Earlier this month Norman Finkelstein posted on his website a flyer for an upcoming talk with Noam Chomsky and Anna Belzer which will be held at the New School in Manhattan on October 6th. The subject of the talk is also the subject of Finkelstein's most recent book, namely the state of American Jewish support for Israel.
It occurs to me that this talk will coincide with the first day of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine's NYC sessions, also to be held in Manhattan. Yet I can't seem to find any indication that the New School talk is being held in affiliation with the Russell Tribunal. Since it's doubtful this scheduling is purely a coincidence--after all, both events were put together by and feature people who follow the solidarity movement pretty closely--it's hard to avoid idle speculation as to whether this talk might have been intentionally set up in counter-position to the tribunal, which will almost exclusively feature spokespeople on Palestine who have taken strident positions against the two-state advocacy for which Chomsky and Finkelstein are known. This also unlikely; such petty discursive fractiousness is beneath people like Chomsky and the good people who put together the Russell Tribunal. So if you know something I don't about all this, please leave a comment. If not, I'll just have to wait and see if the organizers get back to me with an explanation.
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