The Case for Israel (Hardcover)

by Alan Dershowitz (Author) "Israel is a colonial, imperialist, settler state, comparable to apartheid South Africa..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, United Nations, World War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Noting that he has been working on versions of these arguments since 1967, famed Harvard law professor Dershowitz offers "a proactive defense of Israel," a kind of amicus brief to "the court of public opinion." Not least among the exhibits are a WWII-era Muslim Palestinian leader who was "a full fledged Nazi war criminal, and he was so declared at Nuremberg"; a "vastly underpopulated" late 19th-century Palestine, to which European Jews began emigrating; and a 75-year-long Arab-Israeli war that features "Arab nations dedicated to genocidal aggression against civilians." Each of the 32 chapters begins with a commonly heard accusation against Israel, with long quotes from reputable "Accusers" (including newspapers and intellectuals), followed by "The Reality" as Dershowitz sees it, and "The Proof," often drawing on the historical record.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Dershowitz is one of the nation's most prominent and visible defense attorneys, and he is also an ardent, eloquent, but not always uncritical defender of Israel. This book is written in the form of a legal brief. He does not seek to defend particular policies of the current Israeli government. In fact, Dershowitz has frequently criticized some Israeli policies toward Palestinians, particularly regarding West Bank settlements. Rather, here he attempts to rebut what he views as the more general and blatantly discriminatory criticisms of Israel as a state and culture. Some of these criticisms deny the "right" of Israel to exist. In response, Dershowitz asserts both the practical and moral justification for the continued existence of Israel as Jewish state. He also convincingly refutes several other oft-repeated myths, including the supposedly benign treatment of Jews in Arab lands and the "cycle of violence" canard that morally equates Palestinian suicide bombings with Israeli efforts to arrest or kill bombers before they act. As usual, Dershowitz is a passionate but generally fair and honest advocate for his position. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (August 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047146502X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471465027
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (168 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #484,400 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Read beyond chutzpah as a follow up to this book, March 8, 2008

By	Informed reader (NY, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Case for Israel (Paperback)

When you first read this book a lot of the claims made seems convincing, but if you read another side of the argument his argument begins to fall apart. First his heavy reliance of Joan Peters "From Time Immemorial" speaks volumes about the sources he uses. Joan Peters book has been regarded by most serious scholars as a hoax. It was initially reviewed well but after some time (specifically after the doctoral thesis of NOrman Finkelstein) The book was denounced as nothing more than a threadbare hoax. But dershowitz regards Peters book as the rule of law.
Secondly Dershowitz claim that during the 1948 war most refugees left at the exhortations of Arab leaders is simply false. For example he quotes BEnny Morris extensively during this chapter, but Benny Morris was actually one of the New Historians and the central thesis of his book runs counter to dershowitz's claims. Specifically the New HIstorians came out to refute what dershowitz actually said. Read The ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe (a fellow new historian) to find out what really happened during the 1948 war. Third Dershowitz claims that Israel has never been accused of war crime by human rights organizations, but infact they have been accused of that many times. If you read beyond Chutzpah it reveals all of the war crimes committed by Israel. Even Btselem the Israeli human rights group is highly critical of Israels record. BUt according to dershowiz he believes that those reports aren't true. COuld n't he have stated that they are accused of war crimes then proceed to say why he believes all these mainstream human rights organizations are false, instead of simply denying it altogether without giving the reader an informed view. Another point related to this is that he says more noncombatants have been killed on the israeli side since 2000 but when you check the ststistics this turns out to be false. He responds to this by stating that these humans rights organizations should redefine the concept of civilianality. I think that is being extremely disingenuous to distort the records and then claim that the statistics dont fit your definition of a war crime. One should report all these war crimes and the number of noncombatants killed by humans rights organizations and then if you dispute them go on to say why. Frankly i dont know how he can dispute the allegations of a consensus of humans rights groups and claim they are false, and in his book act as if these groups never existed. So these concerns raise questions about dershowitz's ability to produce a non biased piece of work on such a contentious issue.

