Beyond Chutzpah

[Dave Monroe]

Finkelstein, Norman.  Beyond Chutzpah:
   On The Misuse Of Anti-Semitism And The Abuse Of
   History.  Berkeley: U of California P, 2005.

In this long-awaited sequel to his international
bestseller The Holocaust Industry, Norman G.
Finkelstein moves from an iconoclastic interrogation
of the new anti-Semitism to a meticulously researched
exposé of the corruption of scholarship on the
Israel-Palestine conflict.

Bringing to bear the latest findings on the conflict
and recasting the scholarly debate, Finkelstein points
to a consensus among historians and human rights
organizations on the factual record. Why, then, does
so much controversy swirl around the conflict?
Finkelstein's answer, copiously documented, is that
apologists for Israel contrive controversy. Whenever
Israel comes under international pressure, another
media campaign alleging a global outbreak of
anti-Semitism is mounted.

Finkelstein also scrutinizes the proliferation of
distortion masquerading as history. Recalling Joan
Peters' book From Time Immemorial, published to great
fanfare in 1984 but subsequently exposed as an
academic hoax, he asks deeply troubling questions here
about the periodic reappearance of spurious
scholarship and the uncritical acclaim it receives.
The most recent addition to this genre, Finkelstein
argues, is Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz's
bestseller, The Case for Israel.

The core analysis of Beyond Chutzpah sets Dershowitz's
assertions on Israel's human rights record against the
findings of the mainstream human rights community.
Sifting through thousands of pages of reports from
organizations such as Amnesty International, B'Tselem,
and Human Rights Watch, Finkelstein argues that
Dershowitz has misrepresented the facts.

Thoroughly researched and tightly argued, Beyond
Chutzpah lifts the veil of controversy shrouding the
Israel-Palestine conflict.

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10505.html

"Introduction," pp. 1-19 ...

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10505/finkelstein.pdf


		
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