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Summary: Its about time..well done Mr.Finkelstein
Review: Finkelstein has done it again, and I thank G_d that he continues to speak the truth despite what a bunch of Zionist thugs and gangsters say or do. Arabs are the largest group of semites in the world today, so it angers Jews like me to hear Zionist frauds claiming that anything remotely critical of them and their activities is "anti-semetic." Finkelstein is correct regarding the use of the Holocaust to justify Israel's genocide against our semetic cousins the Palestinians. Finally to those Zionist fanatics who try to use terms like "revisionism" and "anti-semites" in order to slander Finkelstein are very desperate lot indeed since thats a baseless lie..which anyone who has read the book can testify. This is not a message board for a bunch of racist Zionist cowards, so let those who have purchased and read the book speak instead of fake reviews. I pray that this marks the begining of the divorce of the racist evil ideology of Zionism from Judaism.
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Summary: A discussion that needs to be heard
Review: It is not unexpected or unique that America's most successful ethnic group would capitalize on a past tragedy. Finkelstein makes an important distinction: the holocaust industry is the ideological representation of Hitler's judeocide; not the historical attempt at genocide.There is no dearth of bloodbaths in recorded history; especially in the past 100 years. Why is this one so prominent? Why do we keep hearing about what Hitler did to the Jews? There were 45-55 million casualties during the second World War. What about the Romani? The Catholic Poles? Try to find a book on the ten million who were murdered in the Belgian Congo 1890-1911. The holocaust and Israel receive unparalleled attention in our nation's media. If there is no "industry" or ideological control; where are the prominent critics? Why is the Jewish son of survivors of Auschwitz and Maidenek relegated to the fringe simply by asking some very basic, very direct questions?
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Summary: Interesting Facts About The Holocaust
Review: This book really unveils the truth about how the so-called Jews munipulate our minds to make the public feel so sorry for them, when in actuality it's just a ploy to give them more attention and fame. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-semitic, and I do admit that the Holocaust was a horrible event, but this kind of exploitation is uncalled for. Don't forget there have been worst genocides and "Holocausts" throughout history which darf the Jewish Holocaust, examples include the Black African Slave Trade and the genocide of the Native Americans in which over 70 million Indians were wiped out because of small pox. Why isn't that talked about? I'm glad Mr. Finkelstein wrote this book, because I'm sure if a non-Jew wrote it the book would probably be banned. I haven't read a book like this by an honest Jew since The Thirteenth Tribe by Arthur Koestler which he talks about the German(Eastern European) and Russian Jews are not related to the original Biblical Hebrews, but are decendants of the Khazars of the Khazaria who converted to Judaism in the 11th century A.D. Truth is truth, no matter if you like it or not, big organizations like the ADL and others are criminal organizations. Whenever someone blows the whistle on them(people like Bill Cooper, David Icke, Khalid Muhammad, and others), that individual is automaticlly labeled "Anti-Semetic". If you take an honest look at the history of Zionism (refering to people like Moses Hess, who was a German Socialist, and Theodor Herzl) it was all about stealing Israel from the Arabs *note-"if you do a little research neither the so-called modern day Arabs nor modern day so-called Jews have rights to Palestine, because non of them are genetically related to the original Hebrews and Ishmaelites" Hess felt to achieve this goal, which was to gain a state for the Jews, they would have to infiltrate mainstream society, eventually gaining political and economic control, this is, of course, where you get Reformed Judaism. And also for those of you who think I'm anti-semitic or that Mr. Finkelstein is suffering from "self-hate", you must understand that Hitler, the man responsible for the Holocaust, was a Jew himself. His last name was originally Shicklgruber, which was his grandmother's last name. So, you can now say Hitler was suffering from self-hate. Just Think About It.
