Thursday, July 27, 2006
Beyond Chutzpah: A Brief, 'Didactic' Review
Reviewed: Norman G. Finkelstein. Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Beyond Chutzpah is the much-awaited latest book by Norman G. Finkelstein. In his Introduction, Finkelstein tells us:
In the category of exaggeration and fabrication, Finkelstein notes that the reception of his earlier book, The Holocaust Industry, was cited as evidence of anti-Semitism. In its 2000-2001 survey, Antisemitism Worldwide, the Israeli Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism ominously observed: "Finkelstein's book ... [was] enthusiastically welcomed, especially in Germany." Apparently, unobserved by the Roth Institute, is that, among others, the dean of Holocaust studies, Raul Hilberg, praised The Holocaust Industry as an important "breakthrough"—"carefully" researched and with "trustworthy" conclusions.
Echoing similar remarks from The Holocaust Industry, Finkelstein closes the first part of Beyond Chutzpah with a potent charge that, perhaps, only the son of Holocaust survivors would dare make:
For instance, Dershowitz, citing a September 6, 1999, decision, claims, "the Israeli Supreme Court outlawed the use of all physical pressure in eliciting information from potential terrorists." Yet, as Finkelstein points out, a year before the publication of Case, Dershowitz, "referring to the same court decision ... acknowledged that it did not absolutely prohibit torture." After quoting the contradictory passage from Dershowitz, Finkelstein also quotes the opinion of the plaintiffs in the case—the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI)—regarding the 1999 decision: "The Court avoided the position of international law that rejects torture ... and creat[ed] an opening both for the existence of torture in practice, and lending legal and ethical legitimacy to this deplorable crime." The title of PCATI's 2003 followup report speaks for itself: BACK TO A ROUTINE OF TORTURE Torture and Ill-treatment of Palestinian Detainees during Arrest, Detention and Interrogation September 2001–April 2003.
In 1948, Zionist paramilitary fighters from the Irgun and LEHI murdered over 100 unarmed Arab men, women, and children in the village of Deir Yassin. Later that year, in the New York Times prominent American Jews, including Hannah Arendt and Albert Einstein, cited the Deir Yassin massacre in a letter protesting the US visit of former Irgun commander and future Israeli Prime Minster Menachem Begin as evidence of his and his party's—the Freedom (Herut) party (forerunner to the Likud party)—"fascist" and "terrorist" politics and actions.
In Case, Dershowitz claims that "Deir Yassin stands out in the history of Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine precisely because it was so unusual and so out of character for the Jews." He calls the massacre an "isolated although tragic and inexcusable blemish on Israeli paramilitary actions." Against this, Finkelstein quotes multiple passages from the noted Israeli historian and Zionist apologist Benny Morris—whom Dershowitz also quotes—to the effect that " 'Jewish atrocities' were 'far more widespread than the old histories have let on' " and " 'Jewish atrocities against Arabs . . . were generally unconnected to or lacked any previous direct, Arab provocation.' "Of course, Palestinians have long known about Zionist-perpetrated massacres and other atrocities—if we'd only listen.
Perhaps the best-known part of Finkelstein's attack on Case is Dershowitz's reliance upon and plagiarism of Joan Peters' now discredited book, From Time Immemorial. Not long after its publication in 1984, Peters' book received a scathing review in the New York Review of Books from Yehoshua Porath, professor of Middle East History at Hebrew University. Concluding, he wrote:
In a detailed appendix, including tables and facsimiles of the advance uncorrected proofs of Case, Finkelstein shows how Dershowitz "appropriates large swaths" from Peters' book. One interesting example, albeit minor in comparison to the others Finkelstein documents, was exposed on a nationally broadcast debate between the two antagonists. In two places in Case, Dershowitz uses the term "turnspeak," attributing it in the book solely to George Orwell's 1984. Yet, Orwell never used the clunky term, which was in fact coined by none other than Joan Peters. It is the charge of plagiarism that prompted Dershowitz's campaign to suppress the publication and promotion of Finkelstein's book. Dershowitz claims he has been libeled; yet, the famous trial lawyer refuses to file suit against Finkelstein. Ostensibly, he does not want to give Finkelstein undeserved attention.
All in all, Finkelstein's book is a powerful refutation of The Case for Israel and a powerful corrective to the distorted record of the Israel-Palestine conflict. People who've never known or believed anything but the dominant Zionist narrative would do well to read Beyond Chutzpah and then, as the author hopes, "act on the basis of truth."
Beyond Chutzpah is the much-awaited latest book by Norman G. Finkelstein. In his Introduction, Finkelstein tells us:
The purpose of Beyond Chutzpah is to lift the veil of contrived controversy shrouding the Israel-Palestine conflict. I am convinced that anyone confronting the undistorted record will recognize the injustice Palestinians have suffered. I hope this book will also provide impetus for readers to act on the basis of truth so that, together, we can achieve a just and lasting peace in Israel and Palestine.In the first part of the book—"The Not-So-New 'New Anti-Semitism' "—Finkelstein reveals how deserved criticism of Israel is periodically stymied by an outbreak of "new anti-Semitism" which just so happens to coincide "with renewed international pressures on Israel to withdraw from occupied Arab territories in exchange for recognition from neighboring Arab states." Among the current round of fear mongers he identifies are Abraham Foxman (Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism (2003)) and Phyllis Chesler (The New Anti-Semitism (2003)). Finkelstein demonstrates that, "What's currently called the new anti-Semitism actually incorporates three main components: (1) exaggeration and fabrication, (2) mislabeling legitimate criticism of Israeli policy, and (3) the unjustified yet predictable spillover from criticism of Israel to Jews generally."
In the category of exaggeration and fabrication, Finkelstein notes that the reception of his earlier book, The Holocaust Industry, was cited as evidence of anti-Semitism. In its 2000-2001 survey, Antisemitism Worldwide, the Israeli Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism ominously observed: "Finkelstein's book ... [was] enthusiastically welcomed, especially in Germany." Apparently, unobserved by the Roth Institute, is that, among others, the dean of Holocaust studies, Raul Hilberg, praised The Holocaust Industry as an important "breakthrough"—"carefully" researched and with "trustworthy" conclusions.
Echoing similar remarks from The Holocaust Industry, Finkelstein closes the first part of Beyond Chutzpah with a potent charge that, perhaps, only the son of Holocaust survivors would dare make:
As already noted, Jewish elites in the United States have enjoyed enormous prosperity. From this combination of economic and political power has sprung, unsurprisingly, a mindset of Jewish superiority. Wrapping themselves in the mantle of The Holocaust ["an ideological representation of the [actual] Nazi holocaust"], these Jewish elites pretend—and, in their own solipsistic universe, perhaps imagine themselves—to be victims, dismissing any and all criticism as manifestations of "anti-Semitism." And, from this lethal brew of formidable power, chauvinistic arrogance, feigned (or imagined) victimhood, and Holocaust-immunity to criticism has sprung a terrifying recklessness and ruthlessness on the part of American Jewish elites. Alongside Israel, they are the main fomenters of anti-Semitism in the world today.In the second, larger part of Beyond Chutzpah—"The Greatest Tale Ever Sold"—Finkelstein rebuts, in considerable detail, numerous claims made by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz in his best-selling book, The Case for Israel. Finkelstein exposes Dershowitz's reliance upon misinterpreted, non-existent, and discredited sources.
For instance, Dershowitz, citing a September 6, 1999, decision, claims, "the Israeli Supreme Court outlawed the use of all physical pressure in eliciting information from potential terrorists." Yet, as Finkelstein points out, a year before the publication of Case, Dershowitz, "referring to the same court decision ... acknowledged that it did not absolutely prohibit torture." After quoting the contradictory passage from Dershowitz, Finkelstein also quotes the opinion of the plaintiffs in the case—the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI)—regarding the 1999 decision: "The Court avoided the position of international law that rejects torture ... and creat[ed] an opening both for the existence of torture in practice, and lending legal and ethical legitimacy to this deplorable crime." The title of PCATI's 2003 followup report speaks for itself: BACK TO A ROUTINE OF TORTURE Torture and Ill-treatment of Palestinian Detainees during Arrest, Detention and Interrogation September 2001–April 2003.
In 1948, Zionist paramilitary fighters from the Irgun and LEHI murdered over 100 unarmed Arab men, women, and children in the village of Deir Yassin. Later that year, in the New York Times prominent American Jews, including Hannah Arendt and Albert Einstein, cited the Deir Yassin massacre in a letter protesting the US visit of former Irgun commander and future Israeli Prime Minster Menachem Begin as evidence of his and his party's—the Freedom (Herut) party (forerunner to the Likud party)—"fascist" and "terrorist" politics and actions.
In Case, Dershowitz claims that "Deir Yassin stands out in the history of Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine precisely because it was so unusual and so out of character for the Jews." He calls the massacre an "isolated although tragic and inexcusable blemish on Israeli paramilitary actions." Against this, Finkelstein quotes multiple passages from the noted Israeli historian and Zionist apologist Benny Morris—whom Dershowitz also quotes—to the effect that " 'Jewish atrocities' were 'far more widespread than the old histories have let on' " and " 'Jewish atrocities against Arabs . . . were generally unconnected to or lacked any previous direct, Arab provocation.' "Of course, Palestinians have long known about Zionist-perpetrated massacres and other atrocities—if we'd only listen.
Perhaps the best-known part of Finkelstein's attack on Case is Dershowitz's reliance upon and plagiarism of Joan Peters' now discredited book, From Time Immemorial. Not long after its publication in 1984, Peters' book received a scathing review in the New York Review of Books from Yehoshua Porath, professor of Middle East History at Hebrew University. Concluding, he wrote:
I am reluctant to bore the reader and myself with further examples of Mrs. Peters's highly tendentious use—or neglect—of the available source material. Much more important is her misunderstanding of basic historical processes ... Everyone familiar with the writing of the extreme nationalists of Zeev Jabotinsky's Revisionist party ... would immediately recognize the tired and discredited arguments in Mrs. Peters's book. I had mistakenly thought them long forgotten. It is a pity that they have been given new life.In any event, the book—endorsed on the dust jacket by a number of Jewish 'luminaries'—was generally well received in the U.S. and went to become a national bestseller. In his doctoral dissertation on Zionism, Finkelstein cut his scholarly teeth by exposing Peters' "colossal hoax"—a verdict later upheld by "Baruch Kimmerling (of the Hebrew University) and Joel S. Migdal, in their authoritative study, Palestinians: The Making of a People."
In a detailed appendix, including tables and facsimiles of the advance uncorrected proofs of Case, Finkelstein shows how Dershowitz "appropriates large swaths" from Peters' book. One interesting example, albeit minor in comparison to the others Finkelstein documents, was exposed on a nationally broadcast debate between the two antagonists. In two places in Case, Dershowitz uses the term "turnspeak," attributing it in the book solely to George Orwell's 1984. Yet, Orwell never used the clunky term, which was in fact coined by none other than Joan Peters. It is the charge of plagiarism that prompted Dershowitz's campaign to suppress the publication and promotion of Finkelstein's book. Dershowitz claims he has been libeled; yet, the famous trial lawyer refuses to file suit against Finkelstein. Ostensibly, he does not want to give Finkelstein undeserved attention.
All in all, Finkelstein's book is a powerful refutation of The Case for Israel and a powerful corrective to the distorted record of the Israel-Palestine conflict. People who've never known or believed anything but the dominant Zionist narrative would do well to read Beyond Chutzpah and then, as the author hopes, "act on the basis of truth."
Labels: holocaust, Norman Finkelstein, Orwell, Zionism