Update: Ok, there still seem to be some people that this book is worth reading. First thing i'd like to add is that Dershowitz essentially subscribes to the Peter's thesis that Palestine was essentially an empty land with a decreasing population. The fact is that Peter's thesis is thoroughly discredited absolutely no one even cites the book not even scholarly pro israeli works. See Professor Peroth's review called Mrs. Peter's Palestine in the NYRB to find out why. Unlike Peters Professor Peroth is a leading expert on the Palestinian National movement. Second really important issue i would like to point out is that Dershowitz absolutely misrepresents the refugee problem especially Israel's role in it. The statistic he uses to say that 68 percent of palestinians left without seeing a soldier, the poll was taken by the institute of Palestinian studies. This would seem to be a crucial piece of evidence he adduces to support his case about the 1948 exodus. But the poll was about the 1967 exodus and not the 1948 exodus. Another example is that he says Deir Yassin was an abberation and it was the only Jewish atrocity that took place. Well Benny Morris explicitly states in the Birth and Righteous victims and maybe also in the book 1948 that the Zionist forces committed far more atrocities than the arab side. That was one of the core findings of his research. Another example is worth noting is the example of Jaffa. Dershowitz says the residents left and Ben Gurion was surprised and commented why the inhabitants left. He cited Morris for this assertion but unfortunately for him MOrris paints a different picture. The Irgun militia basically let loose on the town turning hotels into hosptitals with their indiscriminate Mortar fire. This is what Morris wrote
" [T]he objectives of the mortar barrage, which went on without respite for three days, with nine tons of explosives being delivered on day two of the attack, were clear, as described by IZL OC operations, Amihai Paglin, in his pre-battle briefing to his troops: "To prevent constant military traffic..., to break the spirit of the enemy troops, [and] to cause chaos among the civilian population in order to create a mass flight."
Then Morris introduces Ben Gurions surprise to the as clearly ironic but dershowitz skips over the paragraph i just quoted and mentions Ben Gurion's surprise as if Morris agrees with him. I could go on and on but i think these examples should suffice.

48 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Required Reading, September 19, 2003

By	sb-lynn (Santa Barbara, California United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This book should be required reading for anyone who thinks that they have an opinion on the Israeli/Palastinian conflict....and that is just about everyone.

The chapters are easily read, and each one represents an accusation against Israel (i.e. Did Israel create the Arab refugee problem?).
Dershowitz then addresses the accusation by organizing the chapters as follows:
There is a brief argument by the accusers, and then Dershowitz responds with a brief paragraph called "reality" which is a summary of Dershowitz's conclusions. This is then followed by his "proof", or argument in response, supporting the summary.

This all makes for an organized, "easy to follow" argument, and it makes it easy to refer back to any particular argument if you are so inclined.

Dershowitz makes a concerted effort to make an unemotional, legal argument, based solely on the facts. This is not easy to do with such an explosive subject, but I think he does it well.

As stated earlier, this book should be required reading for everyone. Dershowitz not only sets the records straight, he even offers constructive solutions for the peace process.

For those who want to be able to effectively "debate" these issues with others, and for those who simply want to learn about this all too important subject, this book is just what you are looking for. It really is the responsibility for all good people to know what is going on. And then, just maybe, there can be peace.

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41 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Speaking Facts to Fiction, September 28, 2003

By A Customer

... At last here is a book, meticulously researched, not relying on polemics but packed with real quotes, statistics and maps that stand the lock-step Arab rejectionists - and their "Progressive" fellow-travelers - on their head. From the controversy of Deir Yassin (has anyone out there ever heard of the Kfar Etzion massacre or Haj Amin Al Husseini?) Arab voices are given ample opportunity to damn themselves out of their own mouths. While not hesitating to fault Israel, Professor Dershowitz provides overwhelming evidence of the rampant disinformation and outright lies that have produced not only a terribly skewed version of history of the Arab States and their Jewish neighbor (that's right - you've never heard the region described like that - novel, isn't it?) but have also paved the way for the recrudescence of global antisemitism. Read it and have your precious politically correct hatred of Israel shattered.