May
28th 2008
Posted under Israel & NeoCons & Political Correctness
I haven’t seen much in the news about this. Norman Finkelstein was recently denied tenure for blatantly political reasons. According to RonL he didn’t deserve tenure, but his colleagues thought he did. I’m not too up on what is necessary to get tenure, but it seems to me that you can’t expect more than several books. At the least, there was a blatantly political effort to deny him tenure. Now this.
Unfortunately, Glenn Greenwald misidentifies the neocons as right-wing which we know they are not. I tried to register to post a comment on this, but for some reason it wouldn’t let me.
RonL on 29 May 2008 at 12:35 am #
I only wish the US would keep out foreign nationals trying to undermine America.
RonL on 29 May 2008 at 9:18 pm #
Steven Plaut has a useful article on this case.
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=94D46D9E-C1E5-4CE9-99BF-7C1EF803CADA
Evidently Norman Finkelstein, who has worked with Hizbullah propogandists in the past, refused to indicate taht he was not working on behalf of Hizbullah.
Dave K on 29 May 2008 at 10:55 pm #
That article by Plaut at FrontPage is a joke. Finkelstein is hated by the Israel lobby and neo-cons because he is a no nonsense truth teller on the subject of Israel and Zionism. His book Image and Reality of The Israel-Palestine Conflict debunked Joan Peter’s book From Time Immemorial. Finkelstein demonstrated that Peters falsified documents and drew faulty demogaphic conclusions in her sham of a study. Her book is still considered a seminal work by the facts- don’t- matter- when- it- comes-to -Israel- crowd on the right like at WorldNet Daily or Dr. Laura’s website. The claim that he is a holocaust denier is silly since both of his parents are survivors of death camps.
Dylan Waco on 30 May 2008 at 12:00 am #
Steven Plaut is literally an insane person.
RonL on 30 May 2008 at 2:39 am #
David K,
There is no Israel lobby as such. It is composed of disparate competing groups. Even the great AIPAC, far from being an all powerful backer of Israel support the suicide process of Oslo, Wye etc.
Anyone who uses the term has no concern for facts on the ground.
And the fact that you failed to address Finkelstein’s past support for Hizbullah and failure to promise that he was not working for them, proves the point.
No sane nation allows in a foreign extremist, who has worked as a propagandist for an organization trying to destroy it. Your hatred of Israel blinds you.
Finklestien is not a Holocaust denier. But he is a deconstructionist for whom facts are less important than the power they imply. Hence he seeks to deconstruct the Holocaust to aid those attacking Israel, while he also attacks Judaism and Jewish culture.
He has appeared at Holocaust Denial events and has essentially been a propagandist for Hizbullah for years.
He is a far leftist, who you like only because you hate Israel.
Mr. Waco,
Please cite proof for Mr. Plaut’s insanity as well as your professional qualifications.
Andrew T. on 30 May 2008 at 9:11 pm #
Yes, I’ve noticed that crappy side of you paleos. You’re willing to defend a far-left winger who agrees with you on essentially nothing, as long as he is against Israel and undermines the historical weight of the Nazi Holocaust.
Frankly, I’m pretty damned glad that at least one university is refusing to give yet another of the countless left-wing academics tenure, and also glad that Israel is securing its borders against invaders.
Dave K on 30 May 2008 at 10:59 pm #
Saying there is no Israel lobby as such is like saying there is no Military-Industrial complex. It’s silly and a kind of blindness all on its own. Finkelstein is hated by both left and right for his scholarship on the Israel -Palestinian issue. He is viciously attacked by the Alan Dershowitz’s because he exposes their phoney and plagiarised works on the issue. See Beyond Chutzpah.
As one would expect, Finkelsteins truth telling has made him many friends among those whom the Israeli government would make into enemies. It doesn’t have to be this way, since Israel’s simple abiding by International law and UN resolutions would solve many of its problems with its neighbors. As for his support for Hezbollah, it consists in acknowledging the right of any people to fight an illegal occupation of their land. Any fair minded person would admit that. I’ll admit that Finkelstein is a leftist…but even leftist can be right about some things.
RonL on 02 Jun 2008 at 6:14 am #
“Saying there is no Israel lobby as such is like saying there is no Military-Industrial complex.”
Please don’t misquote me. I said “There is no Israel lobby as such. It is composed of disparate competing groups. Even the great AIPAC, far from being an all powerful backer of Israel support the suicide process of Oslo, Wye etc.”
It is not unitary or guided as the Finklestein, Walt and Mearsheimer say. I’m sorry that this difference is difficult for you to understand. Please reread my post.
“Finkelstein is hated by both left and right for his scholarship on the Israel -Palestinian issue.”
No he is hated for flaking for Islamist Terrorists, for deconstructing the Holocaust, Zionism, and American Nationalism, for using his claims of a powerful conspiracy as a defense for slander.
