(this is a featured post and will stay at the top for the foreseeable future.. scroll down for new posts) -------------------------------...
May 16, 2012
Norman Finkelstein - Political scientist - BBC HARDtalk 2012 (video)
Norman Finkelstein - Political scientist - BBC HARDtalk 2012
I hope Finkelstein is wrong...
------------------------------------------------------ Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------
rafi, i am surprised that you place any value on norman finkelstein's assumptions about the jewish lobby in the US. he is an inccorigble, inveterate self hating jew, who can only dream his asusmptions are correct. who next? noam chomsky?
There is one thing that Finkelstein says that I think is very true and we need to learn from. (And I say this as a Zionist Jew). About half way through the interview he talks about the usage of the holocaust to justify Israeli actions. (He points to Netanyahu's comparisons between Iran and Auschwitz). I've seen more hasbara efforts than I can count, and it drives me nuts that barely a single one of them was devoid of holocaust references.
The holocaust simply does not resonate with a modern non-Jewish college age student today. It's part of "the past" - just like the inquisitions or slavery it is part of the way the world used to be, not the way the world is now. For some reason our hasbara professionals haven't realized that this line of reasoning not only doesn't work, but is counter productive. People tend to tune out the holocaust rhetoric because it seems extreme, over the top, and they're tired of hearing it referenced. One of the most successful attacks our enemies have used on us in order to help deligitimize Israel in fact is to claim that the UN created Israel in the midst of Arab Palestine as reparations for the holocaust, and that Israel was started by European Jews who "stole" the land from the Palestinians.
The reason we're losing the hasbara war is because we're not adjusting our message for the new millenium.
Very strange seeing a BBC presenter trying to defend Israel and world Jewry...
ReplyDeleteNorman Finkelstein showed himself to be heartless and conceited.
rafi, i am surprised that you place any value on norman finkelstein's assumptions about the jewish lobby in the US. he is an inccorigble, inveterate self hating jew, who can only dream his asusmptions are correct. who next? noam chomsky?
ReplyDeleteThere is one thing that Finkelstein says that I think is very true and we need to learn from. (And I say this as a Zionist Jew). About half way through the interview he talks about the usage of the holocaust to justify Israeli actions. (He points to Netanyahu's comparisons between Iran and Auschwitz). I've seen more hasbara efforts than I can count, and it drives me nuts that barely a single one of them was devoid of holocaust references.
ReplyDeleteThe holocaust simply does not resonate with a modern non-Jewish college age student today. It's part of "the past" - just like the inquisitions or slavery it is part of the way the world used to be, not the way the world is now. For some reason our hasbara professionals haven't realized that this line of reasoning not only doesn't work, but is counter productive. People tend to tune out the holocaust rhetoric because it seems extreme, over the top, and they're tired of hearing it referenced. One of the most successful attacks our enemies have used on us in order to help deligitimize Israel in fact is to claim that the UN created Israel in the midst of Arab Palestine as reparations for the holocaust, and that Israel was started by European Jews who "stole" the land from the Palestinians.
The reason we're losing the hasbara war is because we're not adjusting our message for the new millenium.