Following the terrorist attack in Jerusalem last Wednesday
which killed at least 3 Israelis and injured approximately 50 others,
discredited academic Norman Finkelstein sunk to a new
low--which is saying something for a man who has trivialized the
Holocaust, supported terrorism, and claimed that Libya had nothing to do with
the downing of Pan Am 103. On his website he carries the following faked
news story, which he attributes to the New York Times writer who covered
the terrorist attack in Jerusalem.
Times Exclusive: Deranged Arab
in bulldozer attacks NY Times's Isabel Kershner at her pedicure.
Reporting live from the scene still in her curlers and with her beautician
at her side, Kershner gives a minute by minute account of the horrifying moment
when the bulldozer crashed through the pedicure's windowfront crushing the nail
on her little toe. "My friends in the Catskills just won't believe
it," she said. "A smashed toenail. How can Israelis live
with so much anxiety?"
The kind
of people who regularly read Finkelstein's despicable website may actually
believe that the story is accurate. Most relatively intelligent people
will recognize it as a really despicable attempt at humor, that stereotypes
Jewish women and trivializes the suffering of victims of terrorism.
Had a right-wing academic stereotyped any other minority in this
manner, he would have been brought up on academic discliplinary charges,
considering the atmosphere of selective political correctness that dominates so
many campuses today.
Having
failed as an academic, Finkelstein is now trying to emulate Ann Coulter, except
that Coulter is actually sometimes funny, where Finkelstein is merely
disgusting. He has mocked Holocaust survivors and victims of
terrorism. He has used anti-Semitic stereotypes to describe Jewish
leaders. He also specializes in making up phony quotes and attributing
them to his enemies. This was one of the reasons he was denied tenure at
DePaul University.
Just
yesterday he made up another quote and placed it on his website.
Referring to one of my clients he wrote the following: "Dershowitz
predicts 'Second Holocaust' if conviction is not overturned." Of
course I never said anything of the sort, but Finkelstein's readers won't know
that.
The only questions
are: How could anybody take Finkelstein seriously? And how could
any university have even considered giving this manufacturer of false
quotations and phony news stories tenure?