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Summary: The Holocaust Industry
Review: The thrust of Professor Finkelstein's unsettling book is that powerful interests (Israel and Jewish organizations in America) have hijacked what has become known as the holocaust. And while Israel has exploited the holocaust as a weapon to deflect criticism, regardless how justified, American Jewish organizations have used the plight of supposedly needy survivors to extort staggering sums of money from the rest of the world. This was done not for the benefit of survivors, but for the financial advantage of these organizations. There are no conclusions reached in Professor Finkelstein's book that a careful reader of daily newspapers could not have reached, assuming the reader could read between the lines and base his judgment on evidence and common sense rather than the politically correct slant of the media reporting. Finkelstein has infuriated his critics not by ranting or raving or misrepresenting the evidence, as they have accused him, but by painstakingly supporting his arguments with irrefutable documentation. The first line of defense of the mass media in America, one of the holocaust industry's most effective and compliant tools (second only to the Clinton administration), was to pretend Finkelstein's book did not exist. Once this tactic became ineffective due to an outpouring of Internet exposure, the mass media launched scathing attacks on the author and his book. Read the New York Times book review for one such "hit piece" and compare that review with your own reading of the book. Naturally, reading the book is something the review is designed to discourage. A zealous supporter of the holocaust industry, Professor Zweig from Tel Aviv, posted a negative "one star" review of Dr. Finkelstein's book on Amazon.com before the book was even available to the American public (July 19). This was no doubt a preemptive Internet strike to discourage potential readers without giving the book the publicity even a negative not-.com media review would have had. After Finkelstein was invited for a radio interview in the U.S., the holocaust industry enlisted Professor Zweig, who they doubtless consider a "heavy hitter," to join Finkelstein on the air and put the heretic in his place. An alternative explanation would be that Professor Zweig was given an opportunity to do penance and rehabilitate himself by debunking Finkelstein on the airwaves after it was discovered that the latter had cited information in Zweig's own book which blackens the holocaust industry. In the ensuing debate, the best Zweig could do was claim that Finkelstein had taken statements made in his book out of context. This is the standard damage control employed by any public figure who said or wrote something he subsequently discovered was not in his best interest. The bottom line of Finkelstein's book is that it says what was very long overdue to be said. But few academics have the courage or intellectual fortitude to weather the defamation campaign that will predictably descend on anyone who challenges this multi-billion dollar industry. Historically speaking, it has seldom been the politically correct Professor Zweigs of a given time that brought us closer to the truth, but the defiant and much-maligned "heretics" such as Norman Finkelstein. I recommend the advice Nietzsche gave his readers 130 years ago: "If you want to know something about a book or its author, read what HE wrote rather than what his critics or enemies say about him." In addition to reading the book, I highly recommend listening to the radio debate between Professor Finkelstein and Professor Zweig, the holocaust industry's first choice to represent their side in the controversy. From the debate it becomes clear that Professor Finkelstein is extremely comfortable when dealing with the charges leveled against him by his detractors. He refutes them calmly and convincingly. No wonder the spokespersons for the holocaust industry prefer writing unopposed "hit pieces" like the New York Times review over challenging Professor Finkelstein directly...
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Summary: Norman Finkelstein's The Holocaust Industry
Review: A new book's just out: Norman Finkelstein's The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering (Verso, 2000). Great stuff. Finkelstein has nothing but respect for the serious work on the subject of the Nazi holocaust and its refractions through postwar Western ideological prisms (hence: what Finkelstein calls the "Holocaust Industry" to distinguish the industry and its ideological products from the actual historical event) by Hannah Arendt (e.g., Eichmann in Jerusalem), Raul Hilberg (The Destruction of the European Jews; The Politics of Memory), Henry Friedlander (The Origins of the Nazi Genocide; Crying Hands : Eugenics and Deaf People in Nazi Germany), Arno Mayer (Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?), and Guenther Lewy (The Nazi Persecution of the Gypsies). On the other hand, on the work of Elie Wiesel (Night; Against Silence), Jerzy Kosinski (The Painted Bird, which Finkelstein calls the "first major Holocaust hoax"), Binjamin Wilkomirski (Fragments), Bernard Lewis (Semites and Anti-Semites--elsewhere, Edward Said has characterized Lewis' work as a "perfect exemplification of the academic whose work purports to be liberal objective scholarship but is in reality very close to being propaganda AGAINST his subject material"), Daniel Jonah Goldhagen (Hitler's Willing Executioners), Deborah Lipstadt (Denying the Holocaust), and Steven Katz (The Holocaust in Historical Context), and a host of other writers, Finkelstein has anything from little respect to utter contempt. That is, he regards them as a "Holocaust dogmatists" and "Holocaust mongers"-- "Hoaxers" and "Hucksters." With the www.amazon.com homepage now (July 28-31) running a "Quick Pick" review (or "recommended reading") of Greg Campbell's 1999 book, The Road to Kosovo: A Balkan Diary, it might make for an interesting research project to look at authors who have written about the wars over the break-up of Yugoslavia the same way that Norman Finkelstein looks at the "Holocaust Industry." Thus, accompanying the advertisement for Greg Campbell's book was an "Editorial Review" that opens with a serious distortion of the recent history of Kosovo and then goes downhill from there. Says the reviewer: "In the summer of 1998, freelance journalist Greg Campbell got into a rental car in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, and drove across Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro into Kosovo, where Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic had recently begun stepping up an ongoing "ethnic cleansing" campaign against the ethnic Albanians who make up the majority of the region's population. Staying with local journalists--some of whom were also part of the underground Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)--Campbell was forced to confront the consequences of the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia." Comment ought to be unnecessary. By the summer of 1998, the major "demographic problem" facing the Yugoslav federation in Kosovo was a thirty-year out-migration of ethnic non-Albanians, caused by depressed economic conditions and pressures from Kosovar Albanians on the rest of the Kosovar population to being about what was then called an "ethnically pure" Kosovo--meaning, an all-Albanian province with the goal of gaining eventual republican status within the federation or independence and statehood altogether. My hunch is that the wars over the break-up of Yugoslavia quickly generated something on the model of an "Holocaust Industry"--a "Genocide Industry," let us call it. It's amazing how thoroughly sold commentators are on the ex post facto point of view of view of the powers now occupying parts of the former Yugoslavia. As Norman Finkelstein writes about Elie Wiesel's central place in the pantheon of official Holocaust soothsayers: "Plainly he did not come to this position on account of his humanitarian commitments and literary talents. Rather, Wiesel plays this leading role because he unerringly articulates the dogmas of, and accordingly sustains the interests underpinning, The Holocaust [Industry]." I believe that very much the same thing can be said of the writers on the break-up of Yugoslavia that occupy a central place in the pantheon of official (i.e., well-received and relatively ubiquitous) "Genocide" soothsayers. They occupy this favorable position because they unerringly articulate the dogmas of, and accordingly systain the interests underpinning, the ex post facto point of view of the powers now occupying parts of the former Yugoslavia--American power's in particular.
