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I had been a Maoist, and then when the Gang of Four was overthrown, I was completely distraught. I was bedridden for three weeks; it was a very painful experience for me. Not only because I had been wrong, but because I felt really embarrassed that I had been lecturing and pontificating with such self-confidence.

From Norman Finkelstein

Conversion and zealotry, just like revelation and apostasy, are flip sides of the same coin, the currency of a political culture having more in common with religion than rational discourse.

From Norman Finkelstein

I don't feel particularly attached to Israel - 'nationalism,' as Noam Chomsky said, 'is not my cup of tea' - but I feel no particular need to demonize it.

From Norman Finkelstein

Indeed, the field of Holocaust studies is replete with nonsense if not sheer fraud.

From Norman Finkelstein

No conditions justify torture.

From Norman Finkelstein

My original interest in the Nazi holocaust was personal. Both my father and mother were survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Nazi concentration camps. Apart from my parents, every family member on both sides was exterminated by the Nazis.

From Norman Finkelstein

The Holocaust only emerged in American life after Israel's victory in the 1967 Six Day war against its Arab neighbours.

From Norman Finkelstein

My parents often wondered why I would grow so indignant at the falsification and exploitation of the Nazi genocide. The most obvious answer is that it has been used to justify criminal policies of the Israeli state and U.S. support for these policies.

From Norman Finkelstein

Everybody wants peace. That's a truism. There is no point in accomplishing through war what you can accomplish through peace.

From Norman Finkelstein

When I was a young man, my mother said to me, 'You can't be a communist without being a militant atheist.' So I had to be a militant atheist because I wanted to be a communist.

From Norman Finkelstein

Norman Finkelstein

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