Israel, Hamas, and moral idiocy (by Alan Dershowitz)

[oberliner]

Cambridge, Mass. - Israel's decision to take military action against Hamas rocket attacks targeting its civilian population has been long in coming. I vividly recall a visit my wife and I took to the Israeli city of Sderot on March 20 of this year. Over the past four years, Palestinian terrorists – in particular, Hamas and Islamic Jihad – have fired more than 2,000 rockets at this civilian area, which is home to mostly poor and working-class people.

The rockets are designed exclusively to maximize civilian deaths, and some have barely missed schoolyards, kindergartens, hospitals, and school buses. But others hit their targets, killing more than a dozen civilians since 2001, including in February 2008 a father of four who had been studying at the local university. These anticivilian rockets have also injured and traumatized countless children.

The residents of Sderot were demanding that their nation take action to protect them. But Israel's postoccupation military options were limited, since Hamas deliberately fires its deadly rockets from densely populated urban areas, and the Israeli army has a strict policy of trying to avoid civilian casualties.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/1231/p09s02-coop.html

[Better Believe It]

1. Dershowitz .... Another racist apologist for right-wing regimes

[azurnoir]

6. You forgot famed

defender of rich wife killers

[IndianaGreen]

12. And advocate of torture!

Let's not forget how Dershowitz defended torture and the abuses at Abu Graib.

[Crunchy Frog]

24. And of kidnappers.

[oberliner]

26. Racist in what sense? nt

[Idealism]

2. "Densely populated urban areas"

You mean what little part of the land Palestinians still control? You mean the tiny spit of land that Israel has walled and blockaded them into?

[lostnotforgotten]

3. Let's See The Recent Reports Place The Gazan Casualties At 400 Compared to A Dozen Or So Israelis

Might there just be an imbalance here?

[EFerrari]

8. That's only fatalities. There are about 1500 people wounded. n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. There is in the percentage of civilians

100% vs 25-30%

[Wetzelbill]

4. They're designed to "maximize" civilian deaths? and he states

that in the last 8 years they've killed more than a dozen civilians. About 12 deaths in 8 freaking years? I don't really sympathize with the idea that Hamas is firing these rockets off, but he made one of the stupidest arguments of a point I have ever seen in my life. I think more people have died in my apartment complex in the last 6 years - the time I've lived here- than that.

[rateyes]

5. It's sad to say, but Dershowitz probably equates 1 Israeli life to

be worth more than the whole Palestinian population.

[IndianaGreen]

13. They are a bunch of racists, the whole lot of them!

Dershowitz defended rendition, torture, and the abuses at Abu Graib.

[scarletwoman]

7. Alan -- torture apologist -- Dershowitz? Yeah, there's a voice of moral authority, all right.

Bolstering an argument using Dershowitz is an automatic FAIL. You may as well start quoting Donald Rumsfeld.

sw

[delad]

9. ain't that the truth n/t

[bemildred]

11. Alan has no sense of irony, I take it. nt

[The Magistrate]

14. Apparently Not, Sir: It is a Handicap For a Lawyer....

[bemildred]

15. Indeed, I was thinking that myself, or a politician

Makes one long for a social organism smarter than an amoeba.

[The Magistrate]

16. Phylum Porifera, My Friend, Holds Out Hope For Us All....

[madeline_con]

17. Dershowitz on moral idiocy. Funny. n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

25. It's appropriate. It really is his area of expertise. n/t

[DogPoundPup]

18. This thread really should be locked...the article is dated 12-31-08 same as one I posted

and was locked due to the fact it wasn't 'recent' according to the posting rules in I/P

[IndianaGreen]

19. but Alan Dershowitz is pro-Israel

and your thread threw cold water on Israel's claims that she is as spotless as a white lamb, don't you know.

Just look at our brave Democrats in Congress, all of them (with the exception of Dennis Kucinich) in total lockstep with the Israel Lobby. No wonder we are all screwed up!

[DogPoundPup]

20. Exactly and with the financial meltdown here, I fear 'we' will all be

Gazans before it is all over.

[Lithos]

21. Yours was locked not from the date

But because it was neither an op-ed or a news article. Rather it was a transcript to a bunch of talking heads.

Lithos
DU Moderator

[DogPoundPup]

22. It was a transcript of CNN

Talking heads or not...

"We've checked in other periodicals. Johnny (ph), go over my shoulder, if you can. Here we go. "The six-month ceasefire started coming apart at the beginning of November after Israeli commandos killed a team of Hamas fighters during a raid on a tunnel they suspected was being dug for kidnapping of Israeli soldiers. That raid set off more Palestinian rocketing." That's "U.S. News and World Report."

[Lithos]

23. Couple of points

First, it is a bogus and inflammatory line of reasoning. Even Hamas itself did not cite this as the reason it ended the cease-fire on Dec. 24th.

Second, the order of events as quoted is incorrect which is why the rule exists for op-ed or news articles which generally involve better fact checking. The correct sequence was that a tunnel was discovered from Gaza leading towards Israel in contravention to the cease fire, the IDF sent a team in to destroy it, Hamas attacked this team. The IAF in turn launched a strike against this Hamas team. Even Hamas has agreed to this sequence of events.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians-egypt

Even so, the first violation of the truce was back on June 24th about a week after the initial truce.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/24/gaza.truce/

Third, if you have an issue, then you are not to call them out publicly, but raise them up either via PM or to DU Administration.

Lithos
DU Moderator