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Summary: must read
Review: Regardless of what you think of the author's tone or whether you think it's polemical or not, the undisputable fact is that he has written a very well researched, informed book on an almost taboo topic-- the politicization of the nazi holocaust. He's corect in his conclusions, all of them but don't take my word for it. I think it's important that any decent person, particularly American citizens read this book and understand how their government can allow itself to be corrupted, sold out in a way that benefits the elite few and screws the poor majority.
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Summary: Unbelievable...
Review: I recently had the opportunity to hear Dr. Finkelstein give a lecture regarding Israel's brutal policy towards the Palestinians. What impressed me the most about this inspiring Jewish professor was his willingness, indeed his sense of duty, to challenge the dishonest and racist attitudes of his Zionist counterparts, by speaking the truth about Israel. At this lecture, he also announced the publication of his latest book, "The Holocaust Industry", and I made sure to order a copy in advance. Finkelstein's main argument is drawn against the aggressive attempt by corrupt Jewish businessmen to capitalize on the image of Jewish suffering of the Holocaust, which is a reality in the United States and Israel. This abuse of history and of human emotion is actually driven by a more sinister agenda to achieve the political goals of Israel and certain diaspora Jews. It should offend any decent, sensible human being that the same people who demand sympathy for Holocaust victims are themselves brutal oppressors of the Palestinian people. Many shrewd Israeli businessmen and politicians have taken advantage of the limited sympathy from Europe by making false claims to money they never really owned. As a result, large numbers of actual Holocaust vicitims and their families do not recieve money they so rightly deserve from European banks. Furthermore, a few sick people have actually romanticized the Holocaust, fabricating stories of suffering simply to boost profits from their books. Of course, it should be expected that this book will arouse a considerable degree of hostility and emotionalism from the more fanatic loyalists of Zionism. I imagine that such loyalists would attempt to discredit Professor Finkelstein's thesis by posting negative reviews. To these extremists, I pose the following questions for the benefit of the public: Why does Israel downplay the Armenian genocide by promoting the Jewish image of suffering from the Holocaust? Why does Israel maintain such a passionate friendship with Turkey, who committed the genocide against the Armenian people? The government of Turkey actually denies the atrocities against the Armenian people, and it has even established a research foundation to prove that the Armenian genocide never took place. This is just as sick a practice those who deny the Holocaust. Yet, Israel is a loyal ally to Turkey. Is this not a case of the most deplorable form of hypocrisy? Why does Israel downplay the large numbers of gypsies that were killed in the Holocaust alongside the Jews? Why did many Zionists actually praise the fascist campaigns of racial segregation during Hitler's rise to power? [NOTE: See Israel Shahak's book, "Jewish History, Jewish Religion", for irrefutable documentation of this fact]. Why did Israel support the apartheid of South Africa? Why is it that Israel holds the entire world guilty for turning the other cheek Holocaust, when Israel itself turns its back on the genocides of today? These are only a few of the "less pleasant consequences of the Holocaust" that the reviewer, Ronald Zweig, conveniently forgot to mention. This book is definately an excellent read. Normon Finkelstein is a fine scholar and an eloquent and cogent writer. Educated readers will also appreciate the fact that Noam Chomsky contributed to the research of this book.
