Who's Afraid of Norman Finkelstein?

05.27.2008 | Haaretz
By Haaretz Editorial

On Friday morning, the State of Israel refused to allow Prof. Norman Finkelstein, an American Jewish political scientist, to enter the country. Finkelstein was arrested at the airport and questioned by the Shin Bet security service for several hours. A day later, it became known that he had been banned from entering Israel for 10 years, for security reasons. Finkelstein managed to meet with a lawyer, who told him his chances of changing the decision were slim. When the Shin Bet decides that someone constitutes a security risk, the courts do not intervene.

According to the law, both in Israel and in other countries, no one has an intrinsic right to enter a country of which he is not a citizen. Immigration authorities have the power to keep a tourist from entering the country for reasons known only to themselves, and do not even need to provide an explanation. In Finkelstein's case, the disturbing issue is neither the legality of keeping him out nor the authority to do so, but the reasonableness of the decision. Considering his unusual and extremely critical views, one cannot avoid the suspicion that refusing to allow him to enter Israel was a punishment rather than a precaution.

It is difficult to sympathize with Finkelstein's opinions and preferences, especially since he decided to support Hezbollah, meet with its fighters and visit the graves of some of its slain operatives. But that does not mean he should be banned from entering Israel, since meetings with Hezbollah operatives do not in themselves constitute a security risk. True, the right to enter Israel is not guaranteed to noncitizens, but the right of Israeli citizens to hear unusual views is one that should be fought for. It is not for the government to decide which views should be heard here and which ones should not.

The decision to ban Finkelstein hurts us more than it hurts him. Every once in a while, the state suffers an attack of excessive sensitivity regarding its visitors. In 2002, it was Romanian flautist Gheorghe Zamfir who was kept out of the country by the Interior Ministry. The interior minister at the time, Eli Yishai, explained that Zamfir had expressed anti-Semitic views and that his entry into Israel would "hurt Holocaust survivors." Avraham Poraz, who succeeded Yishai, overturned the decision.

When the person refused entry is Jewish, the absurdity is even greater. After all, Finkelstein could realize his right to immigrate to Israel as a Jew, in accordance with the Law of Return. Since he is Jewish and has no criminal past, it is doubtful whether he could be prevented from receiving Israeli citizenship.

The Shin Bet argues that Finkelstein constitutes a security risk. But it is more reasonable to assume that Finkelstein is persona non grata and that the Shin Bet, whose influence has increased to frightening proportions, latched onto his meetings with Hezbollah operatives in order to punish him.

And the decision is all the more surprising when one recalls the ease with which right-wing activists from the Meir Kahane camp - the kind whose activities pose a security threat that no longer requires further proof - are able to enter the country.

Interview w/Finkelstein

Last week Political Scientist Norman Finkelstein was detained at Tel Aviv airport. He was interviewed for a few hours and then spent the night in jail. He later was deported and banned from the state of Israel for ten years.
Here is an interview with him about the incident.
This isn't the best audio but worthwhile.

Haaretz Editorial
Association for Civil Rights in Israel weighs in

More Uncle Noam

quick thought

The Left in America is kind of paralyzed by Islam. On the one hand they hate Islamic fundamentalism and its dislike for secular values and lack of protection for minorities. Yet they don’t feel comfortable discussing that topic because they are so afraid of the Right and its desire to smash things, since the Muslims sit on so much oil, so they keep quiet. In the end they end up using cultural relativism in an attempt to not agree with the xenophobic Right and they fail.
The Right in America ends up siding with the fanatic Muslims on the issues. They both hate Fags (because God hates them just ask Fred Phelps or any other preachers) and human rights. They hate due process. They both hate the separation of church and state.
I think the Left would be better off showing the similarities between the Right in America and the Islamists. Show intolerance as intolerance. Show how the two agree on so many fronts. Two sides of the same coin.

Hahahahahaha

Not bad for a bunch old men.

My friend Jeremy just introduced me to this band and my life has been greatly enriched. I am unsure how I functioned without knowing about this "punk rock supergroup." I once saw Watt and Nels CLine, ten years ago or so, in Portland and Cline had a guitar solo where he was strumming so fast his hand was just a blur. I was fucking floored.
Here are some samplings from Watt's 50th Birthday party. Unfortunately they are also kinda commercials for whoever is recording but that is a minor inconvenience.

Israeli Rock

Here is the Israeli rock band the Genders singing about Americans Jews who move to the Occupied Territories.

A quick thought.

It is exactly the separation of church and state, that so many radical Christians want to abandon, that has allowed radical Christian sects to flourish in this country. Without such a separation their wacko churches wouldn’t have been allowed. Instead we would all be Catholic or Lutheran.
Then again, trying to talk sense to those people is pointless.

What the hell are they so scared of?

