Norman Finkelstein Cuts Through Israel’s Propaganda: Gaza Genocide, Oct. 7 & Netanyahu’s Corruption

Tucker Carlson (0:04)

I want to ask you about the October 7th attacks or in the aftermath. So the October 7th attacks happen, and for those of us who are not really following Gaza, I was definitely in that category. It seems to kind of come out of nowhere.

Norman Finkelstein (0:21)

Correct.

Tucker Carlson (0:22)

And the main question that I had was, well, how could Israel not have seen this coming? But what I didn't think enough about is why did the attack happen? What was the context for that? Which is not to excuse it. I just want to be clear, I'm not excusing that or any killing of innocence, but what was happening in Gaza right before that?

Norman Finkelstein (0:41)

Well, it's not just right before that.

Gaza becomes Gaza in 1948, after Israel expels roughly 750,000 Palestinian Arabs from the area that becomes Israel. Of those 750,000, 300,000 are expelled to Gaza, and they become roughly 80% of Gaza's population, obviously swamping the original Gaza population. Now, there are all these Gazans from Israel.

Tucker Carlson (1:16)

Who hold Egyptian citizenship at that point.

Norman Finkelstein (1:20)

In 1948, Gaza is simply part of mandated Palestine. A British-mandated Palestine. So, about 80% of the population are now refugees.

If you go back and look at the literature, it's quite interesting that already in the 1950s, UN officials were stationed in Gaza. Now, this is when Gaza is under Egyptian control. Okay? Because Egypt gains administrative control over Gaza after the 1948 war. Already, it's being described as a concentration camp. Now, this is under Egyptian control.

If we fast forward to 1967, in July 1967, Al Gore Sr., the father of the person.

Tucker Carlson (2:25)

The senator from Tennessee.

Norman Finkelstein (2:26)

Correct. Al Gore Sr., he goes to visit Gaza. That's correct. And then he comes back, and he testifies before Congress on what he observed. And he describes Gaza as, quote, a concentration camp on the send, if you will.

So already, beginning in 1948, outside observers coming to Gaza, that's their reference.

Now, in 2004, the head of the Israel's National Security Council, his name is Giora Eiland. Giora Eiland is not a peacenik. He's still among the living, still very active, advising right as we speak the Israeli government. He was the one who said around 2024, he said, if epidemics break out in southern Gaza, that's a good thing. It's a good thing for the epidemics.

Tucker Carlson (3:38)

Epidemic of disease?

Norman Finkelstein (3:39)

Yes.

Now, in 2004, he's having a conversation with senior US officials, and he describes Gaza as, quote, a huge concentration camp. Now, bear in mind, the first individuals I mentioned, that's 50s, early, mid 60s, concentration camp, had a very definite resonance.

And yet, those are the words that leapt to mind, or those are the descriptives that leapt to mind. Giro Island is Israeli, he's Jewish, he's the chief of Israel's, the head of Israel's National Security Council. As a Jew and as an Israeli, surely he knew the resonance of describing a parcel of land as a concentration camp. That's the descriptive he used. Now, here's the, not footnote, but here's the big qualifier. That was Gaza in its best days. That's a fact. That was Gaza in its best days. In 2006, our president, George Bush, he embarked on what he called democracy promotion. You might remember that phase. And part of democracy promotion was, he told the Palestinians they had to hold elections.

Hamas did not want to participate in the elections because they saw it as part of what was called the Oslo Process, namely, when President Clinton, Yasser Arafat and Itzhak Rabin signed an agreement in 1993, which Hamas felt was a sellout. So they didn't want to participate in the elections because they thought it was part of what was called the Oslo Process. Pressures put on them, pressures put on them. They finally agreed to participate. Well, they run on a reform platform because the Palestinian Authority is hopelessly corrupt and they win the election.

Well, the wrong side won. Hillary Clinton later said, We made a big mistake. We should have made sure that Hamas didn't win, which is her concept of a democratic election.

So, the moment Hamas gets elected, Jimmy Carter, who observed the election, he called it, quote, completely free and fair elections. That's how he described it. It was actually the first free and fair democratic elections in the Arab world. The first time. Some people say Tunisia before, but I think it's credible to say these were the first fully free and fair elections. Israel at that moment, it imposes, and then followed by the US and the EU, imposes this medieval blockade on Gaza.