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Now Available from CounterPunch for Only $11.50 (S/H Included) Today's Stories December 4, 2003 Gary Leupp The Fall of Shevardnadze December 3, 2003 Stan Goff Feeling More Secure Yet?: Bush, Security, Energy & Money Joanne Mariner Profit Margins and Mortality Rates George Bisharat Who Caused the Palestinian Diaspora? Mickey Z. Tear Down That Wal-Mart John Stanton Bush Post-2004: a Nightmare Scenario Harry Browne Shannon Warport: "No More Business as Usual"   December 2, 2003 Matt Vidal Denial and Deception: Before and Beyond Iraqi Freedom Benjamin Dangl An Interview with Evo Morales on the Colonization of the Americas Sam Bahour Can It Ever Really End? Norman Solomon That Pew Poll on "Trade" Doesn't Pass the Sniff Test Josh Frank Trade War Fears Andrew Cockburn Tired, Terrified, Trigger-Happy December 1, 2003 Fawzia Afzal-Khan Unholy Alliances: Zionism, US Imperialism and Islamic Fundamentalism Dave Lindorff Bush's Baghdad Pitstop: Memories of LBJ in Vietnam Harry Browne Democracy Delayed in Northern Ireland Wayne Madsen Wagging the Media Herman Benson The New Unity Partnership for Labor: Bureaucratizing to Organize? Gilad Atzmon About "World Peace" Bill Christison US Foreign Policy and Intelligence: Monstrous Messes November 29 / 30, 2003 Peter Linebaugh On the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone Gary Leupp Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos Saul Landau Lying and Cheating: Bush's New Political Math Michael Adler Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative Anthony Arnove "They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview with John Pilger Greg Weiher Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam Stephen Banko, III A Soldier's Dream Forrest Hylton Empire and Revolution in Bolivia Toni Solo The "Free Trade" History Eraser Ben Terrall Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali Standard Schaefer Unions are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes Richard Trainor The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay Bridge Mark Gaffney US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again Adam Engel The System Really Works Dave Lindorff They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool Susan Davis Framing the Friedmans Neve Gordon Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace Mitchel Cohen Thomas Jefferson and Slavery Ben Tripp Capture Me, Daddy Poets' Basement Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith     November 28, 2003 William S. Lind Worse Than Crimes David Vest Turkey Potemkin Robert Jensen / Sam Husseini New Bush Tape Raises Fears of Attacks Wayne Madsen Wag the Turkey Harold Gould Suicide as WMD? Emile Durkheim Revisited Gabriel Kolko Vietnam and Iraq: Has the US Learned Anything? South Asia Tribune The Story of the Most Important Pakistan Army General in His Own Words Website of the Day Bush Draft   November 27, 2003 Mitchel Cohen Why I Hate Thanksgiving Jack Wilson An Account of One Soldier's War Stefan Wray In the Shadows of the School of the Americas Al Krebs Food as Corporate WMD Jim Scharplaz Going Up Against Big Food: Weeding Out the Small Farmer Neve Gordon Gays Under Occupation: Help Save the Life of Fuad Moussa   November 26, 2003 Paul de Rooij Amnesty International: the Case of a Rape Foretold Bruce Jackson Media and War: Bringing It All Back Home Stew Albert Perle's Confession: That's Entertainment Alexander Cockburn Miami and London: Cops in Two Cities David Orr Miami Heat Tom Crumpacker Anarchists on the Beach Mokhiber / Weissman Militarization in Miami Derek Seidman Naming the System: an Interview with Michael Yates Kathy Kelly Hogtied and Abused at Ft. Benning Website of the Day Iraq Procurement   November 25, 2003 Linda S. Heard We, the Besieged: Western Powers Redefine Democracy Diane Christian Hocus Pocus in the White House: Of Warriors and Liberators Mark Engler Miami's Trade Troubles David Lindorff Ashcroft's Cointelpro Website of the Day Young McCarthyites of Texas   November 24, 2003 Jeremy Scahill The Miami Model Elaine Cassel Gulag Americana: You Can't Come Home