I never heard of Norman Finkelstein before this past weekend. Finkelstein is an American Jew who is, from what I heard, implacably opposed to most of current Israeli policies and practices with regards to its dealings with the Palestinians.
I don't really care about Finkelstein or his views. What annoys me is the treatment he received on Newstalk 106 this weekend on the Wide Angle. First of all, Finkelstein may be a s**t-stirrer (actually, I suspect he's a lot worse) in the US, but over here he's preaching to the converted with his "It's all Israel's fault" line. That's bad enough, but then gets the softest of interviews from Coleman. Good God. She proved she could be a more fearsome interviewer when she had Cliff May on a few weeks ago, but with Finkelstein she did nothing other than support his views.
And, on top of all that, she did a great job of plugging his book, which, based on her description of how it's doing in the US, must be out-selling the entire Harry Potter series. I can just imagine how she'd treat Alan Dershowitz if he was a guest on her show.
