It’s really hard to make of Mr.
Dershowitz’s slam against the Huffington Post. It all began to collapse
in on him when Larisa
Alexandrovna took him to task for his pro-torture fetish.
Welcome to the desert of the real in which a Jewish man can cite Nazis in
defense of torture tactics. I was raised on the Holocaust. I went to a highly
religious school where many of my teachers and guest lecturers were Holocaust
survivors.My family talked about the Holocaust at every opportunity, remembering those
who were imprisoned, tortured, and murdered, including members of my family.
I lived under the Soviet regime, which also tortured and murdered. I have
never met or spoken with any Jew who has ever defended torture, no matter
who the “scapegoat” is.Apparently, there are some Jews who are more than willing to become the very
monsters they abhor. This mentality I do not understand and never will. …
..
Ms. Alexandrovna goes on to cite Mr.
Dershowitz’s creepy torture nod to — wait for it — the Nazis.
“There are some who claim that torture is a nonissue because it never
works–it only produces false information. This is simply not true, as evidenced
by the many decent members of the French Resistance who, under Nazi torture,
disclosed the locations of their closest friends and relatives.”
She goes on:
This statement defies logic. Even if in some instances Nazi tactics worked,
why would anyone endorse them for any reason, especially a Jewish man? Dershowitz,
and others like him – Joe Lieberman, et al – do not speak for Jews, nor do
they speak for Israel. In fact, the far right regime that has co-opted Israel
and the US both is not representative of Judaism or Christianity for that
matter. Whatever or whomever it is they represent, it is not the Israeli people
or the American people. It is as though a multi-national organized crime syndicate
has taken over both countries and is using the cover of religion as a shield
against criticism.No Jew, at least no Jew in touch with Jewish values, would ever support torture.
… .. Ever since this morally repugnant right wing extremism has in a “paper
coup” taken over both Israel and the United States, antisemitism
has skyrocketed.
That’s when Mr. Dershowitz pivots and brings out the “name calling”
charge, then goes straight at Colin Sterling and Huffington Post, accusing them
of “censorship,” among other things, in a long two-paragraph harangue
at the end of the same post, moaning how Colin rejected a recent entry
of his because Dershowitz wanted to have a dog fight with yet another person,
Norman Finkelstein, in a he said – he said battle over some debate they’d had
at the Oxford Union.
Censorship is the most egregious of charges, which should not be made lightly.
I’ve been through it before and real
censorship can be quite harrowing for a writer, especially what
I went through. Huffington Post and their editors have always been fair,
thoughtful and have never censored me in my professional experience dealings
with them. Even when they had high flying Barack Obama ad banners at the top
of their homepage, I posted “Obama is Not the Anti-Hillary,” which
they featured on both the homepage (where I’m on the blogroll), as well as the
politics page (where I’m not on the blogroll, as many of you have noticed and complained to me about in emails, which is why I mention I’m on the homepage blogroll, just so you know). They
regularly feature posts of mine, many of which cover the frontrunner Hillary
Clinton, without once censoring me or refusing to post my articles or feature
them as well.
Mr. Dershowitz has truly lost it. The
book The Israel Lobby sent him over the edge from where he may never recover.
I’m just a Scots-Irish gal, so I’m sure my opinions about the Middle East won’t
bother him in the least because I’m not Jewish, but even if they did I’d keep
covering the region. Our national security depends on a more open and honest
foreign policy towards Israel and the Palestinians, though I must say I’m not
hopeful that any of our politicians today, no matter the party, have the courage
to address it. Most are too busy trying
to fight it out for who is more pro Israel. But it’s a cinch that people
like Dershowitz certainly don’t help us get to a point where we can talk openly
about our failings in fairness without the word “anti Semite” being
thrust in your face.
Comments are closed.