Norman Finklestein: Keeping Alive The Israeli/Palestinian Conflict

     People that make careers demonizing Israel easily find an audience for their vitriol. There are enough people that hate Israel or Jews that gladly lap up every word of the inciters. The Finkelstein narrative is wrong, simplistic and commonly spun: Israel is a criminal nation, while the Islamists and jihadists that oppose Israel are innocent peace loving boy scouts. No matter how often, through words and actions, Islamic jihadist groups like Hamas, like Hezbollah, made it clear that their goal is the complete destruction of the State of Israel and the ethnic cleansing or genocide of its Jewish population, Finkelstein will find reason to cast all blame on Israel.
     There is a big difference between opposing the government of Israel, and seeking the complete destruction of the nation. The effort to destroy Israel, through war, violence and terror, has led to nothing but misery, displacement, and suffering on all sides. Absent from Finkelstein's narrative is  how Arab Muslim majority lands ethnically cleansed themselves of their Jews. These Jews and their descendents now form the majority population of Israel. The rights of these Jews from Muslim majority lands are completely ignored. Their rights and claims are no less valid than that of Palestinian Arabs.
      A two state solution means two separate states. It does not mean flooding the small State of Israel with millions of Palestinian Arabs demanding the right of return. Do the Israelis from Arab Muslim majority lands have the right of return? Can they go back to such places as Syria, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt, Algeria, and more, where they would surely be persecuted or slaughtered? Will Finkelstein leave North America for good and help return the land to the original native people, or continue with hypocrisy and the myth that in the entire world, only Palestinian Arabs have the right of return? No other native people have this right, including Jews, aboriginals of Australia, native peoples of North and South America, Sikhs, Yazidis, Hindus, Buddhists and millions of others displaced by war and religious imperialism, including by Christian and Islamic imperialism (fortunately, Christians no longer seek conversion by the sword).
      Finkelstein and others obsessed with hatred for Jews and/or Israel pander to Islamists and jihadists. No matter what the jihadists do, it is justified, excused or ignored. Even the Charlie Hebdo murderers found Finklestein making excuses for their crime. Religious blasphemy is never worthy of murder. In Finkelstein's infantilizing world, Muslims can only be victims. Of the many Islamic nations, some are the richest nations in the world with huge oil reserves. Most of the worst oppression of minorities and many wars comes from Islamic intolerance, including but not limited to the following: the recent slaughter of Yazidis and the taking of Yazidi women and children as sex slave captives, of which many are still captives. The treatment of the Baha'is in Iran. The treatment of Middle East Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere by jihadists. The treatment of Coptic Christians in Egypt. Boko Haram's war against Christians and Muslim moderates in Nigeria. The mass slaughter in Yemen by Shia and Sunni Islamists. The treatment of Hindus and Christians in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Islamic jihadist wars in South Philippines and South Thailand. Jihadist war in Somalia and Libya. Jihadist war by Afghanistan's Taliban. Genocide by Sudanese Arabs against the black Muslim population in Darfur. The never ending effort to destroy Israel and kill its Jewish population, backed by phony leftists worldwide and other Jew haters.
      In Turkey, where Finkelstein has taught his one sided narratives, the Armenian genocide by Turkey has yet to be acknowledged. Any Kurdish effort for independence or equal rights, including outside of Turkey in Syria and Iraq - where the Kurds are the driving force that destroyed Isis and did the world a favor- is met by war and violence by the Turkish state.
      If Israel retreats tomorrow to the indefensible 1967 borders, the war and terror will not end. When Hamas fires rockets, Finkelstein declares they are mere firecrackers. Hamas is not a peace movement. It is a dime a dozen Islamic jihadist organization that wants what all of these organizations want: domination by Muslims and the subjugation, ethnic cleansing and even genocide of non believers, especially if they are Jews.
      If Finkelstein really cares about Palestinian Arab lives, he will quit his pandering to the most reactionary forces in the Islamic world. He may call himself a leftist, but no true leftist supports religious tyranny and violent religious reactionary forces. He will stop purposefully ignoring, excusing and justifying the genocidal words and actions of Islamic jihadists. He will quit inciting hatred and contempt.
      Unfortunately, there are many in this world with hatred so deep they thrive on inciting the blood and violence they pretend to oppose. Israelis and Palestinian Arabs are not going anywhere. They have to learn to live with one another. The expression, "Blessed are the peacemakers", are what far too people preach or practice.