WWL Radio #138 Norm Finkelstein Interview

by: Diane Gee

Fri Jan 20, 2012 at 09:48:56 AM EST

Norman G. Finkelstein is an author and lecturer living in Brooklyn.  He received his doctorate in 1988 from the Department of Politics at Princeton University. For many years he taught political theory and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
He is currently working on a new book entitled KNOWING TOO MUCH: Why the American Jewish love affair with Israel is coming to an end.  

Norm is a fiery speaker, pulls no punches and is an endless advocate for moving the factions of the Right back to the ideals of the Left: Peace and Human Dignity for All.  I cannot wait to speak with him!

His other books include:

"This Time We Went Too Far": Truth and consequences of the Gaza invasion

Beyond Chutzpah: On the misuse of anti-Semitism and the abuse of history

The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the exploitation of Jewish suffering

Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen thesis and historical truth

The Rise and Fall of Palestine: A personal account of the intifada years

The call in number is 646-929-1264 to join the conversation!

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Israeli Apologists and Freedom Fighters

by: Diane Gee

Mon Apr 18, 2011 at 09:13:29 AM EDT

According to the Haaretz article, in an Israeli government briefing on April 12, officials said that Israel's policy concerning the event has not changed, saying that "ships would be stopped by force if they sailed to Gaza."

Worse, besides all the punitive border closures into Gaza of late, making medicine and basic food unavailable, Gaza has been getting pounded by Israeli forces. It seems the Left has abandoned the cause, it is being ignored since Goldstone kinda-sorta recanted under enormous pressure, barred from his Grandsons Bar Mitzvah and attacked by vile smears by the power machine behind the Zionist Right Wing.

For the past two months, the Israeli military has attacked houses and facilities in Gaza almost daily, either by US F16s, Apache helicopters air or from tank shelling, mortars or sniper fire from fortified concrete bunkers overlooking the Gaza border. From March 16-29, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) killed 14 Palestinians, including six civilians, and injured 52 Palestinians, including at least 40 civilians (19 children), between 16-29 March, according to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

Boat Notes

by: Diane Gee

Wed Feb 09, 2011 at 09:07:06 AM EST

I have named you Boat Notes, somewhat trivial a name for a journey that may just end my life.

I wondered if I would get motion sickness, but it seems I am born to this. Some of my friends look so absolutely green. Another surprise is the quiet. I equate Ocean with shore-sounds, and this is far more subtle. This far out, no bird sounds, either. Below that, the drone of enormous motors.

The salt air seems to be arm wrestling with the diesel fumes, fore, aft - clean, oily - womb, ghetto. Its really odd. I spend most of my time on deck up front, wanting the clean air in my face, looking out in wonder. Most of them are bored with it already, amusing themselves other ways, "Yeah, looks the same as yesterday," they chide me when I race up the steps in the morning with my styrofoam cup of 90 weight coffee to the bow. I can't get enough of it.  The sea, that is, not this thick mud the Turks call coffee.

Its utter serenity for me, the calm before whatever may come.

Send Barbara Boxer a human rights for Palestinians message

by: fairleft

Tue Oct 19, 2010 at 19:26:34 PM EDT

Barbara Boxer Gets Progressive Support Despite Checkered Record on Human Rights, International Law
Boxer takes the positions she does not because AIPAC forces her, but because she can get progressives to campaign for her, donate money to her, and vote for her anyway.
By Stephen Zunes
October 18, 2010

Barbara Boxer shaking hands with Ariel Sharon

"The army knows the kids are there to collect. They watch them every day and they know they have no weapons," said Mohammed Abu Rukbi, a fieldworker with DCI. "They usually fire warning shots but the kids don't take much notice."

Mohammed Sobboh, 17, [ABOVE] was shot just above the knee on August 25 when he was 800 metres from the border, he said. The 12 people in his family have no other income and are not entitled to aid from the UN as they are not refugees.

Israeli soldiers shot dead a horse and a donkey used by Mohammed and his brothers to carry the rubble, he said.

Gaza teens brave IDF fire to collect salvaged building materials
In three months, soldiers shot and wounded 10 youths collecting building materials in expanded buffer zone.
By Amira Hass
October 10, 2010

In the course of three months this summer Israeli soldiers shot and wounded 10 Palestinian teenagers who collect building materials from demolished structures in the former Israeli settlements and the Erez industrial zone in the northern Gaza Strip, dozens or hundreds of meters from the border. Palestinians believe the shootings are aimed at keeping people away from these areas, but despite the great risk dozens of nearby residents, many of them minors, continue to come in order to collect bits of cement and gravel from inside the buildings that were destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces around the time of the 2005 disengagement, and sell them to contractors and factories in the Strip. ...

