Peoples Geography — Reclaiming space

Creating people's geographies

Norman Finkelstein: The Gaza Massacre

Scholar Norman Finkelstein recently spoke at the University of Texas in Austin on the 28th April and offers a very good stock-take of recent events and the current situation, even if there’s not much new if you are already familiar with the topology of the problem space. The presentation was hosted by the Palestine Solidarity Committee (h/t Christian).  The presentation is in three parts, see parts two and three over the fold.

Part One – 39 mins

Part Two – 37 mins

Part Three – 32 mins

2 comments on “Norman Finkelstein: The Gaza Massacre

  1. Freeborn
    11 May, 2009

    In an ideal world the idea of obeying international law might have some relevance to understanding the Middle East conflict.

    In the real world we need to start from where wer’e at-none of the players Finkelstein mentions-from the UN General Assembly and the ICJ to the (somewhat bizarrely) the human rights groups HRW and Amnesty as having the potential to settle the conflict-are real players in any way whatsoever.

    In a lecture on the Middle East with a highly impressionable audience one can get away without mentioning the real players.They won’t have noticed that he mentioned neither the CFR or the Vatican.

    In the case of Finkelstein who lost tenure recently at De Paul one would have hoped he had by now detected Jesuitical ambitions for the final say in any settlement re-Jerusalem and the Holy Places.

    Indeed it is known that Perez gave an undertaking to the Vatican during the Oslo negotiations to the effect that substantial concessions to Rome would be part of the final deal.

    This is the real reason that the Pope is in Israel today meeting Perez and Netanyahu.They’re not talking about the Holocaust-that’s just part of the mind control-they’re talking about cutting a deal.

    That Israeli elites and the Vatican share certain offshore banking arrangements is a fact that Middle East analysts ignore at their peril.

    It seems unrealistic therefore to discount the role of the Vatican as Finkelstein has done.

    Where Finkelstein gets closer to a more acute analysis is when he speaks of the need for Israeli elites to shore up domestic morale.

    The up to 96% level of support domestically for the Gaza operation will have delighted the real players among the state elite i.e.the 200 or so families who actually run the country.

    The unilingual monopoly enjoyed by Hebrew as a means to facilitate the peddling of state propaganda is only one of the less sinister means Israel’s real rulers have used to brutalize and numb the population into a state of spiritual and moral degradation.

    Notwithstanding the mind-control offensive against its own citizens practised by such Orwellian bodies as the Ministries of Absorption,Labour,and Religious Affairs-the fact that up to 25% of enlistment-aged Israelis do not ultimately serve in the military suggests that a moral outlook among the Israeli youth has not thankfully been entirely eradicated.

    Finkelstein suggests that the Israeli elite mind-control exercise has achieved an ultimate triumph with the perpetration of the Gaza massacre.This is true only in so far that by enlisting public support on a massive scale for the operation these elites have moved one step closer to their final goal of brutalizing and degrading the population to such an extent that they are only capable of seeing a future of being at permanent war with their neighbours.

    In fact Israel may be on the point of surrendering far more than anyone ever thought possible.

    Perez and Netanyahu may seal the final deal.

    Sadly the final deal will do as little for Israelis as it does for the Palestinians.Only Pope Benedict,Perez,Netanyahu and their friends in the CFR will have smiles on their faces at the end of the day.

  2. peoplesgeography
    12 May, 2009

    Pope Benedict’s actions and refusal to make visiting Gaza a priority is a stain on the Church. At the very least his actions are unChristian-like. His actions also serve to place Palestinian and Arab Christians in further danger, as well as doing nothing for the plight of occupied Palestinians, Christians and Muslims alike. Inasmuch as the Church still attracts good people who do good in this world and is worth preserving as an institution, it is in dire need of a new Reformation with a contemporary Martin Luther to sweep the centuries-encrusted corruption which Freeborn broaches above.

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This entry was posted on 11 May, 2009 by in Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Video and tagged .

Timely Reminders

"Those who crusade, not for God in themselves, but against the devil in others, never succeed in making the world better, but leave it either as it was, or sometimes perceptibly worse than what it was, before the crusade began. By thinking primarily of evil we tend, however excellent our intentions, to create occasions for evil to manifest itself."
-- Aldous Huxley

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-- Diane DiPrima, "Rant", from Pieces of a Song.

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yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there"
-- William Carlos Williams, "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"


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