Dershowitz: The Case for Israel.

[ermoore]

Yeah, so anybody read this? What's the good word on it? Any rebuttals that aren't just incoherent screaming and name-calling?

I haven't finished it yet, but am most of the way through. He makes some good points, but I'd like to find a rebuttal or two for some of his chapters.

[bemildred]

1. Go read Norm Finkelstein.

Him and Dersh have a thing about each other.

[reprehensor]

2. Haven't read Dershowitz's book...

But I read Finkelstein's "Beyond Chutzpah", and the second half of the book is a critique of "The Case for Israel". Here is a review of Finkelstein's book I wrote;

http://forums.therandirhodesshow.com/index.php?showtopic=77997&st=0&p=742723&#entry742723

Maybe you would find it interesting to read Finkelstein's book or Michael Neumann's "The Case Against Israel" which is dedicated to critiquing Dershowitz, after you finish Dershowitz's book. (I have not read Neumann's book either.)

[IntiRaymi]

3. I have read neither, but Dershowitz is a prick

He has been enthusiastically advocating torture, using ridiculous 'what if' type scenarios.
People like him make the world a worse place.

[ermoore]

4. Thanks

I'll have to check out the Finkelstein stuff. These things seem to get so nasty it's hard to tell what to make out of anybody's claims one way or the other without going to the sources yourself, which frankly, I am unwilling and probably unable to do.

On another note, anyone read "Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars" by Yaacov Logowick (and that name is probably spelled wrong)?

I'm just trying to read some books that try to spell it out clearly for either side. I want figures and a lot numbers and facts that are either wrong or right and not up for interpretation. I guess while I'm at it I should ask for a pony and maybe a cure for the common cold, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

I really like the format of Dershowitz's "Case for Israel."

[bemildred]

5. History books are more useful than polemics.

Even slanted histories, because the standards for evidence are higher. As you recognize, writers with an axe to grind are much more casual about the "support" they provide for their opinions.