Well, a weepy Jewish student anyway. She’s obviously a really nice and sensitive person, but in Norman’s world, she’s a viper.

Pay attention, kids! This is what happens when you espouse bitter anti-Jewish views (yup, his Holocaust “industry” research qualifies as anti-Jewish) and loonie anti-Israel views (like calling it a Satanic state!) that are so on the fringe that you get criticized severely, eventually become ostracized, lose the possibility of tenure and at every turn become more and more doctrinaire with your radical views because you’re really, really, really angry.

But don’t be too concerned, because there is no shortage of MSU centers around the country or other professors who dislike Israel and both appear to be willing to book such people for book tours, for mucho dinero according to rumors.

That’s right, bring him out and you get to see the students you don’t like, the ones who don’t think the Israelis are Nazis, and especially those who have the temerity to ask a public question, roasted by the good doctor who has the bigger mic, the louder voice and more knowledge since he’s an academic.

This video is particularly enjoyable. You’ll notice how Norman complains about Jews using the “Holocaust card” and shedding “crocodile tears” about the Holocaust and then uses his parents and family, who are Holocaust victims, to browbeat the audience into submission and respect in order to explain why Israel resembles Nazis.

I know, let’s promote the guy’s book!

About the author

themiddle

46 Comments

  • I think you are missing the point… any society that goes through what we have gone through as a people.. and then to have the militarized up-bringing as a country.. you have to have lived in ones shoes seen the stuff they have seen.. its called experience and history. he might go a little over-board at times but at least psychologically he has reflected on what he does not want to see happen again a repeat… but this time on the other shoe…thats why i’m happy i don’t live in israel worrying about being bombed or shot….i may go visit.. but it is not stable..anyone can see this… unless your in denial..i would love to live there and im pro-israel as a country…but in all honesty you might as well put your pets in a cage with barbed wire rather than letting them roam freely. same concept.

  • Yeah, okay, you’re entitled to your opinion. But that has nothing to do with Finkelstein’s views and it also doesn’t change the fact that he made this young woman cry because she was, you know, offended at being called a Nazi and then in the process of attacking her, he used the “Holocaust card” to his advantage. Cynical and ugly.

    • I disagree, if you notice in the video the tears of this young lady seem to be disingenuous. Notice how her sobbing seems only to happen when she realizes the camera is on her. I have seen posts insinuating that she was not even a student and possibly not even jewish but a plant buy the ADL. I have no Idea if that is true but it seems fishy to me.

      • Seems very genuine to me. But I’m glad you’ve seen posts that suggest otherwise. I’ve seen posts that claim Israel is an apartheid state and that Finkelstein is a serious scholar and they are just as ridiculous.

  • Dude he didn’t specifically call her a nazi and point at her calling her a nazi.. he merely used it as an example for comprehension…i guess he could have called her a roman, alexander the great, or genghis khan maybe.. i dunno
    but yeah i see your point the guy is a little cynical i guess.. i see some of his points and hes right and wrong at the same time. he doesn’t have to be mean about it.. he could have explained it a different way and use other examples…

  • Uh no. When she asks her question, with her voice breaking and then in tears – crocodile tears, he calls them – she mentions her surprise that he equated people in the audience like her to Nazis. Not to Genghis Kahn or Bobo the Clown, but to Nazis. There is a reason he’s talking about Nazis and not, say, Romans, and if you don’t understand that he’s doing this and that he’s doing this for a specific reason, then perhaps you should refrain from trying to analyze what’s going on here since you obviously don’t have the slightest clue?

  • Um, yes.. her as a jewish person..she is offended.. but did he call HER a nazi?? n0 … she equates..meaning coming to the conclusion that he is calling her a nazi as a jewish person dude… don’t twist it. and yes there is a reason hes saying nazi dude..because it happend in our lifetimes .. her being a young person would understand nazi better rather than if he had said roman, alexander the great, or genghis khan.. i think your looking for something that isnt there…or you want to see something that isnt there. and i do have a clue because at least I AM IN THE MIDDLE.

