The Case for Israel
by Alan Dershowitz

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Book Reviews of The Case for Israel

Book Review: "The Case For Israel" doesn't make good on its promise
Summary: 2 Stars

The first problem, found in throughout the parts I've read, is the fact
that Dershowitz doesn't mention, let alone respond to, his opposition's
arguments. He presents the opposition's claim in the form of a quote from
a critic of Israel, taken out of context, and responds to it without
considering any argument that the author of the quote might have used to
back up the claim.

For example, take the charge that Israel is a colonial state. The charge
is addressed in a couple of chapters, those titled "Is Israel a Colonial,
Imperialist State?" (Chapter 1), and "Was the Zionist Movement a Plot to
Colonize All of Palestine?" (Chapter 3). Now, there's an excellent book by
Edward Said, "The Question of Palestine", which makes the argument that
the Zionist movement was colonial. Another great book, Noam Chomsky's "The
Fateful Triangle", discusses the special relationship between the United
States and Israel in terms that could fairly be called an analysis of
imperialism. Nowhere in these chapters are the arguments of Said or
Chomsky, or anyone else who argues that Israel or Zionism is colonial,
discussed. Dershowitz doesn't mention Theodor Herzl's explicitly
colonialist book Der Judenstaat, considered by Zionists and anti-Zionists
alike to be the founding document of the Zionist movement, and the most
important one. There are several other important individuals,
organizations and historical events that Dershowitz avoids but that anyone
honestly addressing the issue would have to discuss, like Zev
Jabotinsky, the alliances between Zionism/Israel and imperialist powers

like Britain and the United States, and the revealingly named Jewish
Colonization Society. None of these are mentioned, let alone engaged with
in any serious way. Ignoring your interlocutor's key arguments and
concepts is not a good way to move dialogue forward and get closer to the
truth. More pointedly, you can't claim to have refuted a claim without
examining arguments in favor of the claim.

A second kind of problem is Dershowitz's failure, in some cases, to even
dispute the accusation that he's supposedly responding to. Take the
chapter titled "Have the Jews Exploited the Holocaust?" (Chapter 7).
Dershowitz never disputes that Jews have exploited the holocaust. Instead,
he spends the whole chapter writing about Haj Amin al-Husseini's
alliance with the Nazis, and the
historical treatment of Jews in Muslim countries. These are important
issues, but completely
irrelevant to the claim at issue. As with
the chapters discussed in the last paragraph, Dershowitz doesn't mention
the arguments presented in favor of the claim, like those in Norman
Finkelstein's book "The Holocaust Industry".

The last type of problem I'll mention is that in some chapters, Dershowitz
does discuss the accusation by Israel's critics, and concedes that they're
true. Take, for example, the chapter entitled "Did European Jews Displace
Palestinians?" To begin with, Dershowitz ignores (in this chapter)
Israel's mass expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 and 1967, limiting himself
to the period before the 1947-1949 war. But even then, he concedes that
the claim is true, citing Benny Morris: "only 'several thousand'
[Palestinian] families were displaced following land sales to Jews between
the 1880s and the late 1930s". This figure apparently refers to
displacements from territory which, Dershowitz reports, had between
100,000 and 150,000 inhabitants in 1880, when the displacement started.
So not only did the displacement happen, but it affected a sizeable fraction
of the Palestinian population. The "myth" that is supposedly refuted is in
fact confirmed.

Conclusion:

I've presented here three sorts of problems that undermine "The Case for
Israel": the author's refusal to consider arguments contrary to his
viewpoint, his failure in some cases to address the criticisms that he's
supposed to be addressing, and his concession in some cases that the
accusations are true. The examples that I've mentioned are a small sample
of the many serious problems with the book. In the end, its certainly
false that Dershowitz "conclusively refutes thirty-two separate slurs,
slanders and misrepresentations that have been hurled at Israel". Nor will
the book persuade thoughtful people to support Israel.

At various points in the book, Dershowitz derides and dismisses
individuals far more thoughtful than himself, especially Edward Said and
Noam Chomsky. I advise readers and would-be readers of "The Case for
Israel" to look at the excellent writings of these two authors, who in the
end make a far stronger case for Jewish rights and autonomy than
Dershowitz does.

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