An interview with Noam Chomsky on Israeli television

Thanks to the blog War in Context, please find an interview of Noam Chomsky by an Israeli journalist. It was interesting to analyze the interview and notice how the media personality tries to frame Chomsky in a negative manner. An example of this is when the reporter declares that Chomsky makes statements against Israel; when Chomsky emphatically corrects the reporter and says that he makes statements for Israel.

Some of the more compelling portions of the interview are when the reporter brings up the “nuclear issue” and tries to ignore the fact that Israel has nuclear weapons. In this part of the interview, Chomsky makes an excellent point in the interview when he says that if Israel was serious about reducing the threat of nuclear war in the region, than it would agree to a treaty of a nuclear free zone in the Middle East. Instead, as Chomsky declares, Israel is more at risk from its own actions than it is by the actions of an external actor like Iran.

Another interesting portion of the interview is when Mr. Chomsky explains how intellectuals who have been critical of a regime or a government are often labeled as dissidents. People familiar with the bible will enjoy the closing segment of the interview when Chomsky discusses how the Prophet Elijah known as the hater of Israel, or any of the prophets like Jeremiah or Isaiah were seen at the time as a hater of their country, while centuries later they are vindicated as intellectuals.

It is a good opportunity to watch an interview of one of the most important intellectuals living today. For more on how Noam Chomsky relates biblical figures to modern politics, please see this article.