Thank God you no longer have an opportunity to miss-teach college kids. Get a grip you twit! Be a man and defend all that is good in the world and battle Evil.

You are a sad example of a man.

Rick Torres

* * * * *

From: normyoung@earthlink.net
Subject: Spelling
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:48:47 -0700
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Hello Professor:

So, is it Finkelstein or Frankenstein? Bigget or biggot? Cow herd or coward?

I’m trying to brush up on my spelling here. Could you help?

Thanks,

Norm Young

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:40:45 -0800
From: grappsg@yahoo.com
Subject: Your thoughts and ideas
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Have you ever seen that movie “One flew over the coocoo nest?”

Your a nut job pal. Go to Hezbollah. I hope you do because I look forward to the video of them cutting your head off while they scream “ala akbar”. Thats going to be classic.

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:15:41 -0500
From: simonkogan@gmail.com
To: normangf[at]HOTMAIL.COM
Subject: dear Norman

Dear Norman,

I’m just a simple Jewish emigrant from Ukraine.PROUD Citizen of our(but not yours) US of America.

Just would like voice my 5cents worth of an opinion, by using sorry for that, far from perfect English.

In MY opinion you’re just Anti-American, and your hatred toward our country blinds your judgment.

You, Jewish liberals, just don’t get it. If radical Islam wins. You’re gonna be first ones , who will be, best case scenario a slave or hung on the nearest tree.

It will be the same as communism in former USSR. Jews couldn’t get education, that we deserved,couldn’t be professors like you in universities, etc, etc.

So, open your eyes, and use your G_d given brain to join Israel and US in fight against ISLAMO-Fascists.

Best Regards,

–
Simon Kogan

* * * * *

From: thewrights55@hotmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject:
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:11:32 -0800

You would have sided with the nazis just before your slaughter had USA and the allies not freed europe from evil, coward. Hezbollah is the same kind of evil you are going to bed with, asshole! Wake up! Just like you apologists, can’t ever admit your dead wrong till it’s too late.

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:34:21 -0800
From: tobster718@yahoo.com
Subject: You are scum!!!!
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Hezbollah would kill you just as Hitler tried to kill your family - just do us all a favor and either kill yourself without risking the death iof Jews in Israel and around the world or shut the hell up!!!

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:13:21 -0800
From: jwkh2002@yahoo.com
Subject: As to your speech …
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

… I think it repulsive.

You should be in GITMO as a terrorist. Unfortunately for freedom, you have more rights than you deserve.

Your parents ARE ashamed of you. Move to the country you support more than the country your parents would support.

jwkh

* * * * *

Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:08:34 +0900
From: mafcocinco[at]gmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Dershowitz on FoxNews

Dear Norman,

I just read your post about Dershowitz’s appearance on FoxNews and I must say it made me laugh out loud. “Anti-American”? Really? Are Dershowitz and the ‘Fair and Balanced’ network so desperate and so unimaginative that they did not even take the time to disguise their propaganda in some high-brow rhetoric? I guess on FoxNews, screaming anti-American still carries some moral force.

After listening to some of your recent talks in England and the States, you seem genuinely hopeful and I have to say I feel the same. The work that you and others have done and continue to do has had a tremendous affect. We never hear about it in the mainstream media, (well, almost never: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4h8c2_comic_news) but that does not make it any less true. I believe that many others were laughing along with me, that people are becoming more and more skeptical of what they see on T.V. and are waking up to the realities of the world and the role that we as U.S. citizens play in it.

Keep up the great work!

- Marcus Oladell

P.S. Feel free to add this to your letters section if you like.

* * * * *

From: gs717@hotmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject:
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:31:12 -0500

Some would say you are a traitor to your country.

Some would say you are a traitor to your faith and heritage.

I would not presume to know which is true or either is true.

It is possible that you are a very brilliant man who has lost his way.

There is no rational or sane explanation for you positions and actions.

What a waste.

* * * * *

To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
From: cboylan@nyc.rr.com
Subject: Fuck you, asswipe
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:11:38 -0500

Fuck you, fuck Hamas, fuck Hezbollah, fuck Nasrallah, fuck your entire existence. I hope you get a massive, long-lasting, painfully fatal case of cancer.

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:06:48 -0800
From: wncmountain@yahoo.com
Subject: Response to your interview
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Sir I nothing about you except for an aritcle I just read on Fox News and if fucking disgusted me. Why dont you get the fuck out of OUR country and go support those dirty fucking terroist muslims. You are an embarassment to the American people and your family. Go support Hezbollah you fucking moron.

Get out of our country you piece of shit.

* * * * *

From: st_murphy@cox.net
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: So you support Hezbollah huh?
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:06:21 -0600

Isn’t that special, a faux jew who supports a terrorist organization who’s singular purpose in life is to exterminate real Jews, the Israelis. How do you sleep at night? Why don’t you pack your bags and go to Lebanon, I am sure they would love to see you, until they lop off your head and toss your lifeless body into the street to rot. What a sad, pathetic twisted person you are and a traitor to your Faith.

Scott Murphy

* * * * *

To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject:
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:01:21 -0500
From: jbfeil@aol.com

You are a real low life. The historical revisionism you engage in is unforgivable. I would love to see you publically debate Alan Dershowitz - would be a joke how bad he would make you look. Actually, more than that, I would enjoy seeing you deported to live amongst the tolerant, peace-loving animals you so vocieferously support. G-d bless America and Israel!

* * * * *

From: will2go@hotmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: time to add some balance to your ‘LETTERS’
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:58:38 +0000

Norman,

Only the reasoning capacities of the common garden slug - with equal measure of moral conviction - could enable an individual to enjoy the liberties of life ‘under’ the American system of government while, at the same time, rallying others to resist at all costs “becoming slaves” to the Americans and Jews (you enjoy quoting, “better to die on your feet, than live on your knees”). It is time to rise from the slime of your slug-ness, Norman, and BE A MAN… join your Hizbollah kindred in Lebonon to participate directly in freeing them (and yourself) from this diabolical threat posed by a western system of democracy.

At the same time, you will spare us lesser intellects - us “slaves” - the pain of recognizing the myriad wonders of life under a system governed by Hizbollah and its mullahs that evades us.

Will Dyer
Everett, WA

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:32:44 -0800
From: bradquicksall@yahoo.com
Subject: please…
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Please do us all a favor and move to Lebanon if you love the Hizbollah so much.

Brad Quicksall

* * * * *

From: cjlewis1@bellsouth.net
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Hezbollah Support
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:22:08 +0000

God listens to you. Do you listen to yourself?
Think more about what you are saying.

–
Thank you
Chris J Lewis

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:02:23 -0700
From: tim.c.milke@lmco.com
Subject: INTERESTING
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

I’m neither Jew nor overtly religious but you my fellow are a freak. You must really hate being a Jew! May you find peace in a Syrian jail some day!

* * * * *

From: mmqs@xbcx.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: About being a traitor..
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:54:08 -0600

I would love to get a sissy like you alone in a small empty room. While in there, I would be more than happy to show you the errors of your ways & thoughts. Much in the way Hezbollah tries to with their enemies. Only it’d be just you & me….

Think about it, you having to learn the hard way about how those savages treat people.

Better yet…I just hope I get to run into you on a dark street someday……..

“Commodore”

* * * * *

From: rodriguezr44@hotmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: you are a piece of shit
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Why don’t you just move to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iran? you are a self hating jew and over all a piece of sub human excrement. Let’s see how long you last if you went to any one of those countries and spewed anti goverment garbage. Oh, wait, that’s right, people like you don’t hav the courage to do that. You only do it here because you know no one is coming after you. You’re a sorry excuse for human flesh. You fucking traitor bastard.

* * * * *

To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: amazing person
From: Jason_Pennington@agfinance.com
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:56:01 -0600

You are an amazing person. Amazingly disgusting to your country, and your people. I hope hezbollah fixed you some good food over there, and gave you some foot baths. How could you turn your back on your own people? I dont understand it.

Jason Z. Pennington
MorEquity Loan Originator
800-278-5496 ext. 7208

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:54:19 -0800
From: jimchi73@yahoo.com
Subject: Hey!!!
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Please do us all a favor and let the Israelis know when you will be meeting again with Nasrallah so they can take both that devil and yourself out with a beautiful guided missle from one of their F-14’s, you fucking traitor scumbag.

* * * * *

From: RickBergPhD@aol.com
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:52:00 -0500
Subject: Just a short question, please
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Have you considered going into therapy?

Perhaps it would help.

Richard A. Berg, Ph.D.
Military and Investigative Psychology
Rehov Tzevoni #4
P.O. Box 106
Nofim 44841
ISRAEL
32 09 17.02 N latitude, 36 05 53.42 E longitude, Elev. 1219 ft.
telephone # 09 792 8301
mobile # 054 202 9864
international tel # 972 9 792 8301
international mobile # 972 54 202 9864
If you are not part of the solution,
you are part of the problem.
Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.

* * * * *

From: mstate_dawg@hotmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Your views on Hezbollah and Israel
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:41:51 -0600

Mr. Finkelstein:

You are a traitor to your heritage, to the Jews, and to the United States. Your support of a terrorist organization should land you in jail.

You should be prosecuted for treason against the United States, and you belong with Hezbollah.

Sincerely,
A Patriotic American

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:41:54 -0800
From: mailmoat-greg@yahoo.com
Subject: comment on your recent visit to the mideast
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

YOU MAKE ME SICK, YOU ANTI-AMERICAN SHIT-FOR-BRAINS. I HOPE THEY KEEP YOU AND DECIDE TO SHOW YOU SOME HEZBOLLAH HOSPITALITY, WHICH WILL MOST LIKELY INVOLVE THE RAPID EXPANSION OF YOUR PATHETIC CARCASS INTO MANY SMALL BITS. ENJOY THE MOMENT.

Go to hell.

Sincerely,
America

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:37:50 -0800
From: srleff@yahoo.com
Subject: Opinion
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

I just recently saw an a article about your interview in Lebanon I am an educated adult and I respect that everyone is entitled to their opinions…however, as a fellow Jew who myself have experienced loss during WW2 Holocaust within my family and during the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers, I find it a disgrace and an embarrassment, that above all…. your parents suffered at the hands of the Nazis and to find that an educated person like yourself can be used as a spokesman for this terrorist effort…..Usually, the opportunity and gift of a higher education promotes an insight and enlightenment as to the different world views and experiences that are out there beyond our own back yards and horizons….teaches us to understand and respect the voices of others but to see a fellow Jew and American who is willingly allowing himself to be used as pawn in this political terrorist platform embarrasses me and hurts me…. All I can say is how could you…..the bible teaches us to honor or mother and father….and you sir by your actions are slapping your parents and your religion right in the face….

I am appalled……

Susan in Florida

* * * * *

From: kyleedmt@lycos.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Support of Hezbollah
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:29:09 -0500

With all due respect sir, kindly renounce both your Jewish and American heritage and just move to and live in Lebanon. Please. You are nothing more than low life pond scum. As a matter of fact, if Americans did this sort of thing, we should put out a fatwah on you, you piece of garbage.

* * * * *

From: t.tollefson@comcast.net
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Hezbollah and your Views
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:30:01 -0800

Dear Mr. Finkelstein,

I read the article about you in Fox News today in disbelief. I was going to send my son DePaul University, but now I have my doubts. The only reason I may still send him there is because you are gone. I sincerely hope that someone puts a price on your head so YOU may experience what others have suffered at the hands of Hezbollah . You should probably leave the U.S. and move to the Gaza Strip and enjoy the fruits of your belief.

Ted Tollefson

* * * * *

From: beauchamp27@msn.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Ignorance
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:26:10 -0500

It’s sad that such a smart, educated man does not see the full picture. I’m sure your family is real proud of you. If you want peace in the world you need to try something else….

* * * * *

From: dapper98@hotmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject:
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:24:32 +0000

When my late father was freed from Dachau in 1945, wearing his Auschwitz number on his arm, he would have never imagined that a Jew would incite for the destruction of the Jewish State, yet to rise from the ashes of the second temple destroyed by the Romans.

Your ravings are those of an ignoramus, although you are supposed to be an intellectual.

I wonder who wronged you so much that you decided to hate your own people.

Dan

* * * * *

Subject: You are a Sad Man
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:34:39 -0800
From: jramirez@rutan.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Your comments regarding hezbollah reflect that you are a troubled man. You are probably enraged about some non-issue 24/7; its a sad but fitting commentary that someone with your views now passes muster as a college professor. Thankfully, now that AM radio and Fox News and internet outlets have broken the stranglehold on the media, clowns like you are being exposed for what they are.

John A. Ramirez
Rutan & Tucker, LLP
611 Anton Boulevard, 14th Floor
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714-662-4610 Direct
714-546-9035 Fax
jramirez@rutan.com
www.rutan.com

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 21:20:15 -0800
From: petedodge2000@yahoo.com
Subject: Question…
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Hello Mr. Finkelstein,

I find it fascinating that you, as an American, have aligned yourself with Hezbollah and have called for the defeat of Israel. While I am 100% opposed to your views and those of Hezbollah, I do respect your opinions (we’re all entitled to them, as God gives all of us the capacity to think and reason for ourselves). Although, that having been said, it seems ironic to me that Muslims (at least a lot of Muslims) want to remove the freedom of choice from us and force Islam upon societies around the globe. They love the freedoms they enjoy in the west — the freedom to practice their Muslim faith without persecution in non-Muslim countries, the freedom to build mosques and reach out to try and create converts to Islam… yet once a a country “goes Muslim” and Islamic law is imposed, the very freedoms those Muslims enjoyed that enabled them to gain a foothold are no longer available to the people in that country who wish to freely practice a religion other than Islam. We just read about the woman at Starbucks in Saudi Arabia who was arrested for mingling with men in public… and the school teacher from England who was put on trial for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad… daughters murdered by their own fathers in “honor killings” because they “offended Islam”… suicide bombers murdering innocent people because “Allah is great”… rioting in the streets, violence and death threats because of a silly cartoon… every day we read about people having to walk on eggshells to avoid the outrage that results for offending a Muslim (God forbid anybody offend a Muslim!!), but Christians are persecuted and killed every day around the world simply for being Christians and we see no worldwide outrage for that. But I digress…

My question for you, sir, is this: Are you a Muslim yourself? More specifically, do you personally believe that Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary and Joseph, was crucified and died on the cross? I’m not asking if you believe He was the Son of God as Christians do ~ I’m only asking whether or not you believe He was crucified and died on the cross. Please don’t say it doesn’t matter or that it’s irrelevant, because it DOES matter. I’m interested in knowing your belief regarding that one very specific historical event.

Thanks ~ I look forward to your reply.

Pete

* * * * *

From: chatin@cytanet.com.cy
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Cyprus
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:18:08 +0200

Sir, you are not only a traitor to the USA, but you are a traitor to your own people. Shame on you!

* * * * *

From: lwillens@msn.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject:
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 22:31:23 -0700

ASSHOLE!