    • Um, no. She obviously believed that he meant that she was a Nazi. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have her voice cracking and her eyes tearing.

      And no, the term “Nazi” is not being used because she’s a young person and it happened in our lifetime.He could have talked about Pol Pot and Cambodia otherwise, or Sudan today, or Kosovo. He uses the term “Nazi” specifically because he’s dealing with a Jewish state in his lectures. He is using “Nazi” because it is understood to be the height of human immorality in large part because of the particularity and efficacy of their genocide of Jews, Gypsies and other minorities. He uses “Nazi” because it is the worst epithet you can hurl at a Jewish state or its supporters. It’s incredible that you would even debate this point or that I have to spell it out for you since it is at the heart of his oeuvre.

      Ridiculous.

  • yeah she believed… but in all honesty is more of a drama queen than to take some sort of criticism.. some people take it personal.. and i guess he did hit home with his comment.. but if she understood where he was coming from with the comment rather than take it personal cuz it wasnt personal to her because she did not live through it in all honesty. you stated the obvious facts.. and hes just saying in effect.. you cant go back.. lets look to the future.. stop crying about it.. what are you going to do 200 years from now still hold a grudge on a past which you could not change even though you still wish you could? all the guy is saying.. we as a people are doing the same injustice to another people and you condemn him for blasphemy or is it because he speaks truth that you are so outraged over?… and i know your gonna come back.. he called her nazii and restate all which you said b4. over and over and over.. like a broken record player repeating the same thing till a thousand years from now…change doesnt happen if you harp on it. and the best will come if we as a people move on build up israel and make it beautiful that we all can enjoy and marvel at.. instead of being another concentration camp… have you seen the Lion king at all?? yes simba its in the past you cannot change it.. do i need a childrens story to explain it to you? or maybe you need a psychiatrist. because thats all you can think about? tell me what is soo bad about moving on?

    • Um, but he wasn’t moving on. He was the one who brought up his parents and their being victims of the Nazis.

  • dude he did move on… you know it we know it… you just need something to talk about. he stated he lived through it he cried about it.. he could not change it.. and he moved on discussing more pressing issues like the present. stop living in the past.

    • Me? I never compared you to a Nazi.

      Besides, your “drama queen” business is just like Finkelstein’s “crocodile tears” accusation. Seems to me she was truly hurt and outraged. Legitimately, I might add.

      Oh, and “we as a people” are NOT doing the “same injustice” to another people or anything of the sort, and Israel isn’t another “concentration camp.”

      But thanks for letting us see your true colors. Now please do go away.

  • dude in have you read history? or do you turn a blind eye to palistine? and yes it resembles a concentration camp with the walls and barbed wire.. and the many soldiers walking around trying to keep peace? ohhh maybe its selective sight you have .. yes i have seen your true colors also…at least i for one can live with other people in harmony .. but i guess you see that as not being worthy of being jewish because i care for other people and what they have gone through also. at least one of us has a honors degree in history and a minor in jewish studies.. you should work for the propaganda machine your very good at being one-sided for one that calls himself “the middle” its ironic in a way… and the fact that i should go away.. just further proves my point.

    • Bye. See ya.

      Oh, and here’s a little lesson to you, Mr. “honors degree in History and Minor in Jewish Studies.” In the first 18 months of WWII, the Nazis exterminated 1.5 million Jews, going from village to village. There was no war with these Jews, certainly not one began by the Jews. They were simply living their lives and Nazis and their local cohorts came and slaughtered them wholesale. This was before they embarked on their “final solution” after seeing their soldiers begin to have serious emotional problems due to their genocidal acts.

      Now, comparing that to anything that Israel has done is a bad joke. To compare it when Israel is in a real war that has lasted for decades on a number of fronts, is simply obscene.

