Norman Finkelstein (2015)

He knows what he's saying is wrong, so he does't aggressively press his opinions. He's sort of like de Blasio. I don't like what Sanders says, but it's not awful.

So far, I am willing to support Bernie Sanders. Ellizabeth Warren lost me when she justified Israel's targeting of Gazan hospitals during Operation Protective Edge (OPE).

The Goldstone report used more evocative language, came to more definitive legal conclusions, and was more comprehensive in scope. Also, Goldstone himself was a prominent liberal Jew, which meant the report was relatively immune to the usual smears and dismissals. This report reaches rather tepid and conservative legal conclusions. It also, in my opinion, grossly understates what happened. Here are two examples: (1) The BREAKING THE SILENCE testimonies by Israeli combatants emphasized that the D-9 armored bulldozers operated non-stop day and night demolishing Palestinian homes, when there was no military threat. It was just the systematic razing of homes which had no military justification whatsoever. Amazingly, there isn't a single mention -- not one -- of the D-9 in the Report. Do a search on your own. Check home many times "D-9" appears in the Breaking the Silence testimonies versus the UN Report. Incidentally, these invaluable testimonies are barely cited in the Report, and the ones that are cited are the least revealing. At one point, the Report breezily dismisses them as "anecdotal." Yet, Israel's junk propaganda is constantly cited, as if it contained an ounce of credibility. (2) The Report never makes even one mention of the targeting of mosques, except to quote Israel as saying the mosques were legitimately targeted. 70 mosques were destroyed and another 130 damaged, yet it didn't pique the Report's curiosity. Imagine if Hamas had destroyed 70 Israeli synagogues. I don't particularly like the term Islamophobia. Let's just call it rank anti-Muslim bigotry.

A huge gap existed between the descriptions compiled in the report and the concomitant legal analysis in each section. The descriptions were graphic and compelling, but the legal analysis seemed to minimize Israel's accountability. The reader senses that the person writing the legal analysis (probably Davis) was straining to be "fair," to the point that it became unserious.

Professor Chomsky is a certified genius. U.S. universities are sufficiently flexible that none would pass up the opportunity to have him on their faculty. I, on the other hand, am competent, but not much more. Faced with the all the burdens of having me on the faculty (the awful publicity, the relentless attacks), university administrators make the prudent on-balance decision that I am not worth the trouble.

If justice is to be achieved, it can only come from mass mobilization from below, both in Palestine and abroad. Those who put their faith in the ICC or the UN are living in a dream world.

The Report found that, in the 15 cases of Israel's air attacks on civilian residences, overwhelmingly Israel gave no warnings. But I still think this is the wrong emphasis. A few thousand homes were destroyed in air attacks or during battle. All told, 18,000 Palestinian homes were destroyed or made uninhabitable. It's clear from the Breaking the Silence testimonies that this unfolded not on the battlefield, not in the heat of battle, not by aerial attacks, but just in the course of occupying Gaza's border area.

Amnesty International's reports on Gaza were a disgrace, a shocking betrayal of its calling and mandate. I have written a 20,000 word analysis of the Amnesty reports, which I will be posting beginning July 08, to coincide with the first anniversary of the start of OPE. It will appear in serialized form on the on-line publication BYLINE.

So far as one can tell, the text of the French resolution will water down Palestinian rights under international law. There's already a decent text. It's the annual UN General Assembly resolution, PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF THE PALESTINE QUESTION. That's the only acceptable text, in my opinion.

It's possible that the uS will abstain if a French resolution comes before the Security Council. But, if would probably be better if the US does veto the resolution, because the resolution's text will probably further water down Palestinian rights.

There are clearly many instances where Israel targeted civilians (the Report acknowledges this), but mostly it was a terror campaign designed to break the spirits and resistance of Palestinians by inflicting the maximum amount of death and destruction. Another element is, Israel demands the right to fight cost-free hi-tech wars. So, it destroys everything in sight and kills everything in sight to avoid any casualties on its side.

Let's look at the raw data. 2300 Palestinians were killed, of whom 1,500 were civilians. 73 Israelis were killed, of whom 6 were civilians (one a guest worker from Thailand). 550 Palestinian children were killed, 1 Israeli child was killed. 18,000 Gazan homes were destroyed, one Israeli home was destroyed. Israel used 20,000 tons of explosives, Hamas used 20-40 tons of explosive. You get the picture. Yet, in the report, in the last section titled "IMPACT," 60 percent is devoted to what Gaza endured, 40 percent to what Israel endured. You decided whether the proportions mach the reality.