Again Ron Jacobs Iraq Now: Oh Good, Then the War's Over? Alexander Cockburn Rupert Murdoch: Global Tyrant     November 14 / 23, 2003 Alexander Cockburn Clintontime: Was It Really a Golden Age? Saul Landau Words of War Noam Chomsky Invasion as Marketing Problem: Iraq War and Contempt for Democracy Stan Goff An Open Letter to GIs in Iraq: Hold on to Your Humanity Jeffrey St. Clair Bush Puts Out a Contract on the Spotted Owl John Holt Blue Light: Battle for the Sweetgrass Hills Adam Engel A DC Lefty in King George's Court: an Interview with Sam Smith Joanne Mariner In a Dark Hole: Moussaoui and the Hidden Detainees Uri Avnery The General as Pseudo-Dove: Ya'alon's 70 Virgins M. Shahid Alam Voiding the Palestinians: an Allegory Juliana Fredman Visions of Concrete Norman Solomon Media Clash in Brazil Brian Cloughley Is Anyone in the Bush Administration Telling the Truth? William S. Lind Post-Machine Gun Tactics Patrick W. Gavin Imagine Dave Lindorff Bush's Brand of Leadership: Putting Himself First Tom Crumpacker Pandering to Anti-Castro Hardliners Erik Fleming Howard Dean's Folly Rick Giombetti Challenging the Witch Doctors of the New Imperialism: a Review of Bush in Babylon Jorge Mariscal Las Adelitas, 2003: Mexican-American Women in Iraq Chris Floyd Logical Conclusions Mickey Z. Does William Safire Need Mental Help? David Vest Owed to the Confederate Dead Ron Jacobs Joe: the Sixties Most Unforgiving Film Dave Zirin Foreman and Carlos: a Tale of Two Survivors Poets' Basement Guthrie, Albert, Greeder, Ghalib and Alam   Congratulations to CounterPuncher David Vest: Winner of 2 Muddy Awards for Best Blues Pianist in the Pacific Northwest!   November 13, 2003 Jack McCarthy Veterans for Peace Booted from Vet Day Parade Adam Keller Report on the Ben Artzi Verdict Richard Forno "Threat Matrix:" Homeland Security Goes Prime-Time Vijay Prashad Confronting the Evangelical Imperialists November 12, 2003 Elaine Cassel The Supremes and Guantanamo: a Glimmer of Hope? Col. Dan Smith Unsolicited Advice: a Reply to Rumsfeld's Memo Jonathan Cook Facility 1391: Israel's Guantanamo Robert Fisk Osama Phones Home Michael Schwartz The Wal-Mart Distraction and the California Grocery Workers Strike John Chuckman Forty Years of Lies Doug Giebel Jessica Lynch and Saving American Decency Uri Avnery Wanted: a Sharon of the Left Website of the Day Musicians Against Sweatshops November 11, 2003 David Lindorff Bush's War on Veterans Stan Goff Honoring Real Vets; Remembering Real War Earnest McBride "His Feet Were on the Ground": Was Steve McNair's Cousin Lynched? Derek Seidman Imperialism Begins at Home: an Interview with Stan Goff David Krieger Mr. President, You Can Run But You Can't Hide Sen. Ernest Hollings My Cambodian Moment on the Iraq War Dan Bacher The Invisible Man Resigns Kam Zarrabi Hypocrisy at the Top John Eskow Born on Veteran's Day Website of the Day Left Hook   November 10, 2003 Robert Fisk Looney Toons in Rummyworld: How We Denied Democracy to the Middle East Elaine Cassel Papa's Gotta Brand New Bag (of Tricks): Patriot Act Spawns Similar Laws Across Globe James Brooks Israel's New War Machine Opens the Abyss Thom Rutledge The Lost Gospel of Rummy Stew Albert Call Him Al Gary Leupp "They Were All Non-Starters": On the Thwarted Peace Proposals November 8/9, 2003 Kathleen and Bill Christison Zionism as Racist Ideology Gabriel Kolko Intelligence for What? The Vietnam War Reconsidered Saul Landau The Bride Wore Black: the Policy Nuptials of Boykin and Wolfowitz Brian Cloughley Speeding Up to Nowhere: Training the New Iraqi Police William Blum The Anti-Empire Report: A Permanent Occupation? David Lindorff A New Kind of Dancing in Iraq: from Occupation to Guerrilla War Elaine Cassel Bush's War on Non-Citizens Tim Wise Persecuting the Truth: Claims of Christian Victimization Ring Hollow Toni Solo Robert Zoellick and "Wise Blood" Michael Donnelly Will the Real Ron Wyden Please Stand Up? Mark Hand Building a Vanguard Movement: a Review of Stan Goff's Full Spectrum Disorder Norman Solomon War, Social Justice, Media and Democracy Norman Madarasz American Neocons and the Jerusalem Post Adam Engel Raising JonBenet Dave