Lawyer and amateur historian Alan Dershowitz is clearly a scared man. The trajectory of his rhetoric is directly related to the misbehaviour of Israel. In other words, whenever Israel commits even greater crimes in the occupied territories, Dershowtiz can be relied upon to increase his hatred towards anybody who dares challenge the Jewish state’s actions.
The recent Holocaust conference in Iran is a case in point. While rightly chastising the presence of fundamentalist Jews, the Neturei Karta, he goes on:
By this time, everyone knows that Jews for Jesus are not really Jews. They are Christians using the cover of their Jewish origin to fool people into coming to their proselytizing services. But many people still think that the seven bearded enemies of Israel – members of an extreme cult called Neturei Karta – who accepted an invitation from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to come to Iran’s Holocaust denial festival, are also real Jews.
Still others believe that supporters of Hizbullah and Holocaust minimizers like Norman Finkelstein – who uses his Jewish birth to cover for his anti-Semitism – are real Jews. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I now propose a new vocabulary for describing these imposters. From now on, the Neturei Karta should be known as Jews for Ahmadinejad, and Norman Finkelstein and his ilk should be known now as Jews for Hizbullah”¦
Noam Chomsky probably deserves a category all his own. In light of his having written an introduction to a book by Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson – who also spoke at the Iranian hate-fest – Chomsky should now be known as a Jew for Holocaust Deniers. Chomsky has claimed that he was only defending Faurisson’s freedom of speech, but that defense rings hollow.
In the first place, Chomsky is not remotely a civil libertarian. Civil libertarians defend everyone’s freedom of speech and conscience, whether they agree with the content of that speech or not. Chomsky, on the other hand, defends only those with whom he agrees”¦
Finkelstein’s wholehearted hatred of Jews and support for Hizbullah is well documented and easily accessible. He is a denouncer of all Holocaust victims -calling survivors “frauds” and “hucksters” – while appropriating Nazi language himself when he characterizes American Jews as “parasites.” He wears his vileness on his sleeve. For a quick overview of his positions, please see a chapter of my book The Case for Peace.
Just like consumers of food and tobacco products must be warned by labels, so too, consumers of propaganda should be warned by appropriate labeling. And just as a person can renounce his citizenship by deed or word, so too can a person renounce his ethnicity in the same manner. I hope my labeling of anti-Semites of Jewish heritage will put to rest any misconceptions that these fringe hate-mongers are representative of or speak for anyone but themselves.
Dershowitz’s position would be humorous if it wasn’t so tragic. In his worldview, only good, loyal, pro-Israeli Jews are worthy. Anybody else is self-hating and dangerous. He knows, and many Zionists know, that world public opinion is turning against Israel. So what to do? Shoot the messenger. When my book, My Israel Question, was released, I was also accused of being part of a pro-Hizbollah cheer-squad by the local Zionist clown, Ted Lapkin. Even the Murdoch broadsheet editorialised that such name-calling was counter-productive. Dershowitz and Lapkin have clearly been media trained by the same IDF spokesperson.
As long as the illegal occupation remains, Zionism will remain mired in sin (not that ending the occupation will cleanse the ideology.)