?nileMedia Reader
August 27, 2001
A letter from Jacques to Norman
Finkelstein
Mr. Norman Finkelstein
It is only after a long time of reflection, that I
finally decided to
send you this message.
I hope that I do not waist your time, and that you will
find some
time to read it and maybe answer my question.
I am not reviewing one of your books, because I did not
read one of
them yet (the French translation of The Holocaust
Industry is right
now on his way to my doormat).
My name is Jacques, I live in Tel Aviv, and I arrived
in Israel from
France in 1969 when I was 19 years old.
Before I decided to move to Israel (I did it alone, the
rest of family
did stay in France) most of the information I had about
Israel and
the Palestinian /Israeli conflict was for the most, the
official Zionist
version, from the Jewish Agency propaganda, and rubbish
stuff like
the reading of "L' Information d'Israel "a French
language Israeli
news paper (worst than the English language Jerusalem
Post) , Leon
Uris "Exodus" and other stuff of the kind.
The Jewish Agency propaganda worked perfectly on my
teenage
brain and I arrive in Israel while knowing a lot of
lies and half truth
and ignoring a lot of real history. Every thing was
clear and
simple...black and white: I knew that Israel was
surrounded by cruel
primitives seeking to destroy it We are the good side
and they are
the bad side
We want peace they want war
They are strangers trying to steal our land but we have
"historical"
rights Before the creation of Israel the land was empty
and the few
Arabs who lived they were some lazy fellows that did
not worked
the land I did not know about:
The 750,000 refugees
The ethnic cleansing and atrocities committed against
the Arab
population....
I could go on a long list, but the point is that I am
the typical
product (and victim) of the Jewish Agency propaganda
brainwashing
machine.
Six months after I arrived in Israel I enlisted the IDF
and it was on
my really first day in the West Bank as an Israeli
soldier that I
began to understand that things were not exactly like I
have been
told and I that Israel was not the White Knight
fighting some dark
forces. But it took me many years to discover (and
admit) how
much I have been cheated. It seems that today I have to
learn
everything from the beginning.
When the El-Aqsa Intifada began I have been quite
disappointed by
the huge silence of the Israeli Left (in particular by
Meretz, the
party I voted for) who was reluctant to break ranks
with the fake
"national consensus and unity orgy"at a time of crisis,
and broke the
silence only to blame the Palestinians for the burst of
the violence. I
searched for an alternative and found it in the Uri
Avnery Gush
Shalom, which is extra-parliamentary grass roots
movement.
www.gush-shalom.org/
From the reading of different articles I began to be
aware of
historian like Tom Segev, Benny Morris and I am right
now reading a
copy of Beit-Hallahmi's Original Sins: Reflections on
the History of
Zionism and Israel.
I also read some articles from other historians and
among them from
Efraim Karsh where he demonstrates (so he pretends) how
Benny
Morris is using official and primary sources material
and distort them
(upon what he says): "misrepresents documents, resorts
to partial
quotes, withholds evidence, makes false assertions, and
rewrites
original documents". All these attacks between
historians confused
me. I asked myself: how can I know who tells the truth?
I have not the time, nor the means to do a Ph.D. on the
History of
the Middle East and my feeling is that, no matter how
many books
from both "schools" I will read, it will only confused
me, more and
more. Reading any history book on the conflict I will
always ask
myself: does the author use the primary sources to give
a picture of
the conflict through his own ideological filter or only
the truth?
I am sure that most of what I knew not long ago was
untrue, but, is
all what is said in the New Historian books, true? I
simply do not
want to be manipulated once more!
From all these last 2 months readings, I am in a state
of shock and
my life very profoundly troubled. It is, after all, a
big part of my "self
" and my last 30 years of activity who are put into
question.
It is like discovering something that I suspected the
existence for
long, but that I was afraid to look at. I am only
seeking for the
truth no matter how painful it is.
After having read 3/4 of Beit-Hallahmi's Original Sins,
I asked myself:
what the hell am I doing here?? I have no more right to
be here
than an Indian Apache.