Len Willens
277 North Via La Castellana
Green Valley, AZ 85614
520-393-0881

* * * * *

Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:06:48 -0800
From: wncmountain@yahoo.com
Subject: Response to your interview
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Sir I nothing about you except for an aritcle I just read on Fox News and if fucking disgusted me. Why dont you get the fuck out of OUR country and go support those dirty fucking terroist muslims. You are an embarassment to the American people and your family. Go support Hezbollah you fucking moron.

Get out of our country you piece of shit.

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See also:
MEMRI Nazis (How MEMRI doctored Finkelstein’s 06.21.2006 interview on Lebanese TV)

---

American Political Scientist Norman Finkelstein: “Israel Has to Suffer a Defeat”

Clip #1676 Broadcast: January 20, 2008 | FUTURE TV (Lebanese TV station; edited & put online by MEMRI TV (their video clips work on Windows PC only)) | YouTube.com (for all users)



MEMRI transcript:

Following are excerpts from an interview with American Political Scientist Norman Finkelstein, which aired on Future TV on January 20, 2008. The questions were posed in Arabic, and Finkelstein’s responses are in English.

Norman Finkelstein: I was of course happy to meet the Hizbullah people, because it is a point of view that is rarely heard in the United States. I have no problem saying that I do want to express solidarity with them, and I am not going to be a coward of a hypocrite about it. I don’t care about Hizbullah as a political organization. I don’t know much about their politics, and anyhow, it’s irrelevant. I don’t live in Lebanon. It’s a choice that the Lebanese have to make: Who they want to be their leaders, who they want to represent them. But there is a fundamental principle. People have the right to defend their country from foreign occupiers, and people have the right to defend their country from invaders who are destroying their country. That to me is a very basic, elementary and uncomplicated question.

My parents went through World War II. Now, Stalin’s regime was not exactly a bed of roses. It was a ruthless and brutal regime, and many people perished. But who didn’t support the Soviet Union when they defeated the Nazis? Who didn’t support the Red Army? In all the countries of Europe which were occupied – who gets all the honors? The resistance. The Communist resistance – it was brutal, it was ruthless. The Communists were not… It wasn’t a bed of roses, but you respect them. You respect them because they resisted the foreign occupiers of their country. If I am going to honor the Communists during World War II, even through I probably would not have done very well under their regimes… If I’m going to honor them, I am going to honor the Hizbullah. They show courage, and they show discipline. I respect that.

Interviewer: That is an accurate description of the situation before 2000, but after 2000, the Israelis withdrew from South Lebanon. There was a rift within Lebanon between the Lebanese political players on the issue of the future of the weapons and the issue of the resistance. This rift, which has taken place… You are now taking sides. After all, you are saying that you are only visiting Lebanon, but you don’t see the ramification of the July war for the people.

Norman Finkelstein: Listen, if you want to close your eyes and believe it was all over in May 2000, you can do so. You can play that game. But the reality was – and everyone understood it – that the Israeli attitude was: We are going to knock out Hizbullah. They began planning for a new war right after they were forced to leave in 2000. They found their excuse, their pretext, in July 2006, but there is no question among rational people that Israel was never going to let the Hizbullah victory go by. They were determined to teach their…

Interviewer: The war could have been avoided.

Norman Finkelstein: It could not have been avoided. There is no way that the United States and Israel are going to tolerate any resistance in the Arab world. If you want to pretend it can be avoided, you can play that game. But serious people, clear-headed people, knew there was going to be a war sooner or later.

[...]

Do you think there is not going to be another war? Do you think Israel is going to allow that defeat in July 2006? Do you want to pretend it is Hizbullah that is causing the trouble? No, there will be another war, and the destruction will probably be ten times worse – maybe even more – than July 2006, because Israel is determined, with the United States, to put the Arabs in their place and to keep them in their place. Now, how can I not respect those who say no to that?

You know, during the Spanish Civil War there was a famous woman – they called her “La Pasionaria” – Dolores Ibárruri, from the Spanish Republic. She famously said: “It’s better to die on your feet than to walk crawling on your knees.”

Interviewer: But that is up to the Lebanese people in its entirety.

Norman Finkelstein: I totally agree. I am not telling you what to do with your lives, and if you’d rather live crawling on your feet, I could respect that. I could respect that. People want to live. How can I deny you that right? But then, how can I not respect those who say they would rather die on their feet? How can I not respect that?

[...]

Israel and the United States are attacking, because they will not allow any military resistance to their control of the region. That’s the problem. If Hizbullah laid down its arms, and said: “We will do whatever the Americans say,” you wouldn’t have a war – that’s true, but you would also be the slaves of the Americans. I have to respect those who refuse to be slaves.

Interviewer: Is there no other way than military resistance?

Norman Finkelstein: I don’t believe there is another way. I wish there were another way. Who wants war? Who wants destruction? Even Hitler didn’t want war. He would much prefer to have accomplished his aims peacefully, if he could. So I am not saying that I want it, but I honestly don’t see another way, unless you choose to be their slaves – and many people here have chosen that. I can’t really say… I can understand it – you want to live. I can’t really say I respect it. You know, so many dead, so much destruction… Before the bodies are even buried, before the buildings are even rebuilt, the person who is responsible for it all – you can’t wait to welcome him. You can’t wait to roll out the red carpet. I can’t respect that.

In that respect, I like the Jews much more. I like their attitude. Do you know what the Jewish attitude is? Never to forgive, never to forget. I agree with that. Who roll out the red carpet less than two years after your whole country was destroyed by them? The Secretary of State said it was the birth pangs of a new Middle East. That’s the statement of a freak. A human freak would compare the birth of a child with the destruction of a country, and yet, there are people here who are so anxious to welcome her. They are trying to figure out what the Americans are thinking. They can’t wait for their banquets. How can anyone respect that? I respect the Jews a thousand times more - never to forgive, never to forget. All the death and all the destruction – and you can’t wait to welcome him.

Interviewer: Norman…

Norman Finkelstein: It’s disgusting!

[...]

Who the hell cares if Bush is coming?

Interviewer: But you say there will be another war.

Norman Finkelstein: You should have declared him persona non grata. He’s not welcome here. He destroyed your country. He was responsible for the war. You know full well that resolution could have been passed three weeks earlier. He destroys your country, and you can’t wait to greet him. You have no self-respect. How can you expect other people to respect Arabs, if you show no respect for yourselves?

[...]

If the Lebanese people overwhelmingly vote to let the Americans and Israelis have their way, I guess you have to accept that. I could see that. I couldn’t possibly say that they don’t have the right to make that choice. Listen, in Nazi-occupied Europe, you have to remember, most of the populations made the choice to live under the Nazis. All this talk about a French Resistance is just a joke – it never happened. The French Resistance… About 20% of the French population read the Resistance’s newspaper. There were maybe 10% of the French who resisted. The rest said: “Don’t resist,” because the Nazis were ruthless. You resist – four hundred are killed for each soldier who’s killed. That’s how the Nazis operated. So most of the French said, like you: “We want to live.” “Don’t resist.” But now I have to ask you, in retrospect: Who do we honor? Do we honor those who say: “Let us live,” or do we honor those who said: “Let’s resist”?

[...]

Leaders come last. There will be a leader who comes to power in Israel, who is willing to make the concessions, after the conditions have been created – namely, Israel has to suffer a defeat.

[Editor's note: on why "Israel has to suffer a defeat," see part 6 of Breaking Down the Wall (Jousor interview)]

---

Reader letters

Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 14:09:34 -0700
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: La Pasionaria didn’t say that - It’s better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees!

*Dear Prof. Finkelstein,

I am one of your fans. Thank you for all you courage when debating the topic of Israel/Palestine.

I was just listening to your youtube discussion on Hezbollah, when you misquoted La pasionaria. *

* *It’s better to die upon your feet than to live upon your knees!*

/¡Prefiero morir de pie que vivir siempre arrodillado! belongs to Emilio Zapata, not La Pasionaria./
*
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Emiliano_Zapata

I also made the mistake once of attributing this to El Che -

I did indeed enjoy your interview, but just thought I would let you know about the quote.

Take care.

and, hasta la victoria….

Linda

* * * * *



From: ilya[at]msur.org
(Corrected version:)

Dear Norman

It may be late to go back to the polemics about your visit to Lebanon and your defense of “solidarity with Hizbullah”, but I feel compelled to do so.

Let me start by telling you that I disagree with you on the support Hizbullah deserves. After several trips to Lebanon, I understand the admiration many people feel for Hizbullah and why its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is the most valued leader in the ‘Arab World’ (1), but personally I feel myself more inclined to the opinion of that Lebanese peasant who told me, back in 1999, when Southern Lebanon was still occupied by the Israeli Army: “Hizbullah is provoking Israel’s attacks and thus brings more suffering to the people, they gain power by the confrontation but it would be better to resist in a peaceful way”. Of course this is a feature that Hizbullah shares with any other armed movement in history.

That being said, I think it should be explained why nearly all insults directed at you, including the Fox News article , are based on distorted facts. Let’s start with the first accusation: you are supporting a terrorist organization. Hizbullah has been labeled as terrorist by the US and 5 other countries (2), but besides the listing itself, what exactly qualifies this militia for being considered terrorist? The Fox News piece says: “Hezbollah, funded by Iran and Syria, engages in terror operations worldwide”. That is simply not true. It is blatant nonsense. The last alleged action of Hizbullah outside the frontiers of Lebanon took place in 1994 and involvement has always been strictly denied by the organization (3). Afterwards, there have been no accusations of Hizbullah being involved in any other actions than those directly addressing the Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory or the frontier conflict between both countries which, not having signed any peace treaty, are legally at war. So the word “engages” instead of “is accused of having engaged formerly” in the Fox News line is strictly a lie. What’s more: the organization distances itself from terrorist attacks like 9/11: ‘We condemned this act — and any similar act we condemn” said Nasrallah (4). That is not a sudden change of mind: Nabil Qawuq, one of the highest-ranking officials of the militia, had a similar view in 1999, shortly after the attacks on US embassies in Kenya in Tanzania, when speculation on Hizbullah involvement was rife. “We don’t employ these kind of methods” he told me (5).

But has Hizbullah really engaged formerly in armed activities outside Lebanese territory? This is not clear. The organisation denies it. There are only three foreign-based actions which are described often as “linked to Hizbullah” (6): the skyjacking of TWA Flight 847 in 1985, one attack against the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentine, and another against the Jewish association AMIA in the same city, in 1994. Hizbullah denies any involvement (7) and the case has never been solved (8).

It is quite usual to attribute Hizbullah the responsibility of the terror attack against the US embassy and the attack against the American military barracks, both in Beirut in 1983, but Hizbullah proper did not exist at this stage, not being founded officially until 1985 (9). It is supposed that the groups which carried out the attack had close links to those who established Hizbullah two years later, but this is a very open subject. Even if it was true, it would not qualify Hizbullah for being called terrorist today, much as Israel does not qualify for being called terrorist for having been run between 1977 and 1992 by Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, former leaders of the armed zionist group Irgun which is commonly described as terrorist (10). As opposed to Israeli politicians, Hizbullah renounces today any credit for its possible early-days attacks (11).

Usually, any terrorist organisation in the world does proudly claim responsibility of the attacks they carry out (if they didn’t, their attacks wouldn’t be useful to show their strength and to bargain for their goals). So Hizbullah’s denial of involvement is not a typical feature for a terrorist organisation and could well be true. Another hint ist that Hizbullah is not carrying out terrorist attacks inside Israel, which we must assume they could do if they wished, given that they are far better organised, trained and equipped than any Palestinian organisation.

Taking prisoners among the soldiers of an enemy country, being at war, is clearly not a terrorist act. Hizbullah violated Israeli sovereignty when stepping over its frontier to capture the soldiers in July, 2006, but prior to that there were “persistent and provocative Israeli air incursions (…). The air incursions violate Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, according to United Nations (12).

The second accusation is that of Hizbullah trying to establish a strictly islamic state in Lebanon, where people like you or your supporters wouldn’t wish to live. I’m strongly against any use of religion in politics but I must admit that, unlike Hamas, Hizbullah shows great respect for the opinions of non-religious citizens and explicitly renounce to impose by force the islamic Sharia law in Lebanon, saying that there is no way you could enforce Sharia, except if chosen freely by the people (13, 14). Hizbullah did strongly condemn the publication of the Danish Muhammad-cartoons –as did Christian authorities– , but was not involved in the protests that set the Danish embassy on fire in Beirut and condemned that kind of turmoil as “dangerous for the unity of the people” (15). The leaders of the Lebanese Gay Rights movement Helem – the only one existing in the Arab world, being homosexuality prosecuted and heavily punished in American-friendly countries as Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait - acknowledge that Hizbullah never has tried to interfere with their campaign for their rights and that Hizbullah’s Al Manar TV station even > adopted a more respectful wording when speaking about homosexuals, avoiding the term ‘perverted’ which is used in the biggest part of the Arab press worldwide (16).

In short, I cannot agree with Hizbullah’s vision nor can I support its actions, but among all armed groups in the Middle East it is clearly the one which a) refrains from terrorist acts and b) is tolerant on religious issues even if contrary to its own beliefs.

Best wishes

Ilya U. Topper

1) Haaretz , 16.04.2008. The survey gives Nasrallah 26% of approval in ‘the Arab World’, without specifying the countries.

2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hezbollah

3) AFP, quoted in www.lebanon.com/news/local/2003/3/20.htm

4) Robin Wright in The Washington Post

, July 16, 2006.

5) Nabil Qawuq, personal interview, 1999.

6) Council on Foreign Relations http://www.cfr.org/publication/9155/#6.

7) AFP, quoted in www.lebanon.com/news/local/2003/3/20.htm

8) BBC , 25.08.2003.

9) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hezbollah

10) The Times 10.06.2006.

11) Hizbullah spokesperson, personal interview, 1999.

12) Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, S/2006/560 - http://daccess-ods.un.org/TMP/6867256.html

13) Nabil Qawuq, 1999.

14) Hussein Naboulsi, spokesperson for Hizbullah, personal interview, 2005

15) Hussein Naboulsi, published in La Clave, 8.2.2006

16) George Azzi, personal interview, published in La Clave, 29.2.2008

* * * * *

Dear Norman,

I saw your interview on memritv July 20 2008, and disagree with justifying violence; it is far better to promote boycotts and other forms of non-violent resistance.

Gandhi defeated the British with a boycott of salt, today, now that corporations are global, the most vulnerable product to a boycott is Coca-Cola, attacking their share price will give a clear signal that activists have monetized dissent, just as Muslims had monetized their dissent with the boycott Danish produce after the publication of those cartoons of the prophet Mohamed in Danish newspapers.

Coca-Cola is part of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio which had invested $4 billion in the Israeli company ISCAR (a precision engineering firm) just before the July 2006 war in Lebanon, ISCAR supply Pratt and Whitney who in turn do business with Lockheed Martin and Lockheed Martin, as you know have a joint venture with Israel building the SUFA F16 fighter jet.