Every day dozens of people come to the ruins of the industrial zone and the settlements, such as Elei Sinai, in wagons drawn by donkeys or horses. One of the teens, who was shot on August 25, told Defence for Children that in recent months soldiers also shot and killed one of the donkeys and three of the horses.

Most of the children tell of a father who is unemployed. Some were among the thousands of Gazans who worked in Israel up until 2006, when their work permits were revoked. The father of one of the teens was forced to close his store as a result of Israel's ban on the entry of goods it did not define as "humanitarian" into the Strip. After the death, about two years ago, of a 14-year-old shooting victim identified as "N.," the teen dropped out of school to help support his family. That is the story of all these teens, dropping out and going out to work. They all said in their statements that they are afraid to go back to collecting gravel. Some have difficulty walking or carrying heavy loads as a result of their injuries.

The Audacity

by: augurgirl

Mon Jul 26, 2010 at 00:49:22 AM EDT

This morning I woke up to news of a US organization working to send their own aid ship in defiance of the Gaza blockade. This ship will be called The Audacity of Hope, and, because it has also been endorsed by Rashid Khalidi, it is being linked to you by some right-wing media sources. I can see why it might be annoying to suffer the criticisms of political convictions you don't actually have, so I would imagine that you viewed this news as one more headache. I heard it, and, for a moment, all I wanted to do was throw out my plans for the next year and join the crew.

I've spent the day talking myself out of it. As much as I want to go, to stand with those brave people willing to defy the unjust and cruel policies of the Israeli government toward Gaza, I have obligations. Completing my education this year is something I need to do, not only for myself but for all of the people in my life who believe that I can. Going out into the world to fight oppression and injustice is something that will have to wait another year. Still, I believe with all of my heart that this is the right thing to do, and so I am donating what I can to their efforts. The magnitude of Israeli crimes toward the Palestinian people and the people of Gaza, especially, demand resistance.

I do regret any political problems this mission will cause for your administration, if only because I think it is a shame you haven't adopted official policies that would warrant this criticism from the right. In your book, you talk about the courage it takes to keep having faith in our country, in change, in a better future. Your whole moral and philosophical worldview seems to demand equal rights, freedom, and the end of oppression. So I don't think you should be offended by the name of the ship. Hope has been an audacious thing for Gaza, and for those who would see it freed. That the Americans organizing this act in the spirit of your writing is not nearly as surprising or difficult to accept as your own willingness to set that spirit aside when convenience or politics demand.  

I know, my provocation likely falls on deaf ears. You will not support this ship, if anything, you are likely to denounce it and seek to distance yourself from Khalidi. I know this. But I have the audacity to believe, still, that I could be wrong. That your courage and your convictions might not be strangers on this issue forever. I have faith that you could change your mind, and see that, no matter how hopeless, the fight against this kind of injustice is always worth whatever criticism it will face. The people of Gaza deserve the same justice, opportunity and hope that you promised to America. Can you fault the Americans who would invest time and money, put on hold their lives, risk physical safety and freedom to make it happen? Does it make you, even in secret, even just a little bit proud?

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

If you'd like to donate to the Audacity of Hope, please visit US to Gaza.

Cross-posted at dearmrpresident365.

Is it a stomach bug, or is Chuck Schumer talking again?

by: augurgirl

Fri Jun 11, 2010 at 18:54:38 PM EDT

Senator Schumer has inspired me. Instead of just a tepid boycott  of Arizona, let's close off the borders, (I'm sure we can get Mexico's cooperation on this from the South.) We can keep out all but the most essential medical supplies and some food. (No potato chips though, at least not until we get some heat from the international community.) We'll allow a few Arizonans out, if they need medical treatment, but they'll need to apply for permits and not be on any lists of registered voters. You see, I think their immigration law is indicative of a dangerous trend of radicalized, religiously-based extremism, and, as Sen. Schumer propses, we ought to "strangle" them, (economically, of course,) until the population can be made to see the error of their votes.  

Barney Frank: Israel is Mandela, Gaza is apartheid South Africa

by: fairleft

Sat Jun 05, 2010 at 02:56:28 AM EDT

U.S. Senator Barney Frank equates Israel's brutal embargo against the Gaza Strip with the 1980s U.S. sanctions against the South Africa apartheid regime. Can a member of Congress get any more down on his hands and knees toward a foreign power, one that seems to have just engaged in murder and piracy on the high seas, and this from a supposed liberal beacon in the U.S. Senate?

Barney Frank Compares Israel's Gaza Blockade to Sanctions Against Apartheid
By Nathan Guttman
Published June 04, 2010

Israel's blockade against Gaza is comparable to the sanctions levied by the U.S. Congress against the apartheid regime of South Africa in 1986, Massachusetts Democrat Barney Frank told the Forward in an interview June 3.

Rebuffing critics who decry the effects of the Israeli blockade on the health and welfare of Gaza's Palestinian residents, Frank said, "I remember that argument being used against our tough sanctions against the South African regime during apartheid. People said, 'You're hurting the South African black people,' and Ronald Reagan vetoed the bill and we overrode his veto.

"A few years later," Frank recalled, proudly, "I listened to Nelson Mandela in the Capitol thank us for helping maintain the sanctions because they were so effective." . . .

And now Frank listens to Benjamin Netanyahu deny medicine and infant formula to the Gaza Strip and he hears Nelson Mandela in that? Here's more obsequiosity from the leading 'progressive' in the U.S. Senate:

Here's a chiller

by: jeffroby

Fri Jun 04, 2010 at 13:52:05 PM EDT

Kevin Ovenden of Britain said a man who had pointed a camera at the soldiers was shot directly through the forehead with live ammunition, with the exit wound blowing away the back of his skull."

Stories are starting to emerge that the number of passengers arrested or their dead bodies brought ashore does not jibe with the number of those supposed to have been with the flotilla.

It could be that there has been some "losing track" in the confusion, or that the Israelis simply threw bodies overboard.  We need to follow this story closely and -- as more details emerge -- make sure that it is known.  It is potentially devastating.

In other words, at this point, if you ask, "What can I really do that makes a difference?" my answer is to make sure that the voices of the passengers are heard.  They may not speak English.  They are being reported in the foreign press, but barely picked up in the U.S.  But we can make a difference.

Israel's self-fulfilling bunker mentality.

by: Compound F

Thu Jun 03, 2010 at 22:52:20 PM EDT

The Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla was an overt political act aimed at breaking the siege of Gaza.  Bringing food, medicine, and supplies to humans suffering extreme privation in defiance of "the authorities" is an act far less theatrical or playful but conceptually tantamount to hippies stuffing flowers into rifle barrels as a form of protest so good-natured and free of overt threat as to be disarming and impossible for the world audience to find the least bit menacing, much less provoking a violent response.   Indeed, military responses to expressions of "flower power" are unthinkable, and would instantly discredit and delegitimize those bearing actual weapons in support of establishmentarian power.  While the analogy may be imperfect, it generally seems that Israel has done the unthinkable by shooting the flower children dead, including an American and some Turks, citizens of their most critical allies.

Eyeless in Gaza (they want to keep us that way)

by: jeffroby

Tue Jun 01, 2010 at 19:09:38 PM EDT

I finally went to bed, but my wife spent the rest of the night weeping.

Round 1

Imagine our surprise next day when we started reading the coverage.  The NY Times gave it top front-page billing, as did other press.  In the shock of the moment -- even with most quotes coming from the IDF -- the coverage was damning of Israel.  The most wrenching image -- at least to me -- was from the NY Times, Echoes of Raid on 'Exodus' Ship in 1947, with the story of the 1947 Exodus, desperate Jewish refugees trying to break the British blockade to get into Palestine.  The connection was relentlessly driven home, the poor and desperate bridging the centuries in pain.  What went wrong?

Human Rights Watch against _real_ ship attack inquiry?

by: fairleft

Tue Jun 01, 2010 at 17:43:31 PM EDT

Does Human Rights Watch take orders directly from the U.S. Department of State, or is it that the two bodies' shared excess of empathy for Israel makes them just seem to be in lock step? Specifically, why does HRW not call for an independent international investigation of Israeli piracy in international waters and its massacre of civilians on the Mavi Marmara? Why call for Israel to investigate itself when they know an Israeli investigation will be bullshit? HRW admits the last in the final sentence blockquoted below:

Israel: Full, Impartial Investigation of Flotilla Killings Essential
May 31, 2010
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director.

(New York) - Israel should promptly conduct a credible and impartial investigation into the deaths of at least 10 activists after Israeli security forces boarded ships that were part of an "aid flotilla" to Gaza, Human Rights Watch said today. . . .

"A prompt, credible, and impartial investigation is absolutely essential to determine whether the lethal force used by Israeli commandos was necessary to protect lives and whether it could have been avoided," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Given Israel's poor track record of investigating unlawful killings by its armed forces, the international community should closely monitor any inquiry to ensure it meets basic international standards and that any wrongdoers are brought to justice."

