FINKELSTEIN = “Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel is Coming to an End” by Norman G. Finkelstein

FINKELSTEIN = In past, American Jews were mostly liberal and were 2nd to African-Americans in voting Democratic. Since 1960s, Despite Israel’s record of militarism, illegal settlements, and human rights violations, American Jews have remained steadfast supporters of the Jewish “homeland.”

NORMAN FINKELSTEIN = Explains that the facts that have come out over the last 50 years caused support for Israel to begin to fray as it becomes clear the Israeli State is NOT LIBERAL or FREE.

FACTS SOURCES:

Reports by Human Rights Watch
Reports from Amnesty International
Reports from the United Nations
Books by President Jimmy Carter + Stephen Walt + John Mearsheimer + Peter Beinart

FACT: Erosion of support for Israel has declined markedly among younger members of the community to only 25% of those UNDER AGE 40 who “FEEL VERY MUCH” connected to ISRAEL = 2010 Brandeis University Poll.

FACTS:
76% of Israeli Jews want a two state solution
76% don’t thinks it will happen in their lifetime because of Likud and Netanyahu.
A majority of Israelis wants to see a peaceful outcome.

FINKELSTEIN = uses facts and the historic record to destroy the lies of Israeli defenders like Jeffrey Goldberg, Michael Oren, Dennis Ross and Benny Morris. Growing numbers of American Jews are seeing the speciousness of their arguments and recognize Israel’s record as simply indefensible.

FINKELSTEIN = opens new possibilities for political advancement in a region that for decades has been stuck fast in a gridlock of injustice and suffering.

FACT: American Jewish community has many racist characteristics and has supported the war on Palestinians.

FINKELSTEIN analyzes this racism from the founding of the State of Israel and documents the passive attitude of most American Jews towards Israel during the 1940s and 1950s. The shift begins with the 1967 war when Israel carried out premeditated attacks on its Arab neighbors while pretending innocence and claiming a constant threat upon Jews. Next came the occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai, and the Golan which the American Jewish community watched and called the “great achievements” the Israeli army = Finally, American Jews were able to be “proud” of Israel and Israel became a source of inspiration and a leading factor in American Jewish life = The “light unto nations.”

FINKELSTEIN = Criticisms of Israel and its policies were greatly suppressed within America and around the world to a point that criticism was (and still now) considered anti-Semitic or “self hating.”

FINKELSTEIN = This atmosphere of suppression of facts and accentuation of only the Israeli Government mythology created a newly found love affair. A plethora of “authoritative” books by prominent American Jews and their sympathizers were held in high regard as they coincided with key events in the history where Israel was rightly being condemned for massive atrocities in the occupied territories and foreign countries such as Lebanon.

1987 First Intifada = The American Jewish community found it impossible to ignore the FACTS of massive and gross violations of basic human rights of Palestinians in particular and other Arabs living under constant Israeli domination.

1987 Human Rights Groups began springing up in Israel, Europe, the United Nations. = They simply made it impossible to maintain the same fantasy of a “light unto nations” that forcefully dictated the discussion since 1967.

FINKELSTEIN says the American Jewish community cannot maintain its ignorance or high opinion of Israel anymore, especially due to Israel’s rightward shift and extremely fatalistic propaganda war it unleashes on any criticism of it.

FINKELSTEIN = Defines the American Jewish Dilemma = Does the Liberal American Jewish community DEFEND ISRAEL OR ABANDON RIGHT-WING ISRAEL? Does the American Jewish Community maintaining its liberal values that helped it become a prosperous and powerful ethnic group in USA, or abandon liberalism to remove the charge of dual loyalty?

FINKELSTEIN believes the vast majority of American Jews will choose their liberal values and prominent positions in the United States instead of remaining diehard Israel supporters.

2010 The second Intifada = 34-day war with Hizballah, and the massacres of Gaza and the Freedom Flotilla = Catalyst for the American Jewish community to abandon support for Right-Wing Israel in favor of human rights.

FACT: Various polls prove American Jewish support for Israel is constantly decreasing, especially among young adults (younger than 40).

FINKELSTEIN SAYS: “Twenty years ago Israeli soldiers toured US college campuses to be feted by Jewish students as war heroes, now the campus Hillels (campus propagandists for Israel) drag them on tours to persuade Jewish students that Israeli soldiers are not war criminals. Twenty years ago pro-Israel Jewish students aggressively interrogated critics of Israel at public events, now they sit silently in the audience or do not bother to even show up.”

FINKELSTEIN STATES, not all the American Jewish Community will accept the fact Israel is an oppressive occupier = “the likes of Alan Dershowitz will continue to laud Israel’s `generally superb’ human rights record even after Israelis themselves look back upon it with shame.” But (mostly) American Jewish apologists for Israel have had to change their discourse their `scholarly’ approach as they simply cannot manipulate the Jewish community anymore and new forms of propaganda have been developed. = Mostly futile attempts

FINKELSTEIN = Likes to deconstruct `popular’ Jewish literature on specified topics = Jeffrey Goldberg + Dennis Ross + Isabella Ginor + Gideon Remez + Michael Oren + Benny Morris are all analyzed and point by point proven utterly false ALL the new narratives (propaganda) apologizing for Israel’s crimes. Finkelstein documents all the various lies used to cover up various topics such as 1967, Camp David, the Intifadas, and more in order to deceive the readers — A joy seeing all of these lies and distortions completely debunked = Finkelstein at his best in doing his thorough analyses of the topics.

FINKELSTEIN uses his framework of abandoning the American Jewish community to analyze Walt and Mearsheimer’s book “The Israel Lobby” which is correct on many key aspects. But the hyping of the power of the lobby is potentially dangerous giving them too much credit for faking wars.

FINKELSTEIN = discusses Human Rights Watch reports on bombing in Lebanon by Israel pointing out inconsistencies due to Israel’s lobbying pressures that watered down, greatly distorted, and whitewashed what actually happened in the war between Hizballah and Israel. These reports covered up Israel’s massive human rights violations including the dropping of four million cluster munitions in Lebanon in the last days — Proving his point about the Power of the Israel Lobby in the world.

FINKELSTEIN’s work is very detailed and well researched staying true to his consistent scholarly standard with massive sourcing of all facts.