Zirin An Interview with George Foreman Poets' Basement Guthrie, Albert and Greeder November 7, 2003 Nelson Valdes Latin America in Crisis and Cuba's Self-Reliance David Vest Surely It Can't Get Any Worse? Chris Floyd An Inspector Calls: The Kay Report as War Crime Indictment William S. Lind Indicators: Where This War is Headed Elaine Cassel FBI to Cryptome: "We Are Watching You" Maria Tomchick When Public Transit Gets Privatized Uri Avnery Israeli Roulette November 6, 2003 Ron Jacobs With a Peace Like This... Conn Hallinan Rumsfeld's New Model Army Maher Arar This is What They Did to Me Elaine Cassel A Bad Day for Civil Liberties: the Case of Maher Arar Neve Gordon Captives Behind Sharon's Wall Ralph Nader and Lee Drutman An Open Letter to John Ashcroft on Corporate Crime   November 5, 2003 Jeffrey St. Clair Just a Match Away: Fire Sale in So Cal Dave Lindorff A Draft in the Forecast? Robert Jensen How I Ended Up on the Professor Watch List Joanne Mariner Prisons as Mental Institutions Patrick Cockburn Saddam Not Organizing Iraqi Resistance Simon Helweg-Larsen Centaurs from Dusk to Dawn: Remilitarization and the Guatemalan Elections Josh Frank Silencing "the Reagans" Website of the Day Everything You Wanted to Know About Howard Dean But Were Afraid to Ask   November 4, 2003 Robert Fisk Smearing Said and Ashrawi: When Did "Arab" Become a Dirty Word? Ray McGovern Chinook Down: It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Vietnam Woodruff / Wypijewski Debating the New Unity Partnership Karyn Strickler When Opponents of Abortion Dream Norman Solomon The Steady Theft of Our Time Tariq Ali Resistance and Independence in Iraq   November 3, 2003 Patrick Cockburn The Bloodiest Day Yet for Americans in Iraq: Report from Fallujah Dave Lindorff Philly's Buggy Election Janine Pommy Vega Sarajevo Hands 2003 Bernie Dwyer An Interview with Chomsky on Cuba November 1 / 2, 2003 Saul Landau Cui Bono? The Cuba Embargo as Rip Off Noam Chomsky Empire of the Men of Best Quality Bruce Jackson Midge Decter and the Taxi Driver Brian Cloughley "Mow the Whole Place Down" John Stanton The Pentagon's Love Affair with Land Mines William S. Lind Bush's Bizarre Korean Gambit Ben Tripp The Brown Paste on Bush's Shoes Christopher Brauchli Divine Hatred Dave Zirin An Interview with John Carlos Agustin Velloso Oil in Equatorial Guinea: Where Trickle Down Doesn't Trickle Josh Frank Howard Dean and Affirmative Action Ron Jacobs Standing Up to El Diablo: the 1981 Blockade of Diablo Canyon Strickler / Hermach Liar, Liar Forests on Fire David Vest Jimmy T99 Nelson, a Blues Legend and the Songs that Made Him Famous Adam Engel America, What It Is Dr. Susan Block Christy Canyon, a Life in Porn Poets' Basement Greeder, Albert & Guthrie   October 31, 2003 Lee Ballinger Making a Dollar Out of 15 Cents: The Sweatshops of Sean "P. Diddy" Combs Wayne Madsen The GOP's Racist Trifecta Michael Donnelly Settling for Peanuts: Democrats Trick the Greens, Treat Big Timber Patrick Cockburn Baghdad Diary: Iraqis are Naming Their New Babies "Saddam" Elaine Cassel Coming to a State Near You: The Matrix (Interstate Snoops, Not the Movie) Linda Heard An Arab View of Masonry   October 30, 2003 Forrest Hylton Popular Insurrection and National Revolution in Bolivia Eric Ruder "We Have to Speak Out!": Marching with the Military Families Dave Lindorff Big Lies and Little Lies: The Meaning of "Mission Accomplished" Philip Adams "Everyone is Running Scared": Denigrating Critics of Israel Sean Donahue Howard Dean: a Hawk in a Dove's Cloak Robert Jensen Big Houses & Global Justice: A Moral Level of Consumption? Alexander Cockburn Paul Krugman: Part of the Problem     October 29, 2003 Chris Floyd Thieves Like Us: Cheney's Backdoor to Halliburton Robert Fisk Iraq Guerrillas Adopt a New Strategy: Copy the Americans Rick Giombetti Let Them Eat Prozac: an Interview with David Healy The Intelligence Squad Dark Forces? The Military Steps Up Recruiting of Blacks Elaine Cassel Prosecutors as Therapists, Phantoms as Terrorists Marie Trigona Argentina's War on the Unemployed Workers Movement Gary Leupp Every Day, One KIA: On the Iraq War Casualty Figures October 