Yours Sincerely,

Philip Scott

* * * * *

Fox News letters

* * * * *

I would like to assure for you that you are a hero in all what the word means and you were very courage on future tv ( the telivision that is made for attacking Hizbolla) and you said what you thinks without any hesitation . I really think you must teach some people braveness and about she accusing you to be on a side I think that she was the one desperately defending USA friends or slaves as you like to call them and I assure to you that the people suportin Hizola are more than them but thier cheating on hezbolla especially Waleed Jumblat let the took the parlement and I just wanted to tell you that your expression were great going out of a great person .

With my regards,
Mohamed

* * * * *

Dear Mr.Finkelstein,

I also respect Hizballah however I feel in your interview on Future TV you oversimplified matters which is not where I believe the Lebanese situation currently lies.

For one thing, I believe you ignored that there are people from the ‘other side’ who are willing to die for what they believe in. In your framework of analysis it would mean ‘they are willing to die standing’ in order to ‘grovel at their feet’ which would mean a contradiction in terms. And you also ignored that there are people willing to be Syria and Iran’s slave.

I think you put the nail on the head when you said it was ‘disgusting’ that Rice (as well as Blair) were invited a few weeks after the war ended. However I don’t think you were as precise with the Nazi analogy and the French Resistance. In the Lebanese case, the French Resistance (in a country the size of Luxembourg) have kicked out the Nazis from their land, but the Nazis however remain as strong as ever on the borders and the French Resistance’s two main allies, one of whom actually borders Nazi Germany in this analogy, are pushing the Resistance to liberate all of Germany (through Luxembourg!) while only willing to supply arms and political support - and possibly fire a missile in the distant future - for the cause.

Despite all that, I still personally think the Resistance in Lebanon should stay, I think it should stay and it should be given full defensive autonomy in the case of an Israeli attack. However when it comes to offensive measures, such as those that sparked the July War, I think such measures should be under the command and decision making orders of the Lebanese Army. I personally think pretexts can be avoided and therefore I believe the war could have been avoided.

Then we come to the issue of Syria, which is Lebanon’s other big problem and which I don’t think can be ignored in any debate on Lebanese policy towards Israel - because both Israel and Syria use Lebanon to play each other off. In the case of Syria I frankly think we should simply not recognize it as a state until they set up an embassy in Lebanon.

For me that seems to be the only policy for Lebanon I can fathom that will give it an opportunity to avoid the two dreaded options of slavery (to the Americans/Israelis or the Syrians) or civil war while also give it an opportunity for independent peace and stability. My point about all this is that despite what I may think about the Future TV lady who interviewed you, I think she was right in saying you have taken a side in the Lebanese case, because (at least according to MEMRI TV :) you completely ignored the Syrian aspect of the debate, which I repeat cannot be ignored because Israel and Syria use Lebanon to play each other off. Lastly another point I would like to make based on the above explanation is that if somebody cares about the interest of the Lebanese people as a whole they have to combine aspects from both sides of the political equation. As a Lebanese, taking one aspect only - though it may be good - is a recipe for civil war.

Best Regards

Sulaiman Beydoun

* * * * *

Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:46:08 +0100
From: newsletter[at]j-korte.de
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Your remarks concerning Hisbollah

Hello,

I just read a transcript from your interview on Future TV and have to admit, that I’m more then astonished. Even if you don’t agree with Israels policies you shouldn’t subscribe to terrorism.

And, I may add, I’m so fed up with this liberation movements in the arab world, because they don’t give a damn for the people they pretend to “liberate” (btw. a kind of freedom I definetly don’t want to enjoy) from imperialismen, zionismen or whatever. Israel is the only country in that part of the world with decent livingstandards, they have build up a country very successfull. And I guess that is the true reason for all this liberation talk: envy, being poor and unable to anything proper (apart from killing each other and foreign people).

And finally I add, your life span would be very limited in “Hisbollah-Country”.

Joachim Korte-Bernard

* * * * *

Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2008 21:29:41 +0000
From: ejbarbaro20[at]optonline.net
Subject: Hezbollah
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Mr. Finkelstein, I saw your rant on a video on the subject of the “noble” Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Your disdain, no, hate, for Bush is so virulent, I was waiting for the drool from your mouth.

You need professional care, Mr. Finkelstein. But what do I know? I’m not a professional.

But I believe I’m old enough to recognize a fool when I see one.

So, Mr. Finkelstein, from your mouth to the tush of Hezbollah. Fortunately, with “useful idiots” like you on the side of Hezbollah, Hezbollah doen’t have a chance.

From: maxillagardens1118[at]hotmail.co.uk
To: ejbarbaro29[at]optoonline.net
Subject: Your email to Dr Norman Finklestein of 19 February 2008.
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:23:12 +0000

Your problems with Hezbollah.

Anonymous person; I can see that you are having problems but I am, with due modesty, the very man to help you.

You must start out by recognising that you were to write to an academic of world renown. To get even a partial idea of his status you must turn to the recommendations of such as Professor Chomsky, Professor Shlaim, Professor Boyarin etc. The list is long but I am unable to spend too much time, at the moment, with a coarse and vulgar person as you clearly are.

Where did you get the idea of suggesting “professional care” ? Surely you could have been just a little more original ? In practice you demean yourself when using such language as “fool” and “useful idiot”. Whether you like it or not Hezbollah is a group of patriotic and dedicated soldiers who exercise their rights, under International Law, to defend their lands and people from American and Israeli ‘terrorists in uniform’.

In reality, I do not want to dismiss you as just an ignorant and misguided supporter of Zionism, even though you are obviously all of these , and more. I intend to offer my services to you for counselling since you are clearly in need of therapy. Everything you tell me will be in strict confidence and, I would say, my record is pretty good. In the unlikely event of my not being successful I will then remember you in prayers.

Best wishes

Michael Shanahan
UK

P S The thought occurs; what is this shyness about your being unwilling to supply a name ? Could you have an additional problem that requires further study. Be in touch without delay.

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From: zeinabsaffar[at]hotmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 20:40:18 +0000

Salam
please note that u can tune to the www.manartv.com.lb (live transmission; [streaming seems to only work on Windows browsers]) and watch Norman Finkelstein editionn on Almanar TV this Tuesday [February 5, 2008] at 7 pm beirut time with rerun on Sunday [February 10, 2008] at 4 pm Beirut time.

waiting for ur comments
thanx
Zeinab

Dr. Zeinab al-Saffar, Manar TV Channel, News and political programs author, host and producer (intheireyes[at]manartv.com.lb)

Lebanese State University Professor (ESP-EFL-ESP)

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We were already appalled by the University of DePaul not granting you tenure, no doubt also for your stand against the Israeli inhumane occupation of Palestine, now we are disgusted by the campaign against you concerning your last visit to Lebanon.

You may remember us, we wrote to you last year concerning our appreciation (and admiration) of your article on the shameful HRW press release, and your work in general. We now would like you to know that we fully agree with your statement: ” After the horror and after the shame and after the anger there still remains a hope, and I know that I can get in a lot of trouble for what I am about to say, but I think that the Hezbollah represents the hope. They are fighting to defend their homeland”. We, ourselves, deplore that the Hamas, democratically elected by the Palestinian People in 2006, is excluded from all peace negotiations. In our opinion all parties should be around the table as no peace agreement will last without the Hamas being involved.

If someone is working for peace in the Middle East, it is undoubtedly yourself and we will support you in any manner we can.

We returned from Palestine last November when we helped during the olive harvest. We thought that you might be interested in reading our latest experience in occupied Palestine, where the situation is much worse than when we were there in 2006 (we had also sent you our report covering our mission to Palestine in June 2006 “Returning from Palestine…through Israel“).

With our very best regards
Caroline and Nathan Finkelstein
Tannay - Switzerland

A lovely nose ring,
excuse me while I put my
head in the oven.

---

Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:31:27 -0500
Subject: A little humor for you

Thought I’d forward these along…

JEWISH HAIKU:

Lacking fins or tail
the gefilte fish swims with
great difficulty.

Beyond Valium,
peace is knowing one’s child
is an internist.

On Passover we
opened the door for Elijah.
Now our cat is gone.

After the warm rain
the sweet smell of camellias.
Did you wipe your feet?

Her lips near my ear,
Aunt Sadie whispers the name
of her friend’s disease.

Today I am a man.
Tomorrow I will return
to the seventh grade.

Testing the warm milk
on her wrist, she sighs softly.
But her son is forty.

The sparkling blue sea
reminds me to wait an hour
after my sandwich.

Like a bonsai tree,
is your terrible posture
at my dinner table.

Jews on safari –
map, compass, elephant gun,
hard sucking candies.

The same kimono
the top geishas are wearing:
I got it at Loehmann’s.

The shivah visit:
so sorry about your loss.
Now back to my problems.

Mom, please! There is no
need to put that dinner roll
in your pocketbook.

Seven-foot Jews in
the NBA slam-dunking!
My alarm clock rings.

Sorry I’m not home
to take your call. At the tone
please state your bad news.

Is one Nobel Prize
so much to ask from a child
after all I’ve done?

Today, mild shvitzing.
Tomorrow, so hot you’ll plotz.
Five-day forecast: feh

Yenta. Shmeer. Gevalt.
Shlemiel. Shlimazl. Meshuganah
Oy! To be fluent!

Quietly murmured
at Saturday Synagogue services,
Yanks 5, Red Sox 3.

A lovely nose ring,
excuse me while I put my
head in the oven.

Hard to tell under the lights.
White Yarmulke or
male-pattern baldness.

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But if we get back to the topic - why i should hate jews? Nonsenss! But you know - happenings around - there are like water in the cups - and sometime they get over. May be you know - there are such Visental [[Simon Wiesenthal - ed.]] center in the Israel. Every year they make in latvia some public statement - that latvians ar jew killers, latvians are SS suporters, latvians are antisemits, and so one… Every year in latvia we hear - that he Jews was most opressed. Jews are hated, Jews are suffered like no one… This Visental center has done so much damage to the collective consciousness of latvians, that…. You know - and why? Cuz this Visental center NEVER wrote - “you know, we know, Latvian situation during the last war was not so easy, you was between two Totalitarian regimes, you lost 3d of population, you fight cuz actually you have no choice - but you know, there is some limits - and for us its very important, that the real war criminals should be punished. we also know - that there are many Jews from the side of USSR who has war crimes against latvians - we will help you to judge them, but for us its important - tah the jew killers should also be punished with proper understanding…”. NEVER!!!! And thats the most annoing and damaging thing… no even one step to understand others - only dictate…

Or - there was some time ago one article in one Journal - KAPITALS. The article was - JEWS CONTROLL THE WORLD (and this article was not about politic - just analise of economical situation in the world). After this article the chef redactor of this journal was immediately punished, kicked out and so on… And you know what the peoples thinking about that? That if the Jews was not controlling the world, than no one even will take care in gods forgotten latvia about writing on them. But becouse of such quick and nasty reactions - thats REALLY MEAN THAT JEWS CONTROLL THE WORLD!!!! Like - if someone in the NEW YORK TIMES will write, that LATVIANS CONTROLL THE WORLD - all latvia will be proud and no one will be punished! So - peoples thinking like that after…

Or we have one cartoon from the times of Soviet Union - that in the northern woods animals get big new year packung from Africa with sign - FOR THE MOST UNPROTECTED ANIMAL! And animals get over this and decide - looks its for some of the little’s in the woods. But then there came Wolf and he angry asks - WHO IS MOST UNPROTECTED IN THE WOODS????? And all animals from the fear says - You Wolf, You wolf…. We loughing about that - and then there come Visental center and asks -WHO IS MOST UNPROTECTED IN THE WORLD???? and everyone from the fear answer - You Jews, You Jews…. And they say this not because they think like that - but from fear …. And from this fear and hoplessnes peoples start to hate ALL JEWS! Cuz this “most unprotected” organisations acting like Wolfs in this cartoon towards other animals in the name of all Jews… and this is not normal…. I think - this is criminal…

What we can do - simple peoples messed up between different totalitarian organisations and groups, who do not care about anything in theyr greed and madness? What? Just to try to understand TRUTH, and not get in the hatred and wars - cuz hatred and wars is so good business and method, how to controll peoples… But its so hard, if you alone…

Arnis’ previous emails here (Subject: From Latvia.)

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Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 04:37:05 -0800
From: Charles Glass
Subject: Gaza
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com

Dear Noam and Norman, Thought you might like to see this site, which has just opened to raise awareness about Gaza. Seems pretty good. Hope all well with you both. Warmest wishes, Charlie

http://www.end-gaza-siege.ps

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From: Luke.Tryl[at]magd.ox.ac.uk
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Debate
Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 20:38:31 +0100

Dear Dr Finkelstein,

I hope that you are well, I’m so sorry for the confusion about the debate. There was an organisational difficulty at my end and my secretary hadn’t seen your emails.

I would appreciate it if you could keep this bit between you and I. Many people expressed concern that the debate as it stood was imbalanced and people felt that as someone who had apparently expressed anti-zionist sentiments that you might not be appropriate for this debate. I tried to convince them otherwise but was accused of putting forward an imbalanced debate and various groups put pressure on me. I received numerous emails attacking the debate and Alan Dershowitz threatened to write an Oped attacking the Union. What is more he apparently attacked me personally in a televised lecture to Yale.

I hope that you understand my position, this is not ideal and I would be happy to welcome you as an individual speaker to the Union in a forthcoming term. I know that the President-Elect Emily Partington would be keen to host you in Hilary. I just did not want to see the debate compromised and given the Irving Griffin Controversy I couldn’t fight a battle on all fronts.

Best wishes

Luke.

From: Norman Finkelstein
To: president[at]oxford-union.org
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 12:25 AM
Subject: Debate

No one has contacted me about the debate. Is it still on? Unless I hear from you tomorrow morning , I will assume the debate has been cancelled. I leave for Japan and will not be reachable. You left me no time to prepare for the debate. I have repeatedly emailed you but received no response.

---

Reader letters

Dear Professor Finkelstein,

I found it strange when reading the exchanged between Mr. Stannard and Dr. Simms that the main reasons for disinviting you from the event at the Oxford Union seemed to be based on your apparent, ‘repugnant’ anti-semitism.

I found it stranger still that according to the BBC ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/7110758.stm ) that the Oxford Union has just voted to extend an invitation to Nick Griffin (of the BNP, a notorious anti-semite and all-round racist) and will, on top of that, be inviting David Irving to speak.

Nick Griffin was jailed for inciting racial hatred (involving Holocaust Denial) and Irving, of course, was jailed in Austria for Holocaust denial.

I don’t quite understand why a man whose family suffered the Nazi Holocaust and who has never denied the existance of such a genocide should be refused an invitation on the most ridiculous of pretexts, while clear anti-semites should be invited to speak.

I think you might find Mr. Tryl’s opinion on this amusing:

‘Luke Tryl, president of the society, said: “The men were not being given a platform to extol their views, but were coming to talk about the limits for free speech.’