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Summary: A reasonable approach
Review: Mr Finkelstein's basic point is that there are certain groups in the state of Israel and the World Jewish Community who use the Holocaust as a means of protecting themselves from any kind of criticism whatsoever: As soon as anyone would question what they are doing, they would point the finger to the Holocaust as a justification for it. At first, I was not really sure what to make of this idea. Should I condemn it, as it could be a try to end Holocaust commemorance? Or should I read on and see what it was about? I decided to do the latter, and I have not regretted it. Norman Finkelstein does not object to remembering the Holocaust. His parents were sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis - why should he want to forget what they had gone through? What Mr Finkelstein does object to, is the exploitation of their suffering, and all the other victim's suffering, by a Holocaust Industry that has hardly a connection to them. It would be a mistake to try to summarize his arguments in this short review, as this would only lead to generalizations and misunderstandings. This book is neither an attack on Holocaust commemorance nor on the Jews and their religion. It is an attempt to take a reasonable approach to a topic that has been, up to now, often discussed in a much too emotional way.
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Summary: The Holocaust Industry
Review: Norman Finkelestein is a man of obvious intelligence which has become apparent in his writings. This book sees Finklestien fiercely criticising people who make money from the holocaust. I suppose this book proves that point as I had to search around numerous stores to find a copy, I must therefore be partially at fault in Finklesteins mind for propogating his sales! Finkelesteins' book is both provocative and enfuriating. The author believes that remeberance of the holocaust in a public manner is 'corrupt'. This corruption has lead to too much money, both private and public being invested in memorialising the Nazi genocides victims. In a rather bizzare way Finkelestien argues that less recognition would allow victims of the genocide to rest in peace. Finkelstein makes appropriate references to other groups who suffered at the hands of the Nazis, the Gypsies experienced a similar scale genocide yet are frequently forgotten when compensation is to be paid or rememberance given. When reading this book, I found that Finklestein made salient points concerning the Holocaust but the actual concept of the book left me a little annoyed. This annoyance was borne in the fact that less remeberance would mean that society would only be left with the view of the oppressors, and we must therfore memorialise more! Reading this book has let me see that there are people who can't truely understand the horiffic way that the Nazis conducted themselves. I have visited Aushwitz, and never have I felt such pain and sorrow, yet Finklestein doesn't seem to have shared the same experience. The book has however re-affirmed my belief that the only way to prevent something as terrible occurring again is through increased recognition.
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Summary: A Study in Ethnocentrism
Review: Finkelstein takes on the Holocaust industry with a tart-tongued wit. Reading it may make your eyebrows lift at the holocaust industry's narcissistic focus on the suffering of the Jews, which is "unique" according those running the Holocaust industry. A lot of the shakedowns for more money for the holocaust can be seen as just one ethnic groups' way of claiming more resources and power for themselves under the guise of being good humanitarians. Most of the money taken does not go to the few survivors left but is redirected unethically to the Jewish community and to politicized and biased holocaust education. Finkelstein is concerned that the industry may be increasing anti-semitism by behaving in such a way as to confirm stereotypes of Jews as being greedy liar lawyers. He however only criticizes the Jews of the powerful holocaust industry and not Jews as a whole. I suppose though that all ethnic groups feel that their sufferings are special in some way and are emotionally attached to them. That could be a mitigating factor in any judgements against the industry. A lot of cries of injustice and for reparations are somewhat hypocritical since it seems all ethnic groups act amorally towards one another at times and will probably exploit the underdog group if given the chance and if they have enough power to do so. They seem to work hard to get enough power to do so. Reparations can be seen as a form of revenge. Things weren't always this way with the nazi holocaust. Before Israel's winning of their war in the Middle East in 1967, there were better, more objective books written about the holocaust; some of which present a more universalist message that we could all learn more about ourselves from the holocaust and there wasn't much mention of Jewish suffering as being unique. Finkelstein covers some books which he thinks are valuable and one's he thinks are garbage. He accuses Zionists of using the holocaust to deflect criticism from the questionable actions of Israel and Holocaust Industry itself. After the 1967 war, the US backed Israel as a cold war ally and gave them lots of ammunition. Finkelstein has a leftist take on his criticism of the industry. Why don't we give reparations to African Americans for slave labor? Why don't we give reparations to the Vietnamese for tearing up their country during the Vietnam War? Why don't we include the others who were in concentration camps in holocaust memorials such as the Catholics, the gypsies, and the handicapped? Why don't we focus on what nazi gold was taken from Jews that are still in US banks? Why do we go after just the European banks? Why are certain American Jews obsessed with their victim status when they are one of the richest ethnic groups in the world? A lot of people will consider his views unpatriotic or a form of Jewish self-hating. The reader may come away with the impression that reparations are not a good idea in any case because it brings out too many people who want to exploit the situation while not necessarily being a victim and reparation seekers tend to point fingers at people who aren't necessarily guilty of alleged past wrongs. A lot of fraudulent literature and claims have come up over the years, which Finkelstein exposes well. He is similar to Noam Chomsky who has documented, if debatable theories about how American is an economically imperialist nation. That theme is sounded as well in the book.
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