One week ago, this feeling for reinforced by a very
loud, hard and
hot discussion I had with a right wing settler from
Ariel in the West
Bank. When he told me how life became dangerous for the
settlers I
asked him if he has ever thought of going back and
settle within the
Green line. I must admit that in his response he had
some good
point. He said to me: if upon International law my
house in Ariel is
illegal, so is yours... Upon International law, any
territory not
included in the 181 resolution and conquered by Israel
since 1948 is
occupied territory. Your house in Ramt Aviv is built on
the remains
of what once was the Arab village of Cheik Mines. Why
is my house
in Ariel less legal than yours or any house in
Nahariya, Carmiel, Lod,
Ramle, Ashdod, Beer-Sheba? Because the Israeli left
decided what
is legal or illegal?
If you steal something to someone and give him back
half of it, is
the half that you keep not stolen? ...What makes you
more
"righteous" than me? Not only on a legal, but also on a
moral
principal you are not stealing less than me from the
Palestinians.
You call us conquerors? What are you? His last sentence
was
something like: if you want to be true with yourself
and just to the
Palestinians, you even should not accept the 181
resolution. Maybe
only 10% of the lands in the territories given to us by
the Partition
plans belong to us, all the rest is maybe legally ours,
upon the
Partition plan, but morally stolen from Arab. Only if
you are ready to
build a Jewish State within these 10%, then you are a
hypocrite. It
reminds me a passage from the "Original Sins ": "We can
mention
here a group of South African Jews who were opposed to
apartheid,
so they moved to Israel. They settled together in the
Galilee, with
fresh air and a beautiful view of the Mediterranean,
especially at
sunset. The land they now live on was expropriated from
Palestinians. This is Zionism today."
My question is: how can I apart my own feelings and
common
sense, which of course are not objective, or on what
facts can I
rebuild a valid opinion and have a true knowledge of
the history of
this conflict, if that History is described so
differently by Historians
of different "school"??
As I told you in the beginning of my message, your book
"The
Holocaust Industry " will soon be in my hands and from
all I read
about it I am very impatient to read it. Four members
of my very
close family, were sent from France to Auschwitz, never
came back
and the only things I know from them, are some old
black and white
photos.
Maybe this fact, long before being aware of any
"holocaust industry
," made me react so negatively to this kitschy,
orchestrated Live
show called "March of the Living." A real Walt
Disnechwitz.
Thank you for reading my message
Jacques
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
August 27, 2001
A letter from Jacques to Norman
Finkelstein
Mr. Norman Finkelstein
It is only after a long time of reflection, that I
finally decided to
send you this message.
I hope that I do not waist your time, and that you will
find some
time to read it and maybe answer my question.
I am not reviewing one of your books, because I did not
read one of
them yet (the French translation of The Holocaust
Industry is right
now on his way to my doormat).
My name is Jacques, I live in Tel Aviv, and I arrived
in Israel from
France in 1969 when I was 19 years old.
Before I decided to move to Israel (I did it alone, the
rest of family
did stay in France) most of the information I had about
Israel and
the Palestinian /Israeli conflict was for the most, the
official Zionist
version, from the Jewish Agency propaganda, and rubbish
stuff like
the reading of "L' Information d'Israel "a French
language Israeli
news paper (worst than the English language Jerusalem
Post) , Leon
Uris "Exodus" and other stuff of the kind.
The Jewish Agency propaganda worked perfectly on my
teenage
brain and I arrive in Israel while knowing a lot of
lies and half truth
and ignoring a lot of real history. Every thing was
clear and
simple...black and white: I knew that Israel was
surrounded by cruel
primitives seeking to destroy it We are the good side
and they are
the bad side
We want peace they want war
They are strangers trying to steal our land but we have
"historical"
rights Before the creation of Israel the land was empty
and the few
Arabs who lived they were some lazy fellows that did
not worked
the land I did not know about:
The 750,000 refugees
The ethnic cleansing and atrocities committed against
the Arab
population....
I could go on a long list, but the point is that I am
the typical
product (and victim) of the Jewish Agency propaganda
brainwashing
machine.
Six months after I arrived in Israel I enlisted the IDF
and it was on
my really first day in the West Bank as an Israeli
soldier that I
began to understand that things were not exactly like I
have been
told and I that Israel was not the White Knight
fighting some dark
forces. But it took me many years to discover (and
admit) how
much I have been cheated. It seems that today I have to
learn
everything from the beginning.