And yet HRW doesn't ask for an independent international investigation, exactly in line with the U.S. government's position:

I don't know their names

by: augurgirl

Mon May 31, 2010 at 01:17:27 AM EDT

Dear Mr. President,

2 more names can be added to the ranks of those who have died attempting to stand up to Israeli injustice against the Palestinians. I don't know their names, yet. Dozens are injured, more deaths may be occurring now, as the attack against ships loaded with humanitarian aid continues. I'm not angry, yet. I can feel it, see the shadow as it descends upon me, as I choke back the tears of frustration that precede it. I want to see you respond, Mr. President, I want you to go on TV and tell me why these people are dead and why we are continuing to fund the military that killed them. I want you to explain to me, in your rational way, why this is in our national interest. Tell me why it is acceptable behavior on the part of our ally to use lethal force against a humanitarian ship. This is not about demonizing Israel; I would question our support of any nation that conducted itself in this manner, that used overwhelming and violent force against peaceful dissent.

How is this going to end, Mr. President? How many more innocent will die? How many more? What do you think is going do for our long-term security? Or Israel's? In the time it has taken me to write the above paragraph, the death toll has been estimated to be 10 people. These were unarmed, peaceful activists seeking to bring medical and educational and construction supplies. Please, Mr. President, explain why the education, health and safety of Gazans is so dangerous that it must be prevented with lethal force? I do not want to be a part of this occupation, any longer. I do not want to pay for the weapons being used to murder humanitarian workers. I do not want this to be conducted in my name. If America's policies in this area cannot be changed, I, and the millions of others outraged by this, deserve an explanation.

The death toll is now being reported at 16. How many more will be dead by the time you receive this letter, I cannot say. Will you know their names, Mr. President?

Respectfully yours,

Kelsey

9 ships

by: augurgirl

Sat May 29, 2010 at 01:53:06 AM EDT

Dear Mr. President,

9 ships are on their way from international waters to the Gaza shore. Israel has vowed to turn them back or reroute them, and is already constructing a makeshift camp for detaining those onboard. These ships are being called, by Israeli officials, absolute provocation. One even commented on the mission to break the blockade, as a violation of international law. I found this to be especially interesting phrasing for a country so often acting as though it is unaware of, or even above, international law. Might now be the time to discuss illegal settlement expansion, or collective punishment, or the 1977 protocols of the Geneva convention, or, perhaps, Nuclear nonproliferation? While I'm glad to know that the Israeli government has enough of a passing familiarity with international law to acknowledge its existence, I think it would have more credibility citing these laws if it even pretended to obey them in times of war or in "peacetime" occupation of Palestine. But, I suppose the dire threat posed by 9 boats full of construction, education and medical equipment must be weighed against the risk of looking a touch hypocritical, and if there is one thing the Israeli government has never shown itself to be averse to, it's hypocrisy.

NO 2 IDF Chief, YES 2 Gaza & Corrie, Today 5pm NYC

by: fairleft

Tue Mar 09, 2010 at 15:45:44 PM EST

Hundreds set to turn out for anti-Israel Defense Forces demo in NY
Protesters plan to march outside Waldorf Astoria, where Friends of the IDF will host dinner for IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi
By E.B. Solomont
Jerusalem Post
March 9, 2010

. . . The protest is being sponsored by a broad coalition of about 25 left-wing groups, including American Jews for a Just Peace, Codepink, Gaza Freedom March and Jewish Voice for Peace. Organized by Jews Say No!, the protest was endorsed by the Israeli groups Coalition of Women for Peace and BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS From Within.

"We think it's inappropriate for an American organization to be feting the Israeli army, when the Israeli army is implicated in violations of international law," said Rebecca Vilkomerson, director of Jewish Voice for Peace. She said Operation Cast Lead opened up people's eyes to the role that the Israeli army plays. The Goldstone Report also made people consider the notion that the IDF is fallible, she added.

"Definitely, it has opened up a big conversation in the Jewish community," she said, observing that in the past year more Jews have begun "questioning the idea that Israel is always right."

Okay, I admit, the actual Jerusalem Post headline was "Hundreds set to turn out for anti-Israel demo in NY." I.e., equating support for Israel with support for its the criminal actions of its military, like labeling an anti-Iraq war protest an anti-U.S. protest. But, okay, par for the Jerusualem Post course, and we move on. . . . to more important positive news out of Israel/Palestine from a basic humanitarian perspective. Note btw the efforts by Israel to avoid a fair verdict:

Israeli Defense Ministry goes on trial for Corrie death
March 9, 2010
Ma'an News