Finkelstein's views have never been tested in the High Court in London

Were his claims cited in Irving's case, or any other? It just occurs to me as possible, such that Brummer would be stretching the truth beyond all recognition rather than actually saying something untrue.
Justin | Homepage | 05.22.08 - 6:34 pm | #

"Finkelstein’s views have been tested in the High Court in London and found wanting."

Really? Finkelstein's views have never been tested in the High Court in London.

Perhaps it is tacitly supposed that Finkelstein's views are indistinguishable from Irving's. After all, they're both "Holocaust revisionist[s]." Irving's views were "tested" and "found wanting," and so were Finkelstein's, by extensionality.
J.M. Aurér | 05.22.08 - 8:13 pm | #

JM Aurer - There is no way that Finkelstein could be called a holocaust "revisionist" even if we take revisionist to mean that he unearths new info. He does not study the holocaust, he studies the study of the holocaust. He makes no counter claims as to the conventional wisdom of the what happened, how and to whom. His beef is with those who exploit the holocaust and its survivors for financial and political gain.
Mark Elf (aka levi9909) | Homepage | 05.22.08 - 11:24 pm | #

Justin, I'm not aware that anything Finkelstein has said has ever been tested in the High Court though he (Finkelstein) has ridiculed the idea of Deborah Lipstadt being some kind of holocaust expert. Apparently where Irving blundered in his case was that he thought he could get Lipstadt into the witness box. If he had succeeded she is so useless he would have run rings around her and he could have won his case, unjustly of course, but that was his gambit. Lipstadt has more recently called Jimmy Carter a holocaust denier because, according to her, he didn't mention the holocaust in his book, Peace not Apartheid. Not the most reliable witness when it comes to who is and who is not a holocaust denier.
Mark Elf (aka levi9909) | Homepage | 05.22.08 - 11:39 pm | #

As for the Holocaust, here's a letter in the New York Times from April, by former chairmen of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, praising Pastor John Hagee for his support of Israel.

Here, on the other hand, is a blog post detailing Hagee's views on how the Holocaust was intended by God to bring the Jews back to the Holy Land.

Clearly, Mort Zuckerman and company don't mind even Holocaust approval - as long as the approver supports Israel. Kind of proves Finkelstein's point, doesn't it?
christian h. | 05.23.08 - 12:32 am | #

What got me about the Irving trial was how SUBTLE he was about distorting the truth in his historical books on WWII. They had the expert who had examined and written a report on the distortions on the stand and he refused to testify unless he could have a copy of his own report on the stand with him to refer to because otherwise the fine distinctions of the distortions would be lost. This is exactly what the Zionists do with language, they use it to narrow the range of thought on a subject--turning opinions which they don't agree with into thoughtcrime.
Montag | 05.23.08 - 1:33 am | #

I need to find the Abu Me'tiq family killing full report from Bt'Selem I need to find the PDF on the killing for examination! Would you help?
CDN | 05.23.08 - 4:13 am | #

There is no way that Finkelstein could be called a holocaust "revisionist" ...

Agreed. What I meant was, they're both Holocaust revisionists as far as Brummer is concerned, and he might believe (or pretend to believe) Finkelstein's views on the subject coincide with Irving's. The statement

"Finkelstein’s views have been tested in the High Court in London and found wanting."

could then be defended on the grounds that Finkelstein agrees with Irving. OTOH, if he's "confusing, deliberately, David Irving, the holocaust denier, and Norman Finkelstein," that would be sort of like saying

Finkelstein was imprisoned in Austria for trivializing the Holocaust,

which is obviously not true. You might be right of course, and this Brummer dude borderline insane.

Anyway, I agree with what you wrote above about Finkelstein. Sorry for the confusion.
J.M. Aurér | 05.23.08 - 5:49 am | #

Thanks for clearing that up, JM.

CDN - all I can find is the standard web page on the B'tselem site - http://www.btselem.org/english/p...es/ 20080430.asp
Mark Elf (aka levi9909) | Homepage | 05.23.08 - 8:05 am | #