Please keep up the good work!

Regards,

Hamid Sirhan

* * * * *

It is well known that the position of president of the Oxford Union is often a stepping stone to a political career. By caving in to Dershowitz and co., I am afraid you have revealed yourself as the right sort of political trimmer. A glittering career awaits you, therefore, as a politician in either the Conservative Party, or in “New Labour”. You have the appropriate spinelessness for this.

Good Luck with it!

P.J.
Devon,
England.

* * * * *

Dear Mr. Tryl,

I have read your letter to Dr. Finkelstein today, where you state that “Alan Dershowitz threatened to write an Oped attacking the Union”.

Did you really believe you could escape bullies like D by caving in?

Wrong idea.

D did write a piece in his favourite press “frontpage magazine” titled Oxford Union Is Dead and ending “The Oxford Union: may it rest in peace…”

So you have proof that to cave in to such bullies does not spare your person and neither the institution.

And of course noone can believe that any other discussion with Dr. Finkelstein or any other critic of neocons/militarism at any other time will spare you the next attack.

The only way is to stand up to bullies and warmongers.

As of his own admission in the same piece you did invite Alan Dershowitz to take part in this discussion and speak for his side– and HE declined.

This should be the utmost stretch of fairness, from now on you should ignore D and his ilk.

I trust you are intelligent enough to learn from this experience.

The problem is: do you also have the courage to do this?

I have followed the socalled “Dershowitz-Finkelstein-affair for a long time, using the videos for testing technical network functions, and cannot stop myself from giving you a hint: Dershowitz is so afraid that Dr Finkelstein will make him look very bad again that D will NEVER agree to debating Finkelstein again – no matter how much spectators would like some more!

But without kidding: Middle-east-situation merits serious discussion of several aspects of solutions; to discuss whether Israel and the Occupied Palestinensian Territories should be formed into one or two states and with exactly the people scheduled in the first place was a good idea.

To allow warmongers/Dershowitzes silence dissent and stifle debate is not.

Yours sincerely

Rune C. Olwen

P.S.: And please do not mix up the scholar Dr. Norman Finkelstein with the likes of David Irving, David Horowitz etc.

I personally would find it ironic to put each of the one-idea-in-a-sea-of-warmongering Davids against one-half-truth-in-each-book Alan, because all three deserve the right of free speech just because all three are so adverse to it, and as characters they also deserve each other, but that´s the personal taste of an old cynic, voiced on All Hallows´ Eve.

* * * * *

From: verminlardicle[at]hotmail.com
To: president[at]oxford-union.org
Subject: Norman Finkelstein
Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:03:04 +0000

Dear Luke Tryl,

Further to your decision not to allow Professor Finkelstein to speak at the Oxford Union, I must register my abject displeasure at your surrender to the likes of Alan Dershowitz.

Macmillan’s comment that the Union is “the last bastion of free speech in the Western world” is clearly obselete, since all it requires for you to cancel a speaker is strong-arm tactics from Dershowitz, whose own integrity regarding facts and historical analysis is demonstrably lacking. To act in accordance with his wishes is academically surprising, because while Dershowitz is powerful, he is not viewed as a serious commentator with regard to the Middle East. On the other hand, Finkelstein is regarded as an expert.

In your disinvitation to Finkelstein, You said:

“I received numerous emails attacking the debate and Alan Dershowitz threatened to write an Oped attacking the Union. What is more he apparently attacked me personally in a televised lecture to Yale…”

It would be naive to imagine that such attacks are not inevitable: let’s not forget that there are powerful political and economic interests with a vested interest in continuing the condition of apartheid within the State of Israel. With this in mind, to use Mr Dershowitz’ attacks to justify your cancellation is off base. You fell at the first fence.

You then said: “I just did not want to see the debate compromised and given the Irving Griffin Controversy I couldn’t fight a battle on all fronts.”

Your parallels are highly disturbing. The Irving issue was quite different. Using the furore around a pseudo-historian and proven liar such as Irving to justify your censorship of a real Professor with an international reputation is even further off base than bowing down to a mountebank such as Dershowitz.

Can we expect you to apologise to Professor Finkelstein on his website, per Ronen Berelovich’s request of the 24th of this month? Can we expect you to develop some intellectual determination in this matter? Can you rescue the reputation of the Oxford Union by doing the right thing in standing up for freedom of speech?

Please respond;

Yours,

E. Stratton, London UK

* * * * *

Hi, Norman,

Sorry about the debacle over the Oxford Union debate. I read the letters by Luke Tryl and Alan Mendoza at your site. The syntax of the first was barely coherent, and the lies of the second were criminal, and should lead to some kind of criticism from Cambridge, which I believe houses the institution he belongs to.

Tryl is a coward. Understandable, but he should know better. The more that people take a stand against Dershowitz, the less effective his tactics will be. The think tank Mendoza belongs to is named after Scoop Jackson, the senator responsible for giving us Perle and Wolfowitz. That tells you all you need to know about Mendoza. Jackson is probably even more responsible than Leo Strauss for unleashing on the world neoconservatism, which seems to be gaining adherents in Britain.

In the 19th century, Oxford and Cambridge formed the academic model that the US sought to emulate, even to the point of building gothic buildings on her campuses. It could be that they are now following our lead not only into the decline of freedom of thought and the life of the mind but also toward the destruction of civilization.

**

---

More on the Oxford Union

• The bottomless capacity for falsification at Oxford
  (To: Dr B Simms, “RE: Dr. Alan Mendoza - Executive Director HJS”) 11.18.2007
• Haaretz on Oxford and Beyond
  (Haaretz: “Are two states still viable?” ) 11.15.2007
• Avi Shlaim on Oxford Farce
  (Avi Shlaim: “Israel, Free Speech, and the Oxford Union”) 11.13.2007
• More Oxford Fantasies
  (Haaretz: “VIEWPOINT / ‘Israel Lobby’ book may have sinister impact in U.K.; Finkelstein comments at the bottom of this article.” ) 11.12.2007
• What really happened at Oxford
  (Finkelstein comments: “Insofar as the lies about what happened at the Oxford Union…;” Reader letters) 11.01.2007
• Rewriting history before the ink has dried
  (Dr Alan Mendoza, Executive director, Henry Jackson Society, The Guardian “No pressure put on Oxford Union;” w/ reader letters) 11.03.2007
• More Oxford fantasies
  (Haaretz: “High-profile invitees to Oxford Union debate on Israel walk out”) 11.04.2007
• Israeli soldier writes President of Oxford Union
  (From Ronen Berelovich (Israel) to Luke Tryl, President of Oxford Union (Oxford University, UK)) 10.24.2007
• Still more on the Oxford Union
  (Peter Tatchell: “Free speech threatened by ban on Norman Finkelstein”) 10.25.2007
• More on the Oxford Union
  The Guardian: “Intellectual terrorism. For the sake of free speech, British organisations should confront pro-Israel bullies, not appease them.”) 10.25.2007
• Shouldn’t there be a mandatory decent interval before history is rewritten?
  (The Jerusalem Post: “Oxford cancels one-state debate;” w/ Finkelstein’s comment) 10.23.2007
• Isn’t it time to seek therapy for his obsession?
  (Alan M. Dershowitz, FrontPageMagazine.com: “Oxford Union Is Dead”) 10.20.2007

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Editor’s note: See also Why my hope in humanity never wavers: A most remarkable seventeen year old writes Professor Dershowitz (10.19.2007).

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From: yaraginzburg[at]gmail.com
To: NormanGF[at]hotmail.com
Subject: sorry & answer to vicious mail
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 01:53:02 -0300

Professor Finkelstein,

I got a letter whose authors try to discredit your work and defame you, but I answered it point by point, including the remarks they do about the “content” of your book in the end of their message (I nummerated this chunk of the e-mail in order to make it more clear). There’s some irony in it, especially in the beginning where I play their game to see what’s the result; if you think it can be helpful to you and won’t harm your work, feel free to post it on the website, as well as their message, which is just below mine. The answer, sorry, is lenghty - I hope you won’t sleep as you go through it. (laughs) As a matter of fact, my mails are so boring and stupid - no one could expect anything different from an idiotic, dumb and mentally handicapped 17 year old - that I shouldn’t keep sending them to you. I just sent you this one because it concerns you in some way. It’s a message which is probably being spread throughout the web. Sorry for writing you once again. I have to learn stop doing this and respect both your time and your patience.

Best regards and I wish you good,

Yara G. Chiara.

From: “charles edgbaston” cedgbaston@hotmail.com
To: yara_chiara[at]yahoo.de
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 12:56 AM
Subject: Resignation of Norman Finkelstein
September 30, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEWS RELEASE

FORENSIC REVIEW OF HOLOCAUST INDUSTRY BOOK BY NORMAN FINKELSTEIN REVEALS UNCONSCIONABLE LIBELS OF HOLY JEWISH PEOPLE

PENTICTON, Canada — Christians for Moses Ministries Inc. of Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, with 55,000 members world-wide, today made public its forensic analysis of the antisemitic book entitled “The Holocaust Industry” authored by Mr. Norman G. Finkelstein, the fired assistant professor at DePaul University, America’s largest Catholic academic institution.

“The analysis shows quite clearly that the author has deployed an extensive barrage of invective to calumniate and delegitimize the holy Jewish people and their World War Two suffering”, said the Very Rev. Dr. Charles J. Edgbaston, D.D., Ph.D, Chairman of CFMM and Rector of Zion College of Canada.

“In the process, he has stoked the fires of antisemitism and discredited Chicago’s Depaul University long-known for its adherence to Vincentian values,” Dr. Edgbaston noted.

The report had been forwarded in confidence to the administration of DePaul last January. “We are exceedingly glad that DePaul made the sagacious decision to deny Mr. Finkelstein tenure following its review of this analysis,” Rev. Edgbaston said.

The first defense of a scoundrel is name-calling. Finkelstein specializes in this genre of discussion. Let it be known that the really great man, Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, never stoops this low. When the impudent Finkelstein dared to call him a “clown” (sic), Wiesel did not respond. He chose the holy way by adopting a position of total silence.

According to the report, Elie Wiesel is a Holocaust concentration camp survivor. So are the 60,000 Israeli Jews still receiving pensions from the German government as part of the 1953 reparations settlement. So are the 34,000 Jews of Canada, the United States, France, Britain, Australia and South Africa with such pensions. They all have children. But they are not virulently insane as Finkelstein is. They do not spit at Israel. They do not mock diaspora Jews. Rather, they serve the Jewish people with their blood and souls to ensure that the WWII Holocaust is never again repeated.

Finkelstein makes a business out of the Holocaust, the report states. He parades his survivor status on every occasion to deflect criticism against him. Why does he do this? Because he has been poisoned by a certain political agenda. But this transparent strategem is a failure. No rational person listens to him except the enemies of the Jewish people, namely Iran, the terrorist Arabs of Palestine and the neo-Nazis. These accursed enemies manipulate Finkelstein’s demented ravings for their own benefit. This is not the first time an apostate Jew has turned his back on his people. Impressionable students also absorb his hateful diatribes.

We all must surely remember the late Soviet Communist dictator Joseph Stalin, the report warns. He had a whole bevy of Jewish intellectuals pay him fealty, shouting: ” Comrade Stalin, you are the reddest sun in our hearts.” When their utility to him as international front men attesting to the glorious Jewish state Stalin had built in Siberian Birobidjan had lapsed, he promply dispatched them to the NKVD secret police firing squads.

Rev. Edgbaston called on Finkelstein’s supporters to be honest with themselves. “Pick up Finkelstein’s writings. Read the vile slander of the heroic Holocaust survivors he spews out. Weep at his sneering of their suffering. Scream to the heavens as he humiliates their existence. Vomit at the way he belittles their unspeakable torment.” Finkelstein’s students have been officially requested to read his filth in his book entitled “The Holocaust Industry.” Samples of his mocking the Holocaust survivors and his Jew-hatred follow:

On page 33 Finkelstein writes that Jews promote Holocaust remembrance because “it validates Jewish chosenness.”

On page 38 he accuses the Jews of bullying the Blacks.

On page 43, he says the Holocaust is not unique.

On page 53 he asserts hostility to Jews is not so bad, that Jews provoke antisemitism.

On page 59 he states that the Holocaust memoirs of survivors are fraudulent and that few German concentration camp guards were sadists.

On page 81 he continues his lying by claiming that many Jews fabricated their past to get German reparation money.

On page 135 he accuses Jews of seeking “Holocaust booty.”

On page 138 he exclaims: ” The Holocaust may yet turn out to be the greatest robbery in the history of mankind.”

On page 137 he dismisses the slaughter of over 1 million Jewish children in the Holocaust by calling attention to a non-sequitur i.e. “many more children die of malnutrition and disease in the world.”

Dr. Edgbaston said that all the above libels of the Jewish people are uttered daily by the neo-Nazis and the right-wing Islamic fundamentalists among the Arabs of Palestine and in Iran, where a Holocaust denial conference was recently held. To these people , Finkelstein is a hero. To certain professors at DePaul University, Finkelstein is a hero. For shame! These libels are justiciable in the human rights tribunals of Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Austria and Australia, with penalties ranging from prison sentences up to 10 years and/or fines up to $500,000.

Christians for Moses Ministries is now working with the World Association of Bergen-Belsen and Treblinka Concentration Camp Survivors on a possible classs action lawsuit against the Finkelstein’s publishers for reading these anti-Jewish libels and inciting contempt for the Jewish people of America and Israel.

- 30 -

For further information:

Rev. Antoine Habib, B.D.
Director of Communications
CFMM Inc.
email: cedgbaston@hotmail.com

From: Yara G. Chiara yaraginzburg@gmail.com
To: charles edgbaston
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2007 1:26 AM
Subject: Re: Resignation of Norman Finkelstein

Mr. Rev Edgbaston and Rev. Antoine Habib, B.D,

First of all, let me plainly express my distress at the way I have been approached. Not only both of you failed to introduce yourselves as to give me enough reason of why I should be receiving this message and what was your purpose in sending it to me, but you didn’t even addressed by my name, which is extremely rude considering that I don’t know you, we don’t have any intimacy at all and, above all, I have both a Jewish and a German background and I don’t like it when people, whom I don’t know or never heard of, fail to mention my name as a way of respectully greeting me and recognizing that I’m a human being, not a target for propaganda.

Names are of the utmost significance in Judaism. Not only His name, but also our’s, which since the characters of the Torah have a meaning and convey a person’s identity, essence and singularity. As I can see, you both are Christians, not Jewish, and maybe that’s why you acted in such a gross violation of Jewish traditions and, if it was not by simple recklessness or neglect, it was a counscious anti-semitic act; if it was uncounscious, it was also an anti-semitic act, since you both agree that anti-semitism can be express consciouslly or uncounsciouslly.

Up until the fourth paragraph, you just feigned outrage and diverted the attention of the reader from the content of Finkelstein’s book, which has not even been touched with a dove feather, let alone really debated and discussed.

Then, in the fifth paragraph, in what I take to be a clear violation of Christian morals, especially Christ’s message for people to respect and love both their friends and enemies, you called Finkelstein a “scoundrel”. So I’ll assume that you are scoundrels: “the first defense of a scoundrel is name-calling”, and that’s a perfect depiction of your message which, unfortunately, didn’t address any of Finkelstein’s arguments in Holocaust Industry. So, before condemning people for engaging in “name-calling”, maybe you could, as Christ often suggest, look at the mirror and avoid the hipocrisy. Shall I quote for you the Bible? St. Mark (7,6), a beautiful passage followed by a little poem.

Adopting total silence, I guess, have been Wiesel’s stance for years - he’s, afterall, the one who keeps saying that the only thing we can say about the Holocaust is that we shouldn’t talk about the Holocaust, because “silence”, in some mystic way, is the only reasonable approach to the subject; contrary to Wiesel’s unproductive, to say the least, approach to the subject, people like Christopher Browning and Saul Friedländer have been out there fighting the Holocaust deniers and documenting the Final Solution, step by step: that’s a commendable work, done by great scholars: Browning, in particular, much differently from Goldhagen’s fantasy about German History or Wiesel’s “silence”, has written a particular book called “Ordinary Men” in which he, yes, tries to document an act of atrocity by a Police Battalion as well as interpret and explain the genocide and find its roots and causes. That happens to be a very useful approach and the most efficient against Holocaust Deniers. But then, there’s something umcofortable about all this: the fact that both Christopher Browning and Ian Kershaw, who documented as few have done, the extermination of the Jews by the Nazis, rendered enthusiastic praise for Finkelstein’s and Rutina’s “Nation on Trial”. I think it’s clear, both by the praises - mostly coming from experts on the Final Solution (Raul Hilberg, Kershaw and Browning) and Jewish scholars (Daniel Boyarin, Noam Chomsky and Avi Shlaim) - and by his background - Finkelstein’s parents were real holocaust survivors - that there’s no way, as hard as you may try, to prove that Finkelstein, even if subjected to a forensic analysis, as you desperatly try to do, is a Holocaust Denier. If it were so obvious, you wouldn’t have to base your arguments on the sand deposits of the uncounscious and the forensic analysis.

Well, I agree with you: why would this 69,000 survivors spit at anyone if they’re getting the money from Germany? That’s what YOU said: they’re getting the money from the German government, not from Israel’s (which has not a very good record when it comes to Holocaust survivors), the U.S or the Jewish Organizations Finkelstein quoted in the book. As Finkelstein himself said, the Germans did pay, in due time, the reparation for his father, up until his death. Germans are not the subject of debate here: Holocaust Industry makes claims against the U.S and some Jewish Organizations. Allas, if there are no more than 100.000 survivors alive, to be optimistic, why are the Jewish Organizations so worried about raising billions of dollars for them? What would they do with so much money in the end of their lives? Maybe the problem is, as Finkelstein has documented, that Jewish Organizations, with the help of the U.S government, have raised money in the name of the survivors, but not for them - using a name to get personal beneficts is a despicable violation of Jewish morals. Names are sacred. You shouldn’t use them to support people who make money out of them and their suffering.

Mr. Rev. Edgbaston, before finally getting to the content of Finkelstein’s book, incurs in what seems to be a language quite familiar to that of the Inquisitor’s and the Rabbis who issued Spinoza’s “Herem”. The grafic imagery in all its vulgarity, even as intent on appealing to people’s moral outrage or emotion, ends up being a quite ridiculous and pathetic exercise in rudeness and anachronism: if the language were in a vitriolic Herem, I’d be able at least to understand it; but in an open society where freedom of speech and inquiry must be the standard, this kind of behavior seems to me, I’m sorry, a bit pathological. ]

The content:

1) People who don’t think that Jews are the chosen ones are all anti-semitic loonies? What about Hindus, Budhists, Atheits who don’t believe in it? Are they all anti-semitic puppies? Richard Dawkins, for instance, happens to say that, although the description of the animals entering Noah’s ark is quite beautiful, its morality is, at the very least, questionable: Has the divinity, by so doing, condemned all other human beings, including animals, and all children to the most tormented and terrifying death? The drowned have not been chosen, it seems. There are people, still according to Dawkins, who blamed the Tsunami on the violation of some “idiot/stupid rule regarding the Shabat”. It’s all in his last book - God’s delusion. Why don’t you call him, who’s clearing attacking Jewish religious beliefs, an anti-semite? Maybe because it’s not that easy to deal with Dawkins who’s a distinguished scientist and teaches at Oxford. You may run the risk of ridicule while you tell him the biblical stories: by the way, he says that Noah’s legend was not original, but inspired by the babilonic myth of Up-Napishtim. Did they believe they were the chosen ones too? The book of judges in a Jewish translation, for example: chapter 19, that’s the one Dawkins tell us to read carefully: and it’s true, there it is - in order to save the life of a man, a levite, who hosted him (Jebu, who had a concubine), says: “‘Nay, my brethren, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into my house, do not this wanton deed. Behold, here is my daughter a virgin, and his concubine; I will bring them out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you; but unto this man do not so wanton a thing.” Quite good, isn’t it? But it does get better: ” But the men would not hearken to him; so the man laid hold on his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning; and when the day began to spring, they let her go. Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was light. And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way; and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, with her hands upon the threshold. And he said unto her. ‘Up, and let us be going’; but none answered; then he took her up upon the ass; and the man rose up, and got him unto his place. And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel”

As to the the free-will, Dylan summarized it quite well in Highway 61: “G-d said to Abraham, kill me a son; Abe said, man, you must be putting me on; G-d said no; Abe said what?; God said you can do what you want, Abe, but next time you see me coming you better run.” Of course, Abe, out of his free-will, says: “Where do you want this killing done?”. It’s all there, in the Bible and the Torah, and Dylan’s depiction of the scene kind of gets the point. I mean, I have to quote these passages because we regard ourselves as the top of the cultural everest.

2) In page 38, where you said Finkelstein claims that Jews were bullying the blacks (which could not, a priori, be disregarded as a hypotesis; I knew Jews, including in my neighboorhood, who did act in such a way), the picture is quite different: “This reorientation of American Jewry was clearly evident in growing tensions between Jews and Blacks. Traditionally aligned with black people against caste discrimination in the United States, many Jews broke with the Civil Rights alliance in the late 1 960s when, as Jonathan Kaufman reports, “the goals of the civil rights movement were shifting - for demands for political and legal equality to demands for economic equality.” “When the civil rightsmovement moved north, into the neighborhoods of these liberal Jews,” Cheryl Greenberg similarlyrecalls, «the question of integration took on a different tone. With concerns now couched in class rather than racial terms, Jews Red to the suburbs almost as quickly as white Christians to avoid what they perceived as the deterioration of their schools and neighborhoods.” The memorable climax was the protracted 1968 New York City teachers’ strike, which pitted a largely Jewish professional union against Black community activists fighting for control of failing schools. Accounts of the strike often refer to fringe anti-Semitism. The eruption of Jewish racism - not far below the surface before the strike — is less often remembered. More recently, Jewish publicists and organizations have figured prominently in efforts to dismantle affirmative action programs. In key Supreme Court tests —DeFunis (1974) and Bakke (1978) — the AJC, ADL, and AJ Congress, apparently reflecting mainstream Jewish sentiment, all filed amicus briefs opposing affirmative action.”

Now, instead of moaning and crying and complaining about the closed gates of Eden, do you actually dispute the facts presented by Finkelstein? If not, you’re just shooting your mouths of about a book you don’t like, but can’t debunk.

3) About the Holocaust uniqueness. Finkelstein is talking about the moral uniqueness; there’s no such thing for him because, if it were so, it’d me tantamount to saying that Jews suffered more or their suffering had more value than that of other people. The Holocaust, one may say, is indeed unique in the way it was conducted and in terms of opening up our eyes for something we might have deemed unthinkable. But no Historian can argue that because History relativizes everything: nothing is “unique” in history for the simple fact that all events, from a historian’s approach, have the same value - it’s not up for the Historian to judge if an event is “unique” in the moral sense. Of course, History relativizes everything also for the simple fact that, putting events in perspective, analogies and similarities arise and other episodes of atrocities spring up out of the historical record. Finkelstein is a Historian, not a Theologian: if you want to defend the “uniqueness” of the Nazi Holocaust in a moral sense (Jews suffered more, etc.) you have to join your fellow theologians, not the historians.

4) He never once says that hostility towards Jews was not so bad; it’s not bad at all nowadays in the U.S and Europe, and I hope U.S/Israel’s policies won’t help changing this scenario. Anti-semitism, that’s what he meant, is not pervasive in the U.S and Europe.

5) About the Nazis not being sadists. Well, that’s not what Finkelstein said, but what President Reagan said, remember? He said that the SS soldiers as well as the Jewish people were victims of the Second World War. Finkelstein, who’s not as radical as Reagan or Berlusconi, is just referring to a study conducted by prominent historian Christopher Browning where the author argues that the Germans of the Police Battaillons who commited a horrendous atrocity were ordinary men - much like the new pictures of Auschwitz in display at the Holocaust Museum in Washington show: the banality of evil. SS soldiers and women talking, having fun, playing and listening to music, relaxing, taking pictures, smiling, just like any other human being. Is the Washington Holocaust Museum anti-semitic?

6) Jews can provoke anti-semitism, no doubt, especially if they chose to act exactly in the way their grotesque stereotypes suggest.

7) Finkelstein, again, is a Historian: it’s a FACT, a DATA, not undisputed and easily avaiable at the World Bank Website, that more children die of malnutrition every year than all the victims of Auschwitz. Yes, as a historian, he relativizes Auschwitz: it was an atrocity, but there are other atrocities, as despicable as the old ones, which are happening now, under our own eyes. He doesn’t deny that Auschwitz was a dark chapter in history; and he won’t deny that the figures cited by the World Bank or other atrocities feature in the same league.

The low-level of your attacks on Professor Finkelstein is such and the intellectual basis is so shallow that a 17 year old girl is able to debunk each of your arguments without even having to do a minor research or reaching out for a book. It’s enough to say that your bias prevent you from reading what Finkelstein actually says; and, when you do realize and understand what he says, you don’t dispute it, so I have the right to assume that you agree with him.

Lastly, I’d like to be addressed in a more Jewish way - I don’t like spam and, if people want to pour texts in my mailbox, they’ll either have to accept debating them with me or accept having their mail addresses blocked, especially when it comes to cheap spamming and defamation. In my country, I’d tell you that you acted against my cultural background, which happens to be formal and a little bit more elevated than what you showed in your e-mail (I have a name, the right to know why the message was sent to me, with what purpose, who are the people sending the messages - I won’t do a google search, you must present and introduce yourselves as a matter of a fundamental politeness). As you don’t know me, and if you want to go on with the debate, I ask you, first of all, to treat me by my surname; this time, you failed to mentioned even my name, which is an offense by both German, Brazilian and Jewish standards.

If you keep conducting your jihad like this, I’ll be oblige to block your e-mail addresses because I work all day and have a daughter to take care of. I don’t have time for idle chatter. If I answered this mail, it’s just because I can’t let people tell lies about an outstanding scholar, recognized as such by De Paul’s administration itself, whose book has just been published by a major University Press (a public one, if I’m not in the wrong). Is the U.S anti-semitic too? Well…then there’s the hatred which stems from envy. How many people can claim to have their works praised by: Eric Hobsbawm, Raul Hilberg, Noam Chomsky, Ian Kershaw, Christopher Browning, Arno Mayer, Avi Shlaim, Sarah Roy and Daniel Boyarin? Very few. So, when you come with this nonsense that Finkelstein is used by anti-semites, I’m happy to tell you that his supporters are some of the best scholars of the 20th Century in their own fields - what’s a marginal neonazi website compared to moral and intellectual authority of Hobsbawm and Hilberg? Sorry, you’ll have to do much better than that to discredit Professor Finkelstein: Forensic Analysis proved inefficient, perhaps because Finkelstein’s “body” is alive and well. Before getting to Finkelstein’s uncounscious, you had better cope with his writings. It’s an easier way to start.

Yara G. Chiara.

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Ronen Berelovich
Israel

Luke Tryl
President of Oxford Union
Oxford University, UK

Dear Luke,

In spite of our differences, it was a pleasure to talk to you on the phone today, 23-10-07. Thank you for your openness and honesty. I am now following up with a letter to register my official complaint about the decision you took to remove Professor Norman Finkelstein from the “One state is the only solution for Israel” debate that was to be hold in 23\10\07 at Oxford Union. I am registering my complaint as a private individual living in Israel i am a film-maker and a reserve soldier in the Israeli Army. There are a few points that arose in our conversation, which I believe would be of wider interest than just to the two of us, so I’d like to highlight them and to share this letter with Professor Finkelstein and anyone else interested.

To reiterate our conversation, you told me that the reason for the removal of Professor Finkelstein from the debate was the intervention of certain interest parties and people pressuring Oxford Union. You identified Alan Dershowitz as one of those people and you said that he had personally demanded that Professor Finkelstein should be removed from the debate. The reason being that with Finkelstein on the “two-state” side, the debate would be too “anti Israel” and “not balanced”.

I replied that this debate was about a one-state solution versus a two-state solution; the two parties were to argue which of the two solutions might be best for Israel and the Palestinians. It was NOT to be a debate about being “pro” or “anti” Israel; therefore, whether Finkelstein was “pro” or “against” Israel was irrelevant. Finkelstein, like everyone else, has a right to be pro or against Israel and it should NOT be enough to exclude him from a debate at a place like Oxford Union. You agreed with me and you stated that this was what you thought as well. However, you were forced to drop Finkelstein due to the pressure exerted on you.

Unfortunately, with that decision you have demonstrated that “freedom of speech” in Oxford debating society is liable to be censored. You have also revealed a sad fact that even such an established and prestigious institution as Oxford, which is supposed to represent the highest ideals of the western culture, such as freedom of expression, bows down to demands of interest groups i.e. the Israeli lobby and Alan Dershowitz. I suggest that the only honorable way for you to restore your academic integrity is to officially apologize to Professor Finkelstein on his website, explaining what really happened.

I am not asking you lightly to stand up to what you believe in. I used to be in the Israeli elite paratroopers, but after what I saw and was forced to do, I vowed that I would never go back to the Army and act as a tool for enslaving 3.5 million people in their own land without any basic human rights. As a soldier refusing to go to the reserve duty (I am a member of the Courage to Refuse group of IDF officers), I live with the constant threat of imprisonment. You can appreciate therefore that I do understand ‘outside pressure’. I just wish you the courage to follow your own ideals and integrity, because as a president of the Oxford Union, your fellow students and intellectuals world over expect nothing less of you.