Today, as always, I began my day with a cup of coffee and my daily reading of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Not the greatest of papers but it is better than nothing, I guess. In my reading I stumbled upon an article about mass graves that were being unearthed in South Korea. Now, I don’t know much about the Korean War so I was interested. As it turns out, there were mass executions carried out by our South Korean allies early in the war, and guess who the victims were? Yes, you guessed it, those dangerous leftists. Korea slaughtered untold thousands of leftists and peasants that the government felt were sympathetic to the leftists. Why is it that leftist are always being slaughtered and why is the US helping nations with these actions?
Sept 11 1973 was the day that Augusto Pinochet’s, with the backing of the C.I.A., forces began the overthrow of the democratically elected Socialist President Salvador Allende. We couldn’t allow the stupid people of Chile make such a mistake, as to vote a Socialist, so we had to help them see the error in their ways. This time the US government gave the Chilean government thousands of names of leftists who were promptly rounded up and executed in a soccer stadium or were “disappeared”. Why, because they believed in equality for all?
Again, in the 1980’s, the Nicaraguans elected the Sandinistas, a Marxist group, to govern but that was not acceptable to the Reagan administration. So they got a bunch of thugs, called the Contras, and began a terror war against the people of Nicaragua and murdered thousands of leftists and peasants. How could America allow such an example of Marxism in the Western Hemisphere? What was their big crime, spreading literacy to the poor and taking back their land from the greedy? Oh ya, one of the side effects of that terrorist was the crack cocaine epidemic.
IN 1954 the C.I.A., helped overthrow another democratically elected Socialist leader in Iran. Then for 25 years our puppet King, the Shah, oppressed his people and gave us the rights to their natural resources. Then one day everything changed and we now had a bunch of Americans held hostage in our embassy, and we can see how this al worked out. Mossadegh’s crime, kicking out British Petroleum and nationalizing their oil and natural gas reserves.
I guess what I don’t understand is what is the threat posed by Socialists/Marxist/Communists/Anarchists/Leftists? We are told, so often it is now regarded as a truism, that socialism/communism is bound to fail and has failed. Or as most ignorant people respond in exactly the same wording, which always sets off alarms in my head, “that has been tried and it doesn’t work” to which I have begun responding, “and this system does?”
Why are the powers that be so scared of this ideology? If this more egalitarian system is bound to fail why has our government worked so hard to make it fail, if its failure inevitable? Our government, regardless of party, has no problems allowing very repressive “communist” regimes to be regular members of the international community, think China, yet it is Cuba that is to be punished.
Again if Socialist democracy is bound to fail then let it. This leads me to believe that they know full well that it won’t fail but will flourish and they as a result, will be a little less obscenely rich and they can’t handle that fact because, as I have shown in the past, the super wealthy actually hate the rest of the human race.

These are the people we have to deal with

Luckily for guys like Kevin his listeners are just as ignorant as he is.

WTF?

On Friday there was a tape released from Bin Laden. Now I have tried for the last 45 minutes to find a transcript of it anywhere on the internets and have been totally unable. If anyone finds it send me a link.
thanks
WHy is it that I can't find it? Hmmmmm

Movie Trailer

Ahhh Billo

Remember, they hate our freedom.

Then there is this

Billy Joel

Our media is racist garbage.

Now I have known for years that our media is garbage or maybe worse. Though after watching the Reverend Wright National Press Club speech I know believe the media is just a modern day lyncher. After watching the news talk about the speech I finally got the time to actually watch the full speech.(ya I am one of those people who actually thinks it is more important to look for myself then be lazy and let corporations tell me the what the truth is. I understand not everyone has the time and must rely on corporations to tell them the truth. Can I fault them? Yes, if they take the corporate media to be anywhere near the truth) I felt that I needed to because I know that the media is a lie machine but I thought for sure there would be some lunacy involved. I figured he must of said that America created AIDS to kill blacks, because that is what the media claimed he said. I also assumed that he said some other crazy shit because the news sure made it look like he did.
THough the funny thing is that I actually care about the truth so I watched it. And I now understand what it is that the media hates about him and it is that he is a powerful speaker who speaks the truth. They can't handle that because they are in the business of hoodwinking the Americans. As my friend Jeremy said to me, the real reason we are in Iraq is because of the media and I think that one cannot argue against that fact. Okay one can try but they will easily be spanked by anyone with enough time to actually fact check.
You know, I didn't think my opinion for the media could have gotten any worse but I was sadly mistaken. The media is a racist, Imperialist propaganda arm for the elite. They have destroyed a man's character because he said told uncomfortable truths, like the fact that the US government has experimented on humans in a most inhumane fashion. If he had been a white preacher and said the same things he would have been ignored, but he is black. That is the difference.
I guess though, at least they aren't slaves anymore so what are they bitching about? What racist garbage the media is.


Here are clips from the Q&A portion of the speech. I think they are informative.

Again, Bill Moyers is right

Hillary Is Dangerous

So the mad Iranian President can call for “the regime in Jerusalem to go the way of the Soviet Union and be wiped from the pages of history” and it is turned into him calling for a new Holocaust. Every commentator you can find will claim he said that Israel should be wiped off the face of the map even though that is not what he said.
Last week Hillary, when asked how she would respond if Iran launched a nuclear missile at nuclear Israel, said that she would obliterate Iran. So she openly says she would obliterate the Persian people and not a peep from the press. She is saying that genocide would be acceptable against the Persians and silence.
Isn’t the American Press a funny thing?

Nice Work Ian

Here is a video of my friend Ian calling out the racist David Horowitz for his lack of facts.