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Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Norman Finkelstein Isn't Giving Up

Useful Idiots with Katie Halper and Aaron Maté

Useful Idiots, LLC

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.64.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2024

⏱️ 66 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Click here for the full interview with Norman Finkelstein: https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/norman-finkelstein-isnt-giving-up-045?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Watch this week's Thursday Throwdown: Kamala Harris reveals her main difference with Joe Biden https://www.usefulidiotspodcast.com/p/kamala-harris-reveals-her-main-difference?r=je5va&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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“I think the reasonable conclusion is that Gaza is no more. There's nothing left in Gaza.”

Monday the 7th marked one full year of genocide in Gaza, the darkest era of a decades-long occupation by Israel, which has now begun to spread into the broader Middle East region.

This week we’re joined by Gaza expert and Useful Idiots fan-favorite Norman Finkelstein to look back on this genocidal year.

Norm points out that this is not, as Western and Israeli media claims, an “Israel-Hamas war.” This is not war. This is genocide. And Israel is not targeting Hamas; they are killing civilians, destroying civilian infrastructure, and picking off journalists, health workers, and children.

“I read this letter,” he tells us, “from sixty-five physicians from around the world who gave testimony as to what they observed. And every one of the physicians testified that the children who were coming into the hospital had bullet wounds to the skull or to the chest. No shrapnel. It wasn't bombs and shrapnel. It was targeted bullet wounds to the skull and to the chest of children. What does that have to do with war?

“There were fifty-four disabled children who used the school in the convent complex. They fired two shells at it. What does that have to do with war?

Norman also recalls meeting Hezbollah members, and shares what he got wrong about the organization. “Israel, he says, “is willing to kill for material benefit, and Hezbollah and Hamas are willing to die for survival” He also recounts his time meeting Hamas leaders, and explains Israel’s unfair advantage:

“Israel is the entrenched, concentrated manifestation of Western imperialism. It's got deep roots. It's got the whole Western system behind it, that Western system which won't let go. It will nuke China before it lets go of its global dominance. And in order to defeat it, it requires a very long-term struggle and intense calculation.”

Subscribe for the full interview where Norman explains this despair, and the generational hopelessness which lacks historical precedent.

“Our generation,” he laments, “has, for good reason, lost the belief, the conviction that we have the force of history behind us. That we have the force of justice behind us. Our generation believes there's a good chance we'll be defeated. There's a good chance we're not going to win.”

But that doesn’t mean we should give up.

“The only thing I can say as a conclusion is you never know. You can only know one thing for certain: If you do nothing, it can only get worse.”

It’s that certainty that he says keeps him going. “If you resist, there are moments where it looks very grim. And then there's that folk song, it's always darkest before the dawn. It's this hope that keeps me carrying on. It's always darkest before the dawn.”

“There's another reality. There's something in the human constitution that simply can't do nothing. In the face of such death and devastation, you just can't.”

00:00 Intro

01:07 The State Department admits it is COMPLICIT

27:00 Norman Finkelstein interview

28:47 One year of genocide

37:54 Why did Hezbollah intervene?

42:56 What did Norman get wrong about Hezbollah?

48:17 Israel's sadistic advantage

58:18 Palestine doesn't have military targets

1:01:06 Is resistance pointless?



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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hello and welcome to useful idiots. I'm Katie Helper.

0:08.0

I'm Erin Matte. Hey everybody, thanks for joining us for another episode.

0:12.0

It's getting harder and harder to be light-hearted.

0:15.6

You know, it's what we try to do with the show. We try to take a light approach to the news

0:19.9

as we also discuss serious topics, but it's just getting more difficult.

0:24.6

It's a very grim time.

0:26.2

We have a great guest this week.

0:27.3

Norman Finkelstein is here, fan favorite,

0:29.8

to give us a very sobering assessment of where things are in Israel's expanding aggression and genocide in Palestine, of course in Lebanon as well.

0:42.0

So we're very happy to be bringing you Norman's voice, one of the most informed

0:46.4

and insightful people on this topic.

0:49.0

So make sure that you do join us on useful idiots podcast

0:53.1

dot com where you get the extended interview,

0:55.4

the full interview with Norman,

0:57.0

you make this show happen, literally we couldn't do it without you.

1:00.2

And you also get Thursday throw down

1:01.8

your midweek dose of media madness where we try to laugh instead of cry at clips from the media.

1:07.0

And as always we kick it off with our four basic food groups.

1:10.0

Democrats suck, Republicans suck, isn't that weird, isn't that weird isn't that terrible and

1:14.6

Aaron you got Democrats sucks so what do we got from you?

1:17.5

Democrats suck we're gonna turn to State Department spokesperson former

1:20.8

MSNBC pundit Matthew Miller.

...

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