I wish you the best,

Ronen Berelovich

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More on the Oxford Union

• The bottomless capacity for falsification at Oxford
  (To: Dr B Simms, “RE: Dr. Alan Mendoza - Executive Director HJS”) 11.18.2007
• Haaretz on Oxford and Beyond
  (Haaretz: “Are two states still viable?” ) 11.15.2007
• Avi Shlaim on Oxford Farce
  (Avi Shlaim: “Israel, Free Speech, and the Oxford Union”) 11.13.2007
• More Oxford Fantasies
  (Haaretz: “VIEWPOINT / ‘Israel Lobby’ book may have sinister impact in U.K.; Finkelstein comments at the bottom of this article.” ) 11.12.2007
• What really happened at Oxford
  (Finkelstein comments: “Insofar as the lies about what happened at the Oxford Union…;” Reader letters) 11.01.2007
• Rewriting history before the ink has dried
  (Dr Alan Mendoza, Executive director, Henry Jackson Society, The Guardian “No pressure put on Oxford Union;” w/ reader letters) 11.03.2007
• More Oxford fantasies
  (Haaretz: “High-profile invitees to Oxford Union debate on Israel walk out”) 11.04.2007
• Israeli soldier writes President of Oxford Union
  (From Ronen Berelovich (Israel) to Luke Tryl, President of Oxford Union (Oxford University, UK)) 10.24.2007
• Still more on the Oxford Union
  (Peter Tatchell: “Free speech threatened by ban on Norman Finkelstein”) 10.25.2007
• More on the Oxford Union
  The Guardian: “Intellectual terrorism. For the sake of free speech, British organisations should confront pro-Israel bullies, not appease them.”) 10.25.2007
• Shouldn’t there be a mandatory decent interval before history is rewritten?
  (The Jerusalem Post: “Oxford cancels one-state debate;” w/ Finkelstein’s comment) 10.23.2007
• Isn’t it time to seek therapy for his obsession?
  (Alan M. Dershowitz, FrontPageMagazine.com: “Oxford Union Is Dead”) 10.20.2007

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From: Yara G. Chiara
To: dersh[at]law.harvard.edu
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 9:58 PM
Subject: Dear Professor Dershowitz

Dear Professor Dershowitz,

How are you? I hope you’re doing fine. :))) Let me first introduce myself: I’m a 17 years old Jewish girl and have been living in Brazil for about 10 years now. I was born to a Jewish immigrant family and from early on I had to learn to survive in a strange, sometimes scaring environment which included not only the country where I was brought to, but even my own family: at first, I couldn’t really relate to anyone in my family because they were all people who came from all sorts of different backgrounds. Having to speak German, Yiddish, Hebrew, Italian and French - and then Portuguese - from very early on was a heavy price I had to pay at that time as a result of a real, not staged, problem to craft my identity and avoid the sense of alienation, distance, strangeness and otherness which had already taken hold of me. I simply didn’t know what the hell I was, and I had to struggle from early on with very serious brain-related diseases which harm until this very day my cognitive skills most of the time despite all the dreadful surgeries and treatments I’ve been through. My family parted ways - I won’t go into the details - and I ended up living alone in a tiny apartment with my 3 years old little daughter. She’s actually daughter of my mother’s sister and her parents both died and I’ve been taking care of her since she arrived here. She takes me for her mother and calls me “mom”, not because she came out of me, but because I got inside her and she got inside me. She’s actually a pearl, not a daughter: too smart, too cute, too sweet. We live in a very poor condition, as you could expect: I work as a janitor at the local university (a job I still am able to do) and engage in various humanitarian activities when I’m not studying to make it to the University and graduate in Physics. That’s my dream.

Here I confess: I don’t know almost anything about any topic. I often study very hard, but things escape from my mind much easier than they come into it. Reading Finkelstein’s memoir, though, I didn’t reach the same conclusions as you, maybe because we have different backgrounds. I can tell you, Professor, that I don’t have to go back as far as to the Nazi holocaust to understand that for some people surviving means constantly and systematically fighting against all kinds of odds, circumstances and threats - that doesn’t mean that people like myself or the people whom I take care of in hospitals or schools are moral monsters. For me, it means that earning the minimum wage here in Brazil, as I do, I can’t, for example, lend the money my aunt needs to pay her debt; I can’t also bring her to my home, because there’s simply no room for anyone else and I have to take care of my daughter. People could say to me: well, you’re selfish, why don’t you cut your expenditures and lend part of the money to your aunt? Why don’t you let her live with you? People do accuse me of such things, and much more actually. Well, the answer happens to be very simple: it’s me and my daughter or her. If I gave a third of my salary for her, my daughter and I would simply starve to death. Let me tell you about an incident which occured in a Hospital I work in as volunteer. It was already deep into the night, and the Hospital ran out of antibiotics and other medicines needed to treat diseases as serious as bacterial meningitis. Some patients were on the brink of death and had seething fever. We just didn’t have the structure to put all patients on antibiotics, let alone on intravenous antibiotics. I managed to get some medicine and as soon as I brought them to the hospital, we began selecting, sometimes randomly, to whom we’d give them. Patients were in urgent need of treatment, some more than other, but all under great risk and needing intensive care. To make a long story short, a patient, in a very serious condition and with a boiling fever, but who unfortunately wasn’t selected for treatment with antibiotics, in a desperate and risky move, afforded to pass unnoticed by the staff and caught another’s patient medicine. He held so hysterically and steadfastly to it, that I couldn’t do anything other than put him immediatly on antibiotics before he died, because we told him he was not allowed even to move, let alone shout and making strenuous efforts. It saved his life, which was great, but the other patient, for whom the medicine was earmarked, unfortunately died. Now, for the life of me, how could I condemn him? There were people in the staff who frowned at him after he recovered. I talked to him and didn’t share the same feeling towards the man. I was happy he was alive. He had children too, just like myself. With time, I came to admire this man because I realized that what I witnessed at the hospital was an incredible will and desire to live; his life was so valuable to him that he would risk lose it in the process of saving it! Would it be fair to condemn him for saving his life when there was no other reasonable way to do it? He fought against the odds, he did cause damage to another patient; but would it be morally right to say that this man acted like or is a bad person, a moral monster? We just can’t. In fact, I got furious when the man took the medicine, but it was just after he silently took it for days and did get better that I realized that HE saved his life!

I can’t for the life of me condemn this man. I talked to him later on. He had children too. How could I blame him for saving his own life when there was no other way of doing it or, even if there were, it’d mean an increased threat to his already fragile life? Let me give you another example: I work in poor communities and schools. Some youngsters happen to steal people’s money sometimes; some of them, I won’t deny it, are even violent to the point of making threats or scaring people. There were several occasions, however, when I saw the boys making their threats, taking the money and going straight to the supermarket to buy food. When they left and I got sure they were not armed, I approached them. What could I do? Would I condemn them for bringing food to their homes? Two of them were clearly suffering from malnutrition. I told them that what they did was wrong and that they shouldn’t steal other people’s money; not only because they stealed from people who were badly in need of it too, althought not as they were; but simply because there are people who earn their money honestly and they shouldn’t be subjected neither to violence nor to threat. Having said that, however, I stressed, and I really considered important to do it, that I had the utmost respect for their courage to bring food to their homes, their solidarity towards their parents or brothers and their will to live and keep on living: that’s the whole issue. I saw many of these boys die from malnutrition. Well, this time, they happened to save their lives, at least two of them - the next day they were at school and delivered me their papers - I had assigned a homework to the class - and they were terrific. I saw in it not only the result of our job as volunteers, but primarily the result of their seriousness and commitment to a decent and honest life, even if circumstances were all against them - financially, racially, politically and “healthly” speaking. Would I call them immoral? Would I say they were bad persons? Moral monsters? No! Again, I can’t for the life of me condemn their atitude towards their own lives which were at stake. Can I tell you with 100 % of certainty that they are “good people”, whatever that means? No, of course not. Can I tell you that, based on what I had seen and have seen up until now, that they are bad persons? No!

Are we moral monsters or bad persons? I think that’s the complex, often not very clear line that distinguishes a decent person, a normal person, even neutral person, if there’s such a thing, from a morally repugnant one.

For someone with such a background as mine, it was far too obvious that Maryla, whom I really identified with from what I could know about her, wasn’t implying by her phrase that every survivor was a kapo! What she might have wanted to say is that the most corageous people, those who maybe took much more risk than others to reverse not only their own situation, but that of their peers, and therefore were the “best”, morally speaking, obviouslly didn’t survive. It doesn’t cast any shadow on Maryla - she was, exactly as I am and, frankly, don’t know for how much time I’ll be, a survivor; not a bad person, but someone who very likely had to be always on guard and with the eyes wide, wide open to save her own life. A minute of diversion or feeling of defeat could have meant her death.

Finkelstein, by referring to the Hobbesian imagery, which by the way the philosopher borrowed from Thucydides’ description of the plague in Athens (he translated Thucydides’ work), was simply saying that, in some circumstances, we’re only able to care for our own lives because, if we wanted also to act like heroes, we would simply be smashed and likely bring havoc even to those we pretended to help. Sure, of course, I can relief my aunt: I give her my whole salary, all my savings, and that’s it, she’s fine. OK, and then my daughter and I just wait to die and perish. You know why? Because, despite not being a bad person, I’m also not the BEST, I wouldn’t have the GUTS to say: “Here, dear aunt, you’ve been through a hell; take the money, bring this hell to an end and I’ll do whatever I can to raise more money for me and my daughter.” I’m not the best; maybe that’s because I’m alive, but I’m also not a monster.

I thought that was obvious from my reading of Professor Finkelstein’s memoir, but now I see, for some reason, that it isn’t. I had a hard time learning all the languages I mentioned to you, so it’s just natural that my English is sufferable at best; but I think that the word “assume” expresses exactly Finkelstein’s faith and loyalty to her mother: he “assumes” she’s telling the truth, that is, she accepts the true of it even if there were not a jot of evidence that she was not a collaborator. He assumes - from latin “assumo”, simply “take to oneself”, “receive” - that she speaks the truth. It’s NOT A MATTER OF DEBATE TO HIM such is his trust in eveything his mother told him. That is, I think, what “assume” means there, but I can be wrong; maybe in English the word doesn’t have this meaning, but I couldn’t find any other which would make sense of the text.

Finally, I think you’re too smart a person and too resourceful a person - for you own merits, I don’t doubt it for a minute - to act towards Finkelstein as if you couldn’t chose to act in another way: as a moral actor in a moral universe, even if you believe that he’s the devil himself, I just don’t think it’s fair to use his personal memoir and such a delicate issue as his relation to her mother who was a Holocaust survivor - can you imagine anything more terrifying than being in Auschwitz or Majdanek? - and the very experiences of his mother to demorilize or attack him, for whatever the purpose. We have to separate issues.

One thing is Finkelstein’s criticisms of what you write and the harsh terms he uses to refer to you based on your academic and scholarly atitude; another thing, much more different, it’d be for Finkelstein to explore your inner and personal life and on this basis launch an assault against you, which he never did; again, I think he portrays you, despite all the dispute, in a very favorable light: he even admires your performance at school and at the College and your high grades. He says that, he says that your record on this is pretty impressive; he’s probably been too fair when he, facing a bad piece of scholarship, just “assumed” - remember the term? - that you couldn’t have written it - that was partially a compliment. He was saying: “Well, you didn’t actually wrote this; you were wrong to put and invest your name on it, but you didn’t really produce it because you’re too intelligent a person to do it”.

He’ll only use harsh terms to describe you and your work based on what you’ve written about a topic which is not a personal one, but a much more broader issue which generates both academic and moral interest to tons of people.

It’s too transparent that probably there’s no other person on earth who helped more to shape his character and personality than his mother - you’d probably say that it was Noam Chomsky and that’d be great, but I think Noam features there at the second or maybe third place - and no one he loved so much; it’s there, just take a look at all he said and wrote about his mother, not only the memoir. And try to take a look at the memoir from another perspective.

Best regards and I do wish that you step back from your claim that Finkelstein believes that his mother was a Nazi collaborator. I do hope you do that and you’d make me and am certain lots of people really happy because your remarks sound pretty offensive not only to him, but also to a lot of people out there. In fact, in your heart, deep in your heart, I know that you don’t believe Finkelstein would entertain nowadays for a moment the thought of his mother being a Nazi collaborator. You know that. When we’re young, when we still don’t know much what this life is about, we try to sort out things in our minds which seem impossible to explain; understanding what at first seemed a total mistery is part of growing up, of becoming an adult, of seeing what life is really about and much more complex than we used to think.

I wish you good and long-life to both the state of Israel and the Palestinians, and I’d love to be able to see in the course of my own life both people living in peace and in decent conditions.

Yara G. Chiara.

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About the author.

From: yara_chiara[at]yahoo.de
To: NormanGF[at]hotmail.com
Subject: little huge remark
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:40:18 -0300

Dear Norm,

It’s me, Yara. Sorry for bothering you again. I have just one little question: has anyone commented on google’s description of your website? Whenever we type your name in google’s tool bar and get the results, it’s your website the one which comes up first. It’d be good if it were not for the description below the name of the website: “Leon Wieseltier put it best when he referred to Norman Finkelstein–the hysterical, Hezbollah-loving, soon-to-be-late-of DePaul University political science …”

Is there any way your web designer can change it? I met some people to whom I recommended your website and they were already biased before getting into it!!! I know it’s unlikely I’ll ever tell anything you don’t know or do anything meaningful for you, but you have been very important in my life, even though I don’t know how long it will last anymore after what I’ve been through these days and what doctors said about my brain. Morally speaking, I think your work is too important and I care about it and do my best to get people to approach it with an open-mind and an open heart too. Though my activism is most humanitarian and local - related to things that happen in my city, my state - and I don’t have much time to read 1% of what’s written on the topic you deal with (I work as a janitor at the local University and also study very hard to get a chair in the Physics department, first as a graduate student and then as a teacher; meanwhile all I have been able to do is cleaning the “chair” (laughs) and the floors on which the carriers of my dream drag their feet - I think most of them don’t like the job very much…they’re often so angry! Maybe it’s because how Academia works, maybe it’s because physics can be very frustrating as you may very likely spend your whole life studying it without adding nothing new to the field).

