The long interview with Norman Finkelstein in Mondoweiss (titled Norman Finkelstein on Sanders, the first intifada, BDS, & ten years of unemployment) requires a critical analysis–actually an excoriation. But how does one plow through so much political cynicism & demoralization, so much misanthropy & disrespect, if not contempt, for Palestinians?
As a textual exegete, Finkelstein is top-notch. As a political thinker, he stinks to high heaven. He has nothing but high hopes for Bernie Sanders but calls Palestinians a defeated people. He has the unmitigated chutzpah to say “BDS is just one more of those hasbara contrivances.”
Finkelstein calls himself a communist whilst he gallops at top speed to the right. He places his hopes in official institutions of capitalist rule like the UN; disdains Palestinian Intifada & the proposal for a democratic, secular state; & denounces BDS as an Israeli gimmick.
Read his interview at your peril but be prepared for a bad case of political dyspepsia.