NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: ISRAEL MUST BE DEFEATED BY HEZBOLLAH

Norman Finkelstein: Israel Must Be Defeated (LGF)
Disgraced American wacademic Norman Finkelstein goes on Lebanese television, expresses his “solidarity” with Islamofascist terror group Hizballah, and says “Israel has to suffer a defeat.”

The term “useful idiot” was invented to describe creatures like Finkelstein.

HERE'S THE VIDEO.

(Courtesy of MEMRI TV.)

OXFORD STUDENT UNION SINKS EVEN LOWER

DOES OXFORD THINK IT OK TO HONOR A MAN WHO CALLS ANNE FRANK A PORN STAR? (Tom Gross)

In October, I wrote about criticism of the Oxford Union in a dispatch titled “Outrage after Holocaust denier David Irving invited to Oxford Union.”

Oxford University’s world famous Oxford Union debating society went ahead with the invitation to Irving, and British fascist leader Nick Griffin, in November. Shortly before, in the latest of several outrageous pronouncements, Irving had told the British daily The Guardian that the Jews were responsible for “most of the wars of the last 100 years.”

Tomorrow (Tuesday) at the Oxford Union, four academics who all support a boycott of Israel, will debate the motion “This House Believes That The State of Israel has a Right to Exist.”

American revisionist “historian” Norman Finkelstein along with Prof. Ted Honderich will be speaking for the motion while opposing them will be Exeter University academics Ghada Karmi and Ilan Pappe, a former Israeli Jew who has made a career out of slandering the country where he was born and grew up. It is harder to know which of these four is the most vile.

Just last week, Finkelstein reprinted on his website an article from the Israeli paper Ha’aretz about worrying signs of failures in Holocaust education among German youth, and added the mock headline: “To reverse declining German interest in Holocaust, Britney Spears to play Anne Frank in new Holo-porn video.”

Making fun of Holocaust survivors has been a frequent feature of Finkelstein’s work (even though he is himself the son of survivors) and it is not surprising that so many regard him (as was the case with former chess champion Bobby Fischer who died last week) as a highly disturbed Jewish self-hater.

What is surprising – and dangerous – however, is Oxford’s behavior.

Do the university authorities think it is ok to honor (and indeed pay a fee to) a man who thinks it is fun to call child Holocaust victim Anne Frank a porn star?

Do people in turn think it is ok to continue making donations to Oxford University’s fundraising appeals?

The issue is not just why Israel is the only country whose right to exist is being questioned at Oxford. Perhaps of even greater concern is why Oxford has chosen such anti-Israeli figures as Finkelstein and Honderich to argue Israel has a right to exist. All four speakers have in the past supported organizations that have called for the delegitimization of the State of Israel.

DOES BRITAIN HAVE A RIGHT TO EXIST?

Fresh from his tour of Lebanon earlier this month (where he was warmly welcomed by Hizbullah supporters), Finkelstein is this week on a British tour organized and paid for by FOSIS (the Federation of Student Islamic Societies in the UK and Ireland) and supported by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign. In addition to Oxford, he will be speaking to students at Manchester, Keele, Sussex and Edinburgh Universities, and at the London School of Economics (LSE).

The posters advertising the speaking tour show a map depicting a one state solution for Palestine, with Israel eliminated, and Palestine represented in red with dripping blood. So why has Oxford chosen Finkelstein, of all people, as the speaker students will hear putting the case for a Jewish state not to be wiped out?

What would people in Britain think if foreign universities debated whether Britain had a right to exist?

I also attach below, in the “Full Articles” section, a piece on how the idiocy of the Oxford Union has spread to American universities. It is by Cliff May, a subscriber to this list.

I should add that when I was a student at Oxford University, and a member of the Oxford Union, it never invited quite such evil people to appear before it as it does now.

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN JEW-HATE ROADSHOW

The Norman Finkelstein Roadshow by Noah Pollak (Contentions)
Norman Finkelstein, freshly liberated from the humdrum of academic life by way of being denied tenure at De Paul University, has taken his hate-Israel routine on the road. He has gone to Lebanon to give lectures and to “hold two workshops in Palestinian refugee camps.”