Today (I slept in my parents home) I woke up speaking Hebrew with my father, German with my mother, Italian with my older brother and French with my little sister - she’s not really genetically my sister but my uncle, a French Jewish, died and, since her mother died during the delivery, we took care of her and brought her to Brazil, much to her frustration (she’s so cute and so naive as compared to the children here…but she’s making her way…her only problem, which is causing a little “silent uproar” in the family, is that she prefers to live with me at the tiny apartment my grandpa left me “just in case” - he was smart, because living alone is better for me and for my parents who don’t have to deal daily with my descent - than living with my Parents!!!). My home…I can’t bring anyone home because I spared some money to buy her a little swimming pool made of plastic I think and she loves it - the pool stays just in the middle of the living (main) room and the floor is usually wet. My Parents fear that she’ll grow too close to - and dependent on - me while no one knows if I’ll be alive next month. The MRI’s of my brain are progressively revealing a deterioration which I don’t know if it’ll stop, and as I told you, there are many (all too many) days when I’m unable to speak or understand a jot, so they think I can’t take care of her, even if I wanted to. My family is very poor in general and what I get at the University is enough to pay her a good school and a medical insurance, but very little is left to me and I myself, who have aphasia and am starting developing a kind of schizophrenia - I see - and listen to - things which aren’t there - don’t have any medical insurance. So I have to count on the public health system which, needless to say, is horrendous. I have to wait more than 6 months to be examined, and that’s not much here, as I’m considered an urgent case which demands constant checks. But then there’s Yara…who’s as stubborn as Don Quijote de la Mancha, my favorite book bar none, and thinks she’s not only able to take care of her sister, but also able to live to be a hundred and to make it to the University as a student and, then, a teacher. More than that I don’t want to live (laughs). The good news are that teachers at school refused to remove me to another institution, as a government inspector ordered, because, I’m quoting the director who “hates me in a good way” (because of the problems I cause him and all the endeavors he has to make to keep me there) but is very fair: “it’s seems the way she talks, dresses, and looks have a very positive effect on both teachers and students alike and she’s often regarded as the one who’s able to create bonds between students who otherwise wouldn’t look at each other faces, and people here, though sometimes not being able to deal properly with her illnesses, won’t simply let her go”.

So, Norm, I’m useful there too! A teacher told me that I’d never get married. I asked him why (I was expecting a dire answer), and he answered: because you talk too much! (laughs). Another teacher told me that an aphasiac who talks too much, speaks many languages and is still able to get good grades is not a person, but a walking curiosity. Doctors say that too: they look at the MRI’s, and then comes that curious gaze (if she were dead or a rat and I could bring her to the medical school(laughs). I’m always with a bright face because I’m never shaken in my belief that I’ll overcome all my obstacles - all the diseases, the low wages, so on and so forth. I always tell people not to pitty me when they discover, some way or another, that I’m a half. I’m 1/2. Not Fellini’s half-movie, no! I’m 1/2 because I’m 50 % of the time off, just like an unplugged tv set (though tv sets don’t suffer when they’re off, that’s the difference; they rather like to be silent and relaxed). As being half is better than being 1/4, I keep going! I help people everyday who are at a far worse condition than me, and I envy their struggle, so…

And now I say I deserve more respect because I read Shakespeare in English! It took some effort, a very long time, but I did it, and I can - when I’m able to - tell the plot from start to finish. Now I have this credential which will make its way into my curriculum. (laughs) I love you, Norm. Take care.Sincerely (is that a good way to say goodbye? Next time I’ll say farewell - I love this word; for me, it doesn’t mean just “I wish you good” or anything like that; it’s much more; when I realized that English fare and German fahren were too similar not to come from the same root, I looked out to the etimology and found out that both words are indeed related and mean in older texts “to travel”, “to move some meaningful distance”; so, when I hear “farewell”, it’s just like if people were saying: “that changes - symbolized by traveling - take the pace and content that your life demands”. It can be a simple exchange of places - going home from work or a deeper change which means a good turning point in one’s life),

Yara.

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From: bdoumani[at]berkeley.edu
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com Subject: Re: Tutu/Pluto
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:26:45 -0400

Dear Friends,

The open season on academic freedom started a bit early this year. You have probably heard about the terrible treatment of Norman Finkelstein: He was denied tenure for non-academic reasons (style over substance), was denied due process of a tenure decision review, and then denied the right to teach a terminal year! At the last minute and without warning, DePaul university president cancelled his classes and pulled out his assigned books from the bookstore. NF has since settled with DePaul. The terms are not public, but Finkelstein will no longer be teaching at that institution.

Nadia Abu El-Haj, an anthropologist up for tenure at Barnard College, Columbia, has come under attack by groups including some alumni that want the university to deny her tenure. It is amusing (and scary) that one of the leaders of the campaign made the argument that Abu El-Haj identifies herself as Palestinian. Since there is no such country, the self-identification is considered proof that Abu El-Haj is an academically unqualified and politically motivated person who calls for the destruction of Israel.

After yet another pressure campaign, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs cancelled a forum, scheduled for September 27, 2007, in which John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, were to speak about their new book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. So far, the two authors have greatly benefited from this attention.

Three recent issues:

1. The president of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota cancelled a scheduled talk by Nobel prize winner and a key symbol of public morality, Archbishop Desmond Tuto, due to pressure on the university. He now joins former president Jimmy Carter and many other figures of moral and/or academic stature who have been labeled as anti-Semites for daring to speak about the unspeakable. An assault designed to make him radioactive and unwelcome on university campuses, if successful, means that no target is out of reach. I note with some concern that only a few of this country’s intellectuals defended Carter’s right to speak. Barring Tutu would further chip away at our freedoms. Fortunately, the president of the University of St. Thomas reversed himself yesterday and said that he made a mistake. Archbishop Tutu will be speaking after all.

2. ME anthropologists are being recruited to work for US military in Iraq. Those who accept the lucrative contracts may, if they do not live up to the ethics of the profession, endangering the whole field in much the same way as happened during Vietnam war. See following petition by Network of Concerned Anthropologists:

http://concerned.anthropologists.googlepages.com/home

3. The University of Michigan, the US distributor of Pluto Press, suspended distribution of a book, Overcoming Zionism, by Joel Kovel and withdrew it from the market after coming under attack by a Zionist group called Stand With Us. When faced with a response that is even larger than the one that caused its panicked response in the first place, University of Michigan Press re-released the book but went on to threaten a worse offense than violating the academic freedom of an individual author: Punishing the smaller independent press (Pluto) that published the book. On October 19, UMP is scheduled to decide on whether to sever its relationship with Pluto.

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From: elorendo[at.]gmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: I am sorry to hear about the cancellation
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:33:17 -0500

Prof. Finkelstein,

From: elorendo[at.]gmail.com
To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
Subject: I am sorry to hear about the cancellation
Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:33:17 -0500

Prof. Finkelstein,

I am sorry to hear about the class cancellation. Even though the school has been threatening this action all summer, it still does not make it right when they actually do it. I received your email on Friday as well as an email from the Assistant Dean [Honold]. As soon as I got his email I called him to tell him that I, as a student, felt that my well being was never considered. During our conversation he said a few interesting things; first he found it ironic that they would cancel the class entitled Freedom and Empowerment because the teacher shows dissent and even said “when I wrote the email, that was the first thing that jumped out at me”. He also did not want for me to think of him as “a good German. Just because I am told to do this, does not mean that it is me making the decisions.” He then told me since it was above his head to email Dean Suchar, so I did. After four hours and eight emails, Dean Suchar basically informed me that he would not meet with me even though it was not a scheduling conflict, he did not find it ironic that he canceled a class called Freedom and Empowerment and instead of asking him questions that I should direct them to you as it is your fault for dissenting, and even though he would not meet with me that I should continue to email him my concerns [what a coward].

We are meeting tomorrow night as a group to discuss the upcoming week. We are planning something for Friday at the convocation, as there will be lots of faculty there. If there is anything that you would like me to tell the group, let me know and I will relay the message. Also, Matthew Abraham has offered his office for your use, McGaw 312 and says that you may use it any day at any time.

I know that you were supposed to be back in town in the next few days and if there is anything that I or the group can help you with, please let me know. Let us know how we can help you. Also, if there is any type of meeting that you would like a representative from the group to be a part of, please let me know and we will make sure we get someone there.

Thank you for everything and know that we are behind you through all of this. The next few weeks will be especially tough on DePaul.

Evan Lorendo…



More articles on tenure denial:

• The Chronicle of Higher Ed: A reliable source (06.04.2007)
• Raul Hilberg: “I have a sinking feeling about the damage this will do to academic freedom…” (Chicago Tribune, 06.10.2007)
• The Chronicle of Higher Education: “DePaul U. Cancels Courses of Professor Who Lost Tenure Bid, but He Plans to Teach Them Anyway” (08.28.2007)
• AAUP writes DePaul yet again (08.27.2007)
• DePaul’s latest outrage (08.27.2007)
• How DePaul practices Vincentian values (08.25.2007)
• DePaul Students Put Administration on Notice: We Will Defend Academic Freedom! (08.23.2007)
• Another robust message from AAUP to DePaul (08.22.2007)
• Another letter to DePaul’s President (08.20.2007)
• A letter to DePaul’s President (08.16.2007)
• DePaul Students write President Holtschneider (DePaul Academic Freedom Chicago: “Norman Finkelstein’s right to return to teach,” 08.15.2007)
• A detailed analysis of Depaul’s tenure decision (”ACADEMIC FREEDOM ON TRIAL: NORMAN FINKELSTEIN AND THE MINORITY REPORT,” 08.10.2007)
• DePaul Faculty Comments on Tenure Decision (Bill Martin, Professor of Philosophy at DePaul, DissidentVoice.org: “Urgent Need to Right Wrongs at DePaul University,” 08.09.2007)
• RESOLUTION OPPOSING DEPAUL UNIVERSITY’S DECISION TO DENY TENURE TO DR. NORMAN FINKELSTEIN AND DR. MEHRENE LARUDEE (08.02.2007)
• AAUP v. Father Holtschneider (of Depaul) (07.28.2007)
• American Association of University Professors letter (07.25.2007)
• Letter from former student to DePaul (07.25.2007)
• Protesting Norman Finkelstein’s Tenure Denial; or, Academic Freedom Declines across the U.S. - Part II” (07.15.2007)
• If the Stairs Do Fit, You Cannot Acquit (Finkelstein comments: “The DePaul administration now alleges that I am a Menace II Society. To prove this allegation, they have…”, 07.03.2007)
• More photos from DePaul students (07.03.2007)
• Letter from a student at Harvard Law School (07.03.2007)
• Interesting revelations, interesting speculations (CounterPunch: “Anatomy of a Smear: The Commissar Two-Step at DePaul,” 07.02.2007)
• Photos and more from DePaul students “Who is John Simon?…” (07.02.2007)
• Resolution presented to US Social Forum (Atlanta) (07.02.2007)
• “The ‘F-Word’- How DePaul Is Terrified Of Anything Finkelstein” (Chicago Indymedia, 06.29.2007)
• A DePaul Faster Speaks (CounterPunch: “Academic Injustices: Fasting for Justice at DePaul,” 06.29.2007)
• A Reasoned Statement on Tenure Denial (CounterPunch: “”The Poisoning of Academic Freedom: Strange Calculus at DePaul,” 06.28.2007)
• [DePaul students'] FAST UPDATE (06.30.2007)
• Iran on Tenure Denial (06.26.2007)
• Chronicle on DePaul Fast (06.25.2007)
• Dersh again: “Finkelstein’s Sexism” (06.25.2007)
• Letter to DePaul President Holtschneider about Student Fast (06.25.2007)
• Al-Hayat on Tenure (06.24.2007)
• The plot thickens (Chicago Sun-Times: “Outwit. Outplay. Outlast. Outtenure?” 06.22.2007)
• Vancouver Jewish Group on Tenure (06.21.2007)
• CounterPunch: “Student Anger at the Denial of Tenure for Two Progressive Professors. Boycotting DePaul” (06.22.2007)
• Video: Aljazeera on tenure (06.21.2007)
• A letter to Father Holtschneider (06.19.2007)
• NBC5 | WMAQ TV, Chicago: “DePaul Students Turn Graduation Into Protest w/ video segment (06.19.2007)
• Counter Punch: Fallout from a Smear: Finkelstein and The Progressive (06.16.2007)
• DePaul Student Statement to Faculty (06.14.2007)
• Harvard Crimson on Tenure Denial (06.17.2007)
• Chicago Sun-Times: “Students ordered to leave chief’s area” (06.14.2007)
• Chicago Sun-Times: “DePaul chief may face vote of no confidence” (06.13.2007)
• Students Call for Rally to Defend Academic Freedom (06.13.2007)
• ChicagoPublicRadio.org, Eight Forty Eight: “Dr. Norman Finkelstein joins us to reflect on DePaul University’s decision to deny him tenure.” (06.12.2007)
• The Jerusalem Post: “US Jewish prof. refused tenure due to Shoah views” (06.11.2007)
• DePaul Students Take a Stand - by Sitting In! (06.12.2007)
• Inside Higher Education on Tenure Denial (06.11.2007)
• The (British) Guardian on Tenure Denial (06.11.2007)
• The New York Times on tenure denial (06.11.2007)
• Anti-Defamation League on tenure denial (06.11.2007)
• Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tenure Denial (06.11.2007)
• Chicago Sun-Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog, the Associated Press on tenure denial (06.08.2007)

More articles leading up to the tenure decision:

• Tenure? (4 articles: The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The Harvard Crimson, FrontPageMag.com)
• Chomsky on Dershowitz, Finkelstein and tenure
• Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg & Israel scholar Avi Shlaim on tenure
• No tenure for Finkelstein!
• Fisk on Tenure
• National Catholic Reporter on Tenure
• PLAUT ON TENURE
• On Dershowitz and Finkelstein
• Princetonian on tenure
• Tenure and the Times
• Jerusalem Post on tenure
• Jewish Week on Tenure
• JDO Launches Campaign “Operation Drive Out!” to Drive Self-Hating Jewish Professor Hater of Israel- Mocker of the Holocaust- Out of De Paul University
• The Nation on Tenure
• Dershowitz in Wall Street Journal on tenure
• CUNY on Tenure
• Fox News on tenure
• Chicago Tribune on tenure
• Chicago Sun-Times on tenure
• Tenure, from a mile high
• Comment on Tenure
• Alan Dershowitz and Peter Novick in Chronicle of Higher Education on Tenure
• Chicago Jewish News on Tenure
• Bangkok Post: Witch hunt
• JTA on anti-tenure petition

I am sorry to hear about the class cancellation. Even though the school has been threatening this action all summer, it still does not make it right when they actually do it. I received your email on Friday as well as an email from the Assistant Dean [Honold]. As soon as I got his email I called him to tell him that I, as a student, felt that my well being was never considered. During our conversation he said a few interesting things; first he found it ironic that they would cancel the class entitled Freedom and Empowerment because the teacher shows dissent and even said “when I wrote the email, that was the first thing that jumped out at me”. He also did not want for me to think of him as “a good German. Just because I am told to do this, does not mean that it is me making the decisions.” He then told me since it was above his head to email Dean Suchar, so I did. After four hours and eight emails, Dean Suchar basically informed me that he would not meet with me even though it was not a scheduling conflict, he did not find it ironic that he canceled a class called Freedom and Empowerment and instead of asking him questions that I should direct them to you as it is your fault for dissenting, and even though he would not meet with me that I should continue to email him my concerns [what a coward].

We are meeting tomorrow night as a group to discuss the upcoming week. We are planning something for Friday at the convocation, as there will be lots of faculty there. If there is anything that you would like me to tell the group, let me know and I will relay the message. Also, Matthew Abraham has offered his office for your use, McGaw 312 and says that you may use it any day at any time.

