38 Comments

1. Greenconsciousness:

Who Would Ever Have Thought That a Nazi Could Teach At A University in the US?

Apr 3, 2009 - 9:48 am 2. TalkinKamel:

You’re spot on, Phyllis; these guys want to make their problems our problems. I say we refuse this “generous” offer.

By the way, I love how the missives you re-print here don’t even try to present a rational argument, but simply try to insult, and bully you into compliance with their point of view: (Palestinians are victims, Jews are Nazis, and this must never, EVER, be questioned!):”shamefully yours”, “Do you not feel guilt. . . ?” “Your ridiculous piece. . . how can you not see Zionism is racism?”. This is a typical Leftist tactic. Insult, browbeat, and, when all else fails, play the Nazi and/or racism card.

Like Islam, the left relies very heavily on honor/shame tactics, to ensure compliance with its ideology.

Apr 3, 2009 - 9:58 am 3. TalkinKamel:

The current habit of comparing everyone, and everything, to Nazis, is getting tired. It’s applied to everything except those who actually are behaving like Nazis these days!

(And I despise the Nazis! But comparisons with Nazi Germany are being used, more and more, as a tool of the Left, to silence all dissent. “You don’t support the Palestinians? You’re just a NAZI!” Funny, Islamic leaders who call for death to Israel, and compare Jews to pigs and monkeys are never called “Nazis”, though in these cases, the comparison’s pretty apt—and there was a Nazi/Islam connection in WWII.)

Apr 3, 2009 - 10:02 am 4. epaminondas:

I find the moral inversion when one ignores this, human behavior which makes the existence of a Jewish Israel compulsory in this world, almost amusing, especially since charges of racism and apartheid always inevitably redound to “if you make any attempt to stop me from killing or subjugating you, THAT is apartheid”

Charges based on ‘occupation’ are even more amusing since absent Arab wars of ‘annihilation’ (as Nasser put it) won by Israel, – Israel would be within 1949 borders, or if Arab proclivities had been different in 1936 (Peel Commission), and not guided by what turned out to be a Nazi from ~ Abu Musa and 1919 until post WW2, Israel would have been an area from its present northern border to about Tel Aviv, about 30% of it’s present size.

As for this absurd idea..”Are you not even a little tempted to entertain the overwhelmingly more credible hypothesis that whatever little new anti-Jewish feeling that does exist can adequately be accounted for by Israel’s very real, very consistent and very gross violations of basic human rights in the eyes of the world?” ..as it has ALWAYS BEEN long before Israel..regarding the Jews and their fate in the world of men – the problem is not that Jews are disliked around the world because of what Israel does. It all BEGINS with the FACT that it is Israel which is disliked because it is filled with Jews. Jews who remember not just 1939-1945, but the 2000 years previous, and observe the words and deeds around them SINCE 1945 which are consonant with all that has gone before, and all that occurred then. They have decided to live, and what flows from that … means either the surrounding peoples decide to make a peace, or the religious war of the peoples the surrounding arabs have engendered simply will go on until they decide that their children’s lives on THIS WORLD are more important than their entrance as martyrs into the next.

Apr 3, 2009 - 10:14 am 5. J. Heller, Ph.D.:

Dear Dr. Chesler,

Regarding Norm Finkelstein; What can one expect from a person who’s behavior indicates serious need for mental health assistance.

Apr 3, 2009 - 10:15 am 6. Dr. Bukk:

As Hitler proved, it is so much easier to organize and motivate people through hatred than love. But at least his movement was not justified by religion, only a twisted view of natural selection.

What Mohammed designed is practically impossible to dislodge in the mind of a man. He can rape women, prepubescent boys and domesticated female animals with impunity. He can make people his slaves. It is all sanctioned by Allah and insulated by hatred of all others. It’s just too good a deal.

As one bloke in the UK pointed out, how can you be victimized when you are the aggressor?

Apr 3, 2009 - 11:19 am 7. Debbie:

The comments “stealing land, apartheid, slaughter of innocent men, women, and children” make me laugh considering Israel could just drop a massive bomb on Gaza and take care of 1/2 the problem – yet they don’t. Stupid people who have obviously received zero education in Middle Eastern history. Such useful idiots.

