norman finkelstein received his doctorate from the department of politics at princeton university in one thousand nine hundred eight and talk classes on political theory and the israel palestine conflict for many years he is the author of numerous books on the conflict including image and reality of the israel palestine conflict and beyond chutzpah on the misuse of anti semitism and the abuse of history he's also the subject of the documentary american radical the trials of norman finkelstein the following speech was given at the eighth annual convention of outta the palestine right to return coalition finkelstein spoke on the subject of his latest book entitled this time we went too far truth and consequences of the gaza invasion the topic for my remarks this evening is what happened in gaza a year and a half ago about a year and a half ago now and that in itself is a kind of curiosity because everybody in this room knows wars come and go with great frequency and reputed to be in the middle east and barely a few months  before they disappear from the public consciousness and yet something peculiar happened with gaza because it's nearly a year and a half since the israeli invasion of gaza and yet it remains as current as ever in fact it almost seems as if it happened most a month or two ago and so one of the questions which is worth trying to ponder this evening is why does gaza endure why is this ghost gaza try as israel does it can't seem to bury why is it that this shadow follows israel wherever it goes as professor got them said in his introductory remarks even now a year and a half later israeli officials feel very insecure because wherever airport they depart from they are fearful that papers will be served and the papers will be served because of what they did in gaza and so why is that why d gaza live so long after what israel inflicted during those twenty two days that amnesty international called the twenty two days of death and destruction i want to begin however with some of the background to how we got to those twenty two days it's always a little bit arbitrary where do you begin the goldstone report to which are returned later it more or less begins with the cease fire that israel signed with hamas in june two thousand and eight i will go a little bit further back in january two thousand and six there were parliamentary elections in the occupied palestinian territories and hamas the islamic movement emerged victorious the elections according to the former us presidential me carter who is one of the in the international observers he said the elections were completely honest and fair in reaction to these completely honest and fair elections israel backed by the united states and then the e can go your opinion it imposed economic sanctions on hamas and on the palestinian people living in  june two thousand and seven the united states israel and some elements among the palestinian authority attempted the coup to overthrow the legally elected in the united states that's called democracy promotion hamas foiled the coup and it sent the palestinian elements packing to the west bank in reaction to the foiled who attempt israel backed by the united states it tightened the blockade on gaza a blockade which amnesty international now call a flagrant violation of international law a blockade which the goldstone mission later called a possible crime against humanity the former u n high commissioner for human rights mary robinson she journey to gaza during these months and she said and now i'm quoting her g whole civilization has been destroyed i'm not exaggerating its whole civilization has been destroyed in june two thousand and eight israel and hamas entered into a ceasefire that was brokered by the egyptian government and under the cease fire each side had obligations on the palestinian the blockade which was a flagrant violation of international law the blockade which was destroying the civilization according to the israeli ministry of foreign affairs and now i'm quoting it hamas was careful to maintain the ceasefire hamas was careful to maintain the cease fire there were some to use the israeli terminology rogue terrorist organizations not hamas but using the israeli terminology roque terrorist organizations which were not observing the cease fire but according according to the israelis and now i'm quoting him them again hamas enforced the cease fire on the rogue terrorist organizations with a great deal although not complete success so on one side hamas was careful to maintain the cease fire israel however reneged on its obligation to gradually lift the blockade of gaza blockade which was a flagrant violation of international law well what happens next here the evidence is perfectly clear all one has to do is turn to the amnesty international year book for two thousand and eight and amnesty writes a cease fire agreed in june between israel and palestinian armed groups in gaza it held for four and a half months but it broke down after forces killed six palestinian militants in airstrikes and other attacks and for november the ceasefire was holding even though israel its obligations and then israel patiently waited until the election day in the united states the historic election where the media and the public were riveted to the results and on that day israel invaded gaza killed six palestinian militants knowing full well that at that point the cease fire would break down which is what happened but you know those islamicists those fanatics and mouna takes in cowards you can never predict what they'll do next and so what is the must do i must kept saying until the end of december we're willing to renew the cease fire we're ready to renew the ceasefire but israel has to live up to its obligation to hass to lift the blockade the blockade which is a flagrant violation of international law israel said no hamas had to unconditionally and unilaterally cease its rocket attacks in israel by december the breakdown of an entire society is happening in front of us it's happening in front of us in gaza but there is little international response beyond  warnings which already nori and now the people of gaza hamas was confronted with two stark options one could acquiesce succumb to its gradual starvation or the second option was to resist hamas chose to r although the resistance was largely symbolic the former israeli commander in gaza his name is schmoes circa the former israeli commander in gaza he said speaking to the israelis you cannot just land billows leave the palestinians in gaza and the economic distress they're in and expected hamas would just sit cry of protest to the world our modest homemade rockets are our cry of protest to the world what were those rocket attacks if not a message to an indifferent world less we're dying s o s we're dying it's easy enough to condemn hamas for the rocket attacks but then in my opinion you have to show what was there other option if you can't show demonstrate that they had another option but you're telling them to not fire their rockets you're in effect saying that the people