      That is why your claims constitute the propaganda here. I’m not rewriting history, you are. Seriously, do the math: 1,500,000 Jews, virtually all civilians/in about 550 – 600 days. This number is not debated. This number is even acknowledged by deniers like David Irving. Take Cast Lead as a contrast, since this is what Finkelstein uses. 1200-1400 Palestinians die in fighting, after launching thousands of rockets at Israel for years, and even the pro-Palestinian NGOs acknowledge that about half of the dead are fighters.

      I guess the “drama queen” has a reason to be hurt, humiliated and enraged. And how does Finkelstein shut her and everybody else up after calling people like her “Nazis?” He does it by bringing up the suffering of his parents under the Nazis.

      You can keep shilling for him, but it makes you look bad.

  • even if you called me a nazi i would not be offended..because i know your full of it.

  • but i will tickle your fancy.. this blog is majorly one-sided..and i will not post again at your request so be well .. and good luck with your psychiatric assessment you really need a shrink. and also you need to pick up the latest edition of any sort of encyclopedia..

    -cheers 🙂

  • In Jan 2009, I attended the Whither the Levant anti-Israel bash at UCI. Finklestein was there. This is an arrogant jerk who loves to hear himself drone on and insults somebody every two or three sentences.

    During the Q&A, which was by written questions sent to the front, my question was selected and referred to Fink.

    The question was : In recent days we have seen pro-palestininan rallies in Ft Lauderdale, LA, SF and Toronto in which demonstrators shouted, Death to Jews, Jews back to the ovens, long live Hitler, Hitler didn’t finish the job”. Will you condemn those statements and don’t you think they discredit your side?

    His answer was that he had not heard of these incidents, thought they were greatly exaggerated or were carried out by “Zionists” masquerading as Arabs. He then finished with some reference to people (like the questioner) pulling their heads out of their navels-as the entire hall of about 500 people erupted in cheers.

    In May, I posed the same question to George Galloway. he called me a liar to the applause of some 800 people.

    All of the incidents I quoted are availbale on YouTube.

    Finklestein (and Galloway) are a couple of vicious jerks.

    Gary Fouse
    adj teacher
    UCI Ext

  • Finkelstein understands that what the jews missed most during the holocaust was a voice to protest for them. Today the people who need a voice are the palestinians not the jews. This is one man who will be noted down in history next to all great supporters of human dignity.

  • Sorry Fred, what the Palestinians need are people who will protest their continued refusal to negotiate for peace and sign peace deals that have proposed fair compromises. Finkelstein, in fact, opposes these compromises, claiming they are insufficient. He will go down in history as a person who spent his life expressing animosity to Jews, Jewish organizations and Israel and supported war (check out the Youtube video of him extolling Hizbullah and telling the Lebanese reporter interviewing him that the Lebanese should fight Israel) when he could have been an advocate for peace.

    He also skews information to suit his argument, and does so dishonestly. For example, he continues to refer to the Gaza War as the Gaza massacre, but conveniently ignores the hundreds of Palestinians militants who were killed during the fighting. If militants are killed in large numbers, it is obviously a fight between armies and a war, not a massacre.

  • I don’t understand. How is militarizing against a previously weaponless people, taking their homes and invading their state really that different from the Nazi occupation? I understand that the death toll of approx. 90 000 Palestinians is comparatively smaller than that of the genocide, but essentially: killing people, taking homes; It’s the same thing.

    • They weren’t weaponless. In fact, there were numerous Arab attacks on Jews in the Yishuv for decades before the 1948 War of Independence. They had no state and there certainly was no invasion. Over the course of this entire conflict, it’s unlikely that more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis and most of those have died during wars. That’s called “war,” not “genocide” and if you wish to compare it to other conflicts, the total number of Palestinians killed in a century of fighting amounts to a quarter of the Syrians killed by other Syrians (and their Lebanese helpers) in the past two years. I’m sure Finkelstein is busy writing a book about the Allepo Massacre as I write…

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