At a press conference on Friday–Finkelstein must surely savor having the kind of attention lavished on him in Lebanon that few can be bothered to provide in America–he channeled Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizballah, in describing the 2006 Israel-Hizballah war:

However, it is also true to say that the Lebanese resistance inflicted a historic and well-deserved military defeat on the invading foreign army and its chief supporter.

He continued:

It should also be mentioned that after the war the US-based organization Human Rights Watch whitewashed Israeli war crimes and made false accusations against Hizballah. This cowardly and mercenary act deserves contempt.

Ah yes, Human Rights Watch, that steely defender of the Jewish state.

It’s probably impossible to put Finkelstein’s swindles and perversions (to borrow an Orwell phrase) into a ratings system, and I am by no means a person who wastes much time following the man’s deluded utterances. But here he has clearly sunk to a new low: He openly sympathizes with Hizballah, a group which seeks the genocide of the Jewish people; he openly wishes for Israel’s military defeat against an enemy whose primary ambition is the state’s annihilation; and he does all of this while hiding behind the fig leaf of his own Jewishness so as to deflect the charge that he is an anti-Semite.

It is normal to say that Finkelstein’s are the views of a self-hating Jew. But by all appearances, the man does not hate himself, and in fact views his role as that of a hero–a brave truth-teller fighting against the imperial forces of Zionism and Americanism. There is no self-hatred here, only hatred. Finkelstein is a hustler and a coward because he trades off his Jewishness to lend credibility to starkly anti-Jewish rhetoric. It’s time we stopped calling Finkelstein a self-hating Jew and started calling him what he actually is: an anti-Semite.

ISRAEL CONSPIRATISTS GATHER IN CHICAGO

Critics of Israel lobby gather on Mearsheimer's home turf By Ben Harris (JTA)
CHICAGO (JTA) -- Collectively, they have published more than a hundred books and countless articles. Four are tenured professors at elite American universities. Internet searches reveal them to be widely cited experts on international affairs and American foreign policy.

But there they were last week, at a conference hosted by the University of Chicago -- Noam Chomsky, John Mearsheimer, Tony Judt and fellow travelers -- warning that pressure from American Jewish groups is having a chilling effect on unpopular scholarship and freewheeling debate on university campuses.

"Universities are the one place in the United States where Israel tends to get treated like a normal country," said Mearsheimer, the University of Chica ... Full Story

FINKELSTEIN QUITS

DePaul, embattled professor settle dispute (Chic. Trib)
The long-running confrontation between embattled professor Norman Finkelstein and DePaul University ended today without the dramatics he had promised. Instead, he read a statement announcing his resignation this morning on the university's main quadrangle before about 120 supporters announcing that he and DePaul had resolved the controversy. But the terms were kept confidential.

Finkelstein had vowed to present himself at his office door today and, if denied entrance, to perform an unspecified act of civil disobedience. He vowed to go on a hunger strike if he were jailed.

Finkelstein, a scholar praised and damned for his strong criticisms of Israel, was denied tenure in June. However, his classes remained in the university's course schedule until abruptly canceled a little more than a week before fall term classes began on the school's Lincoln Park campus.

At that point, Finkelstein also was notified that he had been put on administrative leave for the 2007-08 school year. By long-standing academic tradition, a professor denied tenure is entitled to one last year in the classroom of his home university.

In July, Finkelstein's own department of political science had recommended that the 53-year-old professor be put on "non-residential" leave. This was the outcome of allegations that Finkelstein had physically and verbally confronted university officials after his tenure denial.

Finkelstein read both his statement and DePaul's today. No university official appeared. In its statement, the university wrote: "Professor Finkelstein is a prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher." ...

A colorful demonstration for Finkelstein on campus this morning included representatives of the National Lawyers Guild, the Socialist Workers Party, the Revolutionary Communist League and Jewish Voice for Peace.

Finkelstein has been noted for his support of the Palestinian cause.

PARADE OF HORRIBLES TO RALLY FOR FINKELSTEIN

Rallying for Finkelstein
Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Tony Judt and John Mearsheimer will be convening a teach-in at DePaul in October to protest on behalf of the soon-to-be ex-DePaul professor Norman Finkelstein. (Atlantic Online)

FINKELSTEIN RISKS ARREST BY SHOWING UP TO TEACH AT DEPAUL UNIV.

Controversial Professor Plans to Risk Arrest After University Cancels His Classes (FOXNEWS)
A professor whose views on the Holocaust irked critics plans to risk arrest by showing up on the first day of classes next week at DePaul University after officials canceled his courses, took away his office and put him on leave.

