Dershowitz and Summers on Israel
Dershowitz writes for the Harvard Crimson today and hits a
home run. I hadn’t commented on Larry Summer’s speech concerning anti-semitism at Harvard.
It was excellent. Taking Israel to task for its abuses is the right thing to do. I think as a special friend of the United States we should give them special attention when they don’t live up to their ideals, just as we should give ourselves special attention when we don’t live up to our ideals. However, putting those abuses in context is critical. Israel is a democracy that respects humans as individuals. It isn’t perfect, but it is a hell of a lot better than any of its neighbors–even the moderate neighbors such as Jordan. Failure to distinguish between the relative levels of oppression is nothing short of stupid.
Perhaps there is another explanation besides anti-semitism, but it is pretty damn hard to imagine what. Suggesting a university should disinvest from Israel before other countries is absurd and I find Dershowitz’s idea quite good. Invest relative to their human rights record and that is fair. Then see how Arab governments come across in comparison. Arabs and Muslims are good people who are saddled with horrible governments for the most part. Comparing those governments to the Israeli government is absurd though.