Troubling Norman

Norman Finklestein arouses strong views, not least because he so often chooses to be gratuitously insulting. He takes pleasure at getting under the skin of his targets. He is also a relentless critic of Zionism and Israel. Writing in the Times, Stephen Holden refers to him as "a thorn in the side of the Israel lobby". Holden is reviewing "American Radical", a new documentary film about Finklestein. I could not help but to notice that he labored to make Finklestein seem a crank. For instance, Holden juxtaposes Finklestein's assault on the risible scholarship of Joan Peters to the acclaim that the book received.

"The film chronicles the controversies in which Mr. Finkelstein has become embroiled, beginning with his attack on Joan Peters’s widely praised [added italics] 1984 best seller, “From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict Over Palestine,” which he denounced as a hoax."

The Peters book did receive praise when it appeared mmore than a quarter century ago, especially from reviewers who were intent to discredit the nationalism of Palestinians; however, the book was lambasted by serious scholars. Apparently Holden didn't notice. Here, for instance, is historian Yehoshua Porath writing in the New York Review of Books, in 1986:

"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 and her failure to appreciate the central importance of natural population increase as compared to migratory movements. Readers of her book should be warned not to accept its factual claims without checking their sources. Judging by the interest that the book aroused and the prestige of some who have endorsed it, I thought it would present some new interpretation of the historical facts. I found none. Everyone familiar with the writing of the extreme nationalists of Zeev Jabotinsky's Revisionist party (the forerunner of the Herut 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."

Also see the subsequent exchange between Porath and Ronald Saunders.

Finklestein attacked the Peters book as a hoax. Might it not be useful for the reader to know that renowned historians were also deeply critical of the book?

Where is Martin Buber when we need him?

Take time to read this courageous article.

Zionism is the problem - Los Angeles Times: "Israeli policies have rendered the once apparently inevitable two-state solution less and less feasible. Years of Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have methodically diminished the viability of a Palestinian state. Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has even refused to endorse the idea of an independent Palestinian state, which suggests an immediate future of more of the same: more settlements, more punitive assaults.

"All of this has led to a revival of the Brit Shalom idea of a single, secular binational state in which Jews and Arabs have equal political rights. The obstacles are, of course, enormous. They include not just a powerful Israeli attachment to the idea of an exclusively Jewish state, but its Palestinian analogue: Hamas' ideal of Islamic rule. Both sides would have to find assurance that their security was guaranteed. What precise shape such a state would take -- a strict, vote-by-vote democracy or a more complex federalist system -- would involve years of painful negotiation, wiser leaders than now exist and an uncompromising commitment from the rest of the world, particularly from the United States."

Americans Serving in the Israeli Army--What is their status in U.S. law?

A question for those with a background in U.S. laws regarding citizenship: May Americans lawfully join a foreign army? My recollection is that this used to be illegal under U.S. law. If it is now legal, when did it become legal? May an American whose grandparents were Turkish join the Turkish army and retain his citizenship? How about a Lebanese, who may wish to join the Lebanese army to defend his country against Israel? If readers have serious legal answers to this question please post them (you may post anonymously). While opinions, expressions of concern, support, outrage, approval, etc., are always welcome, I am particularly interested in the legal status of the Americans mentioned in this article.

O'Neil, 20, and several other soldiers at the Tiberias hotel are part of a program that brings Americans to Israel specifically to join the army to fulfill their concept of a Zionist mission. Hundreds of young Americans have taken part.
They come without their families. Some are placed in a kibbutz or similar situation, and all end up in the military. After a three-year tour of duty, many stay as residents and Israel gives them financial aid with school tuition and housing. O'Neil, who said one of his first acts Saturday after marching out of Lebanon was to call his mother in California, said he never imagined that he would be fighting in Lebanon when he joined the Israeli army two years ago.