Apr 3, 2009 - 11:37 am 8. Judy, NYC:

finklestein just happens to be jewish. beyond that, he is very psychotic but functions highly within those parameters. these derangements, are why we use the laws that recognize incitement to violence. twisted thinking, however, is allowable in our society, no matter how heinous.

the public eye is such a terrible place to be in so many ways and those in it, vulnerable to anyone, including the most aggressive derangements. until we can cure it in the womb through the genome they will exist and we are all their victims, especially those they compulsively target.

how and why these types develop a following is up to the scientists and neurologists to understand. it is still one of the great mysteries to know how this peculiar spurious logic transmutes itself to others.

we look to the american public to shun these ideas with disgust. in truly evolved societies, which we had become until recently, such notions would be marginalized. we have slipped backwards into a much darker time. if we are fortunate and we move forward again, until that occurs, they will continue to spew and spit their vile, stinking mucus.

Apr 3, 2009 - 11:49 am 9. Fern Sidman:

I did read Norman Finkelstein’s book, “Beyond Chutzpah” and it is clear that his propensity towards spewing forth mean spirited invective at those who disagree with his insane thesis is comparable to the kind of puerile nonsense that is often associated with the lexicon of schoolyard bullies.

Name calling is the last refuge of non-thinkers. Those incapable of debate choose to defame and chastise, rather than step up to the plate and presenting their views in a respectful and cogent manner.

Having been denied tenure at DePaul University on the grounds of fraudulent scholarship he occasionally pops up on the podium of university campuses, anti-Israel events and talk shows such as “Democracy Now” hosted by Amy Goodman to extol his Jew hatred.

It is no wonder that Finkelstein is so absorbed by hatred for Dr. Chesler. In an article that appeared in New York Magazine on December 10, 2007, author Ben Harris speaks of Finkelstein being forced to live in his late father’s rent controlled apartment near Coney Island in Brooklyn due to loss of wages. Apparently, his neighbors are the same Holocaust survivors that he erroneously claims have made a money making “industry” out of their suffering.

to read this article; please click on this link:

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/41838/

Finkelstein’s jealousy and enmity towards Dr. Chesler originiates from the fact that Dr. Chesler is a legitimate and respected academic with stellar credentials while he has been discredited and spurned for his spurious, hysterical screeds against Israel.

As a matter of fact, Finkelstein was arrested and deported from Israel and has been banned from entering the country for 10 years. According to the following report from Arutz Sheva, (May 2008) Finkelstein has been actively working with terrorist groups who are on the State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126276

Having nothing better to do with his time, he chooses to re-print Dr. Chesler’s articles with his own hate filled titles. Finkelstein is a pathetic soul and a dangerous character at the same time because he presents himself as a postmodern academic scholar.

Kudos to Dr. Chesler for standing up to our self-hating nemesis !!

Apr 3, 2009 - 12:56 pm 10. John Peter Maher:

Dear Phylllis Chesler,
Welcome to the club. I have been branded a Zionist propagandist for defending Israel, the only free country in the Near and Middle East. If anyone detests the idea of a Jewish state, they don’t seem bothered by all those Islamic kingdoms, emirates and “republics”. Fifty years ago I began to learn in earnest about the Balkans. That started with the US Army 48-week course in the language then known as Serbo-Croatian, passing with honors. In today’s PC jargon, as e.g. practiced at the Hague ICTY, what was once one language is now Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian. Add the creature of the US State Dept, Montenegrin. Serbs in Montenegro who refused to call it “our language” or “Montegrin” were fired and lost their pensions. Serbia is today the only multi-ethnic state in the former Yugoslavia. I am sometimes castigated as insane for defending Serbs and others who wanted to live in a single multi-ethnic Yugoslavia, not to create a “Greater Serbia”. In 1959 I was posted to a US Army CIC (Counter-Intelligence Corps) battalion in Italy, where I translated for my unit into English documents from Serbo-Croatian, German and Italian. Many of these were authored by a Croatian Catholic priest who had been in charge of placing Catholic Croats in the house of murdered Serbs and Jews, Monsignor Krunoslav Draganovic. He was the one who acquired a Vatican passport for Klaus Barbie, from Monsignor Giovanni Montini, who was to become Pope Paul VI.(Sixteen years of my education were in Catholic schools.) After my army hitch I taught in Bulgaria and two countries destroyed by the German-dominated European Union/NATO )a.k.a. USA), viz. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Ten years ago Bill Clinton unleashed his Nintendo-bombers against a sovereign multi-ethnic state, Serbia. The USAF flew together with the French Air Force, Dutch Air Force, Spanish Air Force, RAF and Luftwaffe [!!!] to bomb the Serbs in their several lands — Krajina, Bosnia, Slavonia and Serbia. Our air force became, as General MacKenzie put it, the Muslim Air Force. Clinton’s war was 78 days that will live in infamy. The USA bombed particularly in the night, or on market days. Pearl Harbor lasted just a few hours, and 9/11 was under two hours. To bring this to a conclusion, I urge you to take back the Muslim and fascist propaganda that you have been spouting against Karadzic in particular and the Serbs in general. Sarajevo is now a little Iran. You helped.

