Norman Finkelstein: Israel's Defeat in Lebanon? Never Again

Norman Finkelstein: Israel's Defeat in Lebanon? Never Again

Noted academic and author Norman Finkelstein told a large audience at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Oct. 10 that Israel is likely preparing to invade Lebanon in the next 12 to 18 months and that this time Israeli politicians and military officials will not accept defeat at the hands of Hezbollah or any other group or country that comes to Lebanon’s defense.

The future is extremely ominous for the region, Finkelstein said, especially for the people of the countries who will bear the brunt of Israel’s immense firepower.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has indicated his forces will counter any attacks on Lebanon with similar strikes inside Israel, a scenario that would force Israel to take extreme measures if it hopes to be successful in destroying Hezbollah’s military wing and other resistance groups in the region. 

[Video Click here - Full Arabic Speech  ]

Israel also will likely attack Syria, given its growing ties to Hezbollah and Iran. Finkelstein emphasized that Iran also would not allow Hezbollah to be defeated, which could lead to a much longer and devastating war in Lebanon that could eventually give Israel and the United States a pretext to attack Iran.

Finkelstein argued Israel has suffered several humiliating “defeats” over the past 10 years, starting with its 2000 withdrawal from south Lebanon after 18 years of occupation. The withdrawal was viewed by many as a victory for Hezbollah and its resistance movement. Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 2006 devastated a large part of the country yet revealed that Israel’s armed forces were vulnerable when met with a well-armed, veteran guerrilla fighting force. Instead of seeing itself splintered by Israel’s attack, Hezbollah actually saw its reputation and standing grow stronger among the Lebanese population and political leaders in the region.

Israel’s latest humiliation, Finkelstein said, occurred when a group of its elite naval commandos attacked the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on May 31, killing nine activists on one of the flotilla’s ships, the Mavi Marmara. Using makeshift weapons, activists on the ship successfully captured three Israeli commandos during the initial stages of the raid.

The captured Israeli commandos “looked like frightened children in the face of an abusive father,” one of the surviving Gaza freedom activists, Ken O’Keefe, noted in interviews after being released by Israeli authorities.

Israel may have killed nine activists on the ship. But the activists’ success in briefly detaining Israel commandos demonstrated to the world that Israel’s military isn’t as invincible as advertised by the nation’s propagandists, Finkelstein said.

Israel’s attack on Gaza and its possible invasion of Lebanon are part of Israel’s policy of building a “deterrence capacity,” which had been undermined by Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Palestinians, Arabs and others in the Middle East no longer feared Israel. Israel believed Arabs and Muslims had become “too uppity,” thereby spurring Israel to attack Gaza in 2008-2009, murder activists on the Mavi Marmara and perhaps, once again, attack Lebanon, Finkelstein said.

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In a rational world, it would be hard to understand how Finkelstein could be viewed as controversial. He’s the quintessential academic, scholar and teacher. He welcomes debate and independent thought. But there’s nothing rational about how the U.S. establishment views Israel and its actions. Because it’s a nation-state that can do no wrong in the eyes of the U.S. establishment, Finkelstein’s scholarship on Israel’s transgressions are viewed as heretical. The U.S. establishment permits only a very narrow range of debate on most political issues. These ideological confines are even more constricted when the topic is Israel.

Finkelstein enjoys virtually no job security as a professor and teacher in the United States. In his most recent position at a university, he was denied tenure in 2007 as a political science professor at DePaul University, a decision that most observers attributed to his views on Israel.

Finkelstein doesn’t hesitate to describe Israel as a nation-state that commits horrible atrocities. He’s an expert on the Israel-Palestine conflict and has spent his entire career researching the issue. But Finkelstein is quick to emphasize that the conduct of Israel pales in comparison to the actions of the world’s leading terrorist state: the United States.

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The high level of security at Finkelstein’s talk was somewhat surreal. Entering the conference room where he spoke felt like going through airport security, albeit attendees weren’t asked to take off their shoes. But the campus police required us to remove all electronics, coins and gadgets from our pockets. We were told to raise our arms so they could wave their hand-held security wands up and down our bodies. And then we turned around, still with our arms raised, and the wand-waving was done a second time.

Once inside the room, I counted at least a dozen George Mason University police officers on the periphery of the room. When Finkelstein was introduced, security personnel escorted him to the podium, and then two security guards, dressed in suits with their audio earpieces and some type of weapon inside their jackets, stood guard in front of the stage on either side of Finkelstein. Behind Finkelstein’s left shoulder was a police camera aimed out into the audience to monitor and track any potential misbehavior. The cameraman moved a couple times, causing Finkelstein to glance nervously over his left shoulder.

But in the end, there were no protests by Jewish groups. Nobody attempted to jump the stage to attack Finkelstein. No one tried to shout him down. All of the security seemed like overkill, so to speak. In fact, toward the end of his speech, Finkelstein seemed embarrassed by the level of security. He said his views have become much less controversial than they were a few years ago—because American public opinion has shifted, not his—and that his talks are rarely interrupted these days.

When I attended one of Finkelstein’s speeches at American University in 2004, there was no security. And this was at the height of Finkelstein’s battle with Alan Dershowitz and only a few years after the publication of his seminal book, The Holocaust Industry.

Maybe next time I attend one of Finkelstein’s talks, the security will be toned down so as not to distract from his insightful message. And by then, perhaps Israel will no longer be operating as a lunatic state. - M.H.

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