Glad to get this for the first time.
I note Finkelstein's interesting emphasis on the zionist theory of miracles and the specific attack on zionist Labour as well as Likud.
Today Robert Fisk, whom Finkelstein praised, wrote in the Independent
Robert Fisk: Truth is a scarce commodity as propaganda war gets into its stride
04 April 2002
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The "nice-cop/bad-cop" routine of Mr Sharon and Shimon Peres also serves its purpose in the outside world. If Mr Sharon appears suspect – not least because of his ghastly role in Sabra and Chatila – the Labour Party's Mr Peres, holder (with Arafat, let us quickly forget) of the Nobel Peace Prize, gives the present very extreme Israel government a humane face.
Mr Peres appears to present the friendly, humanistic, honourable Israeli government which the world wants to believe in. Journalists who ask Mr Peres soft questions – which means just about all of them – have to forget that it was he who launched Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" operation, which led to the 1996 massacre of 108 Lebanese civilians at a UN camp in Qana.
The government in which Mr Peres serves is, after all, the same government that is building illegal colonies on Arab land for Jews, and Jews only, at a greater speed than ever; destroying the physical symbols of the Oslo agreement; and re-occupying the West Bank. If Mr Peres was opposed to these ruthless policies, he could leave the Sharon government. But he chooses not to do so.
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Chris Burford