When the El-Aqsa Intifada began I have been quite
disappointed by
the huge silence of the Israeli Left (in particular by
Meretz, the
party I voted for) who was reluctant to break ranks
with the fake
"national consensus and unity orgy"at a time of crisis,
and broke the
silence only to blame the Palestinians for the burst of
the violence. I
searched for an alternative and found it in the Uri
Avnery Gush
Shalom, which is extra-parliamentary grass roots
movement.
www.gush-shalom.org/
From the reading of different articles I began to be
aware of
historian like Tom Segev, Benny Morris and I am right
now reading a
copy of Beit-Hallahmi's Original Sins: Reflections on
the History of
Zionism and Israel.
I also read some articles from other historians and
among them from
Efraim Karsh where he demonstrates (so he pretends) how
Benny
Morris is using official and primary sources material
and distort them
(upon what he says): "misrepresents documents, resorts
to partial
quotes, withholds evidence, makes false assertions, and
rewrites
original documents". All these attacks between
historians confused
me. I asked myself: how can I know who tells the truth?
I have not the time, nor the means to do a Ph.D. on the
History of
the Middle East and my feeling is that, no matter how
many books
from both "schools" I will read, it will only confused
me, more and
more. Reading any history book on the conflict I will
always ask
myself: does the author use the primary sources to give
a picture of
the conflict through his own ideological filter or only
the truth?
I am sure that most of what I knew not long ago was
untrue, but, is
all what is said in the New Historian books, true? I
simply do not
want to be manipulated once more!
From all these last 2 months readings, I am in a state
of shock and
my life very profoundly troubled. It is, after all, a
big part of my "self
" and my last 30 years of activity who are put into
question.
It is like discovering something that I suspected the
existence for
long, but that I was afraid to look at. I am only
seeking for the
truth no matter how painful it is.
After having read 3/4 of Beit-Hallahmi's Original Sins,
I asked myself:
what the hell am I doing here?? I have no more right to
be here
than an Indian Apache.
One week ago, this feeling for reinforced by a very
loud, hard and
hot discussion I had with a right wing settler from
Ariel in the West
Bank. When he told me how life became dangerous for the
settlers I
asked him if he has ever thought of going back and
settle within the
Green line. I must admit that in his response he had
some good
point. He said to me: if upon International law my
house in Ariel is
illegal, so is yours... Upon International law, any
territory not
included in the 181 resolution and conquered by Israel
since 1948 is
occupied territory. Your house in Ramt Aviv is built on
the remains
of what once was the Arab village of Cheik Mines. Why
is my house
in Ariel less legal than yours or any house in
Nahariya, Carmiel, Lod,
Ramle, Ashdod, Beer-Sheba? Because the Israeli left
decided what
is legal or illegal?
If you steal something to someone and give him back
half of it, is
the half that you keep not stolen? ...What makes you
more
"righteous" than me? Not only on a legal, but also on a
moral
principal you are not stealing less than me from the
Palestinians.
You call us conquerors? What are you? His last sentence
was
something like: if you want to be true with yourself
and just to the
Palestinians, you even should not accept the 181
resolution. Maybe
only 10% of the lands in the territories given to us by
the Partition
plans belong to us, all the rest is maybe legally ours,
upon the
Partition plan, but morally stolen from Arab. Only if
you are ready to
build a Jewish State within these 10%, then you are a
hypocrite. It
reminds me a passage from the "Original Sins ": "We can
mention
here a group of South African Jews who were opposed to
apartheid,
so they moved to Israel. They settled together in the
Galilee, with
fresh air and a beautiful view of the Mediterranean,
especially at
sunset. The land they now live on was expropriated from
Palestinians. This is Zionism today."
My question is: how can I apart my own feelings and
common
sense, which of course are not objective, or on what
facts can I
rebuild a valid opinion and have a true knowledge of
the history of
this conflict, if that History is described so
differently by Historians
of different "school"??
As I told you in the beginning of my message, your book
"The
Holocaust Industry " will soon be in my hands and from
all I read
about it I am very impatient to read it. Four members
of my very
close family, were sent from France to Auschwitz, never
came back
and the only things I know from them, are some old
black and white
photos.
Maybe this fact, long before being aware of any
"holocaust industry
," made me react so negatively to this kitschy,
orchestrated Live
show called "March of the Living." A real Walt
Disnechwitz.
Thank you for reading my message
Jacques
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp