Novara Media Downstream: ‘Gaza Is Over, It’s Gone. There’s Nothing Left’ w/ Norman Finkelstein
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Dec 22, 2025 
Norman Finkelstein, a prominent political scholar and staunch critic of Israeli policy, reflects on his parents' Holocaust experiences and their silence surrounding it. His insights into Gaza reveal a desperate struggle, where he likens Hamas's actions to slave rebellions born from oppression. He critiques contemporary left intellectuals and discusses the complicity of academic corruption. Finkelstein argues that Israel's policies resemble genocidal tactics aimed at making Gaza uninhabitable. His commitment to truth-seeking and rigorous scholarship underscores his views on the dire situation in Palestine.
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Silent Survivor Childhood
- Norman Finkelstein describes his parents as Holocaust survivors who rarely spoke about personal details of their past.
- Their silence shaped his upbringing and left key family history unknown to him.
Israel As Compensation For Shame
- Finkelstein links survivor shame to early Israeli imagery of strength as a reaction to 'going like sheep to slaughter.'
- That cultural shift helped American Jews embrace Israel as a symbol of Jewish resistance.
Camp Choices Shaped Behavior
- Finkelstein recalls his mother's refusal to be a 'blockhead' in camp and her anger at insinuations about survival.
- He believes camp survival changed behaviors like pushing to the front of queues later in life.