I know that you were supposed to be back in town in the next few days and if there is anything that I or the group can help you with, please let me know. Let us know how we can help you. Also, if there is any type of meeting that you would like a representative from the group to be a part of, please let me know and we will make sure we get someone there.

Thank you for everything and know that we are behind you through all of this. The next few weeks will be especially tough on DePaul.

Evan Lorendo…



More articles on tenure denial:

• The Chronicle of Higher Ed: A reliable source (06.04.2007)
• Raul Hilberg: “I have a sinking feeling about the damage this will do to academic freedom…” (Chicago Tribune, 06.10.2007)
• The Chronicle of Higher Education: “DePaul U. Cancels Courses of Professor Who Lost Tenure Bid, but He Plans to Teach Them Anyway” (08.28.2007)
• AAUP writes DePaul yet again (08.27.2007)
• DePaul’s latest outrage (08.27.2007)
• How DePaul practices Vincentian values (08.25.2007)
• DePaul Students Put Administration on Notice: We Will Defend Academic Freedom! (08.23.2007)
• Another robust message from AAUP to DePaul (08.22.2007)
• Another letter to DePaul’s President (08.20.2007)
• A letter to DePaul’s President (08.16.2007)
• DePaul Students write President Holtschneider (DePaul Academic Freedom Chicago: “Norman Finkelstein’s right to return to teach,” 08.15.2007)
• A detailed analysis of Depaul’s tenure decision (”ACADEMIC FREEDOM ON TRIAL: NORMAN FINKELSTEIN AND THE MINORITY REPORT,” 08.10.2007)
• DePaul Faculty Comments on Tenure Decision (Bill Martin, Professor of Philosophy at DePaul, DissidentVoice.org: “Urgent Need to Right Wrongs at DePaul University,” 08.09.2007)
• RESOLUTION OPPOSING DEPAUL UNIVERSITY’S DECISION TO DENY TENURE TO DR. NORMAN FINKELSTEIN AND DR. MEHRENE LARUDEE (08.02.2007)
• AAUP v. Father Holtschneider (of Depaul) (07.28.2007)
• American Association of University Professors letter (07.25.2007)
• Letter from former student to DePaul (07.25.2007)
• Protesting Norman Finkelstein’s Tenure Denial; or, Academic Freedom Declines across the U.S. - Part II” (07.15.2007)
• If the Stairs Do Fit, You Cannot Acquit (Finkelstein comments: “The DePaul administration now alleges that I am a Menace II Society. To prove this allegation, they have…”, 07.03.2007)
• More photos from DePaul students (07.03.2007)
• Letter from a student at Harvard Law School (07.03.2007)
• Interesting revelations, interesting speculations (CounterPunch: “Anatomy of a Smear: The Commissar Two-Step at DePaul,” 07.02.2007)
• Photos and more from DePaul students “Who is John Simon?…” (07.02.2007)
• Resolution presented to US Social Forum (Atlanta) (07.02.2007)
• “The ‘F-Word’- How DePaul Is Terrified Of Anything Finkelstein” (Chicago Indymedia, 06.29.2007)
• A DePaul Faster Speaks (CounterPunch: “Academic Injustices: Fasting for Justice at DePaul,” 06.29.2007)
• A Reasoned Statement on Tenure Denial (CounterPunch: “”The Poisoning of Academic Freedom: Strange Calculus at DePaul,” 06.28.2007)
• [DePaul students'] FAST UPDATE (06.30.2007)
• Iran on Tenure Denial (06.26.2007)
• Chronicle on DePaul Fast (06.25.2007)
• Dersh again: “Finkelstein’s Sexism” (06.25.2007)
• Letter to DePaul President Holtschneider about Student Fast (06.25.2007)
• Al-Hayat on Tenure (06.24.2007)
• The plot thickens (Chicago Sun-Times: “Outwit. Outplay. Outlast. Outtenure?” 06.22.2007)
• Vancouver Jewish Group on Tenure (06.21.2007)
• CounterPunch: “Student Anger at the Denial of Tenure for Two Progressive Professors. Boycotting DePaul” (06.22.2007)
• Video: Aljazeera on tenure (06.21.2007)
• A letter to Father Holtschneider (06.19.2007)
• NBC5 | WMAQ TV, Chicago: “DePaul Students Turn Graduation Into Protest w/ video segment (06.19.2007)
• Counter Punch: Fallout from a Smear: Finkelstein and The Progressive (06.16.2007)
• DePaul Student Statement to Faculty (06.14.2007)
• Harvard Crimson on Tenure Denial (06.17.2007)
• Chicago Sun-Times: “Students ordered to leave chief’s area” (06.14.2007)
• Chicago Sun-Times: “DePaul chief may face vote of no confidence” (06.13.2007)
• Students Call for Rally to Defend Academic Freedom (06.13.2007)
• ChicagoPublicRadio.org, Eight Forty Eight: “Dr. Norman Finkelstein joins us to reflect on DePaul University’s decision to deny him tenure.” (06.12.2007)
• The Jerusalem Post: “US Jewish prof. refused tenure due to Shoah views” (06.11.2007)
• DePaul Students Take a Stand - by Sitting In! (06.12.2007)
• Inside Higher Education on Tenure Denial (06.11.2007)
• The (British) Guardian on Tenure Denial (06.11.2007)
• The New York Times on tenure denial (06.11.2007)
• Anti-Defamation League on tenure denial (06.11.2007)
• Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tenure Denial (06.11.2007)
• Chicago Sun-Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog, the Associated Press on tenure denial (06.08.2007)

More articles leading up to the tenure decision:

• Tenure? (4 articles: The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The Harvard Crimson, FrontPageMag.com)
• Chomsky on Dershowitz, Finkelstein and tenure
• Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg & Israel scholar Avi Shlaim on tenure
• No tenure for Finkelstein!
• Fisk on Tenure
• National Catholic Reporter on Tenure
• PLAUT ON TENURE
• On Dershowitz and Finkelstein
• Princetonian on tenure
• Tenure and the Times
• Jerusalem Post on tenure
• Jewish Week on Tenure
• JDO Launches Campaign “Operation Drive Out!From: elorendo[at.]gmail.com
  To: normangf[at]hotmail.com
  Subject: I am sorry to hear about the cancellation
  Date: Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:33:17 -0500
  
  Prof. Finkelstein,
  
  I am sorry to hear about the class cancellation. Even though the school has been threatening this action all summer, it still does not make it right when they actually do it. I received your email on Friday as well as an email from the Assistant Dean [Honold]. As soon as I got his email I called him to tell him that I, as a student, felt that my well being was never considered. During our conversation he said a few interesting things; first he found it ironic that they would cancel the class entitled Freedom and Empowerment because the teacher shows dissent and even said “when I wrote the email, that was the first thing that jumped out at me”. He also did not want for me to think of him as “a good German. Just because I am told to do this, does not mean that it is me making the decisions.” He then told me since it was above his head to email Dean Suchar, so I did. After four hours and eight emails, Dean Suchar basically informed me that he would not meet with me even though it was not a scheduling conflict, he did not find it ironic that he canceled a class called Freedom and Empowerment and instead of asking him questions that I should direct them to you as it is your fault for dissenting, and even though he would not meet with me that I should continue to email him my concerns [what a coward].
  
  We are meeting tomorrow night as a group to discuss the upcoming week. We are planning something for Friday at the convocation, as there will be lots of faculty there. If there is anything that you would like me to tell the group, let me know and I will relay the message. Also, Matthew Abraham has offered his office for your use, McGaw 312 and says that you may use it any day at any time.
  
  I know that you were supposed to be back in town in the next few days and if there is anything that I or the group can help you with, please let me know. Let us know how we can help you. Also, if there is any type of meeting that you would like a representative from the group to be a part of, please let me know and we will make sure we get someone there.
  
  Thank you for everything and know that we are behind you through all of this. The next few weeks will be especially tough on DePaul.
  
  Evan Lorendo…
  
  
  
  More articles on tenure denial:
  • The Chronicle of Higher Ed: A reliable source (06.04.2007)
  • Raul Hilberg: “I have a sinking feeling about the damage this will do to academic freedom…” (Chicago Tribune, 06.10.2007)
  • The Chronicle of Higher Education: “DePaul U. Cancels Courses of Professor Who Lost Tenure Bid, but He Plans to Teach Them Anyway” (08.28.2007)
  • AAUP writes DePaul yet again (08.27.2007)
  • DePaul’s latest outrage (08.27.2007)
  • How DePaul practices Vincentian values (08.25.2007)
  • DePaul Students Put Administration on Notice: We Will Defend Academic Freedom! (08.23.2007)
  • Another robust message from AAUP to DePaul (08.22.2007)
  • Another letter to DePaul’s President (08.20.2007)
  • A letter to DePaul’s President (08.16.2007)
  • DePaul Students write President Holtschneider (DePaul Academic Freedom Chicago: “Norman Finkelstein’s right to return to teach,” 08.15.2007)
  • A detailed analysis of Depaul’s tenure decision (”ACADEMIC FREEDOM ON TRIAL: NORMAN FINKELSTEIN AND THE MINORITY REPORT,” 08.10.2007)
  • DePaul Faculty Comments on Tenure Decision (Bill Martin, Professor of Philosophy at DePaul, DissidentVoice.org: “Urgent Need to Right Wrongs at DePaul University,” 08.09.2007)
  • RESOLUTION OPPOSING DEPAUL UNIVERSITY’S DECISION TO DENY TENURE TO DR. NORMAN FINKELSTEIN AND DR. MEHRENE LARUDEE (08.02.2007)
  • AAUP v. Father Holtschneider (of Depaul) (07.28.2007)
  • American Association of University Professors letter (07.25.2007)
  • Letter from former student to DePaul (07.25.2007)
  • Protesting Norman Finkelstein’s Tenure Denial; or, Academic Freedom Declines across the U.S. - Part II” (07.15.2007)
  • If the Stairs Do Fit, You Cannot Acquit (Finkelstein comments: “The DePaul administration now alleges that I am a Menace II Society. To prove this allegation, they have…”, 07.03.2007)
  • More photos from DePaul students (07.03.2007)
  • Letter from a student at Harvard Law School (07.03.2007)
  • Interesting revelations, interesting speculations (CounterPunch: “Anatomy of a Smear: The Commissar Two-Step at DePaul,” 07.02.2007)
  • Photos and more from DePaul students “Who is John Simon?…” (07.02.2007)
  • Resolution presented to US Social Forum (Atlanta) (07.02.2007)
  • “The ‘F-Word’- How DePaul Is Terrified Of Anything Finkelstein” (Chicago Indymedia, 06.29.2007)
  • A DePaul Faster Speaks (CounterPunch: “Academic Injustices: Fasting for Justice at DePaul,” 06.29.2007)
  • A Reasoned Statement on Tenure Denial (CounterPunch: “”The Poisoning of Academic Freedom: Strange Calculus at DePaul,” 06.28.2007)
  • [DePaul students'] FAST UPDATE (06.30.2007)
  • Iran on Tenure Denial (06.26.2007)
  • Chronicle on DePaul Fast (06.25.2007)
  • Dersh again: “Finkelstein’s Sexism” (06.25.2007)
  • Letter to DePaul President Holtschneider about Student Fast (06.25.2007)
  • Al-Hayat on Tenure (06.24.2007)
  • The plot thickens (Chicago Sun-Times: “Outwit. Outplay. Outlast. Outtenure?” 06.22.2007)
  • Vancouver Jewish Group on Tenure (06.21.2007)
  • CounterPunch: “Student Anger at the Denial of Tenure for Two Progressive Professors. Boycotting DePaul” (06.22.2007)
  • Video: Aljazeera on tenure (06.21.2007)
  • A letter to Father Holtschneider (06.19.2007)
  • NBC5 | WMAQ TV, Chicago: “DePaul Students Turn Graduation Into Protest w/ video segment (06.19.2007)
  • Counter Punch: Fallout from a Smear: Finkelstein and The Progressive (06.16.2007)
  • DePaul Student Statement to Faculty (06.14.2007)
  • Harvard Crimson on Tenure Denial (06.17.2007)
  • Chicago Sun-Times: “Students ordered to leave chief’s area” (06.14.2007)
  • Chicago Sun-Times: “DePaul chief may face vote of no confidence” (06.13.2007)
  • Students Call for Rally to Defend Academic Freedom (06.13.2007)
  • ChicagoPublicRadio.org, Eight Forty Eight: “Dr. Norman Finkelstein joins us to reflect on DePaul University’s decision to deny him tenure.” (06.12.2007)
  • The Jerusalem Post: “US Jewish prof. refused tenure due to Shoah views” (06.11.2007)
  • DePaul Students Take a Stand - by Sitting In! (06.12.2007)
  • Inside Higher Education on Tenure Denial (06.11.2007)
  • The (British) Guardian on Tenure Denial (06.11.2007)
  • The New York Times on tenure denial (06.11.2007)
  • Anti-Defamation League on tenure denial (06.11.2007)
  • Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tenure Denial (06.11.2007)
  • Chicago Sun-Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education News Blog, the Associated Press on tenure denial (06.08.2007)
  More articles leading up to the tenure decision:
  • Tenure? (4 articles: The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The Harvard Crimson, FrontPageMag.com)
  • Chomsky on Dershowitz, Finkelstein and tenure
  • Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg & Israel scholar Avi Shlaim on tenure
  • No tenure for Finkelstein!
  • Fisk on Tenure
  • National Catholic Reporter on Tenure
  • PLAUT ON TENURE
  • On Dershowitz and Finkelstein
  • Princetonian on tenure
  • Tenure and the Times
  • Jerusalem Post on tenure
  • Jewish Week on Tenure
  • JDO Launches Campaign “Operation Drive Out!” to Drive Self-Hating Jewish Professor Hater of Israel- Mocker of the Holocaust- Out of De Paul University
  • The Nation on Tenure
  • Dershowitz in Wall Street Journal on tenure
  • CUNY on Tenure
  • Fox News on tenure
  • Chicago Tribune on tenure
  • Chicago Sun-Times on tenure
  • Tenure, from a mile high
  • Comment on Tenure
  • Alan Dershowitz and Peter Novick in Chronicle of Higher Education on Tenure
  • Chicago Jewish News on Tenure
  • Bangkok Post: Witch hunt
  • JTA on anti-tenure petition
  ” to Drive Self-Hating Jewish Professor Hater of Israel- Mocker of the Holocaust- Out of De Paul University
• The Nation on Tenure
• Dershowitz in Wall Street Journal on tenure
• CUNY on Tenure
• Fox News on tenure
• Chicago Tribune on tenure
• Chicago Sun-Times on tenure
• Tenure, from a mile high
• Comment on Tenure
• Alan Dershowitz and Peter Novick in Chronicle of Higher Education on Tenure
• Chicago Jewish News on Tenure
• Bangkok Post: Witch hunt
• JTA on anti-tenure petition

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