[lbo-talk] who is "obsessed"? (books on israel)

[Samuel Waite]

I agree entirely.  Though I can understand Carrol's
concerns, I haven't seen any evidence at all that
Findley's an anti-Semite.  In fact, if I remember
correctly, They Dare to Speak Out is referenced in
Fateful Triangle.  He also wrote a good book on
American Muslims, and currently contributes to the
Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.  His Council
for the National Interest recently convened an
anti-AIPAC rally attended by (among others) the
Alliance of Progressive Iranians, Jewish Witnesses for
Peace, and Jews Against the Occupation.

I would also add that when we in the Pittsburgh
Palestine Solidarity Committee struggled and finally
succeeded in bringing Norman Finkelstein to CMU (were
you there, John?), the engineer of no particular
qualifications appointed by the administration to
provide a 15-minute "rebuttal" said exactly what I
gather Pugliese is insinuating:  Nazis love him, so
he's probably a bigot.

--- John Lacny <jlacny at earthlink.net> wrote:


> Carrol Cox writes:
> 
> > When we created a Students for a Free Palestine
> here at
> > ISU in 1982 following the Lebanon invasion, one of
> the
> > topics at our first preliminary planning sessions
> was on
> > sources. Everyone in the group was convinced that
> > Findley's Anti-Zionism was mere opportunism,
> probably
> > grounded in anti-semitism. Anti-semitism (like
> anti-
> > catholicism) is pretty deep in central Illinois.
> 
> This seems a reasonable suspicion to me, but I don't
> think it's true. I met
> Findley once, when he had a speaking engagement at
> the University of
> Pittsburgh. When critics of Israel on the right are
> engaging in
> old-fashioned Jew-hatred, you can usually tell (the
> example of Pat Buchanan
> comes to mind). Findley does not seem like that to
> me (and furthermore, he
> doesn't seem very smart, so you don't get the smarmy
> use of anti-Semitic
> code-words that you would get from Buchanan, who is
> a master of that
> degenerate art). Basically, he seems like a
> conventional conservative with a
> decent streak, so that he really was shocked,
> shocked that the US was
> supporting oppression in another part of the world.
> Sort of like the way
> Ryan came to the realization that the death penalty
> was a bad idea -- 
> another Illinois Republican who had a sort of moral
> epiphany.
> 
> That said, his viewpoint does seem to be that "it's
> in our national interest
> to be even-handed." It's my understanding that he's
> also close to the
> conservative Arab regimes, particularly the Saudis.
> I found it kind of
> surprising that he had some positive things to say
> about Hafez Assad, too.
> 
> 
> - - - - - - - - - -
> John Lacny
> http://www.johnlacny.com
> 
> Tell no lies, claim no easy victories
> 
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> 

		
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