By Ted Belman
I recently posted J Street’s hypocrisy must be exposed by Allan Dershowitz. I also posted Lies, Damn Lies, and J Street by Janet Tassel. She tells of the movie The J Street Challenge which Charles Jacob recently helped produce.
This movie is intended to be shown on campuses all across the US. It was introduced last week to an audience of 600 people in Philadelphia. Charles Jacobs and Alan Dershowitz were on the panel to discuss it. One of the people in attendance, who is a Christian, wrote to Jacobs, to complain about Dershowitz’s participation and sent me a co-copy.
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I must add that I was overwhelmed by how unpleasant Mr. Dershowitz was and how easy it was for the audience to bait him…. Thus diverting the program from the topic at hand and addressing his own strong liberal (anti-settlement) agenda and his political bias toward Obama. That was totally inappropriate and did not fit the theme of the evening.
In fact, it seemed he was doing EXACTLY what he was criticizing J Street for doing…. i.e. politicizing Israel and advocating for telling Israel what to do from afar. His personal opinions about whether there should or should not be settlements were totally inappropriate for this event. He was rude, nasty, unprofessional, argumentative, sullen, angry, demonizing the settlement movement and inciting audience members and otherwise obnoxious. Not a good combination of behaviors for a speaker of his stature… I hope he doesn’t do this everywhere he goes! Most important, he diverted attention away from your main topic which everyone came to discuss ….. J Street.
In her letter to me she said:
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I can’t imagine that you do not know that Dershowitz is a rabid anti-settlement advocate, a rabid Obama supporter/ advocate and makes no bones about it in the most obnoxious way possible.
Below is my letter to Charles Jacobs, the exec producer of the film who I met and was also on the panel. Jacobs is OK but I wonder about his selection of Dershowitz as a partner for the panel. I personally would never invite Dershowitz to participate in anything I do… He is an Israel turncoat and in fact in that letter admitted that he subscribed to J Street’s agenda Except, of course “for their lies about this and that”
.I replied:
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I am well aware of this. But, because of this, when Dershowitz says anything in our favour, (e.g. on antisemitism) it carries more weight coming from him.
But should we be presenting him as our spokesperson?
I may be politically naive, to which I readily admit, but my firm conviction as a believer in G-d is that the GOI must have representation
at the highest level that is connected to Jewish Values. Otherwise Israel will be “just like the other nations”, and lose its raison d’etre
for being a Jewish state. The only politician that meets this requirement is Moshe Feiglin.
SHmuel HaLevi 2 Said:
All that need be known about Dershowitz is that he defended murderer O.J. Simpson and that he is a Harvard law professor. ‘Nuff said.
Perhaps it falls to Dershowitz because there seem to be so few other advocates to speak out in defense of Israel, particularly in milieu with a large number of hostile leftists, especially on campuses. The major national Jewish organizations are moribund; Abe Foxman was a tired joke, who finally admitted after almost thirty years of captivity that Jonathan Pollard might have been over-sentenced and remained a hostage because of anti-semitism. I think Dershowitz is a great legal advocate for Jewish interests, almost alone among prominent Jewish lawyers he has championed the Pollard and Rabushkin cases. Perhaps he should concentrate on legal matters and leave the public education to others. By the way, if you think Dershowitz has an insufferable personality, everything I have read suggests that Jonathan Pollard is not someone with whom I would want to spend a lot of time. I have read a great deal about Pollard’s claims and boasts before he got into trouble and I don’t think he would be somebody whom I would like. I believe, however, that he was sentenced by an anti-semitic judge, Aubrey Robinson, based on other things I have heard. What Dershowitz has done to keep attention on the wrongs committed by the judiciary and government against Pollard, in part because he was a Jew, is remarkable. I wish Professor Dershowitz would do more to look into the problem of mistreatment of Jews by federal judges, because I am aware of other suspicious incidents. Just do a westlaw or lexis search of civil rights cases involving Jewish plaintiffs and you’ll see what I mean.
@ Ted Belman:
Well Ted,
I believe you are in their league. I would support you for a State appointment in a true Jewish government.
Israel and I need your help with this:
The Israel Longhorn Project
Texas Longhorn cattle are cattle that fit and thrive in desert environments. This is an educational, cattle-crossbreeding project that is helping Israel, Jordan and East Africa.
We will create a self-sustainable herd in Israel and then begin to help all of them with Texas Longhorn desert genetics and replacement cattle. So help bring these Texas Longhorns home to Israel.
And check out our new website and SHARE IT:
The Israel Longhorn Project, Robin Rosenblatt, ex Israel Soldier and past Anti Terrorist Agent
Director – The Longhorn Project; Nonprofit 501(c) 3 #74-3177354; Tel: 650.631.9270 / 03.722.6108; Address: 815 Hill Street, # 5; Belmont, CA 94002;
How do you allow this? I know it is wrong don’t you?
These are the ranches in Israel we are helping
http://youtu.be/hMF12Ru–yw
@ ArnoldHarris:I am not in their league but thanks.
Add Danny Danon’s name to Bennett’s and Glick’s as cited above.
And maybe Ted Belman’s as well, if he has nothing better to do.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s ministry of diaspora affairs, should be the man to make Israel’s case rather than Dershowitz. Bennett not only is an Israeli. He is also a powerful and influential member of the present government and is one of the strongest supporters of the Jewish communities in annexed East Jerusalem, Shomron and Yehuda, which now number more than 700,000 with a growth rate of 6 percent per year. Either him or Caroline Glick. Or even better, both of them working the same program.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
this is enough to disqualify him as it demonstrates his legal incompetency or negligence in analyzing the legal issues. His conclusions are based on politics and not law; an incompetent fish out of his water.
I prefer Dalia Leitner of Shurat Ha din. she is Israeli, not a US politician and has actually made achievements for Israel in legal pursuits internationally by sticking to the facts as opposed to pursuing a political position. Dershowitz appears as a political dramatist rather than an attorney. As a high profile lawyer can someone remind me of dershowitz’s achivements for Israel legitimacy, jewish legal rights to YS, etc. I get the feeling that dersh gets high fees for speeches.
I would like to see a lawyer develop legal lawfare strategies to sue govs and orgs rather than engage in PR. Lawyers, like the dersh, have no PR expertise.
Shalom Chavarim,
The One-State Solution is only peace solution that is based on reality. It takes the solution out of the hands of America and Obama and puts it back into our hands, where is belongs and it returns our political power. This is extremely important due to our immediate discussions and decisions we need to make.
The Israeli Solution; A One-State Plan For Peace in the Middle East; eBook ISBN 978-0-385-345804-2
ISBN 978-0-385-34806-5
Prof. Dershowittz is poorly educated about Israel and the Middle East.
??There will be no real peace until Islam culture changes!
Islamic Culture is a War, Hate, Violent and Slave Culture.
??Arabs and Palestinians are controlled by it and do not know it! ??
??It is not about land, rights or settlements, water or being politically left or right. If it were it would have been solved long ago. It has not.
?It is Cultural War that means Islamic Culture must destroy Western Culture or Western Culture must destroy Islamic Culture.
??Muslims have been fighting each other and others for 1400 years or more. There is no reason that it will stop now. If we want peace we must change Islamic Culture.
Sure. Much as we can rely on Mr. Obama to do that. Professor Dershowitz is a staunch Obamaite with whom at one time we exchanged lively emails to no avail.
Jews are saturated by those kinds of fair weather supporters. In fact we make our way of life to walk into wastelands of that type.
Thank you but no thank you Mr. Dershowitz.