War on Muslims: American Norman Finkelstein says: "Israel Has to Suffer a Defeat"
Posted on Friday, March 07 @ 17:13:47 EST by qjaved
qamarjaved writes "Following is a video clip and excerpts from an interview with American Political Scientist Norman Finkelstein, which aired on Future TV on January 20, 2008.
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.
American Political Scientist Norman Finkelstein: "Israel Has to Suffer
a Defeat"
IN DEFENCE OF HEZBOLLAH - - Hezbollah, the Honour
of Lebanon
A Clip Broadcast: January 20, 2008 on FUTURE TV (Lebanese TV station)
and put on YouTube.com .
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
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
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
* * * * *
NOTES ON Norman Gary Finkelstein (from
wikipedia) Norman Gary Finkelstein (born December 8,
1953)
is an Americanpolitical
scientist and author, specialising in Jewish-related
issues, especially the Holocaust
and the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. A graduate of SUNY
Binghamton, he received his Ph.D
in Political Science from Princeton University.
He has held faculty positions at Brooklyn College, Rutgers
University, Hunter College, New
York University, and most recently, DePaul
University, where he was an assistant
professor from 2001 to 2007.
Beginning with his doctoral thesis at Princeton,
Finkelstein's career has been marked by controversy. A self-described
'forensic scholar,' he has written sharply critical academic reviews of
several prominent writers and scholars whom he accuses of
misrepresenting the documentary record in order to defend
Israel’s policies and practices. His writings, noted for
their support of the Palestinian cause[1]
have dealt with politically-charged topics such as Zionism,
the demographic history of Palestine and his allegations of the
existence of a "Holocaust Industry"
that exploits the memory of the Holocaust to further Israeli and
financial interests. Citing linguist and politicial activistNoam
Chomsky as an example, Finkelstein notes that it is "possible
to unite exacting scholarly rigor with scathing moral outrage,"[2] and
supporters and detractors alike have remarked on the polemical style of
Finkelstein's work.[3][4] However, its
content has been praised by eminent historians such as Raul
Hilberg and Avi Shlaim,[4] as well as
Chomsky.
MIRAJ : Real Communities, Real News - No Spin, No Illusions!
Asian, Islamic and Global War on Terror news, information, events, issues, shops, community centres, mosques, classes, photos, videos, chat, forms and much more.
MIRAJ..Cutting through the spin and illusions to expose the reality.
