Dershowitz explains why indicting Netanyahu over petty issues is bad for democracy
5 Comments Published by Avi Green on Wednesday, February 27, 2019 at 11:09 AM.
Veteran lawyer Alan Dershowitz came to Netanyahu's defense:
Dershowitz is doing the right thing to call on the attorney general to call off whatever he might have in mind. It would do no good to proceed with trumped-up charges over petty matters.
A decision to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges in Case 2,000 would "endanger democracy and freedom of the press," Professor Alan Dershowitz wrote in an open letter to Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit on Tuesday.And the very paper reporting this certainly isn't accusing Netanyahu of doing that, proving he never did what he was accused of, which is practically hilarious.
Dershowitz, one of the most prominent Jewish lawyers in the United States and in the world, posted the letter on his Twitter page.
"Such charges would open up a Pandora's box out of which would flow a parade of horribles: Every government official – legislators, judges, prosecutors, police offices, administrators – who sought positive coverage in the media, and then did anything that helped the media, would have to be investigated," Dershowitz wrote.
In Case 2,000, Netanyahu allegedly supported a law that would curtail Israel Hayom to gain fairer coverage from its competitor Yedioth Ahronoth in a deal struck with its publisher Arnon "Noni" Mozes. Netanyahu ultimately voted against the law, leaving prosecutors to deal with possible motives but no real evidence.
Dershowitz is doing the right thing to call on the attorney general to call off whatever he might have in mind. It would do no good to proceed with trumped-up charges over petty matters.
Labels: Israel, Knesset, Moonbattery, political corruption
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz
grew up Orthodox but later became secular.
He said this about Orthodox Judaism,
many years after he quit it:
“I cannot leave my progeny any legacy
comparable to the Orthodox commitment to,
and intimate knowledge of, Jewish tradition
and practice that my predecessors left me.
Though I have not abandoned my Jewishness
– far from it – I have also not carried on
the tradition of daily religious observance
and total immersion in the sources of the
tradition. Sometimes I regret not having done so.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(introduction chapter, page 12) published in 1991
by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
===================================
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“It is true that the American legal system
derives much of its content from the Old Testament
[also known as the Jewish Bible or Tanach]…
When we were growing up, my friends and
I would take great pride in discovering
the Jewish sources of American laws, such as:
the privilege against self-incrimination,
the requirement of two witnesses for
certain types of crime, and the very idea
that punishment must be proportionate
to the crime committed.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 10, page 318) published in year 1991
by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“Why is Israel singled out for super-scrutiny
and double-standard criticism, expected
to maintain a level of moral behavior
not demanded of anyone else?”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(introduction chapter, page 4) published in year 1991
by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 * ISBN: 0316181374
===================================
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“We need a new term to describe this phenomenon,
this double-standard, this super-scrutiny of
things Jewish, this singling out of Israel.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 4, page 121) published in year 1991
by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 * ISBN: 0316181374
===================================
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“There is yet a third strain of the current
virus of anti-Semitism, this one even more
difficult to diagnose.
Its danger lies in its subtlety, its pervasiveness,
and its acceptability at all levels of our society.
This is a phenomenon familiar to all of us,
yet difficult to articulate and expose:
the singling out of Jewish institutions
and especially Israel for special scrutiny,
and the application of a double-standard
to Jewish things and persons.
This phenomenon, which currently has no
accepted name, assumes a variety of forms,
but its most obvious manifestation is
the special and often gloating attention
paid by the media, [and] by intellectuals,
and by the government to any deviation
by Israel, no matter how trivial,
from the highest norms of humans rights,
civility, and sacrifice.
Though Israel may be deserving of criticism,
what is missing is the comparable criticism
of equal or greater violations by other
countries and other groups. This constant,
often legitimate criticism of Israel for
every one of it deviations, when coupled
with the absence of legitimate criticism
of others, creates the impression currently
prevalent on university campuses and
in the press that Israel is among
the worst rights violators in the world.
We have all heard that phrase repeated
many times. It is not true, but if
it is repeated often enough,
it takes on a reality of its own.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 4, page 119) published year 1991
by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 * ISBN: 0316181374
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“When Jews complain about anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism,
they are often made to feel that they are oversensitive.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 3, page 83) published in year 1991
by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
===================================
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“But more always seems to be demanded of
the Jewish nation and of the Jewish people
than of others. Jews, unlike other groups,
are expected to be in the forefront of
defending the rights of their sworn enemies.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 5, page 170) published in year 1991
by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
===================================
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“I refuse to bend over backward to single out
Israel – or other things Jewish – for super-scrutiny.
I refuse to gloat, as so many in academia and
the media seem to, over Israel’s shortcomings.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 7, page 211) published in year 1991
by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
===================================
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“Critics of Israel who generally take no interest
in human rights or civil liberties...
have some explaining to do as to why they
single out Israel for special condemnation.
The same, of course, is true of nations
with abominable records on human rights,
who lecture and hector Israel on its
lack of perfection in those areas.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 7, page 212) published in year 1991
by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
===================================
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“It is virtually impossible to get the
United Nations to condemn any Arab terrorist
group or state for any attack on Israel
or Jewish institutions.
Yet there is an eagerness to condemn Israel,
whether Israel is right or wrong.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 7, page 225) published in year 1991
by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
===================================
Harvard Law Professor Alan M. Dershowitz said:
“The world may have to deal with terrorists
in order to save lives.
But the moral scandal is that in addition
to simply dealing with these terrorists,
much of the world has HONORED them.
The standing ovation accorded to Yassir Arafat
– the architect of international terrorism –
by many UN [United Nations] representatives
in Geneva in 1988 will live in infamy.
The willingness of world statesmen –
including the pope and other moral leaders
– to treat Arafat as a person deserving
of tribute is beyond moral comprehension.”
SOURCE: Chutzpah by Alan M. Dershowitz
(chapter 7, page 220) published in year 1991
by Little Brown & Co ISBN: 9780316181372 ISBN: 0316181374
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