Chomsky and Dershowitz

(by Howard Friel)

Hysterical (yet deeply researched and readable) tract, designed to prove that Chomsky is Yahweh and Dershowitz is Satan. The author is obsessed with extrapolating individual examples of injustice (of which there are many) and rendering them into a damning case against Israel, without apparently considering the existential threat invoking these crimes and misdemeanors.

[Peter notes: recently I received a comment from somebody called Hans, who said: “Obviously you’re a shill for the Israeli worldview.”  I mulled this one over, considered my usual response of either offering a grovelling apology or expression of gratitude for being noticed, but I find neither apposite in this case, nor can I let this one go:

1. A ‘shill’ is a fraudster or confidence trickster.  I’m trying to review a book as best I can, pro bono publico;
2. I re-read my comment and find it difficult to divine a preference for the Israeli position (unless you are to be tagged a pro-Israeli propagandist if you don’t side with Hamas);
3. My suggestion was based on a skepticism of ‘black-and-white’ positions where Palestine is concerned, which, I suggest, is that taken in the work under review;
4. I will need Hans to explain what he means, precisely, by the “Israeli worldview”.  I hope he is not referring to the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, because I doubt there is any monolithic Israeli position;
5. If Hans can inform me of his position vis-à-vis Chomsky and Dershowitz, I will be pleased to be instructed; (and for completeness) –
6. No, despite my dodgy surname, I am not Jewish; I have not visited Israel, on my own or as a guest of B’nai B’rith or anyone else.

…and a Mr Campbell has recently added: “Those Gazan children throwing rocks at the Israeli tanks invading land that the UN says belongs to Palestine …are a real existential threat to Israel. In a pig’s eye.”  Talk about an unscrupulous argument!]