The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Case for Israel
Book Review: Plagiarism by Another Name
Summary: 1 Stars
Dershowitz copies wholesale and verbatim from the universally discredited hoax by Joan Peters (product link intentionally omitted). Prof. Norman G. Finkelstein has taken this book apart in Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History.
Dershowitz et al. have mounted any number of ad hominem attacks on Prof. Finkelstein (trotting out the by now usual phrases "self-hating Jew", "Holocaust Minimizer" etc. etc.) but nothing that attacks the substance of Prof. Finkelstein's analysis.
Dershowitz nowhere cites Peters while borrowing wholesale from her hoax. Instead as Finkelstein points out, he cites and mis-cites exactly as Peters does the supposed original sources, right down to misplaced ellipses. Dershowitz claims that thats all right, because he consulted the "original sources", and while this is contrary to accepted norms of scholarly writing, manages to misquote and misconstrue the Chicago Manual of Style to try to support his view.
Dershowitz's claim to have consulted the original sources appears false. In one egregious instance pointed out by Finkelstein, Dershowitz copies verbatim a mis-quote from Peters that runs together two separate paragraphs of Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad: in the original the two paragraphs are separated by 80+pages.
Dershowitz isn't even clear on his primary source, the Peters hoax. He mis-attributes Peters clunky neologism "turnspeak" to Orwell! Called on this, he later mis-attributed it to Aldous Huxley. One shouldn't make any assumptions about the erudition of Harvard Law professors, it seems.
For why this hoax continues to be in print. To acknowledge Dershowitz's book as a hoax would have the serious political consequence of also undermining Israeli/Zionist mythology (perpetrated in print in America by, for example, Leon Uris, Peters, and now Dershowitz).
For much more detailed analysis of this hoax and why hoaxes such as this are allowed to be published, with encomiums on the book jacket even, see The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering, New Edition.
For an accurate, albeit less flattering view of Israel and its policies and human-rights record in the Occupied Territories, see Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, New and Revised Edition.
(Comments: keep them to yourself! Or write your own review. This is MY review. Abusive comments will be reported.)
Book Review: Razor sharp rebuttal of allegations against the State
Summary: 4 Stars
Dershowitz's writing is refreshingly clear, concise and like a logical scalpel. He is not an uncritical supporter, and I can't agree with some of his foundational assumptions, but his book is heartily recommended.
He cites verbatim the allegations of his opponents - on Israel's 'racism', its 'unlawful' attitude to Palestinians, its 'persistent occupation of conquered territory' - then addresses them with references, dates, places and names.
Bristling with facts often not encountered before - the intimate affinity between WW2 Palestinian chief Mufti Hajj Al Amin and the Nazi high command, the massive differences between UNHCR and UNRWA, the fate of the 100,000s of Jewish refugees from Arab countries - it's a pacy, sharp and definitive response to the tidal wave of anti-Zionism which is rapidly mutating into another species of anti-Semitism.
If only those who opposed Israel showed a quarter of the respect for Dershowitz does for detail and documenatation, their case would be stronger (although I suspect they would have to abandon too many cherished prejudices to do it).
Book Review: Read Finkelstein's "Beyond Chutzpah" also
Summary: 2 Stars
This is a well-written though highly debated text.
It is very educational to read this text along side Norman Finkelstein's book "Beyond Chutzpah".
Though Finkelstein is acutely demonized by Dershowitz, have a look for yourself and see who deserves that treatment.
I heard a great quote about lawyers once:
"The practice of law is take reality and describe it with words. Then lawyers argue about the words."
The reality of this issue grave. The justification for a created-by-declaration nation in 1948 that displaced a lot of people who now live in tents. ..and it's still not sorted out.
Since the US sends $5B in aid to Israel every year and provides full military support, it behooves US citizens to understand this issue very well. Please read Finkelstein.
Why two stars? The book is well written.
Book Review: Read Norman Finkelstein for A TRUTHFUL account of the conflict
Summary: 1 Stars
Gross misrepresentations and falsehoods. Read this then read the REAL scholars. You will see the difference immediately.
If you don't, you probably never will.
