I did not expect a flame/revert war if I got involved with the Finkelstein article in that way.

Yes, well, saying anything about Finkelstein is risky - defend him on something and you risk getting called a racist Islamofascist sympathiser, attack him on something and you risk getting called a racist Likudnik sympathiser. Not a safe topic.

(Independently of wikipedia), Raul Hilberg is indeed a very high historical authority (his two-volume Destruction of the European Jews is probably the major exhaustive account), and he has in fact voiced his agreement with Finkelstein on certain points, in particular the abuse of claims of survivor status by some American Jews (and some of their organizations) to obtain reparations through class action suits (particular case of the Swiss banks). There is no suggestion of Holocaust denial concerning Finkelstein -- if there were, I'd expect Hilberg would take a very different attitude to his work.