Solomonia Archive: Attacking Chomsky and Finkelstein from the Left

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Attacking Chomsky and Finkelstein from the Left

Mick Hartley has excerpts of piece criticizing Noam Chomsky's linguistics from a Marxist standpoint, here: More Pope Than Galileo. Note the comments which are somewhat exculpatory of Chomsky.

Also, have a read of this scathing Marxist review of Norman Finkelstein's book The Holocaust Industry, Finkelstein’s Follies: The Dangers of Vulgar Anti-Zionism by Tobias Abse:

...Finkelstein’s solicitude for the Swiss bankers and, to a lesser extent, the German industrialists, whose alleged persecution by Jews receives a less extended treatment, is truly extraordinary. Even if every single allegation that Finkelstein makes about Jewish lawyers or Jewish organisations engaging in greedy and corrupt profiteering from Holocaust compensation claims were true, which seems unlikely, why should any leftist or indeed any humanitarian waste a single tear on Swiss bankers, probably the prime example of amoral beneficiaries of plundering dictators from Hitler to Mobuto and beyond? The so-called ‘shakedown’ about which Finkelstein waxes lyrical has not left a single Swiss banker bankrupt, let alone starving in the street. The fact that ‘American financial sharks’ (p.110) have engaged in similar operations to their Swiss counterparts is irrelevant; this is like saying that we should release Ian Brady because Dennis Nielsen killed more people. Finkelstein’s ire is reserved not for the Swiss bankers, but for their opponents. Finkelstein tells us that ‘the Holocaust industry orchestrated a shameless campaign of vilification’ and the ‘smear campaign proved unstoppable’ (p.91), before going on to lament ‘a libel of the Swiss people’ (p.93), and to deplore ‘the Holocaust restitution racket’ (p.94) – a phrase straight out of Irving’s courtroom harangues.

Similarly, Finkelstein’s humour reminds one of Irving or perhaps Le Pen, who can never resist a pun about gas ovens. Recounting Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s joy at the American D’Amato’s victory over the Swiss, Finkelstein writes: ‘…"a triumph of the spirit". Pity he didn’t say "the will".’ (p.103) One does not have to have any liking for Netanyahu or D’Amato to find this reference to Leni Riefenstahl and the Nuremburg Rally offensive. Finkelstein excuses his Swiss heroes by a comparison with the Americans: ‘And, although swamped in size and resources by the United States, Switzerland admitted just as many Jewish refugees as the US (approximately 20 000) during the Nazi Holocaust.’ (p.104) Finkelstein conveniently forgets that, unlike the USA, Switzerland had a border with the Third Reich, and that, unlike the USA, the Swiss sent Jewish refugees back in the 1940s knowing that they would die, which is very different from the unintended medium-term consequences of the St Louis tragedy in early 1939.

Finkelstein’s appetite for anti-Semitic humour is as gross and insatiable as Irving’s or Le Pen’s: ‘Unsurprisingly, the Holocaust industry didn’t launch a campaign to investigate US banks. An audit of our banks on the scale of the Swiss audit would cost American taxpayers not millions but billions of dollars. By the time it was completed American Jews would be seeking asylum in Munich.’ (p.117)...

Posted by Solomon at 12:48 PM on Wednesday, Apr 26, 2006 | Comments (5)
Click to share this post

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Attacking Chomsky and Finkelstein from the Left.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.solomonia.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-renamedtb.cgi/6115

» MEMRITV: Lebanese TV Channel Questions Number of Holocaust Victims and Hosts Norman Finkelstein, Author of "The Holocaust Industry" at the blog Solomonia Archive

Ward Churchill certainly has nothing on DePaul's Norman Finkelstein. Where Churchill is a silly buffoon -- the campus version of the village idiot -- Finkelstein travels the world spreading... Read More

5 Comments

#1 Mike Nargizian | April 26, 2006 1:05 PM

Man, all I can say is ouch! and finally someone tells the truth about that weasel hater.

who is tha author of tha piece?

#2 Solomon | April 26, 2006 1:09 PM

"Tobias Abse" I've edited the post to make it clearer (added the name of the piece and the author)

#3 Mike Nargizian | April 26, 2006 2:33 PM

So the obvous question is who is the author (Is he Jewish?) and why has his review suddenly come out now long after the book was published?

Just curious?

#4 Solomon | April 27, 2006 2:55 PM

Forgot to answer your question...I really don't know anything more than what's at the link. Someone sent me a pointer, I read it, thought it was entertaining and that it dovetailed with the Mick Hartley link so I posted it. I didn't go beyond that one page to be honest.

#5 Mike Nargizian | April 28, 2006 1:50 AM

Noam is pretty much sordove a sad clown at this point. His main thesis on linguistic learning was very much completely destroyed last year.... was it you who posted that I think? based on new research and computer modeling that proved that kids do learn by mitiating and that is actually a more advanced form of learning totally undermining what Noam had theorized on his entire career.

Plus, Noam comes off as a mad professor (not angry jost out there) when he talks about Israel and the US.

Norm Finkelstein is a more angry, hatefful and devious guy. He's an attack dog that takes pleasure in causing pain and silence to anyone he disagrees with. And that piece written by a Marxist is the best piece of critical analysis with some necessary stinging criticism that I've seen to date.

The 10 points on him put out after he attacked Dershowitz was ok, but nothing great. In fact, Norm published a link to it at his site sordove saying "look at how desperate they are"....

This it seems is from a fellow far leftist with a stringing and insiteful analysis of what Norm is really about.

I googled the guy and found some information about him but nothing really detailed yet.

Mike