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" Everybody wants peace. That's a truism. There is no point in accomplishing through war what you can accomplish through peace. "
Norman Finkelstein
Accomplish
Peace
You
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" My parents often wondered why I would grow so indignant at the falsification and exploitation of the Nazi genocide. The most obvious answer is that it has been used to justify criminal policies of the Israeli state and U.S. support for these policies. "
Norman Finkelstein
Why
Used
Support
" I had been a Maoist, and then when the Gang of Four was overthrown, I was completely distraught. I was bedridden for three weeks; it was a very painful experience for me. Not only because I had been wrong, but because I felt really embarrassed that I had been lecturing and pontificating with such self-confidence. "
Norman Finkelstein
Me
Self-Confidence
Three
" I don't want to pretend to be a prophet or a saint. I'm very conscious of my limitations. I know my flaws. But I don't like lying. "
Norman Finkelstein
Want
Flaws
Lying
" Mainstream Jewish intellectuals became 'pro'-Israel after the June 1967 war when Israel became the U.S.A.' s strategic asset in the Middle East, i.e., when it was safe and reaped benefits. To credit them with ideological conviction is, in my opinion, very naive. "
Norman Finkelstein
Asset
Naive
War
" I think that people like Bloomberg, they're complete thugs. No question about it. But on the other hand, it must be said that they are politically savvy. They don't get into those positions of power - in the case of Bloomberg, both economic and political power - by being anybody's fool. "
Norman Finkelstein
People
Power
Political
" If there were an Oscar for best theatrical performance by a country, Israel would win every year. It's a country based on theater. It's a lunatic state - completely insane. "
Norman Finkelstein
Performance
Best
Year
" Every victory of Hezbollah, I celebrate. "
Norman Finkelstein
Every
Celebrate
Victory
" Why should Americans go on with their lives as normal, worrying about calories and hair loss, while other people are worrying about where they are going to get their next piece of bread? "
Norman Finkelstein
Normal
People
Loss
" People are motivated by the desires for privilege, for power, for profit. Those are not shocking revelations. Anyone who's had any experience in life knows these things. "
Norman Finkelstein
Experience
Power
Profit
" I think sometimes we underestimate just how vulnerable Israel is on the public-relations front. That's why they spend so much money on propaganda. And that's why they panic every time they feel like they're losing the propaganda war. "
Norman Finkelstein
Time
Feel
Losing
" Conversion and zealotry, just like revelation and apostasy, are flip sides of the same coin, the currency of a political culture having more in common with religion than rational discourse. "
Norman Finkelstein
Political
Culture
Religion
" The whole purpose of annual reviews is to keep you abreast of whether or not you are fulfilling the requirements of tenure. "
Norman Finkelstein
Purpose
Keep
You
" There are contradictory tendencies in American society. There's a huge range of activities that one can engage in that mark it as a quite free society. It's also true to say that the powers that be have so much control over how people think that there are fewer and fewer people who make use of the rights and information available to them. "
Norman Finkelstein
Society
Control
Think
" Teaching is in my bones. I love to teach. "
Norman Finkelstein
Teach
I Love
Love
" I'm not a good writer, and I don't care. Unfortunately, after I left college, I didn't have time much for literature. I wish I did. Most of the time I read documents, and that's not going to help your writing. But I'm a very logical writer, and you can't get out of me. Once I've nailed you, you're finished. "
Norman Finkelstein
Help
Time
Writing
" My original interest in the Nazi holocaust was personal. Both my father and mother were survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazi concentration camps. Apart from my parents, every family member on both sides was exterminated by the Nazis. "
Norman Finkelstein
Family
Parents
Mother
" I'm an old fan of the Negro spirituals. "
Norman Finkelstein
Fan
Old
" People have the right to defend their country from foreign occupiers, and people have the right to defend their country from invaders who are destroying their country. "
Norman Finkelstein
People
Who
Country
" DePaul's plot to deny me tenure had nothing to do with my faults. In fact, and ironically, it viciously attacked me and destroyed my career because of my virtues. Which, although few in number, they still found threatening. "
Norman Finkelstein
Plot
Nothing
Me
" My books don't sell anymore. There are many reasons why they don't sell, but one of the reasons is because people don't read anymore. Forget about reading books of detail - they don't read at all. "
Norman Finkelstein
Why
People
Reading
" I'm politically on the left, no question about it. I oppose sweatshops, I oppose exploitation of labour in the third world. "
Norman Finkelstein
Question
Exploitation
Left
" When I was a young man, my mother said to me, 'You can't be a communist without being a militant atheist.' So I had to be a militant atheist because I wanted to be a communist. "
Norman Finkelstein
Young
Mother
Me
" I don't claim to know Israel. I don't speak Hebrew; my contacts are pretty limited. But I didn't know Vietnam; I didn't know Nicaragua, El Salvador or Honduras. It doesn't mean you can't reach your conclusions. "
Norman Finkelstein
Pretty
Mean
Know
" I was bashing Israel in the past because nobody else was exposing its true record. Many people are doing it now, so I switched hats from a critic of Israel to a diplomat who wants to resolve the conflict. I have not changed, but I think the spectrum has moved. "
Norman Finkelstein
Conflict
Past
Think
" You know, frankly speaking, money just doesn't figure largely in my world view. "
Norman Finkelstein
Just
Know
You
" The moment you have massive social and political commentary trying to explain a phenomenon, then you know we are no longer dealing with a strictly psychiatric question. "
Norman Finkelstein
Moment
You
Know
" I think one of the problems when we discuss the Israel-Palestine conflict is people talk too much in terms of, 'What's your preference?,' like politics is a Chinese menu - I'll take one from column A and two from column B. That's not what politics is about. "
Norman Finkelstein
People
Think
Talk
" I earn - I'm not - I don't want to claim I'm a scholar of great stature, but I have made a certain reputation for myself, I've published several books, I've never been able to get a permanent teaching job. "
Norman Finkelstein
Reputation
Myself
Job
" Israel's pro-American orientation exists not just among Israeli elites but also among the whole population. Come what may in Israel, it's inconceivable that this fundamental orientation will change. Combined with its overwhelming military power, this makes Israel a unique and irreplaceable American asset in the Middle East. "
Norman Finkelstein
American
Will
Unique
" Personal convictions are not politics. Personal convictions, if they become the subject of a group conviction, they become a cult. "
Norman Finkelstein
Cult
Group
Become