28, 2003 Rich Gibson The Politics of an Inferno: Notes on Hellfire 2003 Uri Avnery Incident in Gaza Diane Christian Wishing Death Robert Fisk Eyewitness in Iraq: "They're Getting Better" Toni Solo Authentic Americans and John Negroponte Jason Leopold Halliburton in Iran Shrireen Parsons When T-shirts are Verboten Chris White 9/11 in Context: a Marine Veteran's Perspective   October 27, 2003 William A. Cook Ministers of War: Criminals of the Cloth David Lindorff The Times, Dupes and the Pulitzer Elaine Cassel Antonin Scalia's Contemptus Mundi Robert Fisk Occupational Schizophrenia John Chuckman Banging Your Head into Walls Seth Sandronsky Snoops R Us Bill Kauffman George Bush, the Anti-Family President     October 25 / 26, 2003 Robert Pollin The US Economy: Another Path is Possible Jeffrey St. Clair Outsourcing US Guided Missile Technology to China James Bunn Plotting Pre-emptive Strikes Saul Landau Should Limbaugh Do Time? Ted Honderich Palestinian Terrorism, Morality & Germany Thomas Nagy Saving the Army of Peace Christopher Brauchli Between Bush and a Lobotomy: Killing Endangered Species for Profit Laura Carlsen Latin America's Archives of Terror Diane Christian Evil Acts & Evil Actors Muqtedar Khan Lessons from the Imperial Adventure in Iraq John Feffer The Tug of War on the Korea Peninsula Brian Cloughley Iraq War Memories are Made of Lies Benjamin Dangl and Kathryn Ledebur An Uneasy Peace in Bolivia Karyn Strickler Down with Big Brother's Spying Eyes Noah Leavitt Legal Globalization John Stanton Hitler's Ghost Haunts America Mickey Z. War of the Words Adam Engel Tractatus Ridiculous Poets' Basement Curtis, Subiet and Albert Website of the Weekend Project Last Stand       October 24, 2003 Kurt Nimmo Ashcroft's War on Greenpeace Lenni Brenner The Demographics of American Jews Jeffrey St. Clair Rockets, Napalm, Torpedoes and Lies: the Attack on the USS Liberty Revisited Sarah Weir Cover-up of the Israeli Attack on the US Liberty David Krieger WMD Found in DC: Bush is the Button Mohammed Hakki It's Palestine, Stupid!: Americans and the Middle East Harry Browne Northern Ireland: the Agreement that Wasn't       Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online Search CounterPunch

December 4, 2003 Image and Reality An Interview with Norman Finkelstein By M. JUNAID ALAM M. Junaid Alam, co-editor and webmaster of the new leftist journal for American youth, Left Hook, recently had the opportunity to interview Norman Finkelstein, prominent and outspoken critic of Israel and son of Nazi holocaust survivors. Mr. Finkelstein is a professor of Political Science at DePaul University in Chicago and the author of the authoritative and controversial books Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict and The Holocaust Industry. Alam: Mr. Finkelstein, thank you for agreeing to this interview. Israel was an enthusiastic supporter of America's war on Iraq, and the Sharon government viewed the removal of Hussein as complementary to his own efforts to topple Arafat. During the war, the New York Times ran an article about the sense of imminent victory over the Palestinians displayed by Israeli military leadership. Now, intense resistance has emerged in Iraq, the Abbas government has fallen apart, Arafat still controls the security forces, and a top Israeli officer admitted that Israeli tactics are only stiffening Palestinian resolve. Do you think this qualifies as a new political situation, and what does this mean for the US-sponsored 'road map'? Finkelstein: The important thing about the roadmap was the symmetry. Right after the first destruction of Iraq in 1991 the US launched what eventually became known as the Oslo peace process; after the second destruction of Iraq, the US launched the roadmap. In both cases the hope and expectation was the same: Palestinians (and the Arab world generally) would be so "shocked and awed" by the massive display of US firepower that they would bow to US-Israeli diktat. The first time around it seemed to be going according to script, Arafat accepting his designated role as tribal chief. But in July 2000 at Camp David, when Arafat refused to sign on