Finkelstein, leading critic of Israeli foreign policy

01.15.2009 | 640toronto.com

Reader letters

Editor’s note:

Please write to the station and the host & thank them for having more than just Daniel Pipes & John Bolton on the show:

oakley@640toronto.com.

The opposition will write a barrage of letters — wether or not they succeed depends on us.

To the producers of 640 Toronto Radio,

I am writing to thank you for the balanced debate and the vast array of guests you had on your show this morning when discussing Israel and the massacre that has been taking place for the past three weeks. I feel, particularly in light of the Canadian government’s refusal to condemn Israel’s war crimes and ineffable breaches of international and humanitarian law, that it is important to ensure that freedom of political debate and information is not stifled so that all your listeners are informed and educated as to the real state of affairs.

I am sure that having someone like Norman Finkelstein on your show, an individual deemed to be a controversial figure by many, will spark outrage from the pro-Israeli sectors of your listeners, BUT I would like to strongly commend you for your fairness and wisdom in inviting him to speak on this issue. He is a world expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and, despite attempts by many to silence him, his ideas and work must be viewed and read. His knowledge on this issue is meticulously detailed and authoritative and his work has been praised by many leading academics.

Thank you for not allowing yourselves to bow to pressure to present a one-sided portrayal of the conflict. Long may this wisdom and fairness continue.

Sincerely,

Alexandra Mafham

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Dear Dr Finkelstein

As I have expressed to you in a previous letter, I have the utmost respect for your courage and tenacity in standing by what you believe is the truth on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In a world full of craziness you are one of the voices that help keep my sanity. However in a recent radio interview I was very disturbed by one of your comments. In responding to the Oakely Show host’s question about how the refugees’ right of return would play with keeping up “the Jewish face of Israel” your response was centered on the “possibilities for making offers’ to the refugees, presenting that as the main solution to the refugees’ right of return ‘problem’. Your comparison to your personal tenure settlement with DePaul, which I have heard you make before in one of your lectures, is simplistic to say the least. Comparing one’s sense of home, identitiy and history to a job is ridiculous. One would have hoped a person of your intellect to express ridicule at the notion of a racist state instead.

I am not a refugee myself, but as a Palestinian I can tell you that it is not a solution considered even remotely acceptible to the majority of the refugees. This is a totally unqualified opinion of course, but so is yours and to hear it presented on public radio in a continent wallowing in so many untruths and so much misunderstanding about the Palestinian-Israeli issue was deeply upsetting. Supporters of the 2-state solution seem to hang on to this fantasy in order to delude themselves that a quick solution is viable, as they know very well that Zionist Israel would never give up its demographic advantage. But they forget that as long as there is a Zionist state that insists on implementing a racist ideology there could never be peace anyway.

Kind regards

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Hello Mr. Oakley,

Thank you for bringing Dr.Finkelstein on your show. It was a breath of fresh air. His views and opinions add significantly to the debate on Israel/Palestine conflict.

I think his view that International laws should be respected by all parties in the conflict and US/Israel should stop being rejectionists and accept the International consensus on how to resolve this conflict is a reasonable proposal and should not be ignored. It’s probably the only way to resolve this long standing conflict.

I hope to hear your show again and look forward to more of such interesting and thought provoking interviews.

Thanks again…..

-S