This Time We Went Too Far

Norman G. Finkelstein

OR Books

For the Palestinians who live in the narrow coastal strip of Gaza, the Israeli invasion of December 2008 was a nightmare of unimaginable proportions: In the 22-day-long action 1,400 Gazans were killed, several hundred on the first day alone. And yet, while nothing should diminish Palestinian suffering through those frightful days, it is possible something redemptive is emerging from the tragedy of Gaza. For, as Norman Finkelstein details, in a concise work that melds cold anger with cool analysis, the profound injustice of the Israeli assault was widely recognized by bodies that it is impossible to brand as partial or extremist. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN investigation headed by Richard Goldstone, in documenting Israel's use of indiscriminate and intentional force against the civilian population during the invasion (100 Palestinians died for every one Israeli), have had an impact on longstanding support for Israel. Jews in both the Unites States and the United Kingdom, for instance, have begun to voice dissent, and this trend is especially apparent among the young. Such a shift, Finkelstein contends, can create new pressure capable of moving the Middle East crisis towards a solution, one that embraces justice for Palestinians and Israelis alike. This new paperback edition has been revised throughout and includes an extensive afterword on the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla which resulted in the deaths of nine activists and further strained the loyalty of many of Israel's traditional allies around the world. It also contains a brand new appendix in which Finkelstein dissects the official Israeli investigation of the flotilla attack.

This Time We Went Too Far: Truth and Consequences of the Gaza Invasion

The Occupy movement and the protests that inspired it have focused new attention on the work of Mahatma Gandhi, who set out principles of nonviolent resistance during the struggle for Indian Independence, principles that found their echo in Tahrir Square, Puerta del Sol and Zuccotti Park some half a century later.If there has been widespread recognition of Gandhi's role in developing the tactics underpinning the revolutionary upsurges of the past year, few have stopped to examine what Gandhi actually said about the relationship between nonviolence, resistance and courage.Step forward Norman Finkelstein, who, drawing on extensive readings of Gandhi's copious oeuvre and intensive reflection on the way that progress might be made in the seemingly intractable impasse of the Middle East, here sets out in clear and concise language the basic principles of Gandhi's approach.There is much that will surprise in these pages: Gandhi was not a pacifist; he believed in the right of those being attacked to strike back and regarded inaction as a result of cowardice to be a greater sin than even the most ill-considered aggression. Gandhi's calls for the sacrifice of lives in order to shame the oppressor into concessions can easily seem chilling and ruthless.But Gandhi's insistence that, in the end, peaceful resistance will always be less costly in human lives than armed opposition, and his understanding that the role of a protest movement is not primarily to persuade people of something new, but rather to get them to act on behalf of what they already accept as right - these principles have profound resonance in both the Israel-Palestine conflict and the wider movement for justice and democracy that began to sweep the world in 2011.

What Gandhi Says: About Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage

First Edition, 2014, first printing, a brand-new, unread, unworn, unopened, unmarked trade softcover, from O/R Books. By Norman G. Finkelstein. ISBN 978-1-939293-46-6. "Like his landmark debunking of Joan Peters's From Time Immemorial, Finkelstein's clinical dissection of My Promised Land by Ari Shavit will be welcomed by those who prefer truth to propaganda, and who yearn for a resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict based on justice, rather than arguments framed by anguish and schmaltz."--from the back cover.

Old Wine, Broken Bottle: Ari Shavit's Promised Land

There has been widespread recognition of the contribution of the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi to the tactics underpinning the revolutionary upsurges in the Middle East and the burgeoning Occupy movements in Europe and the United States. But few have examined what Gandhi actually said about the relationship between non-violence, resistance and courage. In these pages Norman G Finkelstein draws on extensive readings of Gandhi's oeuvre in order to set out in clear and concise language the basic principles of Gandhi's approach as well as to pinpoint its contradictions and limitations

What Gandhi Says

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