of gaza have a legal and moral obligation to just lie still and die in any event and december twenty seventh two thousand and eight israel invaded gaza and twenty two days later the attack or the formal attack and did what happened in gaza during those twenty two days nowadays when you read reports on what happened in gaza even by sympathetic sources a recent that came out by human rights watch a report that there was just reading on the plane over from what's called the international crisis group they all refer uniform with hamas terrorists and then they say well yes mate i might have been death and destruction but we all know that in the course of war a lot of things terrible things happen it's just the nature of war that you have to make split second decisions that there is confusion in the battlefield what they call the technical term they refer to it as the fog of war everything is a little bit misty so you don't know quite what's going on so cold an asymmetrical war call it the fog of war call that as i said earlier the gaza war they all start from the assumption the premise that there was a war but was there a war in gaza after those twenty two days israelis are very proud of themselves they went around saying we've now shown the arabs who's who and what's what because in july august two thousand and six they suffered a major defeat in lebanon and after that defeat they began to worry that what they call their deterrence capacity was diminished the terrence capacity is one of those fancy technical terms the political scientists invent in order to make you believe that they know something that you don't and most of the time they don't all it means is the arab world's fear of israel that's the deterrence capacity and the head of hezbollah and he's big he's given to give given to speechifying and he was giving all these speeches news going around saying the arabs are no longer afraid of israel they want the round boasting well now we have shown the arabs that we're still a fighting force we have erased the memory of the lebanon war because we won the warrin gaza we won the war in gaza but along came in israel the strategic analyst and he wrote it is very dangerous for israel to believe that one the war when there was no war in reality not a single battle was fought during the twenty two days  former israeli foreign ministry official he said there was no war hamas sat in its bunkers and came out when it was all over so what did happen in gaza i know this a few people with perplexed looks in their eyes in the audience what did happen in g we have a fairly clear picture of what happened on the so called battlefield israel began the attack with the air assault on gaza and by the end of the twenty two days they had launched three thousand combat missions over gaza every plane returned none was downed none was even harm damage that's not too surprising because the post indians had no anti aircraft weapons to speak of after the first week israel launched what are called its ground an air assault the israeli soldiers were equipped with special night fighting equipment hamas couldn't even see them let alone fight them so what happened in gaza in fact we have a pretty good picture because after those twenty two days many israel the soldiers publicly testify to their experience in gaza here's what they have to say soldier there was nothing there ghost towns except for some livestock nothing moved soldier most of the time it was boring there were really not too many events soldier i did not see one single arab the whole time we were there the whole week soldier everyone was disappointed about not engaging anyone soldier usually we did not see a living soul except for our soldiers of course not the so so go ahead ask the other soldiers how often they encountered combatants in gaza nothing no one soldier there were supposed to be a tiny resistance force upon entry but there just wasn't any although they were interview separately soldier after soldier says israel used insane amounts of firepower in gaza israel use insane amounts of firepower in gaza israel used insane amounts of firepower in gaza no battles no enemy in the field no tangling with the fall with israel's using insane amounts of firepower in gaza one soldier after another is one soldier said this was fire power such as i had never known there were blasts all the time the earth was constantly shaking another soldier said i'm the ground you hear these funder wrist blasts all day long the israelis commandeered palestinian homes in gaza were firing into the horizon but the ground underneath them was shaking it was shaking so much they were told to leave  houses they had commandeered for fear the houses would collapse on them so what did happen in gaza actually israeli soldiers came up with the most telling metaphors one soldiers said it felt like hunting season had begun sometimes it reminded me of a play station computer game another soldier said you felt like a child playing around with a magnifying glass burning up ants you felt like a child with a magnifying glass burning up ants i was a kid once i had my magnifying glass i'm not very proud of it focused the rays of the sun turn the ends into crispy critters but i was not so delusional i don't think as to believe i was engaged in the war with the ends in fact in fact the metaphor a child with a magnifying glass burning up ends was remarkably accurate among hundred degrees fahrenheit eight hundred sixteen degrees centigrade fifteen hundred degrees fahrenheit as oprah would say try wrapp your mind around that so what it is real do with the white phosphorus human rights watch the respected human rights organization put out a report after the the rain of fire and it said and now i'm quoting it israel repeatedly exploded white phosphorus munitions in the air over populated areas killing injuring civilians and damaging civilian structures israel dropped the white phosphorus in the school drop the white phosphorus on the market dropped the white phosphorus on the humanitarian aid the warehouse it dropped the white phosphorus on to hospitals it's dropped white phosphorus and hospital and hospital human rights watch wrote that the hospitals were clearly marked and there does not appear to have been fighting in that immediate area by the end of those twenty two days fourteen hundred power stints had been killed of whom up to four fifths were civilians about three hundred fifty eight were children thirteen israelis were killed the from ten were combatants and half of the combatants were killed due to what's called friendly fire naming israelis soldiers accidently killed other israeli soldiers so for every israeli killed one hundred palestinians were killed for every israeli civilian killed about four hundred palestinian civilians were killed that's plainly not a war that's a massacre every time anyone in this room uses the word war to refer back to what happened you become a winningly or on with a willingly intentionally or not you become an instrument of israeli propaganda there was no war in gaza there was a massacre