Norman Finkelstein is on a tear

After years of lying quietly in his Brooklyn apartment, having given up on his 40-year career of tilting at the windmills of the Israeli occupation, the anger is back. He’s back on the scene, providing valuable insight as the world’s leading expert on the occupation.

The following interview was excellent (but the podcast linked below is even better).

Gaza Update with Norman Finkelstein by Useful Idiots (YouTube)

As for the first hospital bombing of this latest round of war, Finkelstein says that

1. Israel always bombs hospitals (he directed us to his posting Israel ALWAYS Acknowledges Its Atrocities by Norman Finkelstein)
2. Even Israel says that 6000 rockets fired by Hamas since October 7th (Israel’s number) have killed “dozens” of Israelis (also Israel’s number) and that it was a fragment of a Hamas rocket that leveled the hospital, killing over 500, which is on its face flatly unbelievable
3. Why doesn’t the U.S. just publish its satellite data? It very clearly has detailed satellite imagery. It could clear this up immediately
4. Why not let inspectors in? They could easily clear up what sort of weapon it was that caused the damage. Even from the footage, people can determine that it was a powered, warhead-equipped weapon, not a rocket dependent on gravity for its damage.

He thanks Aaron and Katie for having him on the show because almost no other “left” podcasts have invited him, despite him being by far the leading authority on Gaza. Other unaffiliated/independent shows have invited him, like Jimmy Dore, Chris Hedges, TrueAnon, etc.

As noted above, the podcast TrueAnon, Episode 327: It’s Not Too Late (Patreon) is an absolutely brilliant 136 minutes.

I have no transcription other than,

“If things were cut-and-dried, then our legal standard wouldn’t be ‘beyond a reasonable doubt’, it’d be ‘certainty.’”

Just listen to the interview. It is positively edifying.

I’ve listened to every Norman Finkelstein interview I could get my hands on recently. A couple of weeks ago, I watched him discuss Ibram X. Kendi on the Bad Faith podcast.

Since then, the Middle East has exploded and he’s been interviewed a few times: on Chris Hedges, Jimmy Dore, Useful Idiots, and TrueAnon. This is the best of all of these interviews. TrueAnon is hands-down the best podcast I listen to. I appreciate Liz and Brace and young Chomsky very much.

I wrote the following comment on their Patreon:

“Amazing episode. Just incredible. It should be spread far and wide, preserved for posterity. This is by far my favorite podcast, but this one just clicked on all levels. Excellent production, wonderful tone. That you went to his apartment, amongst his stuff, that he started with far-reaching social context, talking about Pete Seeger and Johnny Cash, Paul Robeson, all of it lifted this show above all of the other interviews I’ve heard with him (Hedges, Dore, Halper/Maté). Thanks so much.”

I’m flattered that the crew read and liked my comment.