>homsky was also there in I think 1986 speaking on "Israel and the American
>Left" with Paul Berman and Ellen Willis. I once got this on tape from
>Barsamian. As I recall, Willis doesn't say a word after the opening
>statements, as Chomsky and Berman go at it. Berman starts by quoting
>Bernard Lewis - it's all a double standard against Israel, etc. Later on
>somebody brings up Faurrison (audible groans from the audience), and Berman
>apparently displays a copy of the latest revisionist publication from the
>Guillaume publishing house The Old Mole, saying that he had a feeling it
>might come up. It's all pretty gruesome. It's been a long time since
>I've heard this, but my impression was that Berman dealt with everything
>at a symbolic emotional level, saying stuff like "Zionism is about the
>Jews in the Middle East having an army" (I swear, I think that's close to
>an exact quote.)
I saw that. THough it was long ago, I remember it as a rout - Berman was rambling and pathetic, and Noam was at his precise and reletnless best. No contest, really. From a sporting point of view, it would have been much more entertaining if someone better than Berman had been arguing the Zionist position.
Doug