Norman_Finkelstein

I can barely get in 'leftwing" and "progressive" media. The Nation magazine has rejected everything I ever submitted over 30 years. The current managing editor of the Nation, named Roane Carey, used to be my personal editor. Now, he routinely rejects all my submissions; I've become a non-person. Matthew Rothschild, who was the editor of The Progressive (I'm not sure if he still is), called me a Holocaust denier during my tenure battle at Depaul. The Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University (just an hour from where I live by subway) has never invited me to speak. I have NEVER been on national television or radio except Democracy Now! NPR had me on once about 30 years ago.

If the world acted rationally, it would recognize that Earth is a tiny pebble spinning in the Universe, that most of the challenges currently confronting Humanity can only be solved on a global scale, and that, Life is short, so why squander it on petty egotistical idiocies? But, people are mostly not rational in the bigger sense (see Dostoyevky's NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND). So, we must deal with humanity as it is, not as we wish it to be. The only possible solution is the one endorsed by the international community and international law. Everything else is pie in the sky. As Woody Guthrie put it, "You'll get pie in the sky when you die,/That's a lie." (He was targeting the Salvation Army.)

I do have a stake -- in Truth and Justice.

It's caused me to doubt my atheism.

The first thing is, the Palestinians in the occupied territories must themselves act, en masse. There's a huge reservoir of international support now for the Palestinians, while Israel's stock has plummeted. If Palestinians put forth reasonable demands (based on international law) and engaged in mass nonviolent resistance, Israel would be cornered and even Obama would have a hard time explaining why the Palestinians shouldn't be supported.