the dotted line for the Bantustan that he was offered, he was immediately branded a "terrorist" once again. Realizing that Arafat was hopeless, after the second destruction of Iraq, the US and Israel replaced him with Abu Mazen, who was just as corrupt and stupid as Arafat but, crucially, wasn't elected. Polls showed that he would get 3-5% of the vote in a Palestinian election--which means he was for the United States the perfect democratic leader of Palestine. But the Abu Mazen gambit also failed. Alam: The 'road map' is widely seen as a watered-down version of the Oslo initiative, which culminated in failure in 2000. Many US commentators blame Arafat for rejecting what they term "a generous offer" by Israel's then-Prime Minister, Ehud Barak. How would you describe the plan put on the table then, and how is does it differ from the current one? NF: The reports conflict on what happened at Camp David, and subsequently at Taba. An important account by Robert Malley, one of the U.S. negotiators at Camp David, suggests that Arafat held out for a settlement along the lines of the international consensus--i.e., a full Israeli withdrawal from West Bank and Gaza, but allowing for Israel to keep most of its settlers in the West Bank with a land swap of "equal value and equal size" from Israel. Israel refused this offer, wanting instead to fragment the West Bank and offer minimum land swaps for the settlements it sought to retain. Alam: In American discourse the fact that Palestinians have lived for decades under Israeli military occupation is obscured and shoved under mountains of condemnation over Palestinian tactics. As someone who has visited the Occupied Territories, can you describe what life under occupation is like, what hardships and obstacles people face? NF: I cannot claim any special expertise in "life under occupation." I would urge readers to simply consult the multiple mainstream human rights reports--Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B'Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights--Israel, Public Committee Against Torture, etc.--which do an excellent job of cataloguing the multiple human rights abuses and crimes Israel commits daily in the Occupied Territories. Alam: In defiance of international law and even the principles of the 'road map', Sharon and the Israeli military have continued and expanded construction of a separation wall surrounding the West Bank. Do you consider this another step in increasing settlements? Does this kill the possibility of creating a viable Palestinian state on 22% of historical Palestine? NF: I am just now beginning to read the details about the wall. As of current plans, it will disrupt the lives of some 600,000 Palestinians. Some will be trapped between the Green Line (pre-June 1967 border) west of the wall, some (like the residents of Qalquilya) will be trapped on all sides by the wall, and several hundred thousand Palestinians will be cut off from their agricultural land and places of work. If hints from the Sharon government are correct, the wall will also run along the Jordan Valley, and cage Palestinians into less than half the West Bank. The eminent Hebrew University sociologist, Baruch Kimmerling, has called Gaza "the largest concentration camp ever to exist." Once the wall is complete, Gaza will rank only the second largest concentration camp ever to exist. Alam: As a critic of Israel, you have confronted pro-Israel commentators, including Alan Dershowitz, whom you recently took to task for lifting sections "From Time Immemorial" a book by Joan Peters which you and other scholars have exposed as a hoax. How does a Harvard professor get away with lifting quotes from an already-discredited text? NF: It's simple: he knows that he will never be called on it. Keep in mind that even after I showed the massive plagiarism and demonstrated that multiple claims in the book are simply preposterous, the book received rave reviews in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Boston Globe. The reviewers surely knew the book was a completely fraud. But it makes no difference: he's Harvard, he's defending Israel, so