The private Chicago Catholic university recently informed professor Norman Finkelstein that his three courses were canceled after a dispute over tenure that drew charges of anti-Semitism against him.

Critics find issue with Finkelstein, the son of Holocaust survivors, who believes that some Jews have exploited the Holocaust. Finkelstein is the author of five books, including "The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering." ...

The university put Finkelstein on administrative leave with full pay and benefits last week for 2007-2008, the final year of his contract....

FOR BACKGROUND SEE: FINKELSTEIN DENIED TENURE; DERSHOWITZ BATTLES FINKELSTEIN; BENNY MORRIS REFUTES NORMAN FINKELSTEIN; DERSHOWITZ TAKES ON LERNER & FINKLESTEIN; LEBANESE TV HOLOCAUST DENIAL; JEWS WHO AID JEW-HATERS

FINKELSTEIN DENIED TENURE

DePaul denies tenure to Finkelstein (JTA)
DePaul University denied tenure to Norman Finkelstein, a professor who raised hackles for saying that Jewish groups have exploited the Holocaust.

Norman Finkelstein "plays fast and loose" with the facts he cited in his scholarly work, Michael Kotzin, the executive vice president of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, told JTA on Sunday, thus making the decision necessary.

Kotzin said his group had been careful not to impinge on the Chicago university's right to make its choice, emphasizing that DePaul had an "absolutely internal basis for the decision based on their standards and principles."

In his letter to Finkelstein, DePaul's president, the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider, cited a summary statement by the university's board on promotion of tenure that "expressed several concerns touching on his scholarship, specifically what they consider the intellectual character of his work and his persona as a public intellectual."

Among those who had vocally urged DePaul to reject tenure to Finkelstein were the pro-Israel group StandWithUs and, perhaps most visibly, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.

Finkelstein, the child of Holocaust survivors, was an assistant professor in political science at DePaul. He has argued that Jewish groups "have exploited the Holocaust to enrich themselves or to justify Israeli politics."

He told the Chicago Sun-Times after the decision, "They can deny me tenure, deny me the right to teach. But they will never stop me from saying what I believe."

Kotzin said that in a speech Sunday to Write On for Israel, a group of pro-Israel high school juniors, he told the students that "in a way Finkelstein is an extreme," but that there are many radical faculty on American campuses.

SEE ALSO: DERSHOWITZ BATTLES FINKELSTEIN AND BENNY MORRIS REFUTES NORMAN FINKELSTEIN

DERSHOWITZ BATTLES FINKELSTEIN

ISRAEL DEFENDER ALAN DERSHOWITZ IS TRYING TO PERSUADE DEPAUL UNIVERSITY TO DENY TENURE TO ISRAEL DEFAMER, HOLOCAUST-QUESTIONER, AND TERRORIST SUPPORTER JEW NORMAN FINKELSTEIN.

A Bitter Spat Over Ideas, Israel and Tenure
In an ongoing battle between two polarizing professors, Alan Dershowitz is undertaking a campaign to persuade DePaul University to deny tenure to Norman Finkelstein, his longtime intellectual nemesis. (The New York Times)

BENNY MORRIS REFUTES NORMAN FINKELSTEIN

Israeli Historian Benny Morris Refutes Norman Finkelstein
Israeli historian Benny Morris was cited by anti-Israel activist Norman Finkelstein as an "informed commentator" who agrees with Carter's apartheid comparison. In response, Morris said: "Israel is not an apartheid state - rather the opposite, it is easily the most democratic and politically egalitarian state in the Middle East, in which Arab Israelis enjoy far more freedom, better social services, etc. than in all the Arab states surrounding it. Indeed, Arab representatives in the Knesset, who continuously call for dismantling the Jewish state, support the Hizbullah, etc., enjoy more freedom than many Western democracies give their internal oppositions."

"As to the occupied territories, Israeli policy is fueled by security considerations rather than racism - and indeed the Arab population suffers as a result. But Gaza's and the West Bank's (Arab) population are not Israeli citizens and cannot expect to benefit from the same rights as Israeli citizens so long as the occupation or semi-occupation continues, which itself is a function of the continued state of war between the Hamas-led Palestinians and Israel." (CAMERA)