Controversial scholar slams Israeli 'massacre' of Gaza civilians

01.23.2009 | Express News

By Geoff McMaster

January 23, 2009 - Edmonton-Israel's attack on Gaza had little to do with self-defense and everything to do with instilling fear among Palestinian people, says political scientist Norman Finkelstein.

Invited to speak on campus by the Edmonton chapter of the Palestine Solidarity Network, Finkelstein accused Israel of deliberately killing Gaza civilians in order to cement their control over the occupied territory.

He said the incursion was only the latest in a more than 60-year history of "terrorizing the Arab world periodically into submission, and reminding them who is in charge in the Middle East."

Following its defeat at the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2000 and 2006, Israel was waiting for an opportunity to seek revenge, Finkelstein claimed. It turned to Gaza when "the feebly armed resistance, Hamas, had defiantly resisted Israeli dictate.

"As Israel targeted schools, mosques, hospitals, ambulances, UN sanctuaries... and slaughtered and incinerated Gaza's defenseless civilian population, Israeli commentators gloated that Gaza was to Lebanon as a second sitting for an exam is to the first: a second chance to get it right.

"There's no pretense here that this war had anything to do with rocket attacks-it's about getting it right," and restoring Israel's "deterrence capacity" he said, adding that Hamas fired rockets into Israel only after Israel broke a ceasefire agreement and killed seven militants.

Embedded video of Finkelstein's lecture at link:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21860.htm