The Report is very cautious in the language it uses regarding Israeli war crimes. Nonetheless, virtually every section of the Report raises the possibility that Israel committed war crimes. If you open up the report, and do a search under "war crimes," you will probably get at least 20 hits in the Israeli section of the report. In my opinion, Hamas should welcome the opportunity to go before the ICC and make its case. If it recruits talented, principled lawyers such as John Dugard and Alfred de Zayas, I think they could put forth a credible defense, at any rate, in the court of public opinion, which is the only court of importance. The US will of course side with Israel, not because of the Israel lobby, but because whatever Israel did in Gaza, the US routinely does around the world on an infinitely greater scale.

Yes, and -- surprise, surprise - Israel found that it was legitimate. To the Report's credit, it clearly didn't find the Israeli "findings" credible.

On your sage advice, I hereby submit my humblest apologies to...the Blob.
I cannot say what will reignited the fighting spirit of the Palestinians. But until and unless they engage in mass nonviolent resistance, such as during the first intifada, it's hopeless.

In order to reach that point, the Palestinians must pass through a thousand procedural hoops. It requires a huge amount of conviction, commitment and conscientiousness to succeed. The Palestinian Authority is unable and unwilling to put in such an effort. It is hopelessly corrupt and compromised. If and when the moment of truth comes, they will do what their American paymasters tell them to do.

Hamas won parliamentary elections in January 2006. If Hamas is the big obstacle to resolving the conflict, why didn't Israel end the occupation in the FOUR DECADES before Hamas came to power? If the people of Gaza do not object to Hamas arming itself, or using a tiny fraction of its resources to make these enhanced fireworks called rockets, then I don't object. For the thousandth time, under international law, peoples struggling for self-determination have the right to use armed force to end an illegal, immoral and inhuman blockade and occupation.

It's an interesting question. At one point, a Hamas representative said that Hamas would have targeted more precisely if it had more precise weapons. The Report curtly responded, without any attempt at elaboration, that the point was "not relevant." Easy enough to say, if you don't live under a brutal occupation, and are then told any attempt at resistance constitutes a war crime. The Report is quite wretched in this regard. It also says that, although Hamas militants infiltrating Israel ONLY TARGETED COMBATANTS (the Report explicitly acknowledges this), the tunnels are also reckoned unacceptable because they cause "fear" and "anxiety" among Israelis. Israeli rockets and missiles also cause "fear" and "anxiety." Shouldn't Israel then be told to disarm? In addition, the Report also prohibits Palestinians from using NONVIOLENT CIVIL RESISTANCE by going to rooftops to deter Israeli pilots from pulverizing their homes. (See para 483 of the Report). So, although the Report acknowledges that Israel occupies Gaza,and although it acknowledges that the Israeli blockade is "strangling" Gaza's economy, and although Israel's illegal occupation has now endured for nearly a half century, the Report declares illegal both armed resistance (which international law does NOT prohibit if a people is struggling for self-determination) as well as nonviolent civil resistance.

The German political class and mainstream media are politically correct on Israel to the point of embarrassment. But it seems, their actual influence on the public is very limited. I rarely comment on France. It belongs to the same category of states as Saudi Arabia: the Saudi totalitarians force women to cover themselves, the French totalitarians force women to uncover themselves. The world would be a better place if both countries fall off the planet.

The purpose of the rule of law is supposed to be to replace MiGHT by RIGHT. But, if international humanitarian law dictates that only rich and powerful, countries, which can afford precision weapons, can use armed force, while poor peoples living under a brutal occupation de facto have no right of armed resistance, I don't see how the rule of law is an improvement over the rule of might. Bear in mind, however, that the Report also denied to Gazans the right of NON-VIOLENT resistance. Look at para 483.

I wrote two books on the Nazi holocaust, one in 1998 and the other in 2000. Otherwise I have focused on the Israel-Palestine conflict. I don't think it can fairly be said that the claims I make lack for documentation.

I have always supported boycotts, divestment and sanctions. The real issue is: towards what end or goal? i don't believe it is possible to reach a broad public without recognizing Israel's legal existence within its internationally recognized borders. BDS leaders think otherwise.

I am not a proponent of a two-state solution. I am a communist (lower-case "c"). I oppose all states. But I don't believe anything beyond two states is achievable in the current and foreseeable balance of force in the world. Your proposal has no basis in reality (like my world without states) so it's pointless to argue.

The Report says that the blockade of Gaza must UNCONDITIONALLY end. I agree on this point. The most important thing Israel should do is, stop carrying on like a Vandal state. That place has clearly gone over the cliff. Only mass international pressure can drag it back to sanity.

I have said many times that in my opinion the Palestinian Authority is incapable of achieving Palestinian rights because it is in thrall to the US. I also do not believe that Hamas's strategy of "armed resistance" can achieve its avowed goals.

Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories for 48 years. It if had ended the occupation, as it should have done, decades ago, it wouldn't be in this fix. One reason UN bodies focus on Israel is, Israel routinely flouts its recommendations.