Apr 3, 2009 - 3:03 pm 11. MiamaMan:

The psychology of individuals like Finkelstein is masterfully explained in Jamie Glazov’s new book “United in Hate”. As far as I know it had not been done so clearly before although Eric Hoffer (an American Jew descendant from German/Jewish parents who was awarded the Medal of Freedom by Reagan 2 months before his death) defined the character in question at some length in his first book.

Make no mistake, it is a mental malady. These people experience a hole, a vacuum inside, a tremendous sense of frustration and unfulfilled rage. They love to inflict pain on others, love death, and has a conceptual eschatology that believes in the “starting all over again” by a cleansing of entire populations as a way to create a new world, a new society, a perfect country, so they flock, and have flocked, to Lenin (John Reed), to Hitler (Henry Ford, Lindbergh) to Stalin, to Mao (Susan Sontag, Shirley McLaine), to Uncle Ho (Jane Fonda), to Pol Pot, to Chavez (Sean Penn) and then to Iran (Noam Chomsky). And life goes on. The more people their heroes kill, the more liberties they trample, the more enthusiastically they defend them, suffering some more inside in the process, and making it a vicious cycle.

Let’s use an example, let’s say you have a quiet boy in school that for some reason is accused of all these terrible deeds. But he is innocent. He is called a bully, a thief, you name it. One day, he honors his critics, steal from other kids, beat them bad. Now, he is really a thief, a bully. Prophesy fulfilled.

Likewise, it may be that Israel one day, under constant attack, may have to proof its detractors correct, and NUKE Iran bad, and a little for Syria may be, and now the detractors WILL FLOCK TO ISRAEL, which is now fulfilling their death desires, really has become worthy one of them.

Only when Israel does this, there will be peace in the Middle East, and Hamas and Hezbollah will perish without support. Otherwise, pack your bags again and prepare to leave the neighborhood once more.

Apr 3, 2009 - 6:25 pm 12. George Jochnowitz:

The letters you cite, in particular, #1, seem like parodies. Could Michael Berkowitz have written Letter #1 in order to have people everywhere hear about it and see how crazy leftist anti-Semites can be?

Apr 3, 2009 - 6:57 pm 13. MiamaMan:

10. John Peter Maher

Please allow me to address the last paragraph in your post.

“To bring this to a conclusion, I urge you to take back the Muslim and fascist propaganda that you have been spouting against Karadzic in particular and the Serbs in general. Sarajevo is now a little Iran. You helped.”

I went to Ms. Chesler’s website and found an article she wrote about Karadzic: The Monster as Healer. Obviously against Karadzic. A certain Herr Mongerholz commented that day: “So much of the “ethnic cleansing” in the former Yugoslavia is a media creation that one is left to question any story that comes out of there. The Christian Serbs were subjected to years of attacks and harassment before they struck back.”

Well, to the point, I agree with you.

This Clinton Serbian war erases the gains of the battle of Poitiers won by Charlemagne and the siege of Vienna won by Charles V. It is a set back, for, as you say, Bosnia/Sarajevo is now a little Iran or Saudi Arabia. The latter built a huge mosque there, pay 500 Euros to any woman that dresses with the long Islamic robe (forgot the name, is not the closed Burka, but similar).

Hillbilly Slick Willy really made a mistake, but it is not surprising, he probably could not locate any of these countries on a map.

You know, I don’t know how many people Karadzic killed, but I will hold my judgment because of the media creations stated by Herr M. above. Besides, call me a wolf, but I sympathize with him. I know the Balkans well, has been there several times, and own several properties in Bulgaria. I can tell you, the Bulgarian people in the streets were livid with the Americans, and some wanted to volunteer for the Serbs, BECAUSE THEY KNEW, THEY HAVE SUFFERED FOR CENTURIES THE ISLAMIC YOKE UNDER THE TURKS.

Many people do not know the history there. It is complex. A good primer the book “Balkan Ghost”.

Notice the Bosnian Muslims look racially like Serbs or Croats. Many of them were convert to Islam to gain the higher status (in Bulgaria, early 1800s a Chorbayi or rich person on a horse had to dismount and bow to a Muslim walking by). The Turks organized a very mean militia, mostly of converts, called Bashi Bazouk, that while drunk terrorized the population. They stole their children to draft them into the Janissary elite force, and then some. In Batak, Bulgaria, this militia slaughtered 5,000 in a church, including children, the white bones of the victims are still in the church so Bulgarian children never forget. It was 1870. VICTOR HUGO WAS OUTRAGED, and accused the European of cowardice for not helping the Bulgarians, sounds familiar?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batak,_Bulgaria

Apr 3, 2009 - 6:59 pm 14. Cynthia:

I agree Finkelstein wrote two of the three letters. I hope he wrote them, frightening to think that others could write and imitate his psychotic jargon. A person like Finkelstein is the real Hitler because they have to persuade and indoctrinate young adults, no one else would listen. Of course neither would young adults if they did not have to take his class. Dr. Chesler, you are doing a great job, please continue.

Apr 3, 2009 - 7:03 pm 15. loveamerica:

Unfortunately Dr.Chesler there are more like him. Check out linkstv forum and you’ll get a taste of the psychotic thought that goes on. We need people like you to keep up the fight and we will never let the likes of Finkelstein win.

Apr 3, 2009 - 8:15 pm 16. Norman Simms:

Phyllis

While at first one can only fume and rage in response to the vicious self-hating antics of Finkelstein and his crew, after living close-up with so-called intellectuals who would rather sell out the West, destroy Israel, and watch gleefully as another Holocaust takes plade, perhaps my only comfort (and what a silly word that is here!) must be that on the whole they are too stupid to accomplish their l;ernicious goals, too disorganized and confused to mount a proper conspiracy, and too egotistical to see that they would be the first ones shot down when the carnage begins.
But cold comfort that would be.

So let us pool our own intelligence, skills and experience to do something practical to stop it before it happens.

Norman

Apr 3, 2009 - 8:29 pm 17. Sylvie7:

Anyone who has lived in Israel is aware that it has “faults.” But the individuals who wrote those posts don’t have a clue as to what they are. For some strange reason they are willing to believe any nonsense produced by Arab propagandists and the likes of Norman Finkelstein.

Since they are Jews, their acceptance of lies and twisted accusations against Israel because it exercizes its right to defend itself and the people who live there, is simply pathetic. They have internalized the hatred of others. No one needs to industrialize their “Vernichtung.” They simply implode. The perfect anti Jewish weapon.

As for Finkelstein himself, as far as I am concerned he is one sick sexist puppy.

Apr 4, 2009 - 6:03 am 18. LynnS:

The thing about the far left is;

They have the unique ability when necessary to move to the extreme right. They are able to extend the extremes to a distance that humans thought impossible and partnership with peoples who hold thought and opinions that don’t necessarily speak to one cohesive purpose, but attempt to gather together extremes from both right and left to fill their ranks.

Their purpose is as confused as their ranks and often they wake up with the horrible realization that they have no righteous cause. What is dangerous is that they often become angry and strike out like wounded bears.

The left has become as meaningless as the word “change”, and as vague as the phrase “yes we can”.

Apr 4, 2009 - 7:45 am 19. Arius:

History is painfully ironic.

The Jewish people suffered genocide at the hands of the Muslim allied German Nazis in WW2. The Muslim heirs of the Nazi Jihad have been rehabilitated by the West and are again attacking the Jewish people.

The Serbian and Roma people suffered war and genocide at the hands of the Muslims and their German Nazi allies in WW2. The Muslim heirs of the Nazi Jihad have been rehabilitated by the West and are again attacking the Serbian and Roma people.

The Armenian people suffered genocide at the hands of the German allied Turks in WW1. Since WW2 the Turks have been rehabilitated by the West and since the 1990’s Western interests are supporting Muslim attacks on the Armenian people.

Western centric Armenians and Jews should wake up to the fact that in a Muslim conflict with any other group the West will tend toward support of Muslims. The last hundred years of history tell us this. It is delusional to think that in the future it will be any different. Western centric Armenians and Jews are a great danger to the very survival of Armenia and Israel in their support of implicitly pro-Muslim Western policy. Our people in the West need to wake up!

Want to take a guess on whether or not Obama will mention the word ‘genocide’ in his April 24th statement on the Armenian Genocide? I think not. As Turkey makes its historic shift from Ataturk secularism back to Islamism, America elects a stealth Muslim (‘Palestinian Christian’) that is tilting US foreign policy further toward the interest of Turkey.

Apr 4, 2009 - 9:44 am 20. Martin:

Even someone who agrees with Norman Finkelstein on the issues should condemn him for being so sophomoric, cowardly, and misogynistic in his new “title” of Dr. Chesler’s article.

Apr 4, 2009 - 10:33 am 21. Rahel:

Finkelstein’s hate-filled statements, which show no real thought at all, say a great deal more about him than they do about Dr. Chesler or about the topic on which he purports to be writing.

Apr 4, 2009 - 10:58 am 22. Greenconsciousness:

Hear Phyllis on “Free US Now” radio monday night. I want to meet you all there (except for you know who).

Monday Night on BlogTalkRadio
Free Us Now 10 – 11:30 pm EST

Just go to this website and click the remind me button

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/no-we-wont

No radio needed the show is online- Please come ! click the little blue box top right and the show can be heard. Monday 10 PM eastern/ Bring your questions which you can type into your computer as the show goes on. Go there now and click on the “remind me” button and you will get an email 5 min before the show airs YOUR TIME not EST

Event: Free Us Now Radio Show
http://freemenow.wordpress.com/
http://www.free-us-now.com/
Host: BettyJean Kling
Start Time: Monday, April 6 at 10:00pm EST
End Time: Monday, April 6 at 11:30pm

Where: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/no-we-wont

Apr 4, 2009 - 11:48 am 23. Al Rassooli (author of “Lifting the Veil: The True Faces of Muhammad and Islam”):

Phyllis – your article “Our Eternal Struggle” is quite simply BRILLIANT!

Thank you for writing it and for having the courage to publish it despite knowing full well that the world is over-filled and nearly bursting with absurdly deluded, angry, confused and ridiculous people like Elliot Fox (people who try so hard to appear academic and intellectual when they clearly know very little, do not appear to have a single coherent or valid thought to think, or comment to make). Although interesting it was also rather depressing to read (or more precisely wade-through) all that pseudo-intellectual garbage together with the equally nonsensical and self-congratulating nonsense from Hugo Newman.

Letter #1 is from someone claiming to be (and possibly even being) Michael Berkowitz. To judge from its content, phrasing and alarmingly simplistic (and of course baseless) Jew-hatred I think it glaringly obvious that it was not written by a “real” Jew – far more likely to be the pre-programmed ravings of yet another indignant Muslim. I say this with confidence as I know so many of these people (having been born and brought up in Iraq) – typically, even if “educated”, they’d have absolutely no ability to comprehend what you actually wrote, and in any case they’ve been taught to fear any form or thought (if you see what I mean)… from the moment they’re born they are taught a wide range of irrational prejudices and hatreds which they are forbidden from questioning and are programmed to continually repeat and impulsively act upon. They would certainly NOT consider seeking valid, neutral or properly independent sources of information so as to be able to confirm that EVERYTHING you wrote in your article (contrary to what they may believe) is in fact 100% correct and beyond reproach. No, on the balance of probabilities I think it far more likely that “Michael Berkowitz” is in fact a common or garden Jew-hating Muslim with, in reality, a far more Islamic sounding name.

And don’t be fooled by a yahoo email address – anyone can register anything whenever they like provided it hasn’t already been taken. If you google “michaelberkowitz@yahoo.com” (in quotation marks and all one word) you will find it ONLY appears in this one article. However if you instead google “michael berkowitz” you will find lots of results. [Incidentally, out of interest I did a little research and found someone called “Michael Berkowitz” listed in a Wikipedia article, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drohobych as a “pioneer of the Zionist movement” associated with the Ukrainian town of Drohobych. This might possibley be the real “Michael Berkowitz” and certainly not the one who wrote letter #1].

Speaking of Wikipedia you may be interested to see an article it has on what is known as “Godwins Law” (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin’s_law ). In essence this can be paraphrased to say that when people are struggling to undermine a person or organisation then in desperation they eventually stoop to comparing them to the Nazis and as soon as they have done so then any intelligent person should just politely walk away from them as they have lost their argument. This is very much the case with all those who disingenuously and outrageously attempt to compare Israel with Nazi Germany.