everything else--i.e., the facts--is beside the point. Alam: In the last twenty a years a group of historians inside Israel, equipped with declassified archives, have criticized and exposed the traditional pro-Israel historical narrative. Can you briefly explain what the basic points of these 'new historians' are in reference to the creation of Israel and its constant expansion since its inception? NF: Most (but not all) of what's called the "new history" has focused on the first Arab-Israeli war of 1947-1949. Its main findings are that, militarily, Israel was better prepared, and the neighboring Arab states worse prepared, than in conventional accounts; that the only serious fighting force on the Arab side, the Arab Legion of Jordan, had pretty much reached an agreement with the Zionist leadership before the war broke out not to fight the Zionist forces but rather to divide Palestine with the newly-declared Jewish state (which is basically what happened, Jordan occupying the West Bank); that the Palestinians didn't flee on account of Arab orders but were "driven into exile" (Benny Morris) by the Zionist armies; and that after the war there were opportunities for peace which Israel rejected because they would have required Israel to accept a return of at least some Palestinian refugees and a return some of the territory it illegally conquered during the 1948 war. Alam: The US has offered Israel unswerving support since the 1967 war. Can you describe how this contrasts with international opinion, especially within the UN General Assembly? NF: Since 1967 there have been basically two approaches to resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict on the diplomatic table. From the late 1960s Israel has attempted to impose an Apartheid solution on the West Bank and Gaza, keeping large swathes of land and crucial resources like water, while confining Palestinians in a territorially fragmented, unviable Bantustan. Beginning in the early 1970s, the US basically supported this. On the other hand, the international community has favored a two-state solution, basically outlined in UN Resolution 242 and subsequent resolutions affirming the right of Israel and a neighboring Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza to exercise self-determination and statehood. In 2002, the vote on a 2-state settlement was 160-4 (US, Israel, Micronesia, Marshall Islands), and this year 159-2 (US and Israel). Alam: There has been serious debate and controversy about Israel's role in the project for American hegemony recently. Noam Chomsky has described Israel as America's offshore military base, a client state which serves the purpose of quelling Arab nationalisms. But Jeff Halper, co-ordinator of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, contends that Israel manipulates the United States and that it is irrational for the US to support Israel in a post-Cold War atmosphere because it aggravates the entire Islamic world. What is your take on this? Does a sense of a common enemy and shared 'Judeo-Christian' values drive the US-Israeli alliance, or does it boil down to real politik? Finkelstein: There have always been two competing interpretations of why the US supports Israel: strategic interest vs. the Jewish/Zionist/Israel lobby. I don't think there is one definitive answer to this question. Sometimes the Lobby manages to trump US national interests, sometimes the US administration puts Israel in its place. It should be remembered, however, that from the time of the Balfour Declaration, there were debates about whether a Jewish state would facilitate or undermine Western domination of the Arab world. When the British issued the Balfour Declaration the reasoning was that, although a Jewish state would alienate much public opinion in the Arab world, it would still be a dependable--because dependent--base of Western power in the region. Alam: Having spoken at colleges in the US and Canada in the past few months, can you describe what kind of reaction you get among students and people in general when presenting a pro-Palestinian viewpoint? Finkelstein: Apart from a smattering of hard-core pro-Israel fanatics, audiences have generally been very receptive and intelligent. It used to be quite disorderly, but nowadays the "other side" doesn't bother coming out, because they know that Israel's case is indefensible if the speaker is even marginally knowledgeable about the facts. I think there's excellent reason to be optimistic--Muslim students, especially Muslim women, have been doing a terrific job organizing, alongside many Jews--and we can begin to really affect public policy if we continue on this course. Alam: Your book Image and Reality in the Israel-Palestine Conflict has been widely praised and lauded by respected scholars and left-leaning publications for its scathing and hard-hitting critique of the official Israeli narrative. Recently, you've put out a second edition. What's been added? Finkelstein: A long new introduction in which I suggest a general framework for understanding Zionist/Israeli policy the past century, an essay comparing Israel's strategy for the Occupied Territories with the South African Apartheid experience, and a critical analysis of a recent best-seller on the June 1967 war, which I think is mostly nonsense. Alam: In the introduction to the second edition, you describe Zionism as a response to "the reciprocal challenges of Gentile repulsion, or anti-Semitism, and Gentile attraction, or assimilationism..." Zionist philosophy accepted repulsion as a natural impulse among Gentiles and, as you write, believed that the creation of "an overwhelmingly, if not homogenously, Jewish state in Palestine" was the solution to the Jewish predicament. The "obstacle" to this solution, you add, was "the indigenous Arab population". Today, Jews are accepted, flourishing, and protected in the multicultural West-Gentile attraction-while in Israel they face the blowback from the people they dispossessed-the "obstacle". Do you think Zionism as an ideology has failed and expired? Or will it continue fighting the war of 1948 to its desired conclusion? Finkelstein: It's an interesting question, which would require a quite subtle answer. Some original aims of Zionist--e.g. reviving the Hebrew language--plainly succeeded, and probably wouldn't have succeeded absent a Jewish state. On the other hand, it's also true to say that, far from providing a safe haven for Jews, Israel is probably the least safe place for Jews to be in the world today. Likewise, especially in recent years, the Jewish state, far from resolving the "Jewish Question," has plainly exacerbated it, by associating Jews with, and by mainstream Jewish organizations associating themselves with, Israel's brutal occupation. Norman Finkelstein's website: http://www.normanfinkelstein.com Norman Finkelstein's New and Revised Edition of Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict is available here: M. Junaid Alam, 20, is a co-editor and webmaster of the new radical youth journal Left Hook     Weekend Edition Features for Nov. 29 / 30, 2003 Peter Linebaugh On the Anniversary of the Death of Wolfe Tone Gary Leupp Politicizing War on Fox News: a Tale of Two Memos Saul Landau Lying and Cheating: Bush's New Political Math Michael Adler Inside a Miami Jail: One Activist's Narrative Anthony Arnove "They Put the Lie to Their Own Propaganda": an Interview with John Pilger Greg Weiher Why Bush Needs Osama and Saddam Stephen Banko, III A Soldier's Dream Forrest Hylton Empire and Revolution in Bolivia Toni Solo The "Free Trade" History Eraser Ben Terrall Don't Think Twice: Bush Does Bali Standard Schaefer Unions are the Answer to Supermarkets Woes Richard Trainor The Political Economy of Earthquakes: a Journey Across the Bay Bridge Mark Gaffney US Congress Does Israel's Bidding, Again Adam Engel The System Really Works Dave Lindorff They, the Jury: How the System Rigs the Jury Pool Susan Davis Framing the Friedmans Neve Gordon Arundhati Roy's Complaint for Peace Mitchel Cohen Thomas Jefferson and Slavery Ben Tripp Capture Me, Daddy Poets' Basement Kearney, Albert, Guthrie and Smith Keep CounterPunch Alive: Make a Tax-Deductible Donation Today Online! home / subscribe / about us / books / archives / search / links /