Jewish professor: Sympathy for Israel is equivalent to sympathy for Nazi Germany policy

This came in the second part of the interview program “The Interview” with the Jewish Professor Finkelstein, which is broadcast on the platform Al Jazeera 360In which he discussed developments in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the repercussions of the recent war on Gaza Strip.

Finkelstein said that Israel has been treating the Gaza Strip as a Nazi concentration camp for decades, noting that this description came not only from him, but also from UN and Israeli officials.

He explained that in 2004, the head of the Israeli National Security Council, Giora Eiland, described Gaza as “a huge Nazi concentration camp,” and he also noted that a senior member of the Hebrew University named Baruch Kimmerling described Gaza as “the largest Nazi concentration camp that ever existed.”

Finkelstein believes that the conflict must be presented outside the traditional framework that depicts the matter as a conflict between Jews and Arabs or Muslims. According to him, the fundamental issue is whether what is said and done is true and fair.

He stresses that the justification for Israeli crimes, especially against the Gaza Strip, cannot be accepted under any circumstances, and he invoked a comparison in this context, saying that just as his parents could not be asked to sympathize with the Germans who committed atrocities during World War II, he cannot sympathize. with Israel.

Radical change

Finkelstein touched on the recent events that took place in the Gaza Strip, considering that what the Islamic Resistance Movement did (agitation(on October 7, 2023)Al-Aqsa flood) was an attempt to bring about radical change by dramatically creating a rift in the status quo

He described what Hamas did on October 7 as a “big surprise to the world,” and expressed his admiration for the technical capabilities of the Hamas movement, which far exceeded his expectations, especially when compared to Hezbollahwhich Finkelstein sees as combining high engineering and technical capabilities with intense doctrinal discipline.

On the other hand, he believes that Israel was not ready to deal with the attack, as it took the Israeli army only a full week to accurately calculate the death toll, which greatly surprised him.

Professor Norman believes that Hamas tried all peaceful means before resorting to military action, noting that it tried to achieve a two-state solution in accordance with the solution presented by the United Nations, and it also tried to achieve a long-term truce with Israel.

He added: “Hamas tried the diplomatic path to obtain their rights as a people, and when diplomacy failed, they tried peaceful resistance through… The Great March of Return Which began on March 30, 2018.

Finkelstein strongly criticized the Israeli response to the peaceful demonstrations in Gaza, noting that Israeli snipers targeted unarmed demonstrators, including children, medical staff, journalists, and the disabled.

He said: “According to the (UN) report, they were 300 meters away when snipers killed them. Those who did not kill him targeted his knee and what was below it to cause him a permanent disability.”

3 goals of the Gaza war

Regarding the recent war on Gaza, Finkelstein pointed out that Israel sought to ethnically cleanse the people of the Gaza Strip through three paths, the first of which was displacing them to the Egyptian Sinai, secondly killing as many of them as possible, and thirdly making Gaza unviable.

Regarding the future of the conflict, Finkelstein expressed pessimism about the possibility of reaching a peaceful solution in the foreseeable future. He said: “I do not think there is a solution now because Israel cannot live with the Iranian regime and Hezbollah. It will not live with it. There is no possibility of that.”

He added that the only and last possibility to reach a solution is “if the Chinese use their power and corner the United States.”

Finkelstein stresses that his battle against the Zionist narrative should not be understood as hostility to the Jews or to Jewish memory. Rather, he believes that this narrative is used to exploit the historical suffering of the Jews in the service of an immoral political agenda, which he seeks to dismantle by directing criticism based on facts and justice.

Finkelstein confirms that he does not feel any remorse for the positions he took during his academic and activist career, and he said in this context: “At a certain point in your life you come to the conclusion that this is the reason for your existence… This was my path written for me and at the end of my life I feel very comfortable about it.” “My choices.”