Better than the Grammy's

Last week, Jeff and I happened upon the Grammy awards on television. It wasn't more than 5 minutes into the program that an overwhelming feeling of embarrassment came over me. I was embarrassed that I was watching such nonsense, and embarrassed for the people on stage trying to be musicians. We were determined to stick it out, though, because we knew that Radiohead would be performing. Since they are the best band of my generation, I knew they'd make us wait until the end to see them.
So, we hit the mute button and hit YouTube looking for something that Jeff heard about earlier that day while listening to POTUS. In 2006, the Democracy Now radio program hosted a debate between DePaul Political Science Professor Norman Finkelstein and Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz about the state of Israel. Now, being a small town girl from Ohio, I'm not schooled on the history or even current conditions of Israel. I know enough to get me by in a amateur cocktail party conversation, but I don't know enough to have a fully developed opinion on the situation. The minute Finkelstein opened his mouth, however, I was hooked. If you're in the mood to watch a couple of Jewish guys throw down on public radio, then look no further. While toward the end they get more into policy debates, most of it is Finkelstein attacking Dershowitz's scholarly integrity and outright accusing him of fraud and plagiarism and Dershowitz desperately trying to appear to laugh off Finkelstein and defend himself.

Here's a little background information:

Finkelstein: Son of 2 Holocaust survivors of whom most of extended family members were murdered in WWII concentration camps. Political Science professor at DePaul University until 2007 when he resigned after an uproarious controversy of the University denying him tenure which many argued was due to his negative stance on Israel. Authored The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering for which he received the label of the Anti-Semite Jew.

Dershowitz: Lawyer (adviser for the defense in the OJ Simpson murder trial). Professor at Havard Law. Generally supports current Israeli policy. Authored several books about Israeli policy.

The fun starts about 10 minutes in to Part I.

PART I:


PART II:


I'd be interested in your opinions, comments if you have any.