Norman Finkelstein: ‘This Time We Went Too Far’ (Video)

Professor Norman Finkelstein’s lecture at the University of Southern California, 11 March 2010, on the Gaza Massacre as discussed in his most recent book, This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Massacre:

• The preceding internal politics of Israel, Gaza and the international community’s reaction;
• Israel breaking its ceasefire with Hamas while the world was distracted by the ‘coronation‘ of Barack Obama;
• Why ‘22 days of death and destruction‘, as Amnesty International called the massacre, wasn’t a ‘war’;
• The ‘crimes’ of Hamas rocket attacks v. those of Israel ‘terrorizing‘, according to the Goldstone Report, Gazans;
• Israel soldiers’ description of the massacre as ‘insane hunting season, like a video game, like a child killing ants with a magnifying glass’;
• Israel’s unlawful repeated targeting of civilians and the use of weaponized white phosphorus;
• The Western perpetuation of ‘Israel’s propaganda’ which is contrary to the reports of a diverse array of non-governmental organizations finding Israel’s ‘aim to punish, numiliate and terrorize the civilian population’ as ‘systematic and deliberate policy’, consistent with then-Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni bragging her soldiers invasion Gaza ‘demonstrated real hooliganism‘;
• The bipartisan Massacre Deniers of the United States in the White House and public universities, along with Elie Wiesel—because ‘every circus needs a clown’.

Part One (9:49):

Finkelstein on the Gaza Massacre’s Impact on Israeli Geopolitics (Video)

Yesterday on Al Jazeera English’s “The Riz Khan Show”: Libertarian socialist Professor Norman Finkelstein discussed the ’08-’09 unlawful Gaza Massacre as a deliberate effort by Israel to “humiliate and terrorize” the Gazan population, its consequences for Israel on the domestic and international stage and the ‘two-state solution’ in light of his latest book on last year’s offensive, This Time We Went Too Far. He also describes why it is incorrect to call Israel’s offensive of over a year ago, a ‘war’, but a “premeditated slaughter, a massacre”. He also takes live callers with questions (22:26):

Norman Finkelstein on the U.N. Report Finding Israel ‘Terrorized’ Palestinians and Committed War Crimes in Gaza Massacre (Video)

Palestine-Israel scholar (and my former pedagogue) Professor Norman Finkelstein discusses the U.N. report finding that Israel committed war crimes during Operation Cast Lead—the 22-day massacre of 1,400+ Palestinians, including hundreds of children, in Gaza that began 27 December 2008, backed by then-President-elect Barack Obama and then-President George W. Bush—on Democracy Now! (DN!) with its host, Amy Goodman. Prof. Finkelstein discusses the details of the report in comparison to those from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, the misleading rhetoric of calling the Gaza Massacre a ‘war’ and of media equivalence of the crimes from within Gaza to those committed by the Israel Defence Force (IDF).