Although the report contains many graphic and compelling descriptions of Israeli atrocities, it grossly understates what happened. I would recommend that you read the Breaking the Silence testimonies instead. The Report keeps repeating Israeli propaganda, usually with sentences that begin, "The Commission notes that Israel said,..." as if this is to be taken seriously. Here's one example. Israel fired 20,000 high-explosive artillery shells into Gaza. Israel alleges -and the Report quotes it-- with with a "few exceptions," these shells were fired in open areas. First, that's a documented lie. A study cited by the Commission itself said that, in its investigation, 95% of the artillery shells were fired in or near populated areas. The Report does NOT quote this finding of the study. Second, Israel alleges that Hamas abandoned all open areas at the start of OPE and congregated in populated areas. So, to believe Israel, it fired 20,000 high-explosive artillery shells in empty spaces. Why does the Report give credence to such nonsense? A second example. The Report claims that EVERY rocket fired by Hamas was intercepted by Iron Dome. It's source? An official Israeli publication. It's just laughable

Only State parties can pursue such a case.

The Amnesty report also said that "human shielding" as normally understood has a manifestly coercive element. The Report does say at one point in these sections that, to prove human shielding, you'd have to show "intent" by the militants to use civilian protected cites as a shield. Obviously, the Report never came close to proving intent. The most it showed was some prima facie evidence that Hamas did not take all feasible precautions to protect the civilian population, and even here the evidence was thin.

In the current balance of power in the world, no state is just not a realistic option.

If you read the Breaking the Silence testimonies by Israeli combatants, you'll see that soldier after soldier said that the formal and informal rules of engagement during OPE was, "shoot everything that moves."

With precision weapons, of course.

If Gazans can't dig tunnels underground, even if they target Israeli targets (which is what the Report says), because they cause "anxiety" for Israelis, then Israel shouldn't be allowed to fire missiles or send in planes to drop bombs above ground. If there's an error in my logic, I would want to know it.

"Talks" are a waste of time. I would think that the past 48 years of talks have proven this beyond reasonable doubt. The peace process is just a fig leaf behind which Israel incrementally completes the task of erasing Palestine from the map. If Black people just "talked" with white power-holders in the American South or waited for the Federal government to implement Brown vs. Board of Education, the South would still be legally segregated today.

To quote my eldest brother, Iron Dome was really Iron Dud. According to one of the world's leading experts on anti-missile defense, Theodore Postol of MIT, its effectiveness was about 5%, which would mean it successfully intercepted about 35 Hamas "rockets." Incidentally, 2,600 of the 4,000 Hamas rockets (60 percent) landed in the border area, where there was no Iron Dome. There were so few Israeli civilian casualties, first, because of the civil warning/defense system, but, second, and much more important, because Hamas rockets were little more than enhanced fireworks. If I am mistaken please explain how thousands and thousands of Hamas rockets and mortar shells resulted in destruction of exactly ONE Israeli house.

The African revolutionary Amilcar Cabral exhorted his followers, "Tell no lies, Claim no easy victories." That's also my credo.
When I was a revolutionary Marxist in my youth, I used to like to quote Lenin and Gramsci, both of whom said, "The truth is revolutionary." Hasbara is just a euphemism for lies.

International law does not bar people struggling for self-determination to use armed force. Your quarrel is not with me, it's with the law.

I do not understand your point. Please restate it.

It has made many statements to the effect that it is willing to accept two states on the 1967 border and a resolution of the refugee question. If you don't trust what they say, then just test them by entering in negotiations. It is incidentally a no-brainer, What is the official stance of Israel about the right of Palestine to exist? Mr Netanyahu made his answer clear during his last election campaign.

The problem is, your expression, "considered terrorism." The use of indiscriminate weapons is considered "terrorism" because powerful countries want a de facto monopoly on the use of violent force. They possess the wealth and technical knowledge to manufacture precision weapons That's why the international community banned dum-dum bullets in 1899, and banned biological and chemical weapons, but hasn't banned the most horrifying weapon of mass destruction, nuclear weapons. Chemical and biological weapons are the poor man's WMD, so they were outlawed.

Unlikely. Israel prefers to work through the Palestinian Authority.

Chomsky also lived on a kibbutz.

As compared to other so-called experts, I make a point of only commenting on a report after reading it, usually twice. I read the new UN Report in full once and am currently rereading it.

I am not aware of any evidence that Hamas used hospitals so launch mortars and missiles. One Hamas projectile was launched from behind al-Shifa hospital, but not from al-Shifra's grounds or the building itself. The only evidence that a Hamas projectile was fired from al-Wafa hospital was shown to be false, and in the last official Israeli report, 2014 Gaza Conflict, released last week, they dropped the claim that a rocket was fired from al-Wafa.

A man, a plan, a canal Panama.
Read it forward and backward, the letters are in the same sequence.
I find this more interesting than your Luciferian plan.