by Peter A. Belmont / 2012-03-06
© 2012 Peter Belmont

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Alan Dershowitz’s latest Torquemada-like fulminations about M.J.Rosenberg [1] led to a wonderful blast from Jerry Haber, “Spinoza and the Heresy Hunter from Harvard.” The whole essay is a must read. Here’s a significant section, reprinted from “The Magnes Zionist” blog by permission.

There is indeed a gap * * * between the real liberal Zionists like M.J. [Rosenberg], Peter Beinart, Naomi Hazan, Larry Derfner, Michael Lerner, Leibel Fein, David Grossman, Amos Oz, as well as the activist groups in Israel like B’Tselem, Rabbis for Human Rights, Breaking the Silence, on the one hand, and the faux liberal Zionists like Dershowitz, Abe Foxman, Benny Morris, Ari Shavit, and all those members of the so-called “disappointed left” in Israel, on the other.

How do you distinguish between the genuine and the fake liberal Zionist? After all, both kinds say that they are for two states, oppose settlements and settlers,

support territorial compromise, etc. It’s very simple: if they publicly criticize Israel’s human rights violations; if they support groups that expose such violations; if they call out Israel’s elected leaders on matters of policy and morality— in short, if they adopt the stance of moral critic because that is deep in their Jewish and mentshlich soul – then they are true liberal Zionists. All the others are deluded into thinking they are.

And no one is more deluded into thinking he is a liberal Zionist than Alan Dershowitz, who never ceases to remind his readers that he opposes the settlements and supports the two-state solution. Sorry, Professor, that is not enough to qualify. You also have to support harsh measures against the state if the settlements continue. You can’t be a liberal Zionist and support Binyamin Netanyahu, the arch-enemy of liberal Zionists.If you care about Israel as Jewish and democratic, to borrow the language of the liberal Zionists, you will – like M. J. and the others – have to fight against those Israeli government policies that are destroying the democratic nature of the state. You will join hands with human right activists, Jewish and Palestinian, who are fighting for justice. You will support, like M.J., Peter Beinart, David Grossman, and Amos Oz, boycotts against the settlers and the settlements. You will support pressure from the Americans and the European states to stop Israel’s slide into a Putin-style democracy,

If, Prof. Dershowitz, you are all about carrots but refuse to use sticks – no, even twigs – in dealings with Israel, then your “liberal Zionism” is humbug and self-delusion that is designed for one thing – to allow you to face yourself in the mirror next time you read of some outrage in Haaretz, and say,

‘Hey, I’m a liberal Zionist. I am against the Occupation.”

The bullying has to stop.

Cases of spontaneous human combustion, though rare, have been documented. At this point no one seems to think rage could be the cause of ignition, but to hear him rant, Alan Dershowitz sounds like he might be at risk of setting himself on fire.

He’s certainly mad as hell — or at least that’s how he’s acting. But for a trial lawyer who so often craves media attention, it’s never really clear whether he’s as hot on the inside as he is on the outside.

Dershowitz doth protest too much, and he’s at it again. The object of his rage this time is the avuncular M.J. Rosenberg.

Rosenberg’s “sin” is that he has used — and despite severe admonishment persists in using — the unconscionable phrase Israel Firster — at least it’s a phrase that’s unconscionable in the eyes of Israel Firsters like Dershowitz.

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