“He is viciously attacked by the Alan Dershowitz’s because he exposes their phoney and plagiarised works on the issue. See Beyond Chutzpah.”
I’m certainly not going to defend Dershowitz, but that claim that Dershowitz not only did not write “Chutzpah” but did not read it was libel. However Finkelstein, after being shown a copy of Dershowitz’s handwritten work simply came up with another excuse. Finklestein is a proven liar.
Finkelstien claimed that Dershowitz opposed any peacrful solution, when Dershowitz is a liberal who supports a three state solution (Jordan, PAlestine, and a remaining Israel). The truth is that Norman Finkelstein opposes a peacful solution in his fanatical call for a “right of return”, which would destroy Israel.
http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DRIT=3&DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=253&PID=0&IID=1934&TTL=Malcolm_F._Lowe_on_Beyond_Chutzpah:_On_the_Misuse_of_Anti-Semitism_and_the_Abuse_of_History
http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=63E08152-CDEC-44BB-9EBE-E6B6C7F55CC8
“As one would expect, Finkelsteins truth telling has made him many friends among those whom the Israeli government would make into enemies. It doesn’t have to be this way, since Israel’s simple abiding by International law and UN resolutions would solve many of its problems with its neighbors. ”
No. They want Israel destroyed. The Third Israeli Commonwealth is an affront to Islamic and Arab supremacy.
“As for his support for Hezbollah, it consists in acknowledging the right of any people to fight an illegal occupation of their land. ”
Um, no. He supports Hezbollahs war against Israel even after Israel was forced to let Christian Lebanon rot under Syrian-Iranian rule.
But if you like those who wish to see ISrael destroyed, undermine America, and want to see non-Muslims under the heel of Islam in the Middle East, who am I to question your allegences.
Dave K on 02 Jun 2008 at 10:59 pm #
For an independent reveiw of the Finkelstein/Dershowitz flap, http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=1493
The idea that Israels neighbors all want to see Israel destoyed is false. The Arab League in 2002 offered a peace initiative which would normalize relations between Israel and the Arab States. The Iranians have also signed on to the deal. Most of the threats Israel faces are those of its own making. It creates enemies then complains about the blowback. The US government does much the same.
RonL on 03 Jun 2008 at 5:53 am #
Quoting a neo-marxist mag like Counterpunch. People who blame communist crimes on the US have no standing in my book.
“The idea that Israels neighbors all want to see Israel destoyed is false. The Arab League in 2002 offered a peace initiative which would normalize relations between Israel and the Arab States.”
What a deal. Israel gives up everything gained in 1967, hands over Jewish sites to be despoiled again, and commits demographic suicide by admitting millions of Arabs.
That’s not peace or even a hudna. It is a declaration that Israel can either kill itself or face war.
” Most of the threats Israel faces are those of its own making.”
Indeed. The second those upity Jews declared independence they abrogatted the Dhimmi treaties for all Jews.
Filmer on 03 Jun 2008 at 2:55 pm #
My dog in this hunt is the politization of the tenure issue. You could argue that there shouldn’t be tenure. At the least it is not working as it was supposed to. I would argue that the process is fixed, esp. in the humanities. Get published in journals that no one reads peer reviewed by leftists by generally confirming the accepted leftist opinion. IMO, they should give more weight to lay publications aimed at the lay audience instead of stuff just aimed at other leftist eggheads. At least until there are a sufficient number of rightist humanities journals. But what do I know?
At any rate, the process should not be politicized from the outside. Having big name people like Dershowitz actively trying to have NF denied tenure is just out of line, esp. with the implied threat of loss of contributions to the University. The University can decide on its own if he merits tenure. If people disagree with his scholarship, then critique it. Don’t try and deny the guy his livelihood.
(Of course donors are certainly entitled to give or not give money for whatever reason they want. I would not give money to a secular liberal arts college because I know what they teach. But if you are giving money to a secular liberal arts college, you hardly have reason to be shocked that they are corrupting young minds. No kidding. That is virtually their expressed purpose.)
This reminds me of the absurd decision to deny tenure to Francis Beckwith by a “Baptist” school for being … well … too Christian. Thankfully, that worked out. In that case with the cooler University heads overriding his agenda driven colleagues. Or the case of Demski, also at Baylor. And I am no conspiracy theorist, but I didn’t agree with Stephen Jones being hounded out at BYU either.
Shmuel Helzer on 13 Mar 2012 at 6:54 pm #
Finkelstein’s “Scholarship”? What scholarship? He has no academic publications. He has no academic achievements at all. He was fired because he is a fraud who made a career out of churning out anti-Jewish hate propaganda, including for Holocaust Deniers, and the fact that his own parents survived the Holocaust (possibly as collaborators with Nazis) does not change anything at all about Little Normie. Citing Finkelstein’s own web site as “independent ” objective representation of Finkelstein’s work is laughable, and citing the Neo-Nazis and Holocaust Deniers at Counterpunch is even worse.