Dershowitz Exposed Yet Again: The Critique of Pure Cant

[RPG-7]

Dershowitz's central allegation is that I falsified evidence against Wiesel in my book, The Holocaust Industry (Verso: 2000; expanded second edition 2003). In his memoir Wiesel had written that "I read The Critique of Pure Reason - don't laugh! - in Yiddish." I suggested that this was most improbable since The Critique of Pure Reason was never translated into Yiddish (p. 82). Rather, as I subsequently pointed out in a Salon interview (see this website under "The Holocaust Industry"), the only selection by Kant translated into Yiddish was a chapter on ethics from The Critique of Practical Reason. Pretending to be a Kant aficionado, Wiesel once recalled that: "As a boy, when I went out with a girl, I would talk to her about Kant and generally never see her again" (quoted in Against Silence: The Voice and Vision of Elie Wiesel, selected and edited by Irving Abrahamson , vol. iii, p. 278). For an avowed Kant expert to confuse reading one chapter of The Critique of Practical Reason with the whole of The Critique of Pure Reason is akin to an avowed Tolstoy expert who confuses reading one chapter of Anna Karenina with the whole of War and Peace. Although Wiesel would later claim to possess the "title page" of The Critique of Pure Reason in Yiddish (Daily Telegraph, July 31, 2000), the translation was nowhere to be found among all the major collections of Yiddish writings I consulted in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Israel. Now, along comes Alan Dershowitz informing readers and audiences everywhere that, lo and behold, it's right there in Harvard Library. For example, he wrote this in the Harvard Crimson:

accused Wiesel of lying because Wiesel said that when he was 18 years old "I read The Critique of Pure Reason…in Yiddish." Here is Finkelstein's "gotcha" accusation: "The Critique of Pure Reason was never translated into Yiddish" (The Guardian, July 12, 2000). A fairly unambiguous charge. The only problem is that The Critique of Pure Reason was translated into Yiddish and published in Warsaw in 1929. The Harvard Library has a copy and Wiesel did read it. I have seen no apology from Finkelstein." (October 2, 2003; www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=349122)

Regrettably, the Harvard Crimson barred any reader response. Below I post the title page of the one and only item of Kant in Yiddish (60 pages) in Harvard's collection. The translation reads:


KANT'S ETHIC


from the book Critique of Practical Reason


selected by N. Shaynberg


Publisher: Etik


Warsaw



http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/id148.htm

[bluesoul]

1. The whole Cockburn - Dershowhitz thing

was also VERY interesting. Plagiarism is not unknown to the man...

[Jim Sagle]

2. The Dersh rox and the Fink sux - pass it on.

[Aidoneus]

3. Indeed

That's so much more powerful than well thought-out arguments, backed by facts and pointing out contradictions and sloppy lies..

[meti57b]

4. We have already had in the last few months a lengthy thread on this.......

same thing.

Jim's post is a perfectly reasonable reply.

[bluesoul]

5. No it's

not...

[Aidoneus]

11. on the other hand,

at least that's a step up from "Ariel's da man, doin' the best he can...to make the world a better place."

Will there be complaints when I question his "leftist credentials" after a remark like that?

[GabysPoppy]

12. YES

I will complain. eom

[Aidoneus]

13. so you indirectly admit that the complaint would be kneejerk & baseless

Thanks. Not that I need the help, but that does make things easier on my end.

[Jim Sagle]

14. Yes, I'll complain. But I don't know if it'll do any good.

:shrug:

[papau]

6. I love predictable Norman is - anyone who disagrees w/ him is lying

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/id44.htm

I had an uncle like that.

You'd prove him a liar point by point, and he'd either refuse to discuse, or claim your facts were wrong or biased or from those who disagree with him and therefore can not be trusted.


And of course Norman does this in the new forward!

What a piece of crap.

So why is this posted at DU. There are better Jew hating writers out there with real facts - Folks who profess to be Jews have indeed have done some bad things - and this fellow is laughed at around the world - but will not stop with putting out a new partial truth lie defense of his previous partial truths, even after he promised to stop a few years ago!

:-)

Better a movie review of the Prot. of the Elders of Zion that Russia faked at the turn of the century and which now a series in Arab lands - we all need our daily sigh....

sad......

[bluesoul]

7. Jew hating?

LOL, any Jew you disagree with is a self hating Jew? Oh my...

[papau]

8. Time to review - seeing your own problem in the actions of someone

else is called ....

Come on now - it will be on the final.

[bluesoul]

10. Yeah yeah I've heard those same stories

I guess Chomsky and Avnery are also among them since they'r so critical of Israel's policies? Or there is a difference?

[Aidoneus]

9. the fact that Dershowitz really is lying--*again*--doesn't matter?

[Orangeone]

15. Just the fact

that Dershowitz advocates torture, makes me not respect the man at all. He must be totally lacking in humanity to believe that such tactics would be good for society.

[newyorican]

16. Alan has been serving up...

some real shit sandwiches (with no bread and extra shit) lately.

[Resistance]

17. if you douse it in Miracle Whip

supposedly you can't taste the shit

[tinnypriv]

18. BOOM!

Norm nails him yet again.

Dersh really needs to quit the lying. It's getting quite embarassing.

He might be doing it in order to send Norman off on rather irrelevant tangents though (i.e. not serious issues).

Understandable I guess, when you're a hack.

Doubly understandable when you're a hack sticking with arguments that cannot stand up to even minimal scrutiny (if they're actually his arguments of course, which cannot be automatically assumed).

[Lithos]

19. Locking

Graphics, except maps and charts are not allowed per I/P guidelines.

Lithos
FA/NS Moderator
Democratic Underground