Book Review: Read beyond chutzpah as a follow up to this book
Summary: 1 Stars
When you first read this book a lot of the claims made seems convincing, but if you read another side of the argument his argument begins to fall apart. First his heavy reliance of Joan Peters "From Time Immemorial" speaks volumes about the sources he uses. Joan Peters book has been regarded by most serious scholars as a hoax. It was initially reviewed well but after some time (specifically after the doctoral thesis of NOrman Finkelstein) The book was denounced as nothing more than a threadbare hoax. But dershowitz regards Peters book as the rule of law.
Secondly Dershowitz claim that during the 1948 war most refugees left at the exhortations of Arab leaders is simply false. For example he quotes BEnny Morris extensively during this chapter, but Benny Morris was actually one of the New Historians and the central thesis of his book runs counter to dershowitz's claims. Specifically the New HIstorians came out to refute what dershowitz actually said. Read The ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe (a fellow new historian) to find out what really happened during the 1948 war. Third Dershowitz claims that Israel has never been accused of war crime by human rights organizations, but infact they have been accused of that many times. If you read beyond Chutzpah it reveals all of the war crimes committed by Israel. Even Btselem the Israeli human rights group is highly critical of Israels record. BUt according to dershowiz he believes that those reports aren't true. COuld n't he have stated that they are accused of war crimes then proceed to say why he believes all these mainstream human rights organizations are false, instead of simply denying it altogether without giving the reader an informed view. Another point related to this is that he says more noncombatants have been killed on the israeli side since 2000 but when you check the ststistics this turns out to be false. He responds to this by stating that these humans rights organizations should redefine the concept of civilianality. I think that is being extremely disingenuous to distort the records and then claim that the statistics dont fit your definition of a war crime. One should report all these war crimes and the number of noncombatants killed by humans rights organizations and then if you dispute them go on to say why. Frankly i dont know how he can dispute the allegations of a consensus of humans rights groups and claim they are false, and in his book act as if these groups never existed. So these concerns raise questions about dershowitz's ability to produce a non biased piece of work on such a contentious issue.
Update: Ok, there still seem to be some people that this book is worth reading. First thing i'd like to add is that Dershowitz essentially subscribes to the Peter's thesis that Palestine was essentially an empty land with a decreasing population. The fact is that Peter's thesis is thoroughly discredited absolutely no one even cites the book not even scholarly pro israeli works. See Professor Peroth's review called Mrs. Peter's Palestine in the NYRB to find out why. Unlike Peters Professor Peroth is a leading expert on the Palestinian National movement. Second really important issue i would like to point out is that Dershowitz absolutely misrepresents the refugee problem especially Israel's role in it. The statistic he uses to say that 68 percent of palestinians left without seeing a soldier, the poll was taken by the institute of Palestinian studies. This would seem to be a crucial piece of evidence he adduces to support his case about the 1948 exodus. But the poll was about the 1967 exodus and not the 1948 exodus. Another example is that he says Deir Yassin was an abberation and it was the only Jewish atrocity that took place. Well Benny Morris explicitly states in the Birth and Righteous victims and maybe also in the book 1948 that the Zionist forces committed far more atrocities than the arab side. That was one of the core findings of his research. Another example is worth noting is the example of Jaffa. Dershowitz says the residents left and Ben Gurion was surprised and commented why the inhabitants left. He cited Morris for this assertion but unfortunately for him MOrris paints a different picture. The Irgun militia basically let loose on the town turning hotels into hosptitals with their indiscriminate Mortar fire. This is what Morris wrote
" [T]he objectives of the mortar barrage, which went on without respite for three days, with nine tons of explosives being delivered on day two of the attack, were clear, as described by IZL OC operations, Amihai Paglin, in his pre-battle briefing to his troops: "To prevent constant military traffic..., to break the spirit of the enemy troops, [and] to cause chaos among the civilian population in order to create a mass flight."
Then Morris introduces Ben Gurions surprise to the as clearly ironic but dershowitz skips over the paragraph i just quoted and mentions Ben Gurion's surprise as if Morris agrees with him. I could go on and on but i think these examples should suffice.