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" The real goal of politics has to be getting people to act on what they already know was wrong. "
Norman Finkelstein
Goal
Wrong
Politics
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" International law says people fighting for self-determination can use force in order to achieve their independence. "
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" 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? "
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" 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. "
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" When you are a people's movement, you have one thing. Your only asset is people. And you have to deal with real people. Not the people of your imagination. Not the people you wish people would be. But people as they exist actually out there in the real world. "
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World
Imagination
You
" I'm an old fan of the Negro spirituals. "
Norman Finkelstein
Fan
Old
" 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 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
" I no longer say I'm unemployed. I say I'm unemployable. It's different. An unemployed suggests at a certain point in the future, you might be employed. That's not the case with me. I'm unemployable, and unfortunately, that's one of the bits of the web, in particular of Google. "
Norman Finkelstein
You
Google
Future
" The Holocaust only emerged in American life after Israel's victory in the 1967 Six Day war against its Arab neighbours. "
Norman Finkelstein
Victory
Only
Life
" 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
" 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
" 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
" I am opposed to any state with an ethnic character, not only to Israel. "
Norman Finkelstein
Only
Character
Ethnic
" 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
" Indeed, the field of Holocaust studies is replete with nonsense if not sheer fraud. "
Norman Finkelstein
Field
Nonsense
Sheer
" 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
" 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
" I was probably unusually close to my parents, so I do what I can now to preserve the integrity of their memory. The Holocaust deserves to be remembered. "
Norman Finkelstein
Integrity
Memory
Now
" 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
" You know, frankly speaking, money just doesn't figure largely in my world view. "
Norman Finkelstein
Just
Know
You
" I don't want to become a rhetorical speaker. My effectiveness is mastering all of the data and being able to respond. "
Norman Finkelstein
Want
Being
Data
" 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
" 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
" I don't feel particularly attached to Israel - 'nationalism,' as Noam Chomsky said, 'is not my cup of tea' - but I feel no particular need to demonize it. "
Norman Finkelstein
Need
Said
Tea
" There is no way a non-Jew could say what I did in 'The Holocaust Industry' without being labelled a Holocaust denier. I am labelled a Holocaust denier, too. "
Norman Finkelstein
Say
Too
Way
" 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 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
" Every victory of Hezbollah, I celebrate. "
Norman Finkelstein
Every
Celebrate
Victory
" 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
" 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