Israel is a tiny country, fighting valiantly for survival whilst utterly surrounded by murderous enemies and all the while under the microscope of a confused, misled and uncaring world. To put this somewhat into perspective please see http://www.al-rassooli.com/images/tiny-little-Israel.jpg

Kind Regards,
Al Rassooli (author of “Lifting the Veil: The True Faces of Muhammad and Islam”)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1434392023/ )
[please see also the YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/AhmadsQuran3 ]

Apr 5, 2009 - 3:58 pm 24. Al Rassooli (author of “Lifting the Veil: The True Faces of Muhammad and Islam”):

PS. sorry, I’ve just noticed I didn’t type the link to the article on Godwin’s Law correctly. If you have time to look it up please see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

Thanks.

Kind Regards,
Al Rassooli

Apr 5, 2009 - 4:08 pm 25. Joe:

Not usually a commenter, but WOW. Israel has been on the defensive for the last 60 years, and do borrow and old sport adage, the best defense is a good offense. It’s not Israel’s fault that they have to play down to their competetion.

Apr 6, 2009 - 4:49 am 26. John from Toronto:

re: Letter #2:

he writes: “…already steeped-in-bullshit reading public”. He’s right. He reads and believes Finkelstein, so he is steeped in bs.

Apr 6, 2009 - 9:00 am 27. Shoshana Rubin:

In order to believe Finklestein’s vulgar slanders and vile hatreds of Israel, I’ll just say this: Finklestein asserts that the Nazi Holocaust was a lie that was devised by the Zionists to blackmail humanity. In order to believe this lie, we must also believe that all World War II American and Russian soldiers who liberated the Nazi death camps were also lying.

If the premise is invalid, how can the conclusion be valid?

Keep up the good work, Phyllis.

Apr 6, 2009 - 9:09 pm 28. UMD MSA hosts Finkelstein:

After garnering national attention for hosting XXX-porn (while banning graduation prayers), UMaryland turns to… hosting Holocaust denial.

The MSA hate-mongers (who hosted the pro-terrorist venom of El-Hajj Mauri Saalakhan earlier this semester) will tonight host the pro-Osama and Holocaust-denier, Norman Finkelstein (hyperlinked above).
=====
Flashback: When asked whether he thought that “the West was in some way responsible for the tragedy of September 11,” Finkelstein belched:

“Regrettably, it’s payback time for the Americans and they have a problem because all the other enemies since the end of World War Two that they pretended to contend with . . . were basically fabricated enemies. . . . Frankly, part of me says … ‘you know what, we deserve the problem on our hands because some things bin Laden says are true.’”
=====
[Is hosting these rancid terrorism-advocates really an appropriate use of MD taxpayer-funded facilities? Where are the calls for CENSURE of the serial hate-mongering of the MSA?]

Apr 8, 2009 - 9:45 am 29. Chas:

Listened to a great lecture today, about the criminal mind; apparently all criminals, even psychopathic ones, are perfectly sane. They just have a wrong method of thinking, but to them what they do is perfectly logical. Their main problem, according to a longitudinal survey by a couple of psychiatrists, was that when they were young their mothers never dared to correct them or discipline them – or allow anyone else to.

On a related note, a radio program up here in Canada earlier this week addressed the question as to whether this generation of university students is the most narcissistic and stupid in history.

The evidence and sources thereof, posted in this debate here and elsewhere, suggest this is a problem that does not stop at borders.

Apr 11, 2009 - 9:47 pm 30. Peg C.:

It is a strange world when you cannot tell some self-loathing Jews from their most ardent enemies. I don’t understand it and I was a psych major. There is some very serious mental illness on display.

A teensy strip of land, of a diverse, democratic, free and incredibly productive population – surrounded by truly insane mobs and psychotic dictators – has huge swaths of the world in paroxysms of hatred and screaming for annihilation. This will not end well for some. I know whose side I’m on.

Thank you, Ms. Chesler, for fighting the fight.

Apr 12, 2009 - 6:28 am 31. Steve Hunt:

The ???? mall is a fine place, Phyllis, and worth fighting for! Keep up the good fight! I enjoy hot topic and ?????dippin’ dots the most!

Apr 12, 2009 - 10:44 am 32. littlehorn:

Finklestein asserts that the Nazi Holocaust was a lie that was devised by the Zionists to blackmail humanity.
Hi everyone.

I don’t really hope for much in intervening here.

I have actually read the Holocaust Industry, and the above is factually wrong.

What Finkelstein documented was how Zionist organizations demanded money from European governments, during the 1990s, on behalf of Holocaust survivors.

Said survivors received none of that money, and they’re pretty mad about it. That, to me, seems a good reason to bitch about Holocaust exploitation, not in the sense that it did not happen, but in the sense that the survivors did not receive the money they were entitled to.

As for Chesler’s article about the eternal struggle, such a pessimism is nothing new. It has been part of Zionism for a long, long time. From Herzl’s time actually:
In Paris, as I have said, I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-Semitism, which I now began to understand historically and to pardon. Above all, I recognized the emptiness and futility of trying to “combat” anti-Semitism.
Marvin Lowenthal (ed.), The Diaries of Theodor Herzl, p.6.

Indeed, eternal struggle, futility. Anti-Semitic, always, forever and ever. No end in sight.

Zeev Maov lays down the tenets of Israel’s security in his book, Defending the Holy Land. Here is one passage where pessimism is also rampant:
The Arab world is fundamentally hostile toward Israel. It would attempt to destroy the Jewish state given the right chance. The Arabs — Palestinians, Egyptians, Syrians, or even more remote peoples such as the Algerians, Libyans, or Iraqis– have never accepted the formation of a Jewish state in Palestine. They might accept it as a (possibly temporary) fact, but they have never internalized the fact that Jews have the right to a national homeland in the Middle East. Therefore, the Arabs harbor a permanent and powerful motivation to annihilate the Jewish state. The only thing that prevents them from doing so is their awareness of the futility of this mission and/or their awareness that the price of such an attempt would be exorbitant. The implication is that Israel is destined to live for a long time under an existential threat. In the short term (the short term being the foreseeable future) its policies and actions can only affect the Arab cost-benefit calculus; they cannot affect Arab motivation. In the long run this motivation may change, but this is not certain, and the long run may be very long indeed.

I would conclude by saying that those who never hope, will also never win. Some here talk about fighting. But that’s not what you do. You only retreat behind a wall. Physical, and spiritual. This is what cowards do.

The correct wording should thus be: “Keep on retreating !”

Apr 13, 2009 - 6:36 am 33. David Levavi:

To be called a cow by a mooncalf is no insult. It’s merely the callow, milky-chinned moo of a lost and lonely steer.

I thank Fern Sidman for her link to New York Magazine’s hilarious portrait of poor Norman Finkelstein languishing and anguishing in his Brighton diaspora. I forwarded it with glee to several dozen of my best friends.

Apr 15, 2009 - 8:42 am 34. dahlia nassif:

This is a response to Martin’s comment

Even someone who agrees with Norman Finkelstein on the issues should condemn him for being so sophomoric, cowardly, and misogynistic in his new “title” of Dr. Chesler’s article.

I am a supporter of Norman Finkelstein. But you are correct in the above statement and I emailed him on this very point. If you would like to email me on this further you may at the above address.

Apr 16, 2009 - 1:55 am 35. littlehorn:

Dahlia, if Phyllis doesn’t want to be attacked on her lack of brains, she may want to use them while she writes articles. Sophomoric, sure. Cowardly and misogynistic, no. I think we can call those women we find stupid ‘cows’ without condescending to the entire feminine gender.

Apr 17, 2009 - 6:37 am 36. dahlia nassif:

Thank you for your response,littlehorn. I think we are of like minds. Being of full Arab American ancestry on my paternal side, I think you know that my political ideology would exponentially differ from Phyllis’. In fact, we probably would engage in cyberspace bloody battles. I also had relatives in the diplomatic service that were involved in 242 resolution for close to 40 years. In college I was one of the first feminist in my dormitory block to create a women’s liberation group, now rightly be considered an anachronistic term. Concurrently, Phyllis’ book “Women and Madness” came out, and as an undergrad in clinical psychology and intern at one of the local state hospitals I read it–at the time I was interested in schizophrenia and creativity. I did not agree with the arguments she put forth, but it was part of what I deemed required reading during the summer. By the way I just received my PhD in a social science field.

Having said all of this. I personally know Norman Finkelstein. I have been greatly supportive of everything he has done as well as his visit to our conference. I have written rebuttals, in his defense, to Front Page Magazine. He can be a kindly and easy going sort, but at the same time he is socially inept and needs to direct his vehement dissent towards the “ideology” in lieu of ad hominem comments towards the gender or sexual orientation of the person. THis sort of behavior will not endear him to women who might be sitting on the fence of the I/P conflict and could become one of his strong supporters.

Another person comes to mind is Irshad Manji. I find her powerfully insipid and idiotic, but to cast a slew of appellations that she is a spike headed semi-Muslim Lesbian–I can agree with the spike headed semi Muslim part as she is on a campaign to stereotype all Muslims, but to add the Lesbian in a pejorative tone as he did is discriminatory.
I am not being a hypocrite here as I have emailed Norman regarding his deplorable habit of attacking the physical attributes of a woman in his dissent. His use of the term “cow” is particularly sexist and degrading as prior to returning to graduate school I was in the corporate world for twenty years and heard repeatedly this term from men that were associated with a conservative political agenda, diametrically opposed to Norman’s.

Norman and I come from the same generational mold–political activists, in solidarity with all groups, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, ableism, etc., but Norm, in his middle age crisis,represents many men that are caught up in retaining their youth, and as he lectures to a predominantly young audience with the attendance of a handful of older folk, falls back on sexist terms that apply to the physical state of women advancing in age. Granted, he is in trim and in good shape, but hardly well kept to criticize others.

In essence, if a man uses the term “cow” to refer to one particular woman this is his latent feeling of how he perceives all women, or else he would choose an alternative more appropriate term to express his dissent against their noxious ideology.
I will be glad to continue this conversation if you feel at dahlianassif@yahoo.com as I think out of respect to Phyllis, should dominate this blog.

Apr 17, 2009 - 12:20 pm 37. THE NASTY LETTERS OF THE FINKELSTEIN “HATE ISRAEL” CROWD « 4international:

[...] http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2009/04/03/my-norman-finkelstein-problem%E2%80%94and-ours/ [...]

Jun 1, 2009 - 9:35 am 38. Jordan Baizas:

Re the backlash against Chesler: I agree and disagree with her response.

Yes, the above letters are stupefyingly sexist and ridiculous, attributing unknowable motives and pathologies to Chesler even as their authors tout the PC credentials they imagine makes their sexism and invective bullet-proof. They fling assumptions at their recipient like tomatoes at a Vaudeville villain — assumptions so caricatured and sweeping as to be too generalized to apply to homicidal psychopaths. Repetition, hyperbole and cant in the service of a verbal lynching.

I’m also heartbroken that a respected Holocaust writer like Norman Finkelstein would call a female human being a “cow.” He didn’t just lose his temper and say this to a driver who cut him off, but to a person who wrote a piece on anti-Semitism with which he disagreed.

I’d hate to hear what he calls women in the street. I doubt he’s lenient (nor should he be) when prejudiced opponents apply the k-word to him.

Yet, to a lesser extent, Chesler shares two vices with her verbal attackers: hyperbole and ad hominem, neither of which are necessary. Just as those twits from Finklestein’s site should not be vilifying and slandering Chesler simply because they disagree with her, so Chesler shouldn’t be condemning them for a lack of *brevity*, nor should she claim Finklestein writes “incomprehensible” books “mimicking” scholarship. Chesler shouldn’t be making the same veiled charges of pretense and hypocrisy against Finklestein that he and the letter writers have made against her. The idea should be that she is better than that. Besides, those complaints make her sound like an *anti*-intellectual, not an advocate and practitioner of abstract thought.

Finklestein might be many things, but he is neither incomprehensible nor a pseudo-scholar. He is, rather, a cranky off-kilter scholar — one who has grown so obsessed with his topic that his legitimate work is now diluted by unsupported assertions, his analysis of events peppered with character assassination supporting his *idee fixe*. He is not talentless nor is his work devoid of content. He is simply untrustworthy.

His untrustworthiness should give Chesler enough ammo to obliterate his argument. No need to descend to his level and attribute the worst motives possible just because he’s wrong.

He has failed to grasp the incredible difference between disapproving of Israel’s military actions and opposing its very existence. There’s the position to attack, not his style or legitimacy.

====================

PS: Even if his thesis were true, and Israel really was the result of a deal between the U.N. and a handful of militaristic capitalists, how would that be reason enough for the country to be dissolved? Were the origins of North America and Greak Britain somehow less suspect than Israel’s? If not, should they, too, be dissolved in the present because of quesitons about their formation in the past